A warm welcome to Roger Modjeski! I am very lucky indeed to live in Santa Barbara, CA, as it is home to that Mecca of tube audio - the headquarters of RAM Labs/Music Reference! I'll let those who live in this area in on a
little secret: Roger takes time out from designing world class amplifiers to teach electronics at the local Adult Education program. I'd encourage anyone who can to attend these classes. His most popular course is a "Fix It" class where people bring in broken electronics, and he helps them figure out how to repair them. But he has also taught classes on tube audio and guitar amp repair that have been well received by the students.
I have attended many of these classes over the years, so I have experienced first hand Roger's incredible depth of knowledge on all things electronic. I decided I wanted to build a single-ended stereo amp from scratch, so I took my ideas to Roger, who graciously helped me to get started. I chose a design I found on the web (see
http://members.tripod.com/~gabevee/setube.html), and together we reworked the design. This amp uses a 6SL7 for the driver and a 6L6 output tube. (I liked it because everything had an octal base!) I think KT88 and EL34 would also work for the output. I assembled it during the class over the course of about a year. It's built on a piece of wood, making it a real breadboard. When it came time to select the output transformers, Roger suggested, "Why not make your own?" So I did!
Roger helped me with the design, and then I wound them myself, and they work great. (By the way, contact Roger if you'd like him to make some for you - I think he'd be willing.) I didn't make the power transformer, though! It's an old Triad (90 mA at 700V) that I found at a ham radio swap meet.
It's a real pleasure to listen to an amp that you have made yourself. It's by no means perfect, but it was a good learning experience, and hopefully I'll have time in the future to improve upon the design.
Many thanks to Roger for his help with this project! He is a teacher extraordinaire.
