Added: 4 years ago
From: whiteflluffyclouds
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  • do not talk to sloweeeeeeeeeee

  • great tube amp,my is only an el84 se,driving 8ohms at 3-5watts,but again its in the first watt as they say

  • most excellent Mr ...Flluffyclouds . Yes i have several 6AS7....similar spec..and being a series pass regulation tube its cathode will tolerate 125mA .wondering what to do with them. Then seperately i was re-visiting line arrays . i saw your vid and thought series load . Heater wants 2.5 amps a pop....so might go series theme also Ho Ho Ho THANKYOU very much Sir.

  • All those KT88s - Now you have enough heat to brew some ESPRESSO!!!

  • rubbish

  • permeance in the cathode ?

    is that right, sounds a bit fishy, permeance is something to do with magnetism, why is magnetism relevant to a cathode, is it not resistance/impedence that relevant...and I don't even think that is relevant to the properties of a cathode ?

  • As an engineer? No shit!

  • Keep going with the valve stage until you get to about 4 ohms....you will need a much bigger transformer and about 10 more valves methinks..that's why they hav'nt been too popular in the budget sector. Electrostatics might work well or could be modified to work with a 50 ohms impedance, 100 ohms should see you good.

  • can you make me one of them .......... email me please  ..... tendasteak@yahoo.com

  • Reminds me of the guy in the wheelchair out of Malcolm In The Middle

  • Comment removed

  • More recent posters should read through the thread. The builder and producer of this video passed away in November 2008. Thus no responses to the various queries. And BTW, he was definitely NOT stoned when he made this video, but was doing his best to communicate under VERY trying physical limitations.

  • There are several designs on the web and books. Try Allan Kimmel sweep tube (EL509) OTL or Transendet audio T8 modified per Tubecad. I have a STAX clone OTL for electrostatic headphone. I intend to build one for my Koss Model 1A electrostatic speakers.

  • Thanks for the video... Beautifully made chassis, man.

    Would love to know more about this amplifier.

  • I enjoyed your presentation. I have some questions, I hope you don't mind. I get the impression that these are high-current tubes with naturally low output impedance. I presume that these are used as cathode follower outputs. Are all 3 simply wired in parallel? I've heard that if 1 tube fails it creates real trouble. How long have you been using this amp? How much power does it put out? Do you have Klipschorns? If so, sell them and get something decent.

  • tUBES AND ANTIQUE AUDIO TURN ME ON

  • i HAVE HIGH FREQ LOSS FROM WORKING IN FACTORIES FOR TOO MANY YEARS.. sCREW MACHINES... hex STOCK RATTLING IN FEED TUBES.

  • lISTEN TO ALL YOUR STUFF,,, YES THIS SUBJECT IS IFFY AT BEST,,  ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT SOUND YOU LIKE AND YOUR HEARING DIFFERENCES .

  • OK,,, Why didn't you just use them single ended?? That would lower your speaker current????????????

  • Mono tone teacher status, lol

  • how mutch is cost?make one for me

  • Can this guy talk any slower?

  • What is the impedance of speaker that match this type of this amplifier? Thank. 

  • full of shit !

  • This looks similar to the amp I built with 6AS7s back in 1963. Mine also was a 16-ohm output.

  • Atma-Sphere Makes (arguably) the worlds finest OTL tube amplifiers and pre-amplifiers.

    The price is not for the faint of heart, but the sound is awesome.

    Years ago you could buy them in kit form, but the owner got tired of walking novices through the build process, and fixing their mistakes.

  • have you tried 5998 tubes? they are similar and have a lower plate resistance

  • Do tubes do a better job of amplifing a signal? Hell no. Do they sound better? Hell yes. Gotta love harmonics and psychoacoustics. I'm working on my first push-pull tube amp. Can't wait.

  • full of crap

  • you have a degree in electrical engineering technology? so if I got a degree in that I could build something like that????

  • You may be bored but listen to the man. How much cost would it save to build one? I'm riveted!!! This guy has seen beyond the norm and I'm all for it!!! Listen and learn.

  • Valium?????

  • @killcar5nbike2 probably

  • time passes really slow even for me!!!

    do eat something no shit man

  • lets be honest whitefluffyclouds, tubes driven just enough sound miles better than a transistor. the only reason transistors even sound reasonably acceptable is because everything played through them was originally recorded on tubes lmfao

  • I would love a schematic please

    TEKNKL@yahoo.com

  • Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? Frye? My best friends sisters cousins hairdresser said Faris is ill.

