scottlwilson2016 said:
Good Advice.
Thanks so much. I think the output transformer is the way to go. I am also wanting a slightly softer attack that a tube rectifier normally imparts. Do you have any suggestions with this particular tonal interest? I think better EL34s may improve that quality with a more glassy tone, which may be just what the doctor ordered. I am using EL34EH and I'm marginally happy with them. I have been told Tung sol and new mullard. (Would this have a similar effect going the higher quality route?) I have also been entertaining using a 7025 for the input tube and then higher quality 12ax7s for the remaining 2. The reason for the questions- all these experiments end up costing serious money that I'm not wanting to spend. :^) So if I can minimize money wasted, yeah for me.
Again, thanks for your extremely valuable insight.
Scott
I totally understand wanting to ask the questions to minimize the cost of experimentation
I'm actually new to MTS and my rm100 however I've built and modded many amps over the years, its really turned into a fun hobby for me, plus I help out a lot of struggling musicians/friends/bands by modding or fixing their amps.
Power tubes can have a profound effect, the ones I've tried on my rm100:
JJ E34L, Big glassy, but aggressive, pretty hard attack
Gold Lion kt77, wow nice mids, huge low end that gives you some chewy slightly softer bottom. These kt77's are well broke in though, and while they sound good, they cost $200 for a quad, eek, and they did not stay matched for long, and they have become microphonic, not to the point to where they are squealing yet.
I have a quad of Svetlana el34's, and a quad of JJ el34's I plan to try this weekend I'll let you know how that goes.
The new Mullards sound good, I've tried them in other amps. They are darker sounding definitely not glassy. They certainly sound great in a plexi.
One other thing mercury magnetics has a reconfigurable choke that you can easily change from 3, 5, 9 uH etc. this can help tune the feel of the power section.