The road to nirvana |
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My journey into Photography, Horology, and Audiophilia |
I think I'm on a roll :) I started to acquire parts for a next project - a 300B amplifier. Based on the sonic fulfillment I got from the JE Labs 2A3, I thought I can't go wrong with another JE Labs circuit. I was attracted by the 76 tube and I decided to make the JE Labs 300B DX and this is the first version.
The Hammond 125ESE output transformers found a new use. Together with a Lundahl LL1648 and Hammond 193J choke, they are the heaviest components on this amplifier. The LL1648 and 193J were purchased from Martin Electronics in Singapore during one of my trips in that country.
You can see the pair of Electro-Harmonix 300B, a coin-base 6SN7 and the pair of RCA 76 tubes gracing this amplifier. The Sylvania 5AR4 is partially hidden.
My attempt to make my own wooden base was a nightmare, as you can see in the picture.
After sometime, I saw something that I could use as a wooden base for this amplifier. It is a wooden spoon, fork and knife holder.
I removed the dividers, the bottom, turned it upside down and here is how the amplifier looks now in that wooden base.
This is how it looked like after assembly. In this incarnation, I decided to use custom wound transformers for the output and power duties. The Hammond 193J remains as the choke.
The tube complements are now generic Chinese 300B (they sound a lot better than the EH300B to my ears), Hitachi 6SN7GTB, RCA 76 and RCA 5U4G.
Here's the picture after hooking it up to the rest of my system.
You can see this 300B amplifier, and other variants of the JE Labs 300B from various countries at Derek Walton's Web Site.