How did you get into tube audio???

[DonP1]

The gentleman selling this equipment was none other than Aspen Pittman, founder of Groove Tubes, and we spent about two hours talking about his story with tubes and amps and recording sessions, among other things. Thanks to this encounter with Aspen, I began my love affair with tube audio.

Aspen indirectly help me into tube amps. Mid 80's and into metal, I was on the quest for the ultimate guitar amp. From a Gorilla (ug) to a Peavey Classic VTX (power amp tube only) to a Marshall 4140 (all tube finally). Unfortunately, I didn't realize that this Marshall was named the "Town and Country" and was designed to compete with a Fender Twin - NOT what I was after. I have been hitting up repair shops for schematics (pre-internet), and when Aspen's Tube Amp book came out, it was like gold to me.

Using the Tube Amp book schematics, the Gorilla was gutted and rebuilt with a Marshall 2203 front end and a 50C5/35W4 power amp. Made the circuit board by etching (I didn't know what Point to Point or Turret boards were - no internet). Worked great, a little noisy (high gain with tube heaters all running in series). First I had a too-small iso-tranny, but the current was too much (ran hot) and decided to change it to hard wired.

Then I gutted the 4140 and built the first Triple Super Lead - One channel Fender clean, one channel Marshall Crunch, and one Channel Mesa Boogie lead. Schematics all from the tube amp book and graph paper. I was using mechanical relays and a 5 button foot switch. I got it all working on the first try. But there were issues. Mechanical switching had some slight popping. The channels had different levels of output feeding the power amp. And the idea of having two Presence controls foot switchable resulted in louder pops because it was in the power amp feedback circuit. But it sounded great, and was pumping 120w clean via 4 6550A's. I gutted it again to make MKII even better, but life got in the way, and it became easier just to buy rather than build.

On the guitar forums there was a note about a month or two ago that Aspen passed away in a car wreck. RIP.

 

[Greg Nal]

I grew up with the family stereo in the living room of our home. Didn't know much about it, just that it sounded great and used tubes. I would go with my dad to the drug store to test the tubes once in a while. The Dynaco FM-1 tuner wasn't very sensitive, so in Jr Hi, I got the FM-5 kit and built it, carefully following the directions. And it worked great! About that time I got into albums, and had a small stereo in my room can't remember what it was. I'd record "The King Biscuit Flower Hour" and "Dr. Demento" on Sunday nights, and our local album rock station played new album releases cover to cover on Thursday nights, with just a radio station announcement in between sides. I was recording with my dad's Robert's reel to reel, playing albums on his Garrard TT and transferring the albums to Cassette on my TEAC top-loader cassette deck. In college I bought a JVC receiver with the SEAS equalizer built in, still had my dad's TT, TEAC and my first pair of speakers-bullnose NLA's. Never could quite get the sound that I remembered from my dad's setup.

30+ years of craptastic BPC Sony's and CD's later, my dad passed away and his system came my way--Marantz 7/8b and Bozak 302a's. No wonder I couldn't match the sound! That prompted this "new old thing" hobby so I went down the rabbit hole and ended up with a Scott/Fisher/Altec tube component collection, and many unloved-and-in-need-of-TLC East-Coast sound AR/KLH speakers as a storage unit will hold. Console count is 7 and holding (at least until the next one comes along), all tube and in various stages of disrepair. The latest addition: a Korting/Delmonico system purchased new in Germany in 1958-59 in absolutely stunning shape. AK gets most of the credit/blame for my tube-related illness...

