Thank you for the kind words. I had some realistic expectations being this was my first build but it really turned out really well. I bought fairly cost effective components thinking this would be a baseline for my learning curve but, it turned out really great. I've been running it for several years now (5 I think).
The only issue I've had thus far is rectifier tube being taken out recently. Upon power up the voltage swing was just a bit more than it liked. The Duncan PSU Designer II confirmed showed this but my real-world measurements were just on the ragged edge so I took the chance to leave it as is. Took 4 years for it to complain. I dropped the voltage just a little bit and it's running like a champ.
The driver tubes are Sovtek...again, just went with cost effective until I could justify something better. I've got a little "thing" with visual symmetry so I used 2 6N1P tubes but I'm only using one-half of each. The finals are Gold Lion KT88. For speakers I'm driving a pair of old Klipsch Heresy II.
I am also using a "Universal" Preamp on the front end which is a by Cascade Tubes with a 12AU7 tube in it. The preamp is really just a volume control and input selector and headphone output. All in all I'm very happy with the outcome and haven't had any reason to replace or modify this setup.
Most of the music I listen to is jazz, big-band and classical. This combo to my ears works really well. For anything heavier like classic rock, the set up really could use a little bass reinforcement but it's far from objectionable or weak.
Thank you for the kind words. I had some realistic expectations being this was my first build but it really turned out really well. I bought fairly cost effective components thinking this would be a baseline for my learning curve but, it turned out really great. I've been running it for several years now (5 I think).
The only issue I've had thus far is rectifier tube being taken out recently. Upon power up the voltage swing was just a bit more than it liked. The Duncan PSU Designer II confirmed showed this but my real-world measurements were just on the ragged edge so I took the chance to leave it as is. Took 4 years for it to complain. I dropped the voltage just a little bit and it's running like a champ.
The driver tubes are Sovtek...again, just went with cost effective until I could justify something better. I've got a little "thing" with visual symmetry so I used 2 6N1P tubes but I'm only using one-half of each. The finals are Gold Lion KT88. For speakers I'm driving a pair of old Klipsch Heresy II.
I am also using a "Universal" Preamp on the front end which is a by Cascade Tubes with a 12AU7 tube in it. The preamp is really just a volume control and input selector and headphone output. All in all I'm very happy with the outcome and haven't had any reason to replace or modify this setup.
Most of the music I listen to is jazz, big-band and classical. This combo to my ears works really well. For anything heavier like classic rock, the set up really could use a little bass reinforcement but it's far from objectionable or weak.
Thank you all, have a wonderful day! 😎