    Stick to the dry eye commercials! LOL

  • Excellent job! A guy at my work is into tube audio especially single ended outputs. He is in the know about tubes and how they sound. Nivico (now JVC) made a console stereo in the 60's with an OTL amplifier. It drove special 400 ohm woofers and tweeters. The Nivico console I have is solid state and sounds ok but I bet it's OTL tube predecesor is more ear pleasing.

    I also have a small Nivico/Delmonico console stereo chassis with single ended outputs. Nice easy sound compared to transistors.

  • t t t ttttt today junior

  • did you smoke weed before you make this video?

  • @LPscarredLP not just smoked, but over-smoked (sarah silverman reference)

  • @vlxxx

    allrigt dude, good job :)

    5*

  • cool its a Tube amp

    6 big tubes 2 Medium Tubes and 4 Small Tubes?

  • Ben Stein?

  • If you take some dextro-amphetamine it'll cure your narcolepsy dude :)

  • Awesome, Beautiful build! Thank you for the explanation. I sure will try and contact you for the schematics.

  • Ha ha ha... sooooo high.

    Like a kite.

    An electric kite.

    :P

  • you sir are high

  • you can buy the OTL all day. what is it 5 or 3 watts???

  • those tubes are 4 euros each .

  • bogus hahaha

  • bogus

  • is there any current to ground at all from the output to ground?

    and have you considered using the newer kind of switching power supplies ?

    to replace that last power transformer ?

    that would make the project even lighter if you can.

    im a guitarist and Ive had to return a great combo amp because it was .way too heavy .

  • @44433391 I can help you out.

  • lol i love it

  • Can I have your OTL circuit? PLZ :)

  • I've worked on Futterman amps before.

    OTL amps.

  • To Teflondon91:

    The unit is sitting on a shelf along with other memorabilia and unfortunately is not for sale. As a tube fanatic myself, I know how well it sounds. In an A-B comparison w/ my 1960's vintage, top of the line MacIntosh, it held up just fine. I couldn't tell the difference. I was playing a Command label lp on a Thorens transcription turntable w/ a Shure arm and Decca cartridge, all coming out of a set of Bose 901's, Series One (the true grand-daddy of the 901 line).

  • if you are really intrested in audio quality try a zune with some good quality headphones (not skullcandy). im an audio fanatic myself and i just cant get over how fantastic the zune sounds

  • Is the amp for sale?

  • Should have built a guitar tube amp

  • a few years ago.......I...........was heavily into building..........tube.....amp­lizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz­zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz­zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

  • the guy is smart this is an amazing thing...but...his voice is very boring!

  • He might be related to Al Gore.

  • @clehneis 

  • @clehneis wow... you are so superficially critical... he was sick and died. RIP Rob. Thanks for sharing your build with us... most kids these days couldn't rub two sticks together to start a fire let alone build an OTL amp.

  • The author of this video was Robert Lytle, N3FT, a life-long ham and electrical engineer. He passed away in November 2008, which is why there are no replies from him past that date. I know he appreciated all the interest in his work.

  • I really feel sorry to heard from him that he just gone ! Great electrical engineer !I'm also ham from vr2!

  • It is really nice what you did, I like people like you.

    But please take one tip: Put speakers and a Cd or a vinyl player or a synthesizer connected with it and let us hear the sound of instrumental music; rock music, breaking glass.Low bass waves  Put it to the test!!

  • yes, he did a very good job with this amplifier... i like people like him too!

  • MACINTOSH KILLS

  • Beautiful! I still can't get enough of my FISHER 500C with very sweet, euphonic sounding TELEFUNKEN tubes!

  • Will you consider placing speaker outputs in the future?

  • I built an OTL guitar amp in college a few years ago, but since I didn't pay for the parts, I couldn't keep it. Now I wish I did pay for it. Oh well, maybe I will look for my designs and build another one.

  • tubes sound kicks ass its just pure fact.

  • nice.. check mine out.

  • Comment removed

  • "which takes considerable skill (to build)"

    Not really.

  • in my opinion the output capacitors will deteriorate in short time.there's a good reason why most tube amplifiers are made with output transformers instead of capacitors.

  • wheres the schematic and watts the output?

  • nice amp fluffy whiteclouds. check mine out. beautifull 40 plus 40 watts. ultra linear. you can't beat valves. any linear sound thats true is better than man made silicone with digital or zero's and ones. check this out i made my own too. this cost me 395 english pounds. real bargain and no crappy printed circuit boards. hand to hand elaborate wiring.

