Agreed, this was the bad sound Burning Amp, at least in the big hall on Sunday. Lots of reverb, the house sound system was a disaster (in wall speakers optimally placed to maximize echo, house mics kept cutting out). Then for a 3 minute period in the middle of Andrew Jones talk we overloaded the house internet while uploading Nelson's slide deck. In live productions only the paranoid survive. The scariest sentence in the English language is "It should work, I don't know any reason why it shouldn't!" The smaller Meeting Room would have been much better
On the other hand, the acoustics in the three listening rooms was much better than Fort Mason. That was the good surprise.
-Tom-
I really, REALLY wanted to meet Andrew Jones... I got two of his speakers chez moi.
So, I passed up on his online presentation, sorry. There were five things I wanted to do: build an amp, meet people, listen to Nelson explain his amplifiers live!, shake Nelson's hand and meet Andrew Jones.
So, on my way out I spotted Nelson standing, watching Jim, (Tom?) speaking about the mechanics of the upcoming auction.. I approached him:
Me: "hello Nelson, you know sometimes, when you got Maggies, it's the First Hundred Watts that matter!"
NP: Looks at me like I'm certifiable... WTH?
Me: Still on target... "Well, I'd like to thank you for your work, I've been following you since the 70s"
NP: "That's fifty years"... straight face.
Me: brain freeze... nonplussed... damn.... now I really felt old. That guy is better at arithmetic than I am. Next time, try Calculus!
Me: :"Well, hmmm. hmphrr... !! ... thank you for all your work and your sharing"
NP: Looks at me like he doesn't know what to think ( Note: I'm really used to that reaction from people, but not from Nelson. His writings are so personal that you feel like you know the guy )...
Me: "OK, bye"...
I never even introduced myself. Never even brought up the Rawson A5 amps that weren't working ( I fixed it )... when NP, gently, flamed me about buying them. My audiophile badge of honor! I was flamed -gently- by Nelson Pass!
Yeah, Nelson, that was me. I'm very, very, very seldom lost for words. You did it, man!
Some day I'd like to chat with him about Physics, Pipe-Oh's, them crazy Klein speakers and red wine.... but Sunday afternoon was not the time.
And yeah, Nelson, thanks for sharing those designs. I'm the guy asking the F5M Turbo question... because
When you got Maggies, it's the First Hundred Watts that matter!
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50 wpc are simply not enough.
The Maggie 12s do OK with the Aleph 5s... 90wpc into 4 ohms.
The Maggie 1.7s NEED the 200 wpc of the Aleph 2.
We know someone who's looking for Aleph 1.2 to drive his Maggie 3.7s because the F5T v3 is not enough.
True, the SissySIT 42 makes the Maggie 1.7s sing... BUT, BUT, BUT, they don't rock. You need POWER to make that low end come alive.
I'm back in Cowtown and headed out to play hockey in a moment. After all that standing/sitting around and great food over the weekend I need to move!
Thanks to everyone involved for making BAF happen and for making it a success. I was glad to see some solid attendance this year. We all need to keep this hobby going.
Tom
Thanks to everyone involved for making BAF happen and for making it a success. I was glad to see some solid attendance this year. We all need to keep this hobby going.
Tom
I was the guy with the black Delrin and oak Williamson amps with Heyboer output transformers. I had a wonderful time. Thanks so much to the organizers. It was great fun to talk to folks about my project, and I even got one of them measured by Bob, which was very interesting as I have a scope but nothing decent to measure THD. They squared very well with the original measurements presented in the 1952 article from Audio Engineering!
I was next to Greg Prisament's open-baffle line array and I liked those very much!
They had nice tuneful bass (plucked jazz bass sounded like real stringed instrument!) and threw a spacious and convincing soundstage. I would have argued for a bit more HF energy, and Greg agreed that depending on the amp they might need a tad of adjusting, but with a plain-jane SS integrated amp he brought they performed very nicely. A speaker I would seriously consider if I had more money and space.
The open-baffle (or dipole?) electrostatic speakers mentioned above were quite nice. In another room there were some three-way open-baffle horns that were a bit bright with a Prima Luna tube amp but much smoother and more enjoyable with a Sony VFet amp I heard later in the day.
The SS Circlotron amp with 6L6 drivers was very interesting and quite creative. They were driving indoor-outdoor Tannoys in those replica cabinets you can buy from China. I nwould have liked to hear them with a different speaker but it was a lively setup.
I caught very few names but enjoyed talking to everyone I met and plan to come next year with a full setup to evangelize for the classic Williamson. ;-) My only comment--needs more tube amps!!! I would have loved to hear a swell OTL, or a hearty SE amp, or something with sweep tubes--whatever. ;-)
I was next to Greg Prisament's open-baffle line array and I liked those very much!
