Doc's Stash

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Unfinished projects, finished projects I'm ready to part with, bits, pieces, mistakes, lucky finds - like most DIY types I am an incurable packrat. In the interest of treating my disease I have put up this page of personal stuff I need to move out to make room for the new stuff I'm continuously collecting. Not just audio stuff, this page will have lots of different items for sale. If you see something you want, e-mail me or call 360-697-1936 M-F 9-5PT before I decide to throw it up on e-bay. We can take VISA/MC/AMEX/DISC.

Doc B.

Audio

My Personal 300B Amps

We built two pair these amps back in 2003 as prototypes for a top of the line model called the Paradox, which never went into production. These have been my reference amps for the past three years and took best sound of show at VSAC 2003.

The circuit is our hybrid shunt regulated, active loaded driver - in this case a 6N1P - driving a single ended 300B in parallel feed output configuration. The iron is almost all MagneQuest - PGP 8.1 power transformers with blued bell ends and custom brass MQ logo, RGC-6 filter chokes with brass channel frame, custom BPC (Brainiac Plate Choke) and the first ever made all nickel TFA-2004s. Plate choke and output transformer have professionally polished and lacquered solid brass bell ends.

The 300Bs are prototype Valve Art meshplate tubes with very rare gold plated bases. Coupling capacitors are Auricap - the 4.0 uF 600V parafeed coupling caps are monstrous. The 300B is heated with DC thru Hammond filament chokes. There is a delay mute which shorts the output transformer for about 30 seconds at startup to avoid any magnetization of the permalloy core on startup. Yes, these amps are tricked out way beyond a stock Paramount. The chassis plates are powder coated in a copper vein finish. This pair has birdseye maple bases which were custom made by Lew Hardy of Vivaldi Audio. And yes, I built these myself.

Why on earth would I part with these? It's simple economics. In putting together The Tape Project we are assembling what may be the most expensive pile of duplicating gear ever put in one room. One of those pieces is my Ampex ATR 100 which is getting a thorough overhaul, and the repair bill is growing by the day! So the money from the sale of these amps is getting reinvested in that machine. I'm telling myself that letting these go is a good thing because it will make me get off my butt and get the 845 amps I've been threatening to build for a couple of years onto the front burner.

The only other pair of amps like these is pulled into service on special jobs that require very high resolution like vocal mixes in Paul Stubblebine's recording and mastering studios. Man, this is really tough. Please grab them before I get cold feet and decide to hang on to them. Price is $5500 the pair plus shipping, firm.  2-05-07 GOOD NEWS - I just got a break on the repair cost for my ATR. BAD NEWS - I found out because I just got the bill! Call me with your credit card number today and the amps are yours for $4397.10 plus shipping. SOLD

Power transformers

  Pair of Magnetek filament transformers, new. 6.3VCT at 600mA. I think we got these for a beefed up Foreplay II heater supply? $10 for the pair, plus shipping.

 

Speaker Drivers

Eminence Alpha 6A midranges 

This is the midwoofer used in the the Climax speaker prototype shown at VSAC 2003. Are they any good? Well, they are good enough for a few reviewers to award us with best sound of show that year. Eminence lists them as midrange drivers capable of taking a ton of power, but PJ reasoned that they could work pretty well as mid-woofers in a vented box. They can work down to around 70Hz if one keeps the power down under 10 watts, which is how we used them at VSAC. I have two pairs left. One pair is brand new in unopened boxes. The other has been treated with the no longer made Lord Adhesives BL-100 butyl latex coating, a $50/gallon high tech speaker cone damping compound with a pot life of only 90 days. We used that coating on the prototype Climax speakers of 2003 along with the aluminum woofers we supplied in the last production Straight 8 kits - the secret is finally out!

Here's the link to specs:

http://editweb.iglou.com/eminence/eminence/pages/products02/pdf/alp6.pdf

pair #1

This is the one brand new pair I have, in unopened boxes. These retail for about $80 the pair. I am asking $60 for this unopened pair plus shipping.

pair #4

These drivers got the treatment with BL-100 on the cone surface. They have never been installed and only run for testing, but the the slightly sticky BL-100 has picked up a bit of dust - one of the unavoidable consequences of butyl-latex coatings. I'm asking $50 for this pair plus shipping.

Photo and Optics

 

Want list

Here's a few items I am looking for myself. These are things I am looking to acquire, I don't have them! I will consider your offer of any of these items for part or whole trade on the various items listed above and or any of our kits. At this time we are not able to trade for MagneQuest transformers or inductors

Photography stuff wanted:

Hasselblad extension tubes

Kodak DCS Pro14n

Gitzo Monotrek

Fuji G690, GL690, GW690

Audio stuff wanted:

Ampex ATR 1/4" 2 track headstack, with scrape flutter idler

Nagra IV S

Peerless 4722 mic transformers and 15095,15335 line transformers

Technics RS1500, RS1520, RS1700, etc. tape transports

Much more to come! Be sure to stop back.