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General Asylum: 47 labs gaincard-based DIY amp hits it out of the ballpark! by triodont

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47 labs gaincard-based DIY amp hits it out of the ballpark!

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hi all,

my first post so be gentle :) i've been listening for a month now to a diy amp based on the gaincard, and if the real gaincard plays music like what i have here (possibly better), then this stuff will seriously mess with your head. let me elaborate, this diy amp looks nothing like the gaincard on the outside, having four inputs (instead of one), and physically looks a little bit like the fi amps (without the tubes, of course). i used four threaded rods in each corner (6" x 6") of the four wood panels and the spaces in between are where the circuitry lie. it looks like a small unfinished building. very exotic-looking, imho. it is wired with solid core pure silver wire. the power supply is physically seperated (like the gaincard). anyway, to make a short story long (i think i've already did, but my head is just spinning from this amp), from my name you could tell that i was a triode nut. i still am, but this diy amp really questioned my beliefs, as it did righteous dude, steve rochlin. i have the cary sei (modified with hexfreds, silver foil coupling caps, hovland coupling caps on the line-level side, and using premium tubes including kr302 and jj tesla 300b), a vtl de luxe 90/90 kt-90's wired in triode, vintage scotts and fishers and have compared this to my friend's quicksilvers and a 2a3 se amp. when steve implies that the gaincard sounds like a solid-state counterpart of the ongaku, i believe him. i've heard the ongaku before, and you may take this with ta grain of salt, what with aural memory and all, but my diy amp does sound like the ongaku, minus the expense, the maintenance, etc. what this amp does not have is the feeling that, for lack of better words, when you listen to the ongaku of like drinking ice-cold beer on a hot day, or inhaling cold, crisp, and clean mountain air.
my wife even agrees with me, and she's the one who can't really stand not having the triode sound. my friend, who has a veritable of tube amps parading in his house over the years (name all the new and old classics, he's had them), recently replaced them with a similar amp.
i guess what i'm saying is that the gaincard is probably (basing my experience of similar circuit) worth all the hype.



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Topic - 47 labs gaincard-based DIY amp hits it out of the ballpark! - triodont 13:42:01 12/4/99 ( 13)