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Tubes & tables

Tom_STom_S
in DIY

I’ve been playing more vinyl now that the weather has gotten colder and I found a tube phono preamp kit that I bought when the kids were little. It’s a Hagerman Cornet v-1, running two 12ax7s, a 12au7 and a 5y3. I never finished it because my wife & I both got laid off in 2002 and I couldn’t afford the power transformer at the time. I had stashed it in the back of some shelves in the kid’s gaming room 20 years ago. I found it on Sunday while looking for some of my old albums. I scavenged a power transformer that’s close enough to get it working. The B+ was a little low but substituting a 5ar4 for the 5y3 brought it up within reason. This thing is dead silent even without a case and running crappy old tubes. I swapped in some Tele smooth plates and a 12bh7 and it sounds great.
I’ve been staying up too late listening and it’s hard to shut it down and go to bed.

BilletSteve_Leekenrhodes6thplanetugly_wooferPWRRYDKornbreadTurn2tajanes4thtryand 2 others.

Comments

  • 6thplanet6thplanet

    Wow, expensive little bugger! Tubes FTW!

  • Tom_STom_S

    I think the board was very reasonable and the parts didn't amount to much, minus the transformer. The newer versions use a 9v wallwart and an on-board voltage boost converter. He's selling the previous v-3 version of the bare board for $80.

    I realized last night that the National tube you can see in the photo was actually a 12AT7. It was in the wrong storage box and I just grabbed two junk tubes that were supposed to be 12AX7s. I'm a little surprised this thing still sounded really good.

    Steve_Lee6thplanet4thtry
  • 4thtry4thtry

    Looks like an all tube preamp from input to output, including power supply. Cool. Have you tried it with your rebuilt Dynaco ST-70 for a complete tube listening experience from cartridge to speaker?

  • PWRRYDPWRRYD
    edited December 19

    I really like it Tom! The only thing that would make it cooler is if it was 100% point to point wired with a turret board lol ;)

  • Tom_STom_S

    @4thtry said:
    Looks like an all tube preamp from input to output, including power supply. Cool. Have you tried it with your rebuilt Dynaco ST-70 for a complete tube listening experience from cartridge to speaker?

    It's just the phono stage, so no additional gain or volume control. I would have to rebuild the 6J1 to get that running, but I have an SRPP 6DJ8 linestage that would work. I think I have a bad tube in that ST-70. I'll have to put them on the tester before firing it up again. I'm hoping it's the 12BH7 and not a power tube or even worse, one of the Amperex 12AU7s.

  • KornbreadKornbread

    @Tom_S said:

    @4thtry said:
    Looks like an all tube preamp from input to output, including power supply. Cool. Have you tried it with your rebuilt Dynaco ST-70 for a complete tube listening experience from cartridge to speaker?

    It's just the phono stage, so no additional gain or volume control. I would have to rebuild the 6J1 to get that running, but I have an SRPP 6DJ8 linestage that would work. I think I have a bad tube in that ST-70. I'll have to put them on the tester before firing it up again. I'm hoping it's the 12BH7 and not a power tube or even worse, one of the Amperex 12AU7s.

    If someone would get off their butt and put the u-tracer together they could test a few tubes for everyone. :3

    4thtry
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