I think I'll have to post undercarriage shots of my amp. I don't think any of the ones I've seen are similar. Hmmm...

Well, it seems I'm not permitted to attach images. Oh well. What you would've seen are some shots of my SET Fire Bottle. The OT's are quite large. They hang over the back of the chassis by a fair amount.

Also, there are 3 chokes under the hood. I haven't seen this setup on others, but I'm sure it isn't a one off. Dennis did a few custom mods based on my intended use, but I'm not sure what's deviated from the other designs.

You have to 'host' pics. Try Tiny pic. :thumbsup:

Oh Boy!
 

So, I got Inspire fired up and was very pleased. I have a Thorens 125 into an Angle Audio phone stage into a Dared pre-amp into the Inspire and out through vintage Polk Audio SDA 2As. Admittedly, this is my first foray into tube amps. So, it probably doesn't take much to impress me!

A cool thing about this amp is that Dennis supplied 3 sets of output and driver tubes. Since I understand that Dennis thought of this amp as a 6L6, I decided to first try the Tung-Sol 6L6gs that he included. For the driver, I selected a 6BX7GT. The only supplied rectifier is a Westinghouse 5U4G. The Dared came with JJ's GZ34 and ECC81. But it too came with some spares, JJ ECC99s, which I have yet to try.

I don't really have the vocabulary to describe the sound the way that some of you guys do. But my initial thought was clear and wide. Details emerged that I never noticed before. And there was plenty of headroom on the Dared's volume nob.

I also tried some jazz using my old Carver's tuner. No less wonderful.

Hey, glad you're having fun! Since this is your first tube amp and you like it right off the bat, you're home free. In the tube world, there isn't much not to like with these amps. Some don't like tubes at all and that could have been the case for you in your first experience. For me, it's hard to go back to solid state and don't envision that ever happening.

Welcome aboard and good luck with your Fire Bottle amp. The 6BX7 driver is a favorite of Dennis's. Just swapping the a 6SN7 or 6SL7 as a driver will provide you a slightly different sound and gain. The 6SN7 provides a little more gain then the 6BX7, and the 6SL7 will provide the most gain.

Thanks guys for the encouragement and specific advise and trying different drivers.

I am wondering if you all could make a recommendation about the best approach to trying out different tubes. In my set up, I have the rectifier and 2 drivers in the preamp and the rectifier, two drivers and two output tubes in the amp. From what I've seen, changes should be made in pairs for drivers and output tubes. But beyond that is there a good sequential approach for exploring different options. For example, find the output tubes you like best first, then work back through drivers and rectifiers? The other way around? Would you start with the preamp and then move to the amp? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

If your amp is similar to my 6L6 Fire Bottle, you can also try a 5AR4, 5Y3, & 274B rectifier.

Excellent. Thank you.

Have any of you tried the Philips 5r4GYS? A lot of folks have raved about it on Upscale Audio.