They had nice tuneful bass (plucked jazz bass sounded like real stringed instrument!) and threw a spacious and convincing soundstage. I would have argued for a bit more HF energy, and Greg agreed that depending on the amp they might need a tad of adjusting, but with a plain-jane SS integrated amp he brought they performed very nicely. A speaker I would seriously consider if I had more money and space.
The open-baffle (or dipole?) electrostatic speakers mentioned above were quite nice. In another room there were some three-way open-baffle horns that were a bit bright with a Prima Luna tube amp but much smoother and more enjoyable with a Sony VFet amp I heard later in the day.
The SS Circlotron amp with 6L6 drivers was very interesting and quite creative. They were driving indoor-outdoor Tannoys in those replica cabinets you can buy from China. I nwould have liked to hear them with a different speaker but it was a lively setup.
I caught very few names but enjoyed talking to everyone I met and plan to come next year with a full setup to evangelize for the classic Williamson. ;-) My only comment--needs more tube amps!!! I would have loved to hear a swell OTL, or a hearty SE amp, or something with sweep tubes--whatever. ;-)
I have to believe they are an astoundingly delicate and amazing 50 watts as well, based on the watt or so I've been listening to tonight.
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Yes - a fun room indeed. I was the one with the MOSFET 2SK1058 X 6 per channel Circlotron. But the drivers are not 6L6's. They are 2 X 2 6SN7s. Configured in a platefollower design. This amp is 100% symmetrical. But thanks for the 'creative design' comment.
Oh, thanks for the correction! I hope my comment didn't sound "backhanded"! It was a very nice amp and I'd love to hear it in some different setups.
Thanks Tom and everyone involved for another tremendously fun Burning Amp. It's always such fun to see everybody's hard work, and I always learn something new. Big room acoustics aside, I enjoyed the new venue. This was the first year I'd been able to properly sit and spend some time listening to the Linkwitz speakers, and the experience confirmed my curiousity - now I want a pair.
I dragged along a trunk full of donations for the free table, and was gratified to see how quickly they went to good homes. I've been slowly deacqusitioning my stash of DIY tube parts; Bay Area folks are welcome to reach out if you'd like to come paw through the boxes, or take the whole pile.
I dragged along a trunk full of donations for the free table, and was gratified to see how quickly they went to good homes. I've been slowly deacqusitioning my stash of DIY tube parts; Bay Area folks are welcome to reach out if you'd like to come paw through the boxes, or take the whole pile.
NP! - I have had the amp hooked up to REAL Tannoy's at a friend's house. https://upscaleaudio.com/products/tannoy-canterbury-gold-reference-loudspeaker
It blew away a very well cared for set of Marantz Reference Series MA-9S1. Or at least held its own at a fraction of the cost. There is certainly something nice about triodes driving MOSFETs. Triodes + same sex + Circlotron is a winning OTL combination.
I too had a great time at BA '23, met so many great people and saw a lot of awesome stuff. Thanks to Tom and Jim (6L6, thanks for the explanation on how you came up with your name/"handle") and many others for their hard work in setting up the event and keeping it alive year to year. Nelson, always glad to meet you, I will be looking for the F5m in the DIY store-can never have enough amps. Thanks also to the experts who assisted in the Zenductor build, I have some experience soldering but I got some great hands on advice which was invaluable to me. I ended bringing the F7 home with me and worried how I would explain that to my wife but she handled it well, said it ws beautiful (an amp beautiful, I love that woman!) and asked it I could make a way to switch it into our main system (ideas on a simple way to do that please). I really enjoyed the many builds brought in by fellow DIY members, I had hoped to bring my own "Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap" speaker but just ran out of time. Maybe next year? Lastly, will the Andrew Jones discussion be available as a recording on the BA site?
Thanks to all,
Rogster (Roger)
Thanks to all,
Rogster (Roger)
To the person who picked up the Magnavox console amp on the giveaway table: My apologies, I took the rectifier tube out for safety and forgot to put it back in. It's a 5U4. The amp was restored by a local hobbyist and works perfectly. I don't have any more room for amps. ;-) I'm sure you could improve it with some of the many mods to found over at Audiokarma. Type in the model number (17-something-something, IIRC) and there will be lots of ideas.
Well, for "fake" Tannoys, or whatever it was they were connected to at BAF, I quite liked the way your system sounded.NP! - I have had the amp hooked up to REAL Tannoy's at a friend's house. https://upscaleaudio.com/products/tannoy-canterbury-gold-reference-loudspeaker
It blew away a very well cared for set of Marantz Reference Series MA-9S1. Or at least held its own at a fraction of the cost. There is certainly something nice about triodes driving MOSFETs. Triodes + same sex + Circlotron is a winning OTL combination.