Recent content by Budney

okay so I finally got round to looking at this guy, brought up on the variac and all seemed okay, no magic smoke! Sadly on closer inspection one of the EL84 was cracked so have left that out. Only tested one channel at a time, but they both seem to work! one strange thing, its gets rather...

I admit that's going over my head a little bit, not sure what the difference in phase splitter circuits would be! I guess if there less active components in the signal path it should sound better? I don't have access to the workshop currently so will have to wait a little while to get it on the...

okay I've found some Mustards on ebay, 0.1uf. that's what is on the top half, which doesnt seem to be as molested as the bottom half. The bottom has had 0.047 Arco caps, should I stick with 0.1 like the original? Also what brand would be recommended for the electros? I normally use Elna Silmic...

Wow thank you so much! That's such a great help. Can't believe you did that from just photos :eek: The bus bar has a small black wire going through connecting to the chassis on the other side. The extra hole does look like it should be for another tube but there's no evidence that there was ever...

So this seems like quite the little rarity! That's pleasing :) I gather then that the first step is a ramp up test with variac to see if anything blows up, as well as running the tubes in a tester. Then replacing the electrolytics and the bridge, as well as the black 0.1. is there anything else...

During the first lockdown I was bored and fiddling with random things, a friend of mine gave me this pre amp and power amp set, said it used to belong to his dad. I put it on the shelf at my parents at the time and just forgot about it as I didn't have access to a valve tester thanks to covid...

cool set up! Not heard much about the P51, how is it different to the A51? Tempted by the one thats still online, but probably shouldn't as I just picked up a pretty minty A21 mk2 :) Decoder is definitely an oddball, hearing a quad Sugden set up would have been pretty special, I wonder what...

I was surprised too, considering this isn't on their shelf, they will make it up for me. He also said there were some different models of transformers for the 60, so makes sense to go with the latest one to match mine, I assume the grey models were later than the champagne. That would be...

Just got off the phone with Majestic, new transformer comes to £178.50, exact same size and form factor as the original. Not as painful as I imagined. Only difference is the shrouds are pressed zinc, but I can just remove them and spray them black, then maybe give them a slight patina to match...

Ah yes, taking a closer at the schematic, I see now that the transformer is 380VAC, which is rectified to 430VDC. Hopefully makes it a bit easier to find a replacement. Would 400ma be sufficient for this since its stereo? What would you recommend instead of the standees? any high wattage resistor?

That pretty much amounts to building a completely new amp...which I agree will be a big undertaking, perhaps a bit ambitious for my first tube project. It would just make more sense to get hold of some new OPTs and building up from there. Modernising and improving was more what I had in mind...

I know :) the moment I saw them I snapped them up immediately! They’ve been sat for over a year, I haven’t had the space to set them up properly but currently renovating a new house so soon they will have a home. Good news on that front, then the problem will be if the Stereo 60 will be up to...

I am tempted to agree with you, if what everyone is saying, the 60 isn't the best sounding amp, plus its collectable value is all but gone and it needs to be completely rebuilt anyway, is there a way I can 'supercharge' this amp with the parts I have? If I have to get a new mains transformer...

That is some good news to wake up to :) Transformer is from a Quad 2! So hopefully selling that will bring me most of the money to be able to get a new transformer, which is fantastic. I was not looking forward to that, it would cost more than what I paid for the amp! Also, the GZ34. I admit...

why would anyone want to put standees on on these amps? Diodes would only be temporary whilst rebuilding the amp, I know that wouldn’t be wise long term :D