|
Toob Amplified PC Speakers
"Martin Brown" wrote in message
... How about using a modern semiconductor IC hidden inside the box and just having a couple of ornamental toobs stuck out the top and glowing. A USB port should just about power two filaments. Heresy!! ....On a related note, large crates of 6AL5s have been known to turn up on eBay, advertised for Xmas lights and other assorted uses. BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit? Big heavy kit anyway. It's not really dead if it still works..? Toob stuff is generally iron-rich, so it fits well, although some early solid state Tek/HP/radio equipment also fits the bill nicely. Tim -- Seven Transistor Labs Electrical Engineering Consultation Website: http://seventransistorlabs.com |
Toob Amplified PC Speakers
So I guess it really comes down to... what do you want?
Can you follow a schematic? (I should hope so... :-p ) Is that good enough for you? Do you have the tools to cut/punch holes in sheetmetal to mount sockets, or would you prefer a PCB mounted stuff-it-and-go solution? Would you prefer plans and drawings, or can you handle that seat-of-your-pants style? If you can afford a kit (and don't want the hassle of fully making something yourself), then that's the way to go. If you can't afford a kit, but don't have the tools to build a chassis and stuff, you're rather limited, but not screwed. For instance, PCB mount sockets could be dead-bugged on copper clad, just as well as ICs can be. If cost is a big factor, you're probably better off with transistors. You can get the BOM cost in the $100 range for a basic stereo SE (~3W) amp, but not much less, big costs being the two OPTs and one power transformer. (Edcor and Hammond are the big names in retro audio transformers these days.) If you don't want the hassle of ordering parts and working from a schematic, yeah, you're better off with a kit, which includes NRE and retail markup, and as mentioned earlier, runs you over $200 or so. That price range is basically your pay-to-play range with tubes, unless you've inherited a bounty. (Oh, and if you want more power on a budget, I have prototype designs for class D tube amplifiers. ;-) ) Tim -- Seven Transistor Labs Electrical Engineering Consultation Website: http://seventransistorlabs.com "Tim Wescott" wrote in message ... It's winter, and the amplifier in my PC speakers just died. I think it'd be kinda cool to have a toob speaker amp, but I'm too lazy (and time-challenged) to build one up from scratch. Are there, by any chance, kits out there? I'm not looking for nickel- cored transformers with solid silver windings, genuine paper caps rolled on the thighs of virgins, toobs dipped in LN2, and all that crap: I'm just looking for something that'll give the audio quality of a mid-range amplified speaker set, in a cabinet that shows off the fact that it all uses ancient technology to get the job done. Suggestions welcome. TIA -- Tim Wescott Wescott Design Services http://www.wescottdesign.com |
Toob Amplified PC Speakers
On 12/3/2013 3:10 AM, Martin Brown wrote:
On 02/12/2013 22:57, Michael Black wrote: On Mon, 2 Dec 2013, Tim Wescott wrote: It's winter, and the amplifier in my PC speakers just died. I think it'd be kinda cool to have a toob speaker amp, but I'm too lazy (and time-challenged) to build one up from scratch. Are there, by any chance, kits out there? I'm not looking for nickel- cored transformers with solid silver windings, genuine paper caps rolled on the thighs of virgins, toobs dipped in LN2, and all that crap: I'm just looking for something that'll give the audio quality of a mid-range amplified speaker set, in a cabinet that shows off the fact that it all uses ancient technology to get the job done. Suggestions welcome. How about using a modern semiconductor IC hidden inside the box and just having a couple of ornamental toobs stuck out the top and glowing. A USB port should just about power two filaments. How I hate the cross-posting. BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit? "Boat anchor" includes good stuff too, e.g. most of the instruments in my lab. ;) Just about anything over 20 pounds and 15 years old qualifies, especially if it fits in a 19-inch rack. Cheers Phil Hobbs -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 160 North State Road #203 Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 hobbs at electrooptical dot net http://electrooptical.net |
Toob Amplified PC Speakers
On Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:10:22 -0500, Phil Hobbs
wrote: On 12/3/2013 3:10 AM, Martin Brown wrote: On 02/12/2013 22:57, Michael Black wrote: On Mon, 2 Dec 2013, Tim Wescott wrote: It's winter, and the amplifier in my PC speakers just died. I think it'd be kinda cool to have a toob speaker amp, but I'm too lazy (and time-challenged) to build one up from scratch. Are there, by any chance, kits out there? I'm not looking for nickel- cored transformers with solid silver windings, genuine paper caps rolled on the thighs of virgins, toobs dipped in LN2, and all that crap: I'm just looking for something that'll give the audio quality of a mid-range amplified speaker set, in a cabinet that shows off the fact that it all uses ancient technology to get the job done. Suggestions welcome. How about using a modern semiconductor IC hidden inside the box and just having a couple of ornamental toobs stuck out the top and glowing. A USB port should just about power two filaments. How I hate the cross-posting. BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit? "Boat anchor" includes good stuff too, e.g. most of the instruments in my lab. ;) Just about anything over 20 pounds and 15 years old qualifies, especially if it fits in a 19-inch rack. Cheers Phil Hobbs Old 8" hard-drives make good door stops ;-) ...Jim Thompson -- | James E.Thompson | mens | | Analog Innovations | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food. |
