efroymson

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

ST 70 upgrade


ST 70 upgrade
Originally uploaded by efroymson
Finally got around to putting in the SDS capacitor upgrade into the old Dynaco tube amp. This one was my Dad's, he put it together from a kit many years ago, probably in the Sixties. Feels a bit weird to unsolder the wires he put in, but I think he would like it that I am keeping it going. It is almost twenty four years that he is gone now.

The folks at Triode Electronics were really helpful. The instructions with the kit were enough for me to get the board itself together (you can see it in the lower right corner of the bottom of the amp in the picture) but I could not puzzle out which wires I was supposed to connect to it.

Fired off an email to the folks at Triode, and a very helpful reply came back. I have it hooked up to my system now, and it sounds great. When I first plugged it in, I stood back, since their instructions helpfully warn that if you screw up you could electrocute yourself, or spew hot goo out of the caps. Fortunately none of that happened

It is kind of funny, but I am playing a Deep Purple CD from my iTunes library. Streaming it wirelessly into a Roku Soundbridge and then into a ART Tube DAC, then through a Doc Bottlehead tube preamp that I put together from a kit also. Finally some home made cables made with wire that the phone company left in my bushes connect it to the Dynaco.

The RCA folks understood robust interconnectivity way before the internet.