"It"happened! That particular moment of sonic bliss that only a warmed up tube amp can make happen. A few beers and such doesnt ever hurt either. Last night a friend brought over a few albums. First up Catfish Hodge, Eyewitness Blues. This is the first time I heard this album. I highly recommend it. Very nice recording and some sweet blues guitar and such. Second up Genesis Foxtrot- An old classic and then Genesis- A trick of the tail, which I hadnt really listened to. However, it is quite nice. First album with out Peter Gabriel and with Phil Collins before he got all pop music on us. Lastly I pulled out Al Green- Lets Stay Together. By now everything and everybody is warmed up. The How can I mend a broken heart was sublime. These moments are why we do this!

I love when that happens! :thumbsup:

So I am here to give props to Dennis Had and Led Zeppelin. I havent listened to so much vinyl in a while. This amp seems to really love it! As a result I am loving this copy of Led Zeppelin Presence that I picked up today!!

Thank you world!

I have a KT88 based IFA-1 on the way from Dennis. Seems like a great guy! Sent me pics of the build in progress and offered various suggestions.

Can't wait to hear it with my Bryston Mini T's!

A couple shots (courtesy of Dennis Had) of my Inspire IFA-1 KT88 based SET with Alps Blue Velvet stereo potentiometer in copper finish. Can't wait to get it and hear it!

Attachment 41002

Attachment 41003

Welcome to the club, Beatlebum!

Thanks Pete!

Out of curiosity what tubes and speakers are you using with your Inspire?

Tim

Hi Tim,

Well, here's the lineup:

Inspire LP-2 preamp with Sophia meshplate 274B rectifier.
Inspire KT-150 with 1975 Voskhod Rocket single wire gray shield driver, Mullard "fat bottle" GZ37/CV378 rectifier, vintage GEC KT-77 power tubes. (There, I've come out of the expensive tube closet!)

Speakers are Omega Super 7 XRS with alnico drivers. These are 7" single driver speakers that are just amazing. 93db sensitivity. I like them enough that I'm having Louis, the designer, make a special pair of his top-of-the-line Super Alnico Monitors on top of boxes he is making for a set of Rythmik 8" mid-bass drivers with companion plate amps.

I already have a pair of Rythmik F12 subs and DIY supertweeters made from vintage Yamaha beryllium tweeters (I will be make a similar pair with vintage Pioneer ribbon tweeters to try as well). These are separately powered by a class D amp and have a single capacitor in front of each for a first order high pass filter.

I am ordering a Marchand three-way active crossover than uses fourth order Linkwitz-Riley slopes. When complete, this will be a quad amped system with the Inspire powering the Omegas from ~ 200Hz to ~ 16kHz, tweeters 16kHz up, mid-bass modules from 30Hz to ~200Hz and subs from 30Hz down.

A lot to digest there, but the gist is that the core SEP amp with those wonderful tubes and the wonderful Omegas will handle the bulk of the range with no crossovers or components after the amp. The other three branches allow the core to do what it does best and enhances the extension in both directions.

Here's a photoshop mockup of the speakers now being built. For perspective, the whole thing is 36" tall, 14" wide, 11" deep. The top and bottom sections are completely separate.

http://i.imgur.com/ZGxL6x4.jpg

Thanks for the informative response Pete!

I'm really eager to hear the IFA-1 with my Bryston Mini T's. I've been interested in the Omega's for awhile so that may be something I look into in the near future.

I look forward to your results. I'm not at all familiar with Bryston speakers. Have always thought of them more in terms of amplifiers.

Their specs say a minimum of 10 watts, so you should be ok. I have a pair of AR2ax (1973). They are rated about 86db and 8 ohms. My KT-150 did ok until pushing them when it seemed to lose a bit of steam. The AR's are sealed which makes them harder to drive I think.