CHAMP ELECTRONICS -" THE VALVE AMP
HOSPITAL"
NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND
SERVICING OF A MAJUSCULE
Hi-Fi
AMPLIFIER
I really like
the looks (and final performance) of this French Hi-Fi amp. Brought to
me by a gentleman who initially stated, on his contact phone call, that
he had this amp and would like a service and check-up on it. Also that
it had a pair of EL34’s driven by a pair of
EL84’s….per each channel. As it happens, this turned out
to be incorrect but, please read on and all will be revealed!
A real nice looking amp.
Even carrying handles, cut out of the wooden side panels….nice touch!
Those
of you who are familiar with my site will already know my views on
PCB’s in tube (valve) amps, and this one was no exception to
that! Not overly-neat either, but….all-right I suppose. As this
is the last photo I’d better put you all out of your suspense
regarding the output tubes configuration on this baby! Yes, indeed it
does have a pair of EL84’s and a pair of
EL34’s…..per channel…..as can be clearly seen in
the above photos. They are however configured as follows:
The EL34’s are wired in a conventional push-pull triode mode. The
EL84’s are wired in a conventional push-pull Ultra-Linear mode.
The two sets of tubes are then simply paralleled; quite different and
ingenious really. As a pair of EL34’s in triode mode give about
12 watts and a pair of EL84’s in Ultra-Linear would give about
the same, the rated output of 25 watts was reached and it looked really
nice on the test gear! It also apparently sounded really good too!
Though not shown in the photos, I ended up kitting this out with a
lovely new set of JJ KT77’s and a used-but-good set of Mullard
EL84’s (these can be seen in the photos). Nice amp!