Re: Another 60s flashback system photo...
I never had a really powerful tube amp but I did have a "big" tube amp, an Ampex (not Ampeg) 6446. Parallel push-pull 807s and four cold-cathode gaseous regulators for the screen and bias supplies. I still have it and recently got it out of the basement and got it working (Lord knows why).
My understanding is that the 807 is a pear-shaped, RF-friendly version of a 6L6 with a plate cap. And its absence from the RCA Receiving Tube Manual gives it broadcast cred.
The amp lights up real nice and the gray enamel, copper plated chassis with the white silkscreen is gorgeous, but sonically it's not really very good. More than 5% harmonic distortion at its rated output of 120 W into 8 Ohms. The built-in diagnostic meter is very cool though.
I'll put up some pictures of it glowing away when I get around to it.
--Frank
I never had a really powerful tube amp but I did have a "big" tube amp, an Ampex (not Ampeg) 6446. Parallel push-pull 807s and four cold-cathode gaseous regulators for the screen and bias supplies. I still have it and recently got it out of the basement and got it working (Lord knows why).
My understanding is that the 807 is a pear-shaped, RF-friendly version of a 6L6 with a plate cap. And its absence from the RCA Receiving Tube Manual gives it broadcast cred.
The amp lights up real nice and the gray enamel, copper plated chassis with the white silkscreen is gorgeous, but sonically it's not really very good. More than 5% harmonic distortion at its rated output of 120 W into 8 Ohms. The built-in diagnostic meter is very cool though.
I'll put up some pictures of it glowing away when I get around to it.
--Frank
