Audioromy 838A FU13

Kenny Brant

Kenny bugs
I bought an Audioromy 838A FU13 and it arrived today. It was packed good and arrived in 7 days. I was holding my breath and hoping it would arrive undamaged. It did. I unpacked it and put it together (put the tubes in it). I fired it up and played it for an hour and shut it off. It was pretty bright sounding.

I fired it up again after an hour rest and let it run for a couple of hours and then set the bias to .55 volts across the 10 ohm resistors. The right channel was .69v and the left was .82v. They say to run them at .700 volts but I set them lower as suggested by Koifarm. Before setting the bias the tubes were glowing away, but after setting the bias they glow pretty bright and not like before.

Even before I set the bias the bright sound subsided and the amp started sounding good.

I started listening to different CDs and really got into the music. I have them hooked up to my Boston Acoustics A200's and the amp has plenty of drive for them, from top to bottom. I was worried it wouldn't, but it belts our the bass line. I can follow the bass guitar and it is a joy. It does go down deep and the highs are nice and shimmery.

The FU13 tubes are as big as coke cans. It came with the 6V6 tubes which is the newest version of the amp.

I am going to hook up my Variac and run it all the time and adjust it to 110 volts and then will readjust the bias. It will help the tubes last a lot longer. It is single ended and the tubes all wired as triode.

I'm happy as a pig in slop.

The ease and power reminds me of my Sansui 1000A, which is a heck of a receiver.
 
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I have one as well. Have it adjusted to .7V It is a wonderfully sounding amp. The FU13´s are imposing!
And don´t go collecting 813, the Germans have testet them all and the FU13 is the best and cheapest power tube.
Hope you enjoy it,
T
 
Yes that is what I read, that the FU13 is better than the 813. When I get time I think I will order a spare pair.
I really enjoy the 838A, it sounds good. I am using it as a amp, Just turned the volume up all the way.
I put a Variac in and run my 838A, tube tuner and tube preamp through it adjusted to 110V. It is a 10 amp Variac. The Variac doesn't get hot or warm, so I think it is enough amperage. I use the Variac because I live in the USA and the voltage can get up to 130 volts, the 838A wants 110volts.
I am used to the 6BQ5's, 6V6's, 7868's and 7591's. The FU13' tubes are big.
I don't have any kids at home anymore and I have a dedicated listening room so I leave the cover off, I think it looks better that way.
Thank you for the reply.
I am just like a kid with a new toy right now.
 
HI
I've got YAQIN MC-10L EL34 at the moment and i really like Fu13 Audioromy.
Would that be upgrade guys?
regards
 
I almost bought the Yaqin 100b and thought about the Yaqin MC-10L. I like the looks of them. I wanted a black Yaqin 100B. What I like about the Audioromy 838A is it is single ended all the way through strapped as triode. The FU-13 is a tetrode, 2 grids, one tied back to the plate through a resistor. I have only heard two single ended amps and they were 6BA5 and 6BQ5 amps. Even if they were low power, and I mean low power they sound so good. One of these were a Magnavox (6BQ5) and the other a Zenith and were nothing special in the build department, but boy did they sound good. Just not enough power. I bi-amped them and ran them on JBL and Altec drivers into Altec horns. Lovely music, so real sounding, anyway as real as reproduced music can sound. So I saw the Audioromy 838A and a schematic and the amp design looked good to me. I wanted a amp that would run either my Boston Acoustics A200's or my Pioneer HPM 200's. they are like 91DB (Bostons) and 89DB (Pioneers). I also have a Magnavox push pull 6BQ5 amp and a Magnavox 6V6 amp. Both sound really good but at about 12 to 15 watts just did not have enough power for the Bostons let alone the Pioneers. I have a Fisher 400, a Scott 345, and a Sansui 1000A. The Sansui is a kick butt receiver. The Fisher 400's sound goes out side of the speakers, a great sounding receiver. But I wanted to go with separates. I don't know how much power the Audioromy has, I have heard 12, 22, 30 and 45 watts per channel. I think 30 is about right. Anyway this amp kicks the bass and drives either the Bostons or the Pioneers quite well, with good bass slam and good dynamics. It has plenty of bass for these speakers, either one of them. It also has that Single ended sound that is so nice. And I have heard it kind of sounds like a 300B amp. This is the first triode amp I have heard, but I can set down and listen to this amp for quite some time without turning it off. And it doesn't tire one out like a solid state sound does. And it is so cool to look at those big FU-13's glowing away. A transmitting type tube used as a amp output tube. I wanted tube equipment to drive these speakers as they just sound so much better with tubes driving them. I hope this helps you. BUT, I see nothing wrong with the MC-10L's and EL34 tubes, probably better than 90% of the people have for there stereo. A guy I know has rebuilt Heath W-5M's with solid state power supply and EL34's and he loves them. Oh also I liked the tube rectifier in the Audioromy 838A. I didn't mention that the Audioromy 838A I have has 6V6 drivers before the FU-13s. That's pretty impressive also, to have a output tube used as a driver.
 
