Solar - Terrestrial Data

Monday, March 24, 2008

Shapes of things

Bits and pieces for my amplifier project are piling up in cupboards and in my garage. Today I gathered some of the most important pieces to see how they would fit onto the chassis I bought recently and as you see, there is plenty of room. I could even fit in two power-tubes side by side and as the power transformer is big enough, I could really go for two tubes and reach close to 200 W but that would be slightly overkill in the garage :) Anyway, I may install the second socket for further experiments but leave it empty at the moment.
Behind the preamp and driver section is plenty of room to install reverb- and spring-echo circuits if I want to.

The speaker cabinet is shaping up in my garage. It is built out of pieces cut out of 21 mm. thick plywood of spruce. It is not just a simple box with an open back, It is not an airtight compression box either. It is provided by internal ducts arranged to improve the respons in the bass region. I will not reveal more until I have tuned and tweaked it. The process reminds me of tuning an accoustic guitar. In the end I may fail and then I just convert it to a traditional open (or closed...) box.

11 comments:

alegni said...

to show everyone how huge the speaker cabinet really is, you should have placed your bike next to it before taking the picture!

Hans said...

"Huge" is a relative thing.
It is only 93 cm high (3 ft), 74 cm wide (2 ft 5") and 33 cm deep (1 ft 1") But it is hellishly hevy.

alegni said...

well, compared to the loud speakers in our living room, they are enormous, and i will not let anyone bring them into my house.

Hans said...

OK. It is intended to be used in the garage or other venues together with the new amp or any suitable amp.
But it may occasionally enter the house when you aren't around... :)

alegni said...

i will not leave the house ever again.

grace said...

You are wired for sound :) We have a 2 Snell speakers about 4ft high, and very heavy aswell. They sound great though.

Hans said...

Hi Grace,
Sound is a multidimensional thing. Your speakers are great. 4ft tall is even taller than my cabinet :)

Vallypee said...

Hi Hans, this looks like quite an ambitious project. The sound that you get eventually is going to be phenomenal!

grace said...

I know, it is a little overkill, but the sound is fantastic. Quadrophenia sounds phenomenal.

Hans said...

Val, yes it is a little overambitious in many ways but there are many purpouses for this project:
-to get rid of some stuff that been idling in my junkboxes and cupboards for years and years and put it to work :)
-to really be able to compare "the transistor sound" and "the tube sound" and make my own asessements.
-last but not least: to see if I still have the magic in my head and fingers to build and tweak tube amps and stuff and eventually forge some money out of it now when I'm going to retire from my work as a transformer designer within some few years.
I have made up my mind to retire at 63 after 40 years of transformer related number-crunching. Designing and building amps seems like more fun to me :)

Grace, I can imagine that :) In The Attic (LOL) at my moms' house I have a Proton amp and B&W 110i:s and the sound is awesome. There is also a Luxman turntable and lots of vinyls.
I lived there and treated myself with music therapy at loud levels for five years in between marriages :)
At our home we have a compact Sony stereo with two compact speaker cabinets, bass-reflex cabinets, and the sound is surprisingly good despite the small size. No turntable for vinyls, only CD:s

Vallypee said...

Ah yes, Hans, I can imagine building amps IS a little more fun than number crunching - even if it is number crunching of a very high and technical standard such as yours ;-)

 
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