Ken-Rad 12ax7 Black Plates

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Ken-Rad 12ax7 Black Plates

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GE purchased Ken-Rad (Kentucky Radio Corporation) in 1945, although tubes under Ken-Rad brand have been produced until 1951, so a lot of references are for GE not Ken-Rad

” The GE Black plate 12AX7 (and 5751) have an enchanting and beautiful sound. Articulation is excellent, though not as detailed as the TungSol. Sound stage is expansive and inclusive.” Read

Rolling with McIntosh 275

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Rolling with McIntosh 275

Tube rolling with MC could be a lot of fun and could lead to a sound that you will not only like, but love. The flexibility is just incredible. This post will focus only on preamp tubes. Power tubes are out-of-scope 🙂

There are 7 preamp tubes in reissue MC 275, V1 (12ax7) – phase-splitter, V2, V5 (12ax7) – input amplifiers. V3, V6 (12at7) – output tube drivers, V4, V7 (12at7) – Cathode followers.

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Bottlehead Crack headphone amplifier

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Bottlehead Crack headphone amplifier

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I had my eyes on Crack for quite some time. I’m going though phases of getting different types of tube amp -PP, SET, Hybrid, OTL – and comparing them to one anoher. Now it was time for OTL (Output Transformer Less) and based on my research one of the best representatives of the OTL amplifiers is Bottlehead Crack (price $279).

Crack comes in form of a kit or the company can put it together for you. I decided to go DIY route – it’s much more fun like that and I would be more familiar with internal structure of the amp that way. It took me 2 weeks to get the package in the mail – Eileen from Bottlehead was very helpful and responsive – kudos to the company that not only provides a well regarded product, but also has great people working there.

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