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#1
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Tube Amp & Speaker Kits?
Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone can make a recommendation for a high quality tube amp & loudspeaker kit for a poor, and sometimes starving[mostly pizza diet] :-), beginning EE student? My goal is learn the inside and outs of tube & integrated circuit technology and also study it's relationship to interconnect cables, speaker cables, connects, and speakers. This obviously is a lot to learn, but I have to begin somewhere. Thanks in advance for your help/pointers. PT |
#2
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Tube Amp & Speaker Kits?
"Philip Thomas" wrote in
news:91hXb.301138$I06.3069432@attbi_s01: Hi all, I was wondering if anyone can make a recommendation for a high quality tube amp & loudspeaker kit for a poor, and sometimes starving[mostly pizza diet] :-), beginning EE student? My goal is learn the inside and outs of tube :& integrated circuit technology and also study it's relationship to interconnect cables, speaker cables, connects, and speakers. This obviously is a lot to learn, but I have to begin somewhere. Thanks in advance for your help/pointers. PT Good for you Philip! But here you have to be very careful to mention cables! Somebody will jump on you and bite you till death! Anyway, as far as tube amp concern, I will recommend you to start with integrated amp. (it is cheaper, and didn't sound that bad), try the made in China tube amp. because they are very good and cheap. You know, quite a lot of the so called "Euproean tube components" are actually OEM from China. Recently, I tried Mei Xing (Ming Da), and they are very good. You can go to: http://www.tubeampaudio.com to see the look of them, or if you want a little higher, you can try Audio-Space: http://www.audiospace-hifi.com. We are talking about US$700 for a class AB integrated amp. Speakers in the major concern, because I have never experience a cheap speaker that give you good sound. Because of the characteristic of the tub amp, you want a pair of speakers that will give you good bass. Try some 2-way bookshelf to start with, but even a pair of B&W 705 will easily cost you US$1500/pair, or you might want to have a look the new Soliloquy 6.0 bookshelf, about the same price. Email me if you want to more infomation, I might be able to find you some good deal. I have connections... Hope that help! Lawrence Leung |
#3
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Tube Amp & Speaker Kits?
Philip Thomas wrote:
Hi all, I was wondering if anyone can make a recommendation for a high quality tube amp & loudspeaker kit for a poor, and sometimes starving[mostly pizza diet] :-), beginning EE student? My goal is learn the inside and outs of tube & integrated circuit technology and also study it's relationship to interconnect cables, speaker cables, connects, and speakers. This obviously is a lot to learn, but I have to begin somewhere. Thanks in advance for your help/pointers. Jolida makes a nice small amplifier, IIRC. Speakers - just get something, anything over 89-90db efficiency and you should be fine. Roughly $500 street price. Ebay is a bit hit and miss. I like www.audiogon.com for deals. A search for Jolida there pulls up a bunch of hits. http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.p...ube&1081273566 There you go - $400 with upgraded tubes. As for speakers, build your own from kits. On a tight budget, these are probably the best value if you have the time. www.partsexpress.com has a few DIY projects, but the best, IMO, are from www.madisound.com http://www.madisound.com/catalog.html - kits are near the bottom. Even the little $208 Sledgeling is probably going to be better than anything under $500 comercially. The Eton 8.1 - I don't know if that price includes cabinets or not, but $500 isn't impossibly high. http://www.madisound.com/BK16.html - that also looks good as well. I'm assuming that you have about $800-$1000 for a budget - or is it more? |
#4
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Tube Amp & Speaker Kits?
