"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...
How about using a modern semiconductor IC hidden inside the box and just
having a couple of ornamental toobs stuck out the top and glowing. A USB
port should just about power two filaments.

Heresy!!

....On a related note, large crates of 6AL5s have been known to turn up on
eBay, advertised for Xmas lights and other assorted uses.

BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit?

Big heavy kit anyway. It's not really dead if it still works..?

Toob stuff is generally iron-rich, so it fits well, although some early
solid state Tek/HP/radio equipment also fits the bill nicely.

Tim

--
Seven Transistor Labs
Electrical Engineering Consultation
Website: http://seventransistorlabs.com

So I guess it really comes down to... what do you want?

Can you follow a schematic? (I should hope so... :-p ) Is that good
enough for you? Do you have the tools to cut/punch holes in sheetmetal to
mount sockets, or would you prefer a PCB mounted stuff-it-and-go solution?
Would you prefer plans and drawings, or can you handle that
seat-of-your-pants style?

If you can afford a kit (and don't want the hassle of fully making
something yourself), then that's the way to go.

If you can't afford a kit, but don't have the tools to build a chassis and
stuff, you're rather limited, but not screwed. For instance, PCB mount
sockets could be dead-bugged on copper clad, just as well as ICs can be.

If cost is a big factor, you're probably better off with transistors. You
can get the BOM cost in the $100 range for a basic stereo SE (~3W) amp,
but not much less, big costs being the two OPTs and one power transformer.
(Edcor and Hammond are the big names in retro audio transformers these
days.) If you don't want the hassle of ordering parts and working from a
schematic, yeah, you're better off with a kit, which includes NRE and
retail markup, and as mentioned earlier, runs you over $200 or so. That
price range is basically your pay-to-play range with tubes, unless you've
inherited a bounty.

(Oh, and if you want more power on a budget, I have prototype designs for
class D tube amplifiers. ;-) )

Tim

--
Seven Transistor Labs
Electrical Engineering Consultation
Website: http://seventransistorlabs.com

"Tim Wescott" wrote in message
...
It's winter, and the amplifier in my PC speakers just died.

I think it'd be kinda cool to have a toob speaker amp, but I'm too lazy
(and time-challenged) to build one up from scratch.

Are there, by any chance, kits out there? I'm not looking for nickel-
cored transformers with solid silver windings, genuine paper caps rolled
on the thighs of virgins, toobs dipped in LN2, and all that crap: I'm
just looking for something that'll give the audio quality of a mid-range
amplified speaker set, in a cabinet that shows off the fact that it all
uses ancient technology to get the job done.

Suggestions welcome.

TIA

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

On 12/3/2013 3:10 AM, Martin Brown wrote:
On 02/12/2013 22:57, Michael Black wrote:
On Mon, 2 Dec 2013, Tim Wescott wrote:

It's winter, and the amplifier in my PC speakers just died.

I think it'd be kinda cool to have a toob speaker amp, but I'm too lazy
(and time-challenged) to build one up from scratch.

Are there, by any chance, kits out there? I'm not looking for nickel-
cored transformers with solid silver windings, genuine paper caps rolled
on the thighs of virgins, toobs dipped in LN2, and all that crap: I'm
just looking for something that'll give the audio quality of a mid-range
amplified speaker set, in a cabinet that shows off the fact that it all
uses ancient technology to get the job done.

Suggestions welcome.

How about using a modern semiconductor IC hidden inside the box and just
having a couple of ornamental toobs stuck out the top and glowing. A USB
port should just about power two filaments.


How I hate the cross-posting.

BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit?

"Boat anchor" includes good stuff too, e.g. most of the instruments in
my lab. Just about anything over 20 pounds and 15 years old
qualifies, especially if it fits in a 19-inch rack.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

On Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:10:22 -0500, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 12/3/2013 3:10 AM, Martin Brown wrote:
On 02/12/2013 22:57, Michael Black wrote:
On Mon, 2 Dec 2013, Tim Wescott wrote:

It's winter, and the amplifier in my PC speakers just died.

I think it'd be kinda cool to have a toob speaker amp, but I'm too lazy
(and time-challenged) to build one up from scratch.

Are there, by any chance, kits out there? I'm not looking for nickel-
cored transformers with solid silver windings, genuine paper caps rolled
on the thighs of virgins, toobs dipped in LN2, and all that crap: I'm
just looking for something that'll give the audio quality of a mid-range
amplified speaker set, in a cabinet that shows off the fact that it all
uses ancient technology to get the job done.

Suggestions welcome.

How about using a modern semiconductor IC hidden inside the box and just
having a couple of ornamental toobs stuck out the top and glowing. A USB
port should just about power two filaments.


How I hate the cross-posting.

BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit?

"Boat anchor" includes good stuff too, e.g. most of the instruments in
my lab. Just about anything over 20 pounds and 15 years old
qualifies, especially if it fits in a 19-inch rack.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Old 8" hard-drives make good door stops ;-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

On Tue, 03 Dec 2013 08:10:26 +0000, Martin Brown wrote:

BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit?

It's the term for old radios that glow in the dark and that you shouldn't
pick up by yourself for fear of rupturing something.

I dunno if it's US or English-speaking amateur radio parlance, though.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Tim Wescott Inscribed thus:

On Tue, 03 Dec 2013 08:10:26 +0000, Martin Brown wrote:

BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit?