 

[qguy]

In a similar forum like AK in the Philippines, but with a lot less members, one of the founders / admins was promoting tube audio and he does it by lending a fisher x-101b to ANYONE who want to try it at home. After that, I had, a Dynaco ST70, Scott Lk72, Cayin A70t, their all gone now, I have in rotation a Cayin A50T and a DIY Aikido Tube Pre-amp mated ti a Rotel Solid State amp. Next target is a 20 watt SET amp

If anyone was curious the Fisher tube amp eventually got stolen... just kidding, surprisingly it was returned every time someone uses it. From what I remember it was eventually sold/given to the owners relative

 

[David_NC]

I have been interested in tubes for a good while but never really went anywhere with it. The closest I got to using tube equipment is a couple table radios from way back; my favorite is an RCA Livingston. I'll get it restored and usable in the future. Back to tube amps... I was at a Goodwill earlier this year and spotted a Dynaco ST-70. I checked it out and kept talking myself out of it. Finally, an older gentleman came up to me and told me that as much as I was checking it out, I should just buy it. Hmmm... "it's $249, and I don't want to spend that much. Besides, it may not work". Determined, he told me what a deal that was, considering it was in good condition and complete and that we could test it. Besides, they are easy to repair and that he's had one for years and loves it. Well, we tested it, and it worked, so I took it home.
I finally finished recapping and replacing quite a few other parts recently. After some initial hiccups, it worked and sounded really good. It's got new tubes in it at the moment (cheap EH and JJ) , and I'll use these a bit to see if they get better as they burn in. I recall the original tubes sounding a bit better when I played it right after getting it home. The original Tung-Sol 7199's seem to be fine, and I'm using them at the moment. I have it in my main system at present, and it sounds really nice, and I'm trying to come up with an easy way to be able to switch between it and my normal SS power amp for when I really want it loud. I think it's gonna be a keeper. It's my profile pic, in fact. I should thank members here for being supportive and providing useful info and tips along the way; they really helped.

 

[nerdorama]

I had a couple of friends give me old tube amps. Finally I decided to restore a couple of them and get them working. Beginning of the end. It was an Eico ST-40 that clinched the deal. I had it working but then I triode connected the outputs and disconnected tbe global feedback. When the wife asked "what did you do?" my life changed.
John

 

[Lavane]

I let someone send me a 6v6 pp amp that needed work. Then my foot slipped and I fell down the rabbit hole. Now I can't find the bottom!
Working on SS gear was fun, but was starting to get a bit boring.

 

[linuxslate]

I haven't previously replied to this thread because I'm not sure I even "got into tube audio", at least not any specific device or recent experience.

Farther back than I can remember, I was into electronics. Early on (probably about age 7-10), I found a circuit board amongst random parts under my dad's workbench. It was from a (transistor) cassette deck. He told me I could have it, and that if I cut off the tape head, and soldered a speaker instead, that I would be able to hear my own voice.

I had lots of small speakers from transistor radios I had taken apart, so I soldered it as he said. He had to watch me while using a dangerous tool like a soldering iron.

I built it into a Radio Shack project box. I still have it, and on occasion I still use it as an utility amp. (Pictured -- The internal speaker and LED's were added later.)



Apparently, this lead an obsession with all things audio -- probably more PA and Communications than music.

I bought, found or built hundreds of radios, TV's etc. Since a lot of it was old even at the time, much of it was tube, but I never really cared whether it was tube or SS beyond a repair point of view.

I also still have a McGohan Tube PA amp that I bought when I was elementary or high school age.

Much more recently, as an adult (chronologically, not mentally), I considered buying a vintage tube amp. I looked around thrift shops and antique stores for years. I finally found a mono Harman Kardon amp in an antique store. Since it was mono, and they didn't have a pair, I didn't buy it.

That HK mono amp (I think it was an A-10 "allegro") spurred me to be more serious about my eBay searching. It was still months later, but I eventually found a HK a224 "Trio" for sale. Months more passed, and the seller finally re-listed it at a lower price, and I went for it. A few filter caps and power resistors later, I finally had an amp I would have always wanted.

I suppose you could say that that HK a10, that I did not buy or ever own, "got me into" the current phase of something I was always into.

Shortly after that, I found another "deal" locally on a already restored and converted tube organ amp. Again, it was something that I would have been fascinated with at any point in my life. Owning those amps lead me here to the AK world.

Counting the 2 amps mentioned above, a sub-mini tube amp I built recently, and a 6BQ5 P-P amp that I am working on now, that's 4 tube amps -- 5 if you count the McGohan PA amp.

 

[GordonW]

I, literally, got into tube audio, when someone walked in the door and handed me a tube amp, one day.

