Bottleneck 6V6 competition update

[Paul Joppa]

... Even though I have built several Bottlehead kits and other projects, I never understood anything about what I was putting together. Now I can look at another circuit and actually decipher what is there.  This is a big step for me!
...
 - now I'm thinking I might want to follow it with a tube buffer.

Dude, that's what it's all about. Congratulations!

There's a buffer in the works - preliminary design but not prototyped yet. Doc B. has the cathode follower buffer we were working on a while back but we think we can do better sonically.  :^)

[rock4016]

The competition was a blast, too bad Jim's amp didn't survive the trip.  Johns little cake pan amp really sounded great!

Pics and other info to come!

[2wo]

Here are a couple of quick cell phone shots of some of the contestants.

Hats off to Ray, Steve and the rest of  the organizing committee for proposing this, it was a lot of fun…John   

[2wo]

One more

[dbishopbliss]

Another great event hosted by Steve.  As always, thank you.

I think everyone was very happy with all the entries and disappointed for those amps that didn't survive the trip.  It goes to show you can make a more than decent sounding amp for less than $200.  John's amp that won (the one in the horse-shaped cake pan) was also the least expensive - $143 including tubes!!!  I want to review his schematic some more and see what changes I can make to improve my amp.

The bad luck award goes to Ray.  What are the odds of having TWO amps work during setup, then having both amps lose a channel during the actual competition?  Maybe Ray's amps have performance anxiety.

I'm looking forward to the next competition.  While we haven't decided what it will be, I like the idea of making a budget line-stage.  We should not allow anyone to submit a Foreplay I or Quickie.  Although, it might be fun to include them in the judging - I have a stock Foreplay I that we can use.

[RayP]

Some comments and lessons learned from last Sunday's event which I really enjoyed.

The scoring was incredibly close in the first round. A change of a single vote would have changed the order completely. I found that some amps suited certain music better than others.

Oddly enough, after the closeness of the 1st round, there was no doubt in the final round that John's amp was the winner and also the cheapest at under $150.

We definitely had problems getting the sound level correct for each entry and we need to re-think how we do this for next year's competition. Since it was a nice day and the world outside was quite active, there may have been noises other than the test tone affecting the db reading. Let's play with this aspect during our future meets to develop a better method.

I appreciate our team of judges being so quiet during the music and taking this event seriously.

Although I was not judging, I found it very difficult to pick an order during the first round and perhaps at future meets, we can talk more about scoring techniques. For myself, I think in future I would do a preliminary score just after the first piece based on first impressions and then adjust as I heard further music.

Finally, could those who submitted entries and would like their schematics posted, please email them to me. Now I have arrived at a house with a fast internet connection, I can work on getting them posted. And no, I can not see any volcanic ash in the beautiful blue sky near Whitby.

ray

[rock4016]

I guess I should have brought a camera, I'm not seeing many pics.

Ray, I've made some changes to my amp since the meet, should I incorporate those in the schematic or send it to you as it was?

[RayP]

I'll post some pictures in the next couple of days.

Perhaps you could send both schematics with an explanation of why you have made the changes.

ray

[RayP]

I have uploaded some photos which you can see at http://829b.com/6v6entries.aspx and I will post the remaining schematics as they arrive.

This was such a fun competition and I would urge all of you to try something similar in your geographic location or perhaps just build one for yourself if you are experienced in building amps. These amps sounded really great and it was amazing what could be achieved for $200. It was particularly interesting to have the cost of parts restriction and it really makes you ponder when you have to make tradeoffs; do I spend $$ here or there.

Many thanks to all of those who took part and to Steve for hosting.

ray

[2wo]

Looking at the photos, I think the real winner was Edcor…John

[rock4016]

It's very hard to beat the price/performance value of Edcor.

I was very happy to hear Fritz's amp with the Hammonds and how good it sounded.