Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.tubes
Fabio Berutti[_2_] Fabio Berutti[_2_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1
Default Which way would You try to sell a 300B SE?

Dear fellow Rodents,

I have not posted anything for a few years but it's nice to see that
ol'guys are still around. I'd need just a suggestion: I spent so
many years playing with tubes that my home is a total mess and I
need to get some of my amps OUT before I can make a new one and
carry it IN. The first one to go should be a 300B SE driven by
triode-strapped 4P1L through interstage transformers.
All tubes are Svetlana NOS and all iron comes from Hammond "classic"
series.
It is completed by its pre-amp, based on a couple of
transformer-loaded 27 (a beautiful couple of blue-glass Arcturus).
As You RATS can easily guess it is a pretty heavy and expensive
piece of audio gear, something I cannot sell so easily.
Btw, I'm not making my life out of it, I already have a job, but I
wouldn't like to give it away for less than the bare cost of the
parts...

Any suggestion?

Fabio (from Milan, Italy)
  #2   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.tubes
Patrick Turner Patrick Turner is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,964
Default Which way would You try to sell a 300B SE?

On Tuesday, 9 October 2012 00:58:53 UTC+11, Fabio Berutti wrote:
As usual, Patrick'a answers are.. ehm, say "exhaustive". I do know that selling stuff is difficult, in fact I just wondered which CHANNEL could be best: which one out of the many audio-oriented sites?


Well, maybe ebay, because although not a strict "audio site". a lot are looking there rather than in audio sites.

Nobody will pay 3000 bucks for a piece of audio gear without seeing it (and maybe listening)

But you are incorrect. The guy here who bought the awful Jadis amps I have to re-build spent 6 grand without seeing them or listening first. And also without seeing the schematic and having someone technical appraise it first.. And without knowing the mistakes the maker has made. Most people are so ignorant of so many things, yet they buy!

But they do so I suppose I should look for a buyer within a radius of 30 km here around to be able to give him a drive test. I'd like to post the schematics, but again, where?

I don't know if anyone thinks alt.binaries.schematics.electronic exists any more. Access to rec.audio.tubes and a.b.s.e seemed to collapse over 8 years ago here and I have to go through ****ing Gooogle where how stuff is displayed doesn't work as easily or as well as the old days.

But you could start a website of your own, eg, www.fabioamps.com.it and then learn how to post up whatever pictures you want and say whatever you like about it. But the sales inquiries I get now are negligible.

Nobody much is interested in building anything for themselves and most audio discussion groups have guys saying one sentence at a time and they mostly seem like zombies. The price is all important, and ppl don't know how to judge if anything is good or not, and the gear for sale is overseas, so they cannot see or hear it, but they chat about it.


Btw, my amp only uses LCR or other EU-made condensers and the 300Bs have separate (AC) heater feeds and grid bias pots. There was an old RCA paper stating that DHTs should be AC-heated to provide a more uniform cathode temperature and "average" bias.

Now there is nobody who believes in the "unifirm cathode temperature" as important. Using dc on 300B and 845 heaters has become normal. I think the temp difference and emission difference due to having a different Vdc along the cathode makes a negligible difference to tube operation so dc heating is fine. Hum in amplifiers made by Jadis would not be tolerated by non technical owners who don't like having to adjust a pot to minimise hum or adjust bias, and if they do have to adjust something, they get it wrong.

In fact with proper grounding connections they sound just a bit noisier than when DC-fed, but much more brilliant. I know, this will rise a hell of comments... I just think that RCA guys were the professionals I'm not so I tend to trust them.

Well, I don't know anyone who prefers ac heating to dc heating because of better sound. I once repaired a Sun amp with PP 2A3 with AC heating and with a hum adjust pot and it sounded very ordinary, and no better than anything else.


I have an old pair of RCA amps here for a total overhaul. I'd like to trust RCA and consider them professionals, but pros are just humans, and many pros are just paid amateurs. Lets not put too many people up on pedastals where they may not fully deserve to be placed. Anyway, the tubes and much stuff RCA blokes designed was good, but the RCA amps I have to fix have an inferior schematic that could have been so much better but RCA had employed bean counters who insisted quality must be lowered to keep costs of production low to get high returns on investment. RCA had to compete with many other makers of cheaper and inferior piles of junk. Ford is a motor car maker, but hey, how come Toyota was able to sell cars to americans? How come VW could sell to americans? Real pros would have made sure former national enemies can be out performed with product quality and prices, but it seems the US car industry pros couldn't see that and pros at RCA couldn't see enough to beat competition either. How come Sony and Denon and Thorens could sell anything to america? Of course american venturists invested in Japan and Europe to get them to sell back into the US and I guess all that was driven by lust for profits rather than lust for quality. When I here that word "professional" I am often appalled because many pros don't know much except how to make a suit look good, and how to put an extra zero on the price tag, and how to rip everyone off.
Meanwhile the RCA amps are on my long list of to-dos for an old customer. I hope the old 1950s/60s iron is OK. Its hard to have to change the iron, like I am having to do with Jadis garbage made in 2004. Re-wiring the circuit is the easy part. I happen to doubt if any professionals work at Jadis. Someone said they have stopped making amps, but there is a Jadis website, and naturally enough, there are no schematics, just glossy adds for shiny looking junk.

I've always tried to buy what I thought would last me a long time so i didn't have to spend again later. So while all the houses around me have changed owners every 7 years on average, I have stayed at my joint since 1976, and I have the same furniture I made back then. Pros in the real estate business and many other related industries don't like me at all because I just won't keep buying anywhere near so much junk as everyone else. If everyone was like me there would be a terrible economic Depression for the next 20 years. Lawyers and bankers and so many "pros" would have to go and work on farms and sweep the streets, and sweat for a living. And I don't care about them either.
Patrick Turner.

A nice day to all guys out there Fabio


Il 08/10/2012 4.50, Patrick Turner ha scritto: On Saturday, 6 October 2012 02:27:36 UTC+10, Fabio Berutti wrote: Dear fellow Rodents, I have not posted anything for a few years but it's nice to see that ol'guys are still around. I'd need just a suggestion: I spent so many years playing with tubes that my home is a total mess and I need to get some of my amps OUT before I can make a new one and carry it IN. The first one to go should be a 300B SE driven by triode-strapped 4P1L through interstage transformers. All tubes are Svetlana NOS and all iron comes from Hammond "classic" series. It is completed by its pre-amp, based on a couple of transformer-loaded 27 (a beautiful couple of blue-glass Arcturus). As You RATS can easily guess it is a pretty heavy and expensive piece of audio gear, something I cannot sell so easily. Btw, I'm not making my life out of it, I already have a job, but I wouldn't like to give it away for less than the bare cost of the parts.... Any suggestion? Fabio (from Milan, Italy)
Reply
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules

Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
To Sell or Not to Sell: Nakamichi 1000 Tri-Tracer cassette deck Breezin Marketplace 1 April 26th 06 12:32 PM
Dating 300B tubes, or oddly stamped 300B tubes Phil Vacuum Tubes 7 January 28th 06 11:05 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 12:57 AM.

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 AudioBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.
 

About Us

"It's about Audio and hi-fi"