hi

Thanks Kenny.
Also ive red somewhere that Audioromy overheat a bit and some kind smell coming out.Do you experience that?
Looks like Yaqin goes on the market:).
Thanks again
Marian
 
I noticed a smell for a couple of days, but it wasn't all that unpleasant. I don't notice a smell at all now. I think it was just new parts burning in, you know like a newly rebuilt engine when you first start it up. As far as getting hot since I lowered the bias voltage and the line voltage it runs a lot cooler. I have mine in a cabinet that is open front, back and sides and 6 inches above is another shelf. The bottom of the shelf above the amp gets warm but not hot. And I mean just warm in the way that there is nothing to worry about.
You probably would be jumping up if you buy the 838A, but it seems everybody that has a Yaqin like yours likes them.
Have you did a search in AudioKarma on Yaqin? there is a thread in one of them about the Audioromy 838A FU-13, just 4 posts out of 2 pages of posts but it is interesting. That is were I got the idea to buy the 838A instead of the Yaqin 100B. If I had bought the 100B I would run it in class A which would put out 30 watts, just like the 838A.
Also I forgot to add that the FU-13 tube is direct heated besides being used as single ended.
 
Thanks .
Now my head spins:).
My Yaqin is on the market already .One think im bit worried is the out put power 30W ,my speakers are Aussie made Orpheus 90db.
Well shouldn't be are problem.Just trying to reassure my self:) and maybe just need a small push.

Thanks again
 
I know exactly how you feel. I had my doubts also. But once I got the Audioromy 838A FU-13 amp my mind was set to ease as the amp provides plenty of push for my speakers. If you know anything about the Pioneer HPM 200s they require a good 200 watt solid state amp. I ran them with a Sansui 9090 solid state receiver which puts out 110 watts RMS and I thought it didn't have enough power for the HPM 200s. But I have powered them with my Sansui 1000A and it had enough at 39 watts of tube power per channel. I think that is the wattage of the Sansui 1000A, I'm not sure.
Well I first ran the Boston Acoustics A200s with the Audioromy 838A FU-13 and it had plenty of bass and dynamics for them. Then I hooked up the Pioneers to the amp and it has plenty of power and dynamics for them also.
I think you will be surprised at what this integrated amp can do.
I however do not have a very big room.
I did have the very same reservations as you, but once I got the amp all my fears were put to rest.
It is a delight to follow the bass line with this amp and it has good highs also.
The only thing I have trouble with is if the CD is recorded or mixed bad you can hear the distortion of the recording more than with other amps, which I don't really think is the amps fault. It just reproduces what comes into it. That still doesn't stop me from enjoying the music.
And when a good recording is played it sounds SO good. Get what I mean?
 