  • dude hes stoned AS SHITTTT

  • On an old tube tape recorder I have, I recently coverted the filament power suply from AC to DC, and it sounds much better, it takes longer to warm up, but it does make the hum disapear.

  • Your tube life will be markedly reduced since filaments will die quicker with DC.

    Twisted filament wires will reduce filament hum to virtually zero. Use a low speed drill to twist the wires.

  • Nice amp design!

    I remember doing something similar in the early 90's about rectifying the heater voltage, and it worked out well. It was a crude design put together with 7951's for output stage. As far as the "tube v.s solid state" goes, I remember Bob Carver mentioning that "some solid state amps sound like a Buick hitting a wall of tin cans". I don't know, but it was funny and the debate lives on! lol

  • Looks like a nice design! Very well laid-out.

    (your voice reminds me of Ben Stein. really.)

  • he sounds like he smoked a shit tone of weed before making this video! lol

  • this is comical and ....informational

  • Actually seems a challenging design, please would you share any URL where to go for the schematics or layout ? are tubes pictures 6SN7 ? Thanks in advance

  • you are boring

  • He can't help it, he's an engineer! Behave! lol

  • mp3=compresed audio and is NOT a god sound quality,but take WMA file ,wich is bigger and then you have a good sound..for winyl i can sy it is NOT perfect ,because =rumble and humm in the line and cracs in audio path...so i ges it is a question of free choise....and digital will win...

  • wav, ape or flac, NON OS DAC........ iiiiiiiuuuuuuuuhhhhhuuuuuuuuuu

    LONG live the tubes!!!!!

  • thay sound nice it is true...i have round +-3000tubes in stock....

  • Congratulations!!!

    i have my personal collection of tubes...for several lives also, gggg,

    OTL whit my boxes, a good result cannot be hoped.

    my OTL tubes headamp is nice and better ........ that more made famous Solid

    I like vinyl it has its enchantment, and my good USB DAC NON OS,

    (nonuse mp3 nor formats with losses nor artifices , the sound loses all their emotion!)........ that is another debate ......... again congratulations!

  • look phono record is not perfect,but you cant compaire with mp3-sound? mp3 is compressed and of course it doesnt sound good,but take simple audio cd and good marantz cd player and you will here good sound... jears before people record songs with nagalm+bit echo to give sound extra space and dimension and today they record more direct sound...that is diference..jou cant say before was better sound,but sound is what people can pay...

  • No, no, I do not compare the normal sound, CD for example, with mp3! I am in opposition to the formats with compression, or rather, in the case of mp3, elimination of information, leaving the totally devoid sound of relief, " unfortunately, the great consumption ...."

    Greetings and much happy with its amplifier!

  • i use simple ol akai solid state amp and it sound great with all details,but tubes are nice sounding too,i have two monoblocks 100watt rms per block (4tubes el34) and e88cc preamp with tone controls...and is allso great....and otl works good only with high ohm speakers....400-600ohms....

  • and on your film i see u use 6080tube on the eind trap...low mu dubbel triode alls caled 6AS7...probably with two capacitors in paralel on the anode to speaker i think 10uF elco+ 1uF mkt..... cheers...

  • ,I did not build mine...you just have to get drunk when you buy it,,,and make sure when you buy ,,you get more watts then you need

  • ,5,33  please

  • "digital is better" was the line they were selling when the mastering jobs on CDs for years were not as good as vinyl mastering, and I guess why should they be? People understood the limitations of the vinyl medium and had a lifetime of tricks to augment them.

    The biggest problem with mastering now is that everything is mastered to sound as loud as possible with very little dynamics, which sounds "better" on CD but honestly doesn't sound "good" in the first place.

  • ok well your point is irrelevant, if not provably false.

    How does it matter if it's possible to replicate a vinyl sound in CD mastering if existing products actually aren't mastered to sound like vinyl?

  • oh so you are a professional troll too.

  • nice troll.

  • badass!

  • That's alot of valves, wouldn't ya just hate if they all blew at once. Lol.

  • and you my friend are horribly wrong!!!

    i'd give u 500,000 $ and a team of the world most expert people on whatever subject that u need and you wont be able to replicate tube tone perfecly, if even barely!

  • Excellent, looks nice. Thought it was a Croft when I first saw it. check out his OTL's. Keep your Klipsch horns and get a pair of old LS35a's or a pair of Quads and have two systems. Regards Martin

  • I'm not techie enough to understand all the details, but I'm still fascinated by the craftmanship.

