SteveAndBell
1.21 Gigawatts
Hi.
I'm lucky enough have been given 4 x NOS RCA 2A3 Tubes still in their boxes and want to build an amp around them. I really like the simplicity & reasonable price of the Bottlehead Monoblock Paramount kits and they seem to get rave reviews all over the place. Problem is that because I have the four Tubes I'd love to use them all in the design but of course that means I'll be running PP instead of SE of which I'm led to believe is 'purer'.
I already have a decent collection and large range of SS Amps and a few great sounding yet fairly standard PP Tube Amps plus I have many different styles and ages of speakers. I haven't yet explored the world of high quality, low powered SE Amps & suitable high efficiency speakers and I'm thinking that building up a pair of Paramounts to use a couple of my 2A3s may be a great way into that area but I also feel that would be a waste of the other two 2A3s too. They're obviously worth more in a quad set but I don't really want to sell them either. I've seen a few circuits around to build PP 2A3 Amps using two tubes per channel but I'm not sure if they would output an equivalent quality compared to the Bottlehead or other SE designs. I'm a great solderer and can fumble my way around fixing the basics of an existing SS or Tube Amp but I'm the first to admit I have a loooong way to go before I understand all the ins & outs of amplifier design which is another reason the kit is attractive.
Hmmm, can anyone help me with this '1st world' dilemma? Any advice welcome, cheers.
I'm lucky enough have been given 4 x NOS RCA 2A3 Tubes still in their boxes and want to build an amp around them. I really like the simplicity & reasonable price of the Bottlehead Monoblock Paramount kits and they seem to get rave reviews all over the place. Problem is that because I have the four Tubes I'd love to use them all in the design but of course that means I'll be running PP instead of SE of which I'm led to believe is 'purer'.
I already have a decent collection and large range of SS Amps and a few great sounding yet fairly standard PP Tube Amps plus I have many different styles and ages of speakers. I haven't yet explored the world of high quality, low powered SE Amps & suitable high efficiency speakers and I'm thinking that building up a pair of Paramounts to use a couple of my 2A3s may be a great way into that area but I also feel that would be a waste of the other two 2A3s too. They're obviously worth more in a quad set but I don't really want to sell them either. I've seen a few circuits around to build PP 2A3 Amps using two tubes per channel but I'm not sure if they would output an equivalent quality compared to the Bottlehead or other SE designs. I'm a great solderer and can fumble my way around fixing the basics of an existing SS or Tube Amp but I'm the first to admit I have a loooong way to go before I understand all the ins & outs of amplifier design which is another reason the kit is attractive.
Hmmm, can anyone help me with this '1st world' dilemma? Any advice welcome, cheers.