14-05-2020, 11:21 AM
Mark Hennessy Wrote:The next step is to build amplifiers with "high-but-nice" distortion. That's much harder, but he's done it!
I could probably come up with a solid-state amplifier with 8% distortion. But I guarantee it will sound horrible. So, Andy has done something that I can't do. And if Andy and I were running hi-fi amplifier companies, he'd be able to sell amps for huge sums, whereas I'd be selling at much more modest prices - his amplifiers will stand out as being different and interesting, but mine will be merely "ordinary". That will cause me great pain because I know my amplifiers are better by any technical description, but he'll have the luxury company car and I'll still be struggling to put food on the table. Joking aside, you might actually be onto something with this!
That's the sad bit, to engineers - how to even aspire to the 'nice' sounding amplifier, and how to know, from measurements, that you're there? And then, to make money from it to buy components, instruments, and engineering time to make the next 'bad' amplifier?
And the people who can, and do, design amplifiers as precision pieces of analogue circuitry - their products aren't wanted!
Whereas Andy's bad amplifier - it's so bad that it's good!
Mark Hennessy Wrote:I mentioned in passing that some amps have a triode/pentode mode switch - they achieve a similar thing.
You did indeed. I should have acknowledged it!
Amie Wrote:If the amplifier that you were working on had modern prodution valves then are any of the Russian/Czech/China products marked as 84's actually the guts of something generic just marked for familiarity?
6BW6 is a beam tetrode similar size/spec to the EL84...
Good point - Mike's "EL84" could be another valve, remarked. Which would explain it looking like a BT.
It couldn't actually be a 6BW6, because the pinout is different from EL84. Unless... it not only had the 6BW6 guts, but was then pin-connected like EL84 before fusing the envelope on and sucking out the air. In which case, the deception was obviously intended at the factory!
Though, if that was the case, I'd rather like one to do a trial swap...