I worked at a stereo store in the early 2000s- one day, a fellow came in carrying a little tube amp. He said that he was moving- and had to pare down on what he was carrying with his family. He had been a client of ours in the past (happily so), and when it came time to find a home for the amp- we were the first thing he thought of. He said that if I wanted it- it was mine...

I was initially interested, not really because it was tube- but because it was a Harman-Kardon amp- and I knew quite well, that Harman-Kardon had made some really good amps "back in the day", in general. I was curious at how this Harman Award A300 tube amp would compare with the early SS Harman stuff I had before... so I readily accepted his generous offer!

It took me a few months to get around to testing it out- and I discovered that it had a one bad output tube, and a bad volume control (it would go from nothing to full volume on one channel, at about half-volume). I found a suitable substitute volume pot (alas, without the loudness tap- which I really didn't miss then, and still don't miss now), and a set of GE 6V6GTA output tubes, and got it basically running.

Once I had it working, I mentioned it to my friend Don (who used to hang around here under user name BrassTeacher)- and he volunteered to re-cap it, if I supplied the parts. That was an offer I could not pass up...

Well, I got a call from him- and his response to hearing it for the first time with good parts, was "HOLY S**T", in essence...

In fact, his wife thought it sounded so good, that she threatened not to let Don give it back to me.

Don also rebuilt the phono stage with all discrete parts (getting rid of the PEC modules, but keeping the same parts values)- and this amp is really one of those special things that you don't find often in life. It's the one amp, besides my Eico HF22s, that I just never will get rid of,I think...

That little amp, that literally just walked in the door, later led to me getting into, first, rebuilding tube amps that I found- and then later, getting to the point where I could build them from scratch. It's still fun, to have one "breathe life" for the first time after being on the bench, whether it be a rebuilt classic amp, a resto-mod, or one that never existed before I put it all together...

Regards,
Gordon.

 

[artsybob]

I might skew a bit younger than most of the AK community here (I'm 33) so I never grew up around tubes. However, my family was always into audio and growing up I would listen to my parents play records and CD's on their stereo. My uncle was also extremely interested in hi-fi so I would leaf through his issues of "Stereophile" magazine. As a teen I cobbled together my own stereo using components my family had lying around (I had a circa-1987 Realistic STA-125 receiver and a circa-1978 Kenwood KR-4010 receiver) and used those for a number of years. When I looked at picture book of vintage tube gear my uncle had I wanted to own some tube gear one day, but I was generally happy with the SS receivers I had at the time.
Then one day some neighbors down the street had an estate sale and whatever wasn't sold was piled onto the curb. Out of curiosity I checked out what was there and spied something I thought was a chest of drawers at first. I cleared the stuff on top of it off, opened the top hatch and saw it had. a record player. It was a stereo console! A Westinghouse HM-1411. When I saw it had a sticker on the back that said "Replace with genuine Westinghouse tubes" I knew I had to have it. I lugged the heavy wooden-framed console with my brother over to my house. I knew absolutely nothing about restoring antique tube gear but through perseverance, watching countless YouTube videos and getting advise here on AK, I managed to get it up and working again. When I played my records on it I experienced a musicality I never experienced before with any of my SS gear. I still have it (it sits in my parents' basement as it's too big to fit in my apartment, waiting for whenever I have a house). I got the tube bug and wanted to find more gear to work on. After patiently lurking on eBay for a year I found a Realistic SAF-40D stereo integrated tube amp for less than $200. It needed recapping and it was missing a power cord, but that wasn't anything I couldn't fix. It may not be a Mac or a Fisher, but its sound still blew me away. Guitars, woodwinds and brass instruments sounded far richer and three-dimensional than anything I owned before. It continues to serve as the centerpiece of my stereo system.