Thanks Lawrence,
I'll go and check out the B&W website to read about the speakers, as for the integrated amps, where can I find out how much it costs to buy the "Mei Xing" amps? There is no pricing on there website or for that matter any real information on how to buy one in the USA. Any suggestions? I'll email these guys to "Lawrence Leung" wrote in message news:hQvXb.38258$_44.32217@attbi_s52... "Philip Thomas" wrote in news:91hXb.301138$I06.3069432@attbi_s01: Hi all, I was wondering if anyone can make a recommendation for a high quality tube amp & loudspeaker kit for a poor, and sometimes starving[mostly pizza diet] :-), beginning EE student? My goal is learn the inside and outs of tube :& integrated circuit technology and also study it's relationship to interconnect cables, speaker cables, connects, and speakers. This obviously is a lot to learn, but I have to begin somewhere. Thanks in advance for your help/pointers. PT Good for you Philip! But here you have to be very careful to mention cables! Somebody will jump on you and bite you till death! Anyway, as far as tube amp concern, I will recommend you to start with integrated amp. (it is cheaper, and didn't sound that bad), try the made in China tube amp. because they are very good and cheap. You know, quite a lot of the so called "Euproean tube components" are actually OEM from China. Recently, I tried Mei Xing (Ming Da), and they are very good. You can go to: http://www.tubeampaudio.com to see the look of them, or if you want a little higher, you can try Audio-Space: http://www.audiospace-hifi.com. We are talking about US$700 for a class AB integrated amp. Speakers in the major concern, because I have never experience a cheap speaker that give you good sound. Because of the characteristic of the tub amp, you want a pair of speakers that will give you good bass. Try some 2-way bookshelf to start with, but even a pair of B&W 705 will easily cost you US$1500/pair, or you might want to have a look the new Soliloquy 6.0 bookshelf, about the same price. Email me if you want to more infomation, I might be able to find you some good deal. I have connections... Hope that help! Lawrence Leung |
#5
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Tube Amp & Speaker Kits?
For speaker kits, try either Madisound, in Madison, Wisconsin, or Zalytron,
on Long Island in New York. For amps, I believe there is a company affiliated with Cary Audio in Cary, N.C.-I think it's called Audio Electronic Design. "Philip Thomas" wrote in message news:91hXb.301138$I06.3069432@attbi_s01... Hi all, I was wondering if anyone can make a recommendation for a high quality tube amp & loudspeaker kit for a poor, and sometimes starving[mostly pizza diet] :-), beginning EE student? My goal is learn the inside and outs of tube & integrated circuit technology and also study it's relationship to interconnect cables, speaker cables, connects, and speakers. This obviously is a lot to learn, but I have to begin somewhere. Thanks in advance for your help/pointers. PT |
#6
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Tube Amp & Speaker Kits?
For your speakers, it can be interesting to build a kit using a decent
and very sensitive full range loudspeaker, such as the Fostex FE206e (I admit I haven't heard it, but read a bit about it). The combination of such a speaker and a low power tube amp usually gets good reviews. The Fe206e (see http://www.fostex.co.jp/int/pages/pr...6e_enclrev.pdf ) costs only $168.60 + shipping per pair at www.madisound.com and there is a link to the awesome horn enclosure you can build (not so expensively) yourself but you need some time: http://www.madisound.com/206e_encl.pdf . Actually this design is LOVED by quite a few people and it is so sensitive that the paint will fall from the walls with a 7W amp. Remember with a full range speaker you don't need a filter nor extra speakers to cover the frequency range, so it's cost effective. FR speakers sound very "direct" and immediate because of this simplicity and usually also give a great 3D representation since everything comes from 1 point. However they can be an acquired taste, the Fe206e isn't linear at all (yet people rarely complain about too much high, rather about not enough bass, which if you think about it is basically the same), and sensitive FR speakers usually won't give deepest bass, making them less suited for electronic dance music (but ok for all the rest). Still, if you have the time, this is a much more interesting/challenging and certainly more wacky path to follow than buying decent yet somewhat... staid B&W speakers. I think I will once make the double bass reflex box ( http://www.fostex.co.jp/int/pages/pr...7e_enclrev.pdf ) for the slightly less cheap shielded Fe207e ( http://www.madisound.com/FE207E.pdf ), I prefer this design's frequency response. Still I hope to first be able to compare the 2 designs, since linearity isn't everything in speaker appreciation. Finally, if cost really is an object, or if you want to make a slightly smaller box, then I read quite a few good comments about the FE103e (http://www.madisound.com/fe103e.pdf for only $63 pp) in it's recommended horn enclosu http://www.madisound.com/103e_enclrev.pdf This one is often recommended for "your first full range horn speaker project". I hope this helps or at least entertained you !!! Tom ps do note that I point to the fostex site for 2 designs since they are more up to date than the PDFs at madisound. Philip Thomas wrote: Hi all, I was wondering if anyone can make a recommendation for a high quality tube amp & loudspeaker kit for a poor, and sometimes starving[mostly pizza diet] :-), beginning EE student? My goal is learn the inside and outs of tube & integrated circuit technology and also study it's relationship to interconnect cables, speaker cables, connects, and speakers. This obviously is a lot to learn, but I have to begin somewhere. Thanks in advance for your help/pointers. PT |
#7
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Tube Amp & Speaker Kits?
