Parabee
Parabee is retiring June 15, 2005. Order now, for delivery of your custom kit in 8-12 weeks.
300B power without the bloat
Parabee is short for parallel feed 300B. This is the kit that everyone has been asking for, a higher powered SE amp using technology similar to our popular 2.5W Paraglow parafeed 2A3 kit. We threw everything we have into this one.
Parabee uses an improved version of the driver design of our B-Glow 300B kit. Half of a Svetlana 6N1P as the input/driver stage. The 6N1P is loaded with our Camille Cascode Constant Current Source for super quiet, dynamic, linear performance. The single driver stage is RC coupled to the grid of the single ended 300B, which runs on AC filaments using the elegant hum reduction circuitry designed by Steve Bench. The operating points for the amplifier were specified for maximum linearity by VALVE's technical editor, Paul Joppa, and of course it uses Mike LaFevre's superb MagneQuest transformers throughout.
The power transformer is our versatile, quiet PGP 8.1, made for us exclusively by MagneQuest, and the filter choke is the MagneQuest RGC-6, the only filter choke made that uses a special non-magnetic channel frame material for optimal magnetic performance.
Rectification is by low impedance ultrafast rectifiers with a special filter that lets the amp match the sweet sound of tube rectified amps in the midrange and top end while showing vastly superior bass performance. Filter capacitors are the excellent Panasonic TSHB series.
The C4S active load assures that the 6N1P driver is dead quiet, and running in as linear and dynamic a fashion as possible. The stages are coupled with Vishay/Dale metal film resistors and Solen polypropylene capacitors.
The super linear 300B gives the power necessary for those of us with great sounding, but less-than-horn-efficient dynamic loudspeakers, a clean 8 watts. And they are also marvelous with horns, giving you bass response you may not have heard before. We offer the kit for $1499 for a pair of monoblocks without 300Bs so that the builder may chose their favorite brand, and we also offer the superb TJ meshplate 300Bs for an additional $275 the pair.
The parallel feed output stage uses the MagneQuest EXO-03 plate loading choke and the all nickel TFA-2004 parafeed output transformer. Brass bell ends are supplied on the TFA-2004, and are now available exclusively to Parabee owners. Output taps are at 4, 8 and 16 ohms.
The amp also comes with an alder wood base kit, and we include a radical braided solid wire core power cord in kit form.
Sonics?
Probably the best bass ever heard from a production SE amp. It doesn't just whup other SE amps, it actually outperforms most push pull tube amps in terms of depth and articulation (the TFA-2004 is flat to an incredible 2Hz). The midrange and treble have the same resolution and clarity as our other parafeed amps, and the amp is very quiet, we put extra effort into designing a truly quiet AC heated amplifier. Parabee will work well with medium efficiency (90 dB or higher) speakers.
The amp shown above has custom polished bell ends on the output transformer. The TFA-2004s in the kit will be supplied with standard unpolished brass bell ends, which the builder may polish on their own.
Parabee SE 300B monoblocks kit, without 300Bs - $1499 plus shipping. Delivery is 8-12 weeks.
Before ordering, please read:
Very important information regarding custom orders - read this before ordering
Parabee Amps Kit without 300Bs, shipped UPS to US address
Parabee Amps Kit without 300Bs, shipped Air Parcel to Canadian address
Notes for Our Customers Outside the U.S.
We can supply a 230VAC version of the PGP 8.1 power transformer, designated PGP 8.2, for operation with 220VAC to 240VAC mains. At this time our shopping cart is unable to process orders from outside the US and Canada. E-mail us at the link below for assistance in ordering:
Orders outside the US and Canada
or call us at 360-697-1936 M-F 9-5 PT
Don't forget to check the Parabee II shunt regulated driver stage upgrade from John Tucker of Exemplar Audio.
Impressions
I now have Parabee amplification in my upstairs office/listening room. I plan to move them downstairs (a better environment and better source devices) after they break in a bit more, but after about 15 hours run time they're already pretty special sounding. I am using them with completely inappropriate speakers (Wharfedale Diamond 7.1), and yet they deliver clear, articulate, _musical_ sound.