 

[tonyg88]

I might skew a bit younger than most of the AK community here (I'm 33) so I never grew up around tubes. However, my family was always into audio and growing up I would listen to my parents play records and CD's on their stereo. My uncle was also extremely interested in hi-fi so I would leaf through his issues of "Stereophile" magazine. As a teen I cobbled together my own stereo using components my family had lying around (I had a circa-1987 Realistic STA-125 receiver and a circa-1978 Kenwood KR-4010 receiver) and used those for a number of years. When I looked at picture book of vintage tube gear my uncle had I wanted to own some tube gear one day, but I was generally happy with the SS receivers I had at the time.
Then one day some neighbors down the street had an estate sale and whatever wasn't sold was piled onto the curb. Out of curiosity I checked out what was there and spied something I thought was a chest of drawers at first. I cleared the stuff on top of it off, opened the top hatch and saw it had. a record player. It was a stereo console! A Westinghouse HM-1411. When I saw it had a sticker on the back that said "Replace with genuine Westinghouse tubes" I knew I had to have it. I lugged the heavy wooden-framed console with my brother over to my house. I knew absolutely nothing about restoring antique tube gear but through perseverance, watching countless YouTube videos and getting advise here on AK, I managed to get it up and working again. When I played my records on it I experienced a musicality I never experienced before with any of my SS gear. I still have it (it sits in my parents' basement as it's too big to fit in my apartment, waiting for whenever I have a house). I got the tube bug and wanted to find more gear to work on. After patiently lurking on eBay for a year I found a Realistic SAF-40D stereo integrated tube amp for less than $200. It needed recapping and it was missing a power cord, but that wasn't anything I couldn't fix. It may not be a Mac or a Fisher, but its sound still blew me away. Guitars, woodwinds and brass instruments sounded far richer and three-dimensional than anything I owned before. It continues to serve as the centerpiece of my stereo system.
View attachment 1656091 View attachment 1656092 View attachment 1656093

How is the bass on the Realistic SAF-40D?

 

[artsybob]

How is the bass on the Realistic SAF-40D?

Pretty darn good! So good in fact I got two noise complaints from the apartment below for the bass being too high (I have to play my music quieter now in order to avoid the wrath of the property management)

 

[artsybob]

Forgot to add this in my previous post, though I don't know if this also counts as tube gear but once I was done restoring the Realistic SAF-40D my next project was this nice Fisher TFM-300 FM multiplex tuner (all of the pieces I restored have their own threads here on AK). It was a dumpster find my uncle found and it sat in his closet for 20 years. I painstakingly replaced all the little electrolytic caps on the IF strip and MX board and replaced the old selenium rectifier with a modern SS one. It works great now! It's a hybrid unit with 16 transistors and three tubes (two 6CW4 Nuvistors and a 6HA5, which you can see barely peeking over the tuning capacitor housing unit).

 

[Dandy]

What a great thread, which also gives us a chance to get to know each other better.

 

[imral3]

What a great thread, which also gives us a chance to get to know each other better.

 

[Drummerboy2]

When I was a young kid back in the 60's, my parents had a big console stereo that from what I remembered sounded pretty good and I was always sitting in front of it when it was on. From what I remember and when I was a little older that console had a Fisher receiver in it cause I remember the bird emblem on it. When I was in my early teen back in the mid 70, my cousin was in the army and would bring home some crazy gear (All SS) so I was into solid state gear at first with those BIG volume knobs on the front of the integrated amps from japan. My First stereo was a Kenwood KA-801, Pioneer PL-150 turntable, Technics M244 cassette deck, with Altec Model 9 series II. Then I step up in to SAE Gear a few years later with ESS AMT 1D speakers and Technic SL-1600MKII turntable.

Then I bought what I thought was a nice sounding system SUMO Athena Preamp and SUMO Andromeda III power amp. I then got an Linn LP12 table and this is where I got into tubes! The system was sounding good but there was just something I was noticing now that I didn't before and it was irritating me. So I had a friend that owned Jeff Sound Values. Jeff kept telling me I needed a better preamp for my system so he let me take home a Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 signature Hybrid preamp sounded really nice, so that was my first tube gear. I liked the way it was open deeper sounding with no harshness like the solid state gear I had.