Toob Amplified PC Speakers
On Tue, 03 Dec 2013 08:10:26 +0000, Martin Brown wrote:
BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit? It's the term for old radios that glow in the dark and that you shouldn't pick up by yourself for fear of rupturing something. I dunno if it's US or English-speaking amateur radio parlance, though. -- Tim Wescott Wescott Design Services http://www.wescottdesign.com |
Toob Amplified PC Speakers
Tim Wescott Inscribed thus:
On Tue, 03 Dec 2013 08:10:26 +0000, Martin Brown wrote: BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit? It's the term for old radios that glow in the dark and that you shouldn't pick up by yourself for fear of rupturing something. I dunno if it's US or English-speaking amateur radio parlance, though. I belive its US in origin. In the UK we refer to "Doorstops" ! -- Best Regards: Baron. |
Toob Amplified PC Speakers
Tim Wescott wrote:
On Tue, 03 Dec 2013 08:10:26 +0000, Martin Brown wrote: BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit? It's the term for old radios that glow in the dark and that you shouldn't pick up by yourself for fear of rupturing something. The rule is, to operate a radio on the 80M boatanchor net, it has to weigh more in pounds than it produces out in watts. (Although there are occasional arguments about whether plate input power should be used instead.) This seems a fair line to draw between boatanchor and non-boatanchor sets. I dunno if it's US or English-speaking amateur radio parlance, though. That's the thing about amateur radio, everybody talks to one another so the slang is mostly universal. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
Toob Amplified PC Speakers
On Tue, 3 Dec 2013, Baron wrote:
Tim Wescott Inscribed thus: On Tue, 03 Dec 2013 08:10:26 +0000, Martin Brown wrote: BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit? It's the term for old radios that glow in the dark and that you shouldn't pick up by yourself for fear of rupturing something. I dunno if it's US or English-speaking amateur radio parlance, though. I belive its US in origin. In the UK we refer to "Doorstops" ! One could think of it as "ballast". One time someone I knew bought a big Sola transformer at a hamfest, and it was still in his trunk months later. He claimed it gave his car better traction, and it was winter, but I suspect getting it out of the trunk and up to his apartment was another factor. Michael |
Toob Amplified PC Speakers
On Tue, 3 Dec 2013, Scott Dorsey wrote:
Tim Wescott wrote: On Tue, 03 Dec 2013 08:10:26 +0000, Martin Brown wrote: BTW is "boat anchor" the US term for tube based or old dead kit? It's the term for old radios that glow in the dark and that you shouldn't pick up by yourself for fear of rupturing something. The rule is, to operate a radio on the 80M boatanchor net, it has to weigh more in pounds than it produces out in watts. (Although there are occasional arguments about whether plate input power should be used instead.) This seems a fair line to draw between boatanchor and non-boatanchor sets. I dunno if it's US or English-speaking amateur radio parlance, though. That's the thing about amateur radio, everybody talks to one another so the slang is mostly universal. I've seen people point to an issue of "CQ" in the late fifties (when Wayne Greene was editor), a letter or snide remark after a letter. I've seen the bit, I'm not sure if that is the first use or not. But of course, back then, "boatanchor" I think tended to mean "useless" as well as "heavy". You drag this really neat thing home from the hamfest, only to discover it is completely useless on top of being heavy. So it has no value other than as a boatanchor. SOmething like that. Amd there was surplus like that. Really heavy items with cases that made them twice as heavy, and not really useful for much even with modifications. And then a decade or so later, a lot of stuff became "useless" because nobody wanted AM and nobody wanted tubes, and nobody wanted whatever. So the stuff, heavy but not extremely heavy, became boatanchors when few wanted them. And you could get the stuff so cheap. I remember in the early seventies being able to get ahold of all kinds of "junk" because nobody wanted them at the time. It was only later that "boatanchor" became an affectionate term, when "that old junk" became desirable by people nostalgic for the old days, or for the stuff they couldn't afford when younger. And by then attrition had cleared out some of the supply, suddenly making the old stuff more valuable than it had been decades before when nobody wanted it and there was lots of it. Michael VE2BVW |
| All times are GMT +1. The time now is 06:21 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
RadioBanter.com