[Bret L]

On May 13, 2:58*pm, Boon wrote:
On May 13, 11:18*am, John Stone wrote:



On 5/13/10 5:12 AM, in article
, "Bret L"

wrote:

*I think Nelson Pass is a decent guy (and yes, I know...again
irrelevant) but I am not a huge fan of these minimal designs. I think
his work with Threshold was a lot better.

Based on what? The power amps he makes today actually measure much lower
distortion and noise, and can put way more power into low impedance loads
than the older Threshold products. I'm talking about the X series products
in the Pass Labs line, not the First Watt products which are more DIY
oriented. I doubt you have any firsthand experience at all with any current
Pass Labs products. If you actually measured one thoroughly, you would have
to admit they're the real deal in every respect.

That's what I felt. I used the First Watt F3 for three months. At the
end of the review I had a chance to buy, but I didn't because I
already owned a Yamamoto Sound Craft A-08 45 and I felt that their
presentations appealed to me in the same way. A few months later,
after burning through a couple of sets of NOS 45 output tubes, I
kicked myself for not keeping the F3.

In PROPERLY DESIGNED equipment such as the antique radios that used
them a 45, singly or in push pull would last many years. I know of a
first series Zenith Stratosphere console, which ran four pairs of 45s
in push pull which had been run every day since new for several hours
and was "retired" only in the early 1980s. It was sold at an estate
sale in the early nineties and during restoration it was found that
every tube in the set except for two rectifiers was original. Of the
eight 45s three of them still met emission spec and only one was
completely dead.

If I had a Yamamoto Sound Craft A-08 I would first reverse engineer
it to see what the problem is and either engineer a fix or dismantle
the set for parts, utterly defacing all manufacturer's marks to
prevent rebuild and make something more useful out of the remains. Or,
give it a good blast of .50 BMG rounds (every fourth a tracer is nice)
and put the video on YouTube.