I then got into Counterpoint gear with a Counterpoint SA-1000 and Counterpoint SA-220 power amp with Vandersteen 3A speakers. Tried to go back to all solid state gear Classe Audio CP-50 and Edge M8 amp (I still have the EDGE amp). I went back to Tube front end with a all tube BAT VK-30 preamp and then built my first all tube amp. So now most of my gear is Tube. I have my VTA-120 power amp, Musical Paradise Jfet tube MP-P1 Phono preamp, Musical MP-D1 tube dac, and I have a tube tune in the Fisher KM-60 FM tuner but have some SS tuners too. I'm in the process of building a Transcendent Sound Masterpiece preamp and I'm done after than.

So that's my story of how I got into tubes!

 

[kvflyer]

Dad built an Allied Radio Knight-Kit 18-watt amplifier in the late fifties. I was 10 years old at the time.

"The Rest Is History"... I was hooked. Oh, I still have his amplifier and matching tuner.

 

[fxer1982]

when i was young mom and dad would spend time on a lake that we would call the couple uncle and aunt. they had a Stromberg Carlson Tube console i love the sound that came out of it. yrs later i got into SS marantz. now at 70 yrs old im back to buying tube Stereo equipment off of ebay mostly Stromberg Carlson. i just got a pair of mono blocks ive been looking for over 20 yrs. i got one 10 yrs ago used but nice shape. them a month ago i saw one on ebay and purchased it. after that the same Lister had found another in a 3rd floor storage building i purchased that one too. Both in original boxes never been used and run all original tubes Mullard, tung-Sol 6550, RCA all 1959... had a tech go through them now at home im in a musical heaven. though a bit powerful im so happy i feel i might die soon. 20 + yrs looking to find a pair in original boxes never been run other than what Stromberg Carlson did too bias them and run them for a couple of hrs then boxed em up. all this started at uncle don and aunt sandys 66+yrs ago... 40 watt continuous, 100 watts instantaious. killer reproduction of music..

 

[tuberadios69]

When I was a kid, my Dad pulled out the tube AM radio in his 1954 Chevy and replaced it with a new fangled solid state radio. This was probably around 1961 or so. I was crushed, the new radio sounded terrible in contrast to the old tube radio. In fact, the old radio sounded so good, we'd often pull up in the driveway at home and sit in the car until whatever song was playing, finished. Never did that again after the solid state radio was installed. Fast forward to 1985 when I won Pioneer's first CD player in a sales contest amongst us Pioneer factory sales reps. I got it home all excited and was again, crushed, when I put a CD (The Cars) in it and couldn't believe how bright and brash it sounded. I bought one of our Pioneer/Series 20 M-22 class A amps hoping that would coax better sound from the CD player. Unfortunately, it did not so I used the CD player infrequently. A year or so later I visited a friend (a retail stereo salesperson in Wash DC) and listed to his Spendor BC-1's driven by a Mac C-22 preamp and MC-240 (and a CD player, forgot what brand) he had acquired and heard the sound I was missing! However, finding similar vintage gear locally proved fruitless. In 1988 I bought Stereo Cost Cutters re-introduced Dynakit Stereo 70 kit. Once I assembled it, and replaced one output tube (I had no concept of matched tubes, so I had inadvertently disregarded how each matched pair had rubber bands around them, and red-plated one), I was stunned at the improvement in sound this brought to my system! The ST70 served me well and then I found a Mac 240, then a pair of MC-60's and so on. I was/am hooked on tube gear and today, whenever possible, repair and/or rebuild my own tube gear (much thanks to help on this forum!). The old SCC Stereo 70 resides in my excellent home office system (with Celestion SL6si, Mac MX-110 and Pioneer Elite PD-54) and continues to serve me well. My other two systems use MC-30's and MC-60's along with a CJ PV-8 and a Marantz 7.

 

[BmWr75]

The first tube gear I bought was probably circa 2008 and was a Rogue Audio 66 preamp and two M-120 monoblock amps. Still got em. Haven't played them in years.

 

[ceylon]

The first tube gear I bought was probably circa 2008 and was a Rogue Audio 66 preamp and two M-120 monoblock amps. Still got em. Haven't played them in years.

man id like to hear music thru that setup. how did u get into tube audio?