Tír Na HiFi

so having destroyed my ears over the past few days listening to a logitech 2.1 pc system while sitting at my computer, I am thinking I'll dust off the little fatman itube and see about getting a dinky pair of speakers for listening while studying.... it came with two Chinese 12AX7 and one 6E2 magic-eye tube, I'm electronically ignorant when it comes to tubes....

is an ecc83 identical to a 12AX7....???

Had a gander on thomann for 12ax7 and it seems to be a very popular guitar pre-amp tube and as such much cheaper than I imagined....

what should I keep an eye out for.... I've heard of JJ but they seem to be very cheap for this tube, telefunken seem to be the most expensive (a 15 second search yielded!!)



also does the 6E2 do anyhting except the magc eye bit?

Probably not worth going down the Telefunken route at the moment. I have a couple of Teslas here that I bought from the little shop on Belmont owned by Ned Carlson. You'll recall that I bought a whole new set of valves for the Audio Innovations, but one of them was faulty and blew it up. You can try them if you want!!

I'd have a few spare 12AX7 tubes around here too. Matched pairs no less. Gis a shout if you want 'em.

12AX7=ECC83

6E2 is decorative only...

You can thank the guitarists that current production 12AX7 are cheap..... You'll pick them up in music maker or X-music for around 12-14 euro each. Like others, I don't think there is much value in going down the telefunken/mullard route. My advice would be to use the money to buy some bookshelf speakers and stick with the valves already in the amp.





Fran

Go guitar players...

a quick search found JJ, tesla, electro harmonic and general electric all under a tenner...!!

Ivor... does matched mean they have exactly the same characteristics??

jaybee wrote: Ivor... does matched mean they have exactly the same characteristics??

Dunno about exactly but they paired as they should work well together. Some geek measures their performance and puts an elastic band around two that.... "match".

Fran wrote:12AX7=ECC83

6E2 is decorative only...

You can thank the guitarists that current production 12AX7 are cheap..... You'll pick them up in music maker or X-music for around 12-14 euro each. Like others, I don't think there is much value in going down the telefunken/mullard route. My advice would be to use the money to buy some bookshelf speakers and stick with the valves already in the amp.

Fran

I have a grand little pair if monitor audio monitors that'll be perfect...

it's more to keep the hifi bug sated until we move house and I can reinstate a proper system!!

Ivor wrote:

jaybee wrote: Ivor... does matched mean they have exactly the same characteristics??

Dunno about exactly but they paired as they should work well together. Some geek measures their performance and puts an elastic band around two that.... "match".

I think I can picture him!!

Having taken to valve cover off for the first time this morning, the 6E2 seem to have scorched the glass....

If I take this valve out will it break a circuit that will prevent operation or is it a sub-circuit that only measures how much the amp is being driven?

A techie will tell you the exact purpose of that valve. I cant see it working unless it is used to drive speaker output rather than headphone.
Do a google on the fatman it doesnt make compelling reading with regard to faults etc but my tuppence worth is that it is just heat but if you turn it on and try using it that will tell you whether the valve is knackered or not.