creature.of.habit
Well-known member
Hi everyone,
I'm looking for opinions on valve vs. solid state rectification on an Ampex 2010, suitcase power amplifier.
It's one of those contraptions with a Jensen speaker built into the cabinet.
Long story short: this is my main studio monitor, I took it to a not so good tech who serviced the amp but also modified the transformer for 220-240v operation. The amp worked with the original rectifier but it started to smell quite bad after a few minutes of operation. Took it to another tech, turns out the transformer was a botched job and was badly rewound. However, this tech tells me that, according to his measurements, the transformer will support solid state rectification and he can modify the rectifier with diodes, etc and it'll be fine.
The alternative to this is getting a new power transformer from Hammond (which will never be exactly what's needed but might work, I suppose) to cater to the original valve rectifier, which, after shipping and taxes to Europe, will end up at almost what the amp cost me roughly 13 years ago.
So yeah, I'd really like to hear opinions on diode based rectification on this particular circuit and how that'll reflect on the sound. I'm attaching a schematic. Any help is very much appreciated. Thank you.
I'm looking for opinions on valve vs. solid state rectification on an Ampex 2010, suitcase power amplifier.
It's one of those contraptions with a Jensen speaker built into the cabinet.
Long story short: this is my main studio monitor, I took it to a not so good tech who serviced the amp but also modified the transformer for 220-240v operation. The amp worked with the original rectifier but it started to smell quite bad after a few minutes of operation. Took it to another tech, turns out the transformer was a botched job and was badly rewound. However, this tech tells me that, according to his measurements, the transformer will support solid state rectification and he can modify the rectifier with diodes, etc and it'll be fine.
The alternative to this is getting a new power transformer from Hammond (which will never be exactly what's needed but might work, I suppose) to cater to the original valve rectifier, which, after shipping and taxes to Europe, will end up at almost what the amp cost me roughly 13 years ago.
So yeah, I'd really like to hear opinions on diode based rectification on this particular circuit and how that'll reflect on the sound. I'm attaching a schematic. Any help is very much appreciated. Thank you.
