solderdude
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measureutternutter
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Post by solderdude on Jan 29, 2015 19:26:09 GMT
Yup... new amp to be launched, the bigger brother of the Starlight and smaller brother of the Ember. Ember power for low impedance headphones but Starlight power for high impedance headphones.
Manual heater voltage setting but with autobias.
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jexby
valued member
Posts: 2
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Post by jexby on Jan 29, 2015 20:08:42 GMT
wow I can't wait for my Solstice! should make a HE-400i sing.
with my Lyr 2 am familiar with the 6DJ8 line of tubes (NOS: Siemens, Amperex, Ediswan, Telefunken), and now nabbing a couple 12au7 to try with the Solstice- what is the best source for the 12sn7 line of tubes? sonic description and pricing? at first check don't see 12sn7 listed at Upscale Audio or Brent Jesse sites....
cheers.
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Post by jhelms on Jan 29, 2015 21:57:13 GMT
Most sites only sell the 6sn7 versions as they are more common. The 12v version is more affordable and easier to obtain. Just check out ebay for listings.
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jexby
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Post by jexby on Jan 29, 2015 22:02:22 GMT
Jeremy,
indeed have had the 12sn7 search going in ebay for a bit now. seeing RCA black-T plates, Sylvania 12SN7GT, Raytheon 12SN7GT amongst others.
prices low so not much risk to trying them "blind" without knowing their sonic traits I suppose...
thanks for including this tube type into the native Solstice design! more options can't hurt.
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Post by musicman on Jan 30, 2015 1:34:30 GMT
Thanks for the answers gentlemen. Curiosity is not going to kill this "Ember". This 6sn7 is really nice, having a hard time turning it off. Thanks again for the nice work on the adapter, very nice addition to the Ember. Don
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Post by ronzo56 on Jan 30, 2015 3:20:45 GMT
The 6sn7 adapter is really a nice piece of work, if you look on ebay or other sites, you can see that this adapter is head and shoulders above the rest. Beautiful construction and works perfectly. Tried the Sylvania 6SN7W tube and it is another jewel. I have been reading up on the forums and seeing the pricing and what are considered good,bad or ugly, and found that some are using an adapter from 6sn7 to 7n7 and have another avenue, as the 7n7's are more plentiful in NOS. Was wondering also if we can use the 12sn7 tube with the Ember? Listening to the Ember with the rca out to a Harman-Kardon avr510 thru Electro-Voice Sentry V speakers is really great, now using a pair of Yamo ART speakers, and sounds fine. Speakers are from the seventies, bought new, still sound great. Thanks Jeremy, Solderdude wonderful products. Just got mine. So far have tried a G.E. 6SN7GTB, great bass, and now a CBS 1960 JAN CHY 5692 (military version of 6SN7.) Not warmed up yet and sound is fantastic. More later. Great work, and thanks.
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Post by musicman on Jan 30, 2015 3:22:25 GMT
These tubes,to me, seem to have a wider sound stage, stereo effect is more lifelike.
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Post by musicman on Jan 30, 2015 3:26:41 GMT
The tube I am using now is a Sylvania Jan chs 6sn7gt vt-231 form the 1940's, sound is crazy good,need to get some sleep, but keep trying more music. This thing is going to head me for a divorce if I don't turn this off.
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Post by ronzo56 on Jan 30, 2015 15:36:51 GMT
The tube I am using now is a Sylvania Jan chs 6sn7gt vt-231 form the 1940's, sound is crazy good,need to get some sleep, but keep trying more music. This thing is going to head me for a divorce if I don't turn this off. I'm having the same issue. Up until 3:00 AM. Got stuck on the CBS tube. Never got around to the others. Maybe tonight. If I can stay awake!
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Post by musicman on Jan 30, 2015 16:14:13 GMT
It is a addictive , before you know it you are heading back to all the familiar music to see what changes have come. Loving it
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Post by ronzo56 on Feb 1, 2015 8:28:32 GMT
Agreed. Been listening to a Russian NOS GTB type. Need a magnifying glass to see the logo clearly but is Soviet military era. But I would have to turn it off and take it out. It can wait.
I want to make double sure here, the Solstice can handle the 12SN7 but even the Supercharger version of the Ember cannot.
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on Feb 1, 2015 9:23:49 GMT
That's correct but at the same time a dangerous situation.
It has nothing to do with the current capabilities but with the internal heater arrangement inside the tubes. All 9 pin 12V tubes have centertaps (pin 9) on their heater. On some 6V tubes pin 9 is used to connect a screen between the 2 tube halves. All these tubes (6V AND 12V) can thus be fed by 6V on each heater 'side'. Ember makes use of this heater arrangement with the auto heater select.
Thus in all the other G1217 amps the actual heater voltage is 6V even for the 12V tubes thanks to pin 9 and nifty thinking by the designers in those days. For this reason you can faff around with the heater selection and can afford to make mistakes by having a 6V tube set to 12V and vice versa. The amp won't work properly and you will get a tube that is heated only on one side or doesn't heat enough but it will never be harmful.
Now here's the thing with 8 pin tubes... there is NO 9th pin and thus the actual heaters in the 6V tube need 6V (no problem there) but the 12V tubes do NOT have the centretap and thus need 12V which the other amps can NOT supply. Because the supercharger's output voltage can be 'set' using external resistors a 12V output can be made. In that case the heater than gets a real 12V and not 6V.
BUT..... when left in that position and a 6V tube (8pin or 9 pin) is inserted you can probably trash that tube. A VERY DANGEROUS jumper !
For this reason the Solstice has 2 6V-12V jumpers. One is easy accesible from the top and is similar to the other G1217 amps thus safe to use. Should you want to use 12SN7 tubes you will have to take the top cover off and set a small jumper BUT you get no warning a high voltage will be there.
The danger lies in the fact that these amps are so easy to roll 6 and 12V tubes that one forgets about this dangerous jumper.
Should you want a Solstice (will make a new thread for it) to NOT have this dangerous option you can have the 12V option removed OR even changed to 7V so you can use 300mA tubes (like the PCC or 7 series) at the proper voltage.
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Post by musicman on Feb 1, 2015 15:15:09 GMT
Good idea to offer the without that option. Should not be necessary to use 12sn7, there are plenty of 6sn7's out there. Nice to see you are thinking far enough down the road to help people from themselves.
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Post by jhelms on Feb 1, 2015 16:07:41 GMT
^ Frans is 100% correct on that. I wrote along the same lines in another thread as well. Solstice will be unique with this offering to roll in the 12sn7 family and will have a LOT of warnings in the owners manual to NOT TOUCH the OHV jumper unless you are running a 12sn7 series tube. And there will be detailed instructions on how to do this step by step before powering the amplifier on.
But to be clear, change this jumper and install the wrong tube.. POOF in a quick flash of light. Pay attention to the setting and you are rewarded with a lovely series of tubes that are much more affordable than their 6v counterpart. I built it into the amp as I will use 12sn7's myself so I thought I would offer it in this one design and see what people think.
The OHV jumper will be shorter than the standard jumper (harder to remove), is located off to one side and will have red paint on top of it as a reminder. Or as Frans mentioned, one can opt out of the feature at purchase if they are worried they will fumble it up.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2015 11:15:28 GMT
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