"For those that cannot verbalize the differences between their equipment choices, then my response might be: maybe those folks don't really care what they are listening to - but rather how much it costs, what name is on it, and whether or not it glows in the dark. Memetics is truly an interesting subject." Just thought I would submit another possibility: That what may have some bearing on this is not whether somone is or is not able to articulate differences among components or circuit

Hi, Tom -- thanks I hope things are well with you and your family. Yeah, it was kind of a shock to see our old Lab Sarah when I logged on again. It was especially hard for my wife. Thanks for the thought on that. I've just been involved with lots of my own projects, and with school winding down and less papers and tests to grade, it's can be a nice way to relax. Erik

Hi, Phillip: Will also has most of the pictures. I posted the few I have, just because I knew you were interested. I do have a couple more I'll send via email, though. Erik

Very cute little pooch! It sounds like you've got everything you need for that project, Dave. BTW: In addition to TAS and Stereophile, I also get a couple of audio review magazines from the UK, and the last issue had an interesting piece on the psychological correlates of expense -- the implication being that it can sometimes be possible to fool ourselves into thinking and believing that a component (speaker cable and interconnect in this case) sounded better based on virtue of expense and visual

Dave: See those blue rectangular thingies? Those are of course the interstage coupling capacitors. Two at .22uf. They were cheap, and they sounded good, but I took them out for the Jensen oil caps which cost more than the tubes, and I couldn't listen to the amp for long. It was easier to deal with connected to loudspeakers, but with headphones I couldn't stand it. I happened to have some common orange drop types in the same value, and they were better, but the best overall result was without

That's the exterior of the amp with the Senheisers, before I decided to try the lower impedance and far less expensive Bose. I'm glad this came up, because it's a very good example of the importance of component matching, and how more expensive is not necessarily always better -- for a given design. The Bose phones with this amp are MUCH better than the HD 650s. Really significantly better, but the overall presentation is not nearly as smooth and 3-dimensionally layered as the Senheisers

Okay. I had posted the wrong amp (a Transcendent T-16 I recently completely overhauled and rewired for a friend) and I had to figure out how to remove the image. So let's try again for the stereo 6BQ5, very similar, I'm sure to what Mike said above, and may have some elements in common with your own amp. If it were mine, I'd leave the wood! I want to show you a picture of a completely home-built regenerative radio receiver, particularly the wiring and lead dressing, that I commissioned

Hi, Dave: Yeah, I suddenly realized I wasn't on the computer with pictures, but I'll post an outside and inside view, here. I had used this single-ended 6BQ5 amp as our main amp for quite awhile, but was never happy with how the factory-recommended parts placement and point-to-point wiring. So, I rebuilt while at the same time making provision for headphone use. The amp you just built might actually be an outstanding headphone amp, by the way, and you can either install a stereo phone jack

Bruce: Well, I suspect I should qualify that 'classic' evaluation. To me they are very simple, straightforward designs (meaning of course the circuit), and do not seem to get old in terms of looks. I considered selling mine at one point, and held back knowing I would regret it later if I did. On top of that, yours also have the MQ transformers, and those seem to less common than those with ElectraPrint power and OPTs. I have been running all filaments with AC, too. I don't know why I

Neat job! There a very nice people at Decware. As Mike said, this circuit is kind of classic, and no doubt similar to the one I built below. I wasn't happy with the factory wiring layout in the instructions, so rebuilt entirely. Uses two 6BQ5s single-ended and a 12AX7. I really like your wooden chassis, though! It reminds me of the old bread board Atwater Kent Radios from the very early years. The little amp shown is now my headphone amplifier, although it sounds huge through the Klipschorns