Tom,
Thank you for all this information , I do have a question, what should I do for the crossover? Do you have any recommendations for a decent out of the box or DIY crossover setup? Thanks, PT "Tom Alaerts" wrote in message ... For your speakers, it can be interesting to build a kit using a decent and very sensitive full range loudspeaker, such as the Fostex FE206e (I admit I haven't heard it, but read a bit about it). The combination of such a speaker and a low power tube amp usually gets good reviews. The Fe206e (see http://www.fostex.co.jp/int/pages/pr...6e_enclrev.pdf ) costs only $168.60 + shipping per pair at www.madisound.com and there is a link to the awesome horn enclosure you can build (not so expensively) yourself but you need some time: http://www.madisound.com/206e_encl.pdf . Actually this design is LOVED by quite a few people and it is so sensitive that the paint will fall from the walls with a 7W amp. Remember with a full range speaker you don't need a filter nor extra speakers to cover the frequency range, so it's cost effective. FR speakers sound very "direct" and immediate because of this simplicity and usually also give a great 3D representation since everything comes from 1 point. However they can be an acquired taste, the Fe206e isn't linear at all (yet people rarely complain about too much high, rather about not enough bass, which if you think about it is basically the same), and sensitive FR speakers usually won't give deepest bass, making them less suited for electronic dance music (but ok for all the rest). Still, if you have the time, this is a much more interesting/challenging and certainly more wacky path to follow than buying decent yet somewhat... staid B&W speakers. I think I will once make the double bass reflex box ( http://www.fostex.co.jp/int/pages/pr...7e_enclrev.pdf ) for the slightly less cheap shielded Fe207e ( http://www.madisound.com/FE207E.pdf ), I prefer this design's frequency response. Still I hope to first be able to compare the 2 designs, since linearity isn't everything in speaker appreciation. Finally, if cost really is an object, or if you want to make a slightly smaller box, then I read quite a few good comments about the FE103e (http://www.madisound.com/fe103e.pdf for only $63 pp) in it's recommended horn enclosu http://www.madisound.com/103e_enclrev.pdf This one is often recommended for "your first full range horn speaker project". I hope this helps or at least entertained you !!! Tom ps do note that I point to the fostex site for 2 designs since they are more up to date than the PDFs at madisound. Philip Thomas wrote: Hi all, I was wondering if anyone can make a recommendation for a high quality tube amp & loudspeaker kit for a poor, and sometimes starving[mostly pizza diet] :-), beginning EE student? My goal is learn the inside and outs of tube & integrated circuit technology and also study it's relationship to interconnect cables, speaker cables, connects, and speakers. This obviously is a lot to learn, but I have to begin somewhere. Thanks in advance for your help/pointers. PT |
#8
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Tube Amp & Speaker Kits?
"Philip Thomas" wrote in
: Tom, Thank you for all this information , I do have a question, what should I do for the crossover? Do you have any recommendations for a decent out of the box or DIY crossover setup? Thanks, PT No! The crossover design greatly depends on what kind of tweeter/mid- range/woofer that you're going to use. However, just type "crossover board design" under any search engine, you'll get tons of project, pick one you like. Or use the DIY kit from either www.madisound.com or www.partsexpress.com. I mean, to start the speaker project, choose the inexpensive one and listen to the sound first, then you might be able to do some tweak, may be change the tweeter or woofer, change a couple of components on your crossover board something like that, and let the fun begin! Lawrence Leung |
#9
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Tube Amp & Speaker Kits?
Philip Thomas wrote:
Tom, Thank you for all this information , I do have a question, what should I do for the crossover? Do you have any recommendations for a decent out of the box or DIY crossover setup? Well, a full-range speaker won't need one. Some people I know have also used coaxial car speakers for this reason - $80 a pair and then you just need to calculate and build decent cabinets for them. Of course, they are almost all 4 ohm, so a truly tiny tube amp is probably not going to cut it. |
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