I just listened to a CD of Rudolf Knoll singing Schubert's Schwanengesang (coupled with an arrangement of the Arpeggione Sonata for cello and guitar), and I've never heard the baritone sound so alive (and this with a Sony Discman as source). The bass on Paula Cole's "Tiger" is thunderous at what any sane person would find a satisfying volume (listening distance is only 2 meters up here). The detail on Holly Cole's (no relation :-) CD _Don't Smoke in Bed_ makes it clear why some people consider this disk reference material (I don't like the music, sorry to say, but it is very well recorded).
Building them wasn't too bad (Doc will smile at this, as I exchanged a few
e-mails with him trying to sort out one channel). There are indeed layers of
components, and some of the solder points require great care to reach (two of my
capacitors have undergone involuntary body modification), but the instructions
are clear, logical, and well-written. The only thing I'd built before is a
Foreplay (well, I rebuilt a Dynaco ST-70, but it's never worked right, so I
don't count that), so I was a bit leery of the "level 3" kit rating.
But I managed (with a lot of encouragement, a bit of cursing, and some patience)
to finish the Parabees largely because of the clarity of the instructions
provided. (The full-color, large-format images of the prototype were invaluable
as well).
I'm using JJ Electronics 300b tubes (from Triode Electronics in Chicago), partly
because of a rave review on the web, but partly because they were among the
cheaper 300b variants available. I didn't want to blow up a pair of Western
Electrics with my soldering foolishness. It will be interesting (albeit costly)
to experiment with different output tubes as I begin to become more familiar
with the sound of these amplifiers. Right now, I'm not at all sure I hear
anything at all I'd want to change. There's a presence in the lower midrange
that might be a prominence of some sort, but what it sounds like is _clarity_
and life. I called the bass "thunderous," but I don't have the
impression that this is an artifact, I think the amp's just passing along what
is in the source.
(Incidentally, I say that the Wharfedales are completely inappropriate because
of their relatively low sensitivity. I haven't found that to be a problem yet,
but don't think I could recommend 86db/1 watt speakers to fans of Wagner,
Faure's organ music, or Queensryche -- not that bookshelf speakers with their
basss limitations are likely to appeal to those persons anyway.)
Stuart Smoot
Folks,Just thought I'd let you know that my Parabees are up and running. I'd have posted last night but I couldn't pull myself away from the system to do it.
A big thanks goes out to Doc, Eileen, Wes and BobP for all the help and troubleshooting. I'd hate to guess how many emails Doc and I have traded through the construction. Most were answered in hours. Wonderful customer service.
OK, how does it sound? Wonderful. Extremely musical. I will write a review once they have some more hours on them. Beats the heck out of my modded ST70 (which beat the heck out of a well known 200wpc ss amp).
System:
Parabees
Foreplay (volume shunt mod, snubber, Multicaps, Amperex 7316 PQ)
Silverline Sonatinas (93 dB, no trouble driving them - at all), Analysis Plus biwire Oval 9
Rega P3
Lehman black cube
Pioneer DV414 going into a MSB LinkBen Borer
Ben,Congratulations! As I've noted, I've been as pleased as Punch with my Parabees. On CD after CD, they have a sense of "aliveness" unlike any of the other amplification systems with which I'm familiar (they are my first SET amps, and my first 300Bs).
I noticed big differences in the first 20-50 hours of operation, less after that (although I'm probably only now getting the 300Bs completely broken in). I've used them with three different speaker systems, and while the 86db-efficient bookshelf speakers I used first caused them to show signs of strain at silly volumes, the 89-db Sound Dynamics 300ti speakers seemed to be a fairly happy match. Actually, fooling around with these amps and different speakers in different rooms has revealed the depth of some _room_ flaws that I need to address before I try to really understand the beauty of what I'm hearing.
(Rotel RCD-971, Scott Model 370 tuner, stock Foreplay, Tara Labs Prism 22 and 33 interconnects, JJ/Tesla 300Bs, Mullard ECC82s in the Foreplay, and . . . hrm. Not sure what these speaker cables are. An opportunity for improvement, no doubt.)
Stuart