We
strongly feel that greater than
50
years life expectancy
is possible from
our amplifiers. Many other brand's "original classics" are still operating,
some even after
60 or more years (undoubtedly with some maintenance). Because of our design we see every reason this should be possible
with ours as well, with reasonable care and maintenance. We personally hand build our units individually and by doing so we
constantly implement improvements, maintain a consistent high level of quality
at every stage of the process, and eliminate any possibility of lemons being built.
Hypothetically, our amplifiers could endure one's lifetime and may
be the last one you own! We would rather be remembered as over
builders than under builders.
The circuit board is a high quality, electrically rated,
fiberglass material and is not prone to brittleness and heat
deterioration, from which phenolic and bakelite materials suffer. Most
of our
circuit boards are
"POINT TO
POINT HAND WIRED" using high quality nickel plated brass eyelets for mounting all components and
wiring. We use only very high quality PCB's in
some of our products and these have been made
to very high standards - we are picky about this.
Flame proof resistors, most of which are
metal film and ceramic, are used exclusively. Most electrolytic
capacitors used have a 105 degree Celsius operating temperature rating
to ensure long life. All components are operated quite modestly - most
at less than 50% of their maximum ratings.
There are separate power
transformers in many of our power amplifiers – one or two for the plate
supply and one or two for tube heater supplies - depending on
requirements. All power transformers are UL and/or CSA approved. The
audio output transformers, most of which we have custom wound to our
specs, are Ultra-Linear with screen taps at 43%, and a rated frequency
response from below 18Hz to well beyond 25kHz +/- 1dB.
All of the tube sockets
are ceramic rather than bakelite. This ensures long life and minimizes
carbon tracking between pins.
Individual cathode
biasing is provided for each output tube in our cathode biased
amplifiers. No bias adjustments are ever required throughout the life of
the tubes.
The amplifier inputs use
RCA jacks and the output uses 5 way binding posts for the most
convenient connections. Some amplifiers are provided with screw
terminals to allow for easy output impedance adjustments. We will
also provide any plugs and jacks a customer requests. |