It's the term for old radios that glow in the dark and that you
shouldn't pick up by yourself for fear of rupturing something.

I dunno if it's US or English-speaking amateur radio parlance, though.


I belive its US in origin. In the UK we refer to "Doorstops" !

--
Best Regards:
Baron.

Tim Wescott wrote:
On Tue, 03 Dec 2013 08:10:26 +0000, Martin Brown wrote:

BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit?

It's the term for old radios that glow in the dark and that you shouldn't
pick up by yourself for fear of rupturing something.

The rule is, to operate a radio on the 80M boatanchor net, it has to weigh
more in pounds than it produces out in watts. (Although there are occasional
arguments about whether plate input power should be used instead.) This
seems a fair line to draw between boatanchor and non-boatanchor sets.

I dunno if it's US or English-speaking amateur radio parlance, though.

That's the thing about amateur radio, everybody talks to one another so
the slang is mostly universal.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On Tue, 3 Dec 2013, Baron wrote:

Tim Wescott Inscribed thus:

On Tue, 03 Dec 2013 08:10:26 +0000, Martin Brown wrote:

BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit?

It's the term for old radios that glow in the dark and that you
shouldn't pick up by yourself for fear of rupturing something.

I dunno if it's US or English-speaking amateur radio parlance, though.


I belive its US in origin. In the UK we refer to "Doorstops" !

One could think of it as "ballast".

One time someone I knew bought a big Sola transformer at a hamfest, and it
was still in his trunk months later. He claimed it gave his car better
traction, and it was winter, but I suspect getting it out of the trunk and
up to his apartment was another factor.

Michael

On Tue, 3 Dec 2013, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Tim Wescott wrote:
On Tue, 03 Dec 2013 08:10:26 +0000, Martin Brown wrote:

BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit?

It's the term for old radios that glow in the dark and that you shouldn't
pick up by yourself for fear of rupturing something.

The rule is, to operate a radio on the 80M boatanchor net, it has to weigh
more in pounds than it produces out in watts. (Although there are occasional
arguments about whether plate input power should be used instead.) This
seems a fair line to draw between boatanchor and non-boatanchor sets.

I dunno if it's US or English-speaking amateur radio parlance, though.

That's the thing about amateur radio, everybody talks to one another so
the slang is mostly universal.

I've seen people point to an issue of "CQ" in the late fifties (when Wayne
Greene was editor), a letter or snide remark after a letter. I've seen
the bit, I'm not sure if that is the first use or not.

But of course, back then, "boatanchor" I think tended to mean "useless" as
well as "heavy". You drag this really neat thing home from the hamfest,
only to discover it is completely useless on top of being heavy. So it
has no value other than as a boatanchor. SOmething like that.

Amd there was surplus like that. Really heavy items with cases that made
them twice as heavy, and not really useful for much even with
modifications.

And then a decade or so later, a lot of stuff became "useless" because
nobody wanted AM and nobody wanted tubes, and nobody wanted whatever. So
the stuff, heavy but not extremely heavy, became boatanchors when few
wanted them. And you could get the stuff so cheap. I remember in the
early seventies being able to get ahold of all kinds of "junk" because
nobody wanted them at the time.

It was only later that "boatanchor" became an affectionate term, when
"that old junk" became desirable by people nostalgic for the old days, or
for the stuff they couldn't afford when younger. And by then attrition
had cleared out some of the supply, suddenly making the old stuff more
valuable than it had been decades before when nobody wanted it and there
was lots of it.

Michael VE2BVW

On Mon, 2 Dec 2013, Robert Baer wrote:

Maynard A. Philbrook Jr. wrote:
In ,
says...

Jim Thompson wrote:
On Mon, 02 Dec 2013 12:58:56 -0600, Tim Wescott
wrote:

It's winter, and the amplifier in my PC speakers just died.

I think it'd be kinda cool to have a toob speaker amp, but I'm too lazy
(and time-challenged) to build one up from scratch.

Are there, by any chance, kits out there? I'm not looking for nickel-
cored transformers with solid silver windings, genuine paper caps rolled
on the thighs of virgins, toobs dipped in LN2, and all that crap: I'm
just looking for something that'll give the audio quality of a mid-range
amplified speaker set, in a cabinet that shows off the fact that it all
uses ancient technology to get the job done.

Suggestions welcome.

TIA

Just for fun, you might do a single stage class-A stage using a 2A3. I
did one when I was a kid, but with 5 in parallel ;-)

...Jim Thompson
Better yet, a push-pull transformerless design!

I remember a quasie tube output, that was bad car ma.

It required a safety circuit on the output, not for users but for
equipment. The outfit could care less about the user safety!

This was a magnetic server that required a broad range of bw.
the tube outputs were a pair of 4-400Z. Had dual HV supply because you
needed the - rail for the bottom side. each heater had their own
transformer with CT to tie off to the common for pinch off biasing.

The top side had some strange method of driving the tube, but it worked

Jamie


I may still have circuits and/or designs of transformerless tube speaker
drivers that were purported to be perfectly safe to touch active lines (do
not ask which lines, do not remember).
And yes, the circuitry is weird on the push-pull drivers; there was even a
full bridge version.


Make the speakers electrostatic, and then drive them from the "plates" of
high voltage mosfets.

Wont' be so good for the low frequencies, but then a lot of computer
speakers arent' good down there anyway, the "subwoofers" not being useful
for the actual frequencies where subwoofers kick in.

Michael