Amazing $50 3 Tube Preamp

Poultrygeist · Jul 11, 2014

douggiestyle said:
Well, plugged it in this morning and it worked. Strange things happen late at night, I guess. Thanks toPG, Jadran, and everyone that contributed to this thread! Waiting for the amp and deciding on if I want to try out new tubes or let the newness sink in first.

You might as well order the Russian 6n3p-ev tubes as they'll take at least a month to get to the US.

Seems like four cost under $20 shipped and go with a ebay seller with high positive feedback. I ended up liking them a tad better than the vintage tubes I tried.

prighello · Jul 11, 2014

Mine just arrived yesterday when I got home. Received a transformer I have not seen on here before. The wires are all black and orange. I'm guessing they wire the same way as the one with the blue wires. I'll try to get it fired up tonight and see.

lico · Jul 11, 2014

The orange/black wiring sounds like my xformer. If so, then you have 3 black wires and 2 orange wires. The 2 orange wires are 160 VAC. The black between them is ground. The other two black wires are 6 VAC. Never hurts to measure first before hooking anything up unless you want to be sporty.

skrstic · Jul 12, 2014

My Russian 6n3p-ev (bought locally) sound worse then original. I'll try ge 5670w.
Is there way to lower gain?

Poultrygeist · Jul 12, 2014

We hear differently.

I tried the GE's as well but the only tube I preferred over the Russian/Ukraine 6n3p-ev are the pricey Western Electric 396a/2c51. The GE5670 and equivalents are much shorter than the Russian/Chinese tubes which make them look a tad puny next to the tall rectifier tube.

Jadran · Jul 12, 2014

skrstic said:
My Russian 6n3p-ev (bought locally) sound worse then original. I'll try ge 5670w.
Is there way to lower gain?

6N3P-EV (or best - DR) should not - must not sound worse than Chinese 6N3, it's simply impossible - unless tubes are heavily used and by the end of life. Could be also they are not matched and also mixed of different era, years of prod., etc..

To lower the gain of the preamp - swapping the vol.pot for a 20k instead of 50k that's in it now is one of the solution.

lacro · Jul 18, 2014

Jadran To lower the gain of the preamp - swapping the vol.pot for a 20k instead of 50k that's in it now is one of the solution.[/QUOTE said:
Jadran,
Has this been tried by someone? would you please direct me to the post. I would like to try this mod myself if it's still a good one.

Thanks,
lacro

Jadran · Jul 18, 2014

lacro said:
Jadran,
Has this been tried by someone? would you please direct me to the post. I would like to try this mod myself if it's still a good one.

Thanks,
lacro

I'm not sure if someone on this thread has tried this mod yet, while I'm planning to do on this buffer soon. 6N3 is now in combo with TPA3116. My other tube 12au7 preamp Dynavox with 50k also has a bit high gain that does not go quite well with D-amp, and know one German guy who suggested 20k is the best (among few other cap mods as well).
Previously I had a chance to swap Alps 50K for Panasonic 20K on one of my tube amplifier, but it gave too low gain in that configuration. Just received another buffer/preamp with two 6J1 tubes that has 20k pot already fixed, and will see how it works in such combo.
Experimenting is the way to go

spy king · Aug 25, 2014

Heya!

Really interesting read over the past few days, and I have decided to check out one of these! Any recommended seller for the 3 tube version?

Thanks!

RobertVL · Aug 27, 2014

Yeah me too
I am interested in which is the best version

spy king · Sep 20, 2014

Just got my board and I am loving it so far! Will make a case for it sometime next week, for now, it's just sitting on a ply sheet.

I was wondering, anyone had luck with re-routing the silly blue LED's?

trikster · Sep 21, 2014

Interested in one of these as well. Is there a way to add a headphone jack to this unit?

skrstic · Sep 22, 2014

Jadran said:
I'm not sure if someone on this thread has tried this mod yet, while I'm planning to do on this buffer soon. 6N3 is now in combo with TPA3116. My other tube 12au7 preamp Dynavox with 50k also has a bit high gain that does not go quite well with D-amp, and know one German guy who suggested 20k is the best (among few other cap mods as well).
Previously I had a chance to swap Alps 50K for Panasonic 20K on one of my tube amplifier, but it gave too low gain in that configuration. Just received another buffer/preamp with two 6J1 tubes that has 20k pot already fixed, and will see how it works in such combo.
Experimenting is the way to go

Have you tried? Gain is too big.

Poultrygeist · Sep 22, 2014

spy king said:
Heya!

Really interesting read over the past few days, and I have decided to check out one of these! Any recommended seller for the 3 tube version?

Thanks!

My board is the Yuan Jing version.

Jadran · Sep 23, 2014

skrstic said:
Have you tried? Gain is too big.

Yes but on Dynavox preamp. (1x12AU7), gain lowered, it's not Alps pot. though but some Taiwan made stuff. Alps are expensive but of better quality, so looking forward to find even 10K version for another mod.

davidflas · Sep 24, 2014

Poultrygeist said:
You might as well order the Russian 6n3p-ev tubes as they'll take at least a month to get to the US.

Seems like four cost under $20 shipped and go with a ebay seller with high positive feedback. I ended up liking them a tad better than the vintage tubes I tried.

Have you done any rolling with the 6Z4 tube? Based on your suggestion, I acquired two pair of the Russian 6n3p-ev tubes, and liked them a lot. As a tube noob, I don't know how important the rectifier tube is to sq. What have you found in your experience?

Poultrygeist · Sep 24, 2014

davidflas said:
Have you done any rolling with the 6Z4 tube? Based on your suggestion, I acquired two pair of the Russian 6n3p-ev tubes, and liked them a lot. As a tube noob, I don't know how important the rectifier tube is to sq. What have you found in your experience?

Not worth swapping out.

davidflas · Sep 24, 2014

Poultrygeist said:
Not worth swapping out.

I thought that might be the case, thanks for the info.

spy king · Sep 29, 2014

Hey guys, so I have the YJ board as well, and I notice that sometimes, I get a static buzz that gradually rises and then stays constant. If I power off the board and switch it on again, it goes away. It seems to be pretty random. It also goes away if I unplug the source from the board and plug it in again.

My chain is Laptop -> ES9023 DAC -> Tube-Pre -> Rotel RA820BX3

trikster · Oct 7, 2014

I had a question that came up in a dream I was having a few nights back. In the dream, had one of these preamps and a diy amp. The amp died and had the idea to hook up the three tube preamp to the tape monitor out/in like an EQ on a SS receiver. This gave tube sound with a vintage SS receiver. Is my dream crazy, or would it actually work?

Amazing $50 3 Tube Preamp

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