    It's kind of gave me a laugh that you tell at the end that you mostly listen through your headphones to your computer these days. But I bet you have better than average headphones and soundcard.

    Cheers.

  • I like tubes It,s like working on my car after 10 hr,s at work

  • This is great stuff! I built my first tube amp a few years ago (the popular Darling single-ended amp), then I built sort of a cloned Dyna ST-70 - but I prefer the sound of SE over PP, it just seems less hard on my ears. I have all I need for another SE using #45 tubes, obviously it won't be OTL - but I also have half a dozen 6080's just taking up space :) I may just try my hand at my own design this time, thank you for the inspiration, my friend, well done!

  • Yes, I'm very interested in getting the schematics and any other info you might be willing to part with. You are kind and generous for offering to provide this. I found your discussion of the transformerless amp interesting and through, (albeit monotone.) I liked it...thumbs up

  • Bueller...Bueller....

  • lmao

  • You should record hypnosis tapes, you got the perfect voice for that.

  • mhahaha

  • MUHAHAhahaha !

  • man you are a boring dude to listen to.

  • doesn't the rectifier tube or diode change AC into DC for the filaments in all tube hifi?

  • ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

  • Thanks for posting! I learned something. Never thought about dc vs ac for heaters and hum before. Thanx.

  • hello, i need some help, for fysics project I wonna build a tube amp, but since i never done that before, i can u se all the help i need, can u give me some advice, or websites. I just wanna make a 5 watt amp i dont know what ill need for that, 1 have 1 year to finish it. Sorry fo bad english, im from belgium. :)

  • hi, there's a lot of stuff about building a tube amps in the internet, you can easily google it. If its still actual, I would suggest you to build 2-staged push-pull with ESS82(6н1п?) double-triode as a first stage driver and phase splitter and two EL84(6п14п) penthodes for a second stage. This will give you 8-12 Watts and very easy to build - three tubes only (it was my first one, actually;). I would also suggest air wiring approach instead of circuit plate.

  • it was an answer to Apocalypsesnowboards;)

  • you sound like my history teacher in tenth grade...

  • lmao .. yesss

  • Question: Wattage at 8 ohms. Just curious

  • i must say that i'm deeply impressed of that work! It's really an artpiece for itself and the vacuum tubes stacked on the shell gives em a very high cost look. I'm actually planning to build one aswell pretty soon. Tubes and good sound really goes together :)

  • I'm sorry, I fell asleep. What I miss?

  • Moral of the story, don't fall asleep on YouTube. It violates their TOS, lol.

  • LOL

  • Excellent, I would have nothing else but a tube amplifier. There is no better sound.

  • We want to hear this amp in action I'm sure with your talent you could build a speaker system for this amp.

  • that's an awesome project =)

    i'd like to know the output power it can give (i'm still learning english... so i dunno if you said that on the video. that's why i'm asking)

  • you have a very methodic way of explaining. and the schematics, can you send them my way?

  • This would be perfect for driving LS3/5a or JR 149. Both are 12 ohm nominal. These speakers will sound much better than any Bose can hope to. JR 149's can be regularly found on ebay for cheap.

  • I've recently gotten emails asking for schematics, but I deleted them thinking they would show up here. I was wrong. Anyone wanting schematics give me your email again, and I will send out the GIF's, but they do take up a lot of attachment space. Rob.

  • i need an email address. Also, the GIF images take up quite a bit of attachment space

  • Nice otl. Got a bunch of 6080's in my inventory.

  • ilove tube sound nothing like it

  • No question about it in a totally different leaque super smooth sweet very very satisfying sound that NO solid state amp can ever much

  • ilove tube sound nothing like it

  • could you plug a guitar into it?

  • Yes, but you would probably want a distortion/effects box in between. it has a line level input and a switch on the front that switches between that and the phono preamp. If you have stacked speakers that would be perfect, as you put multiple speakers in series on each channel. Just be careful about the phasing. That would raise the impedance presented to the amp and you would get more power.

  • Can anyone who is a veteran Youtuber tell me how to post some links to pictures stored on you tube?

    These would be the schematic for my OTL 6080 amp. Thanks, Rob

  • Very interested in your design. made many tube amps over the years and was thinking about a tranformerless experiment.. Can you help?

  • Hi,

    I can attach GIF schematics onto an email. Just promise me this: use a power transformer with dedicated secondaries for the amp. Mine has two 110V primaries so it can be used on 220V. I use one for the 110V primary and the other for a 110V secondary which wouldn't be certified by any US or EU agency that exists. Also, use a large enough transformer so that it doesn't get really hot after long usage. It was just a hobby experiment, not a prototype for a production amp.