Hi Kenny.
Just one more question .You mention that you have new version .
Is there any difference in quality as far as the sound goes.I'd noticed that there are different tubes in older version.
Thanks in advance.You've been lots of help.

regards
 
I really don't know, I have never heard the old version or even seen one except in pictures. But I do know now on e-bay the auctions are showing the newer version. My win showed the old version but I got the new version with 6p6p (6v6 type) tubes.
 
I'm still happy with it. I readjusted the bias on it when I ran it for two weeks. It was off a little. One side high and the other side low. I adjusted it originally at 550 mv and have readjusted it to that bias. I still run the amp with my Pioneer HPM 200's and like the sound. It isn't as dynamic as say a pair of Altecs or JBLs but more relaxed and easy to listen to. I may try my JBL Altec combo when I get motivated to do so. Don't get me wrong it isn't dull sounding at all just real accurate.
I have had the Audioromy for what four weeks now and it is beginning to break in nicely. Has plenty of bass and good highs.
Two weeks ago I bought a Doge 6 CD player and Doge 8 Preamp. Like any other new equipment it was kind of bright and one dimensional but now is starting to break in. What I noticed about the CD player is it doesn't sound like a lot of CD players that make CDs so hard to listen to. It has a more relaxed sound. Yes some CDs still sound pretty bad, but all in all most CDs sound much more analog like. Voices and especially highs sound so much better. They don't take your head off like a lot of CD players do. I have a Empire 598 with a Dynavector 20XH and records sound great, CDs and records sound as close to each other as I have ever heard.
I run all this with a Variac adjusted to 110 volts. I just think the tubes will last longer. My voltage here can get up to 135 volts. The Audioromy runs so much cooler with the voltage down and the bias adjusted down.
Now if I can just stay awake when I listen to something like Don Williams!
 
Hi Kenny .
Im glad you still enjoying yours ,
Its on the way.Hopefully will arrive in one peace:).I found forum and there is more info about Fu13 but i cant read Dutch so not much use.
Anyway i;ve got one worry about the heat.In Aus we have 240v and i presume amp will be 220 same as Yaqin.I didn't have any problem with Yaqin but i think Fu13 runs hotter .I have to get one of thous transformers.
have you done any upgrades or replace driver tubes with something better?
regards
Marian
 
I don't know if you will like it better or not than the Yaqin, I hope you will. It is more hassle to adjust the bias on the 838A as you have to take the bottom off and go across the 10 ohm resistors with a DMM to adjust. Are you going to use it as a integrated amp or a stand alone amp? I tried using mine as a integrated with my tuner and it sounded thin to me so I started using it with my Dynaco PAS3 preamp and I liked the sound better. Maybe it was just me and I am used to or liked the added distortion better, Ha! Now I use the Doge 8 preamp. I think the volume control is a little flimsy feeling, but it works just fine. If you read other posts the volume control was replaced with a ALPS. I have been on that Dutch site and if you Google it it should have a translate language you can click on. If not when you bring up the Web site you can do a right click and it has a translate on it. You will have to have Google toolbar on you browser to do this I think. Even translated it is a little hard to read what is being said because it doesn't arrange the words in order, it only translates the words to English, but you get the just of what they are saying. You probably won't have any problems running it at 240 volts just like I wouldn't at 120 volts. Its just if you lower the voltage the tubes last longer. The other components don't care at all. Let me know what you think when you get it and run it for a few hours.
 
I was typing fast because I had to get to work. I have not done any mods on the amp. I did roll in a pair of Magnavox 6V6's but took them back out. I couldn't hear any difference with them. I like the tubes that are in there. Maybe NOS or vintage tubes would sound better, but the tubes that are in there sound darn good. Especially since it is breaking in with about 50 hours on it.
 
Hi
yeah im really curios about sound.Well will see .Yes i've red somewhere about the volume control.
I was planning to get preamp before but like anything else there was always something else more important.But that's gono be next thing and something so i can play records too.
Maybe i will look in to used staff.Also that yaqin phono preamp looks good and have good opinion all over the forums.
Thanks Kenny and i will let you know what i think when the Amp will arrive.
Btw Doge 8 preamp looks really good.
 
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