  • Hi,

    Expanding on my other reply. I would make the chassis bigger so that I could spread out the 6080 tubes and then drill holes around the outside of the sockets so that natural convection would cool the tubes, rather than some noisy fan. It requires that there be an air inlet which in my case is a perforated bottom panel, but you could use vents. You just want convection to occur as easily as possible.

  • Send email address and I will send schematics.  Beware though, these take up a lot of download space.

  • nice looking amp

  • 4 x 8 ohms = 32 ohms, but depending on speaker you may be getting a little too expensive. I would love to hear from a real audio engineer on the pluses and minuses of series connected speakers.

  • OK, think about this. Very small speakers like those made by Bose and others sound great. Imagine 4 of those in series for each channel. Find ones that have a good reputation for classical music. Thats 32 ohms and closing in on the optimum impedance and finally you get good power out. But the point of building this amp was never to duplicate a rap system with 500W subwoofer, lol. I'd love a real audio engineer to comment on 4 small speakers in series and the pitfalls soundwise.

  • one more JULLIUS FUTTERMAN amplifier presents here, i get a amplifier like this the sound is very clear , but all the output tubes are hi transcondutance triodes ....

  • You made it clear that you know nothing about the subject in hand. Maybe this is why you use such unpleasant language. Were you to research OTL amplifiers using tubes, the reason for using high-impedance loudspeakers would become apparent- although, regrettably, I suspect you wouldn't understand the principles involved. Maybe an English course would suit you rather better.

    Maybe a course which would teach you basic tube principles, although I respectfully suggest the former.

  • (The posting from TonyBlairsaWanker was intended for the edification of SirDewdalot, of course).

  • The higher the ohms the cleaner the sound, the lower the ohms, the dirtier the amp. A 4 ohm speaker will run an amp hotter than a 16 ohm speaker in turn giving you more power. You'll find alot of subwoofer amps running 2 ohms stable. I wonder why.

  • Where I live in Eastern Canada, audio and Hi-Fi is in a sad, sorry state. There is just a complete and utter abondonement of Hi-Fi. I appreciate your efforts.

  • My favourite OTL is the GRAAF. I have only heard a few though (Transcendent, a russian make and a few DIY models), but the OTL from GRAAF, in my opinion sounds the best.

    whiteflluffyclouds: have you used feedback in this amplifier?

  • Yes, it uses feedback. Its the only way to limit distortion caused by a quasi-complementary output stage with no transformer. There is no such thing as a "PNP" tube if you understand what I'm getting at.

  • I have to say something now, but politely. I usually don't waste time with these comments so...

    I like OTL technology, it was the prelude to transistors. I had a OTL that pushed 800 ohm phillips fullrange. Lower the number of Ohms there is more resistance so it is more difficult to push the current. This video was posted by a very informed person so please have respect.

  • I am quite interested to see your DIY OTL amplifier. I'm sure it sounds very nice. You and your viewers should be aware the OTL amplifier kits that will work with 8 ohm speakers are available from Transcendent Sound. Commercially availlable OTLs are also now in production. Co$t is high

  • Isn't it bad to have a tube amp on without a load???

  • Not as far as I know. The tubes only draw their bias current without a signal or load so they stay cool.

  • I'm sorry, but if you need a 50 ohm load for stability and if you get oscillation at 8 ohms, then you need to redesign or rebuild this. As an engineer, you should know that.

  • I was only TESTED once with 8 ohm speakers. I actually used it with real 50 ohm speakers. See my other replies about putting 4 small bookshelf speakers in series per channel.

  • But he did remove the expensive output transformer stage which can be the weakness of any tube amplifier. Anything less than a perfect transformer can color the sound. Ideal tube amp for custom made speakers.

  • 1. I am looking at my Antique Sound Labs headphone amp which has an easy switch for OTL (Transformerless operation) so perhaps not that rare.

    2. Flirting with trouble by not having speakers or some dummy load hooked up to a tube amp that is switched "on".

    3. Pretty amp!

  • In fact if you observe transitors the topology is the same as OTL but with lower initial impedance... but only with silicon and not glass envelopes. So, very very common.

  • There is a saying in the ham radio world "Real radios glow in the dark." I would like to propose a saying for audio "Real Hi Fi glows in the dark." There is a kind of romance pertaining to things like these.