Quote:
Originally Posted by Bombadil
Pulled the old SLA-30 out of mothballs and fired it up for the first time in 3 years. Now that I'm in a smaller place, I want to see how it sounded. Better than I expected. At 30wpc it is my most powerful tube amp. It can really crank in this smaller room.
Produces a very smooth sound, perhaps even too smooth and lacking a bit of detail. A very classic "tubey" sound. I have heard many people state that EL84s and 6V6s sound similar. Not in my two amps. In my Inspire high output amp the tubes are driven very hard, right up to their limits. To my ears 6V6s sound a bit strident and forward in it. As compared to the very smooth EL84s in this amp, and in my Inspire SE EL84 amp.
Hard for me to believe that I've owned the SLA-30 for over 20 years now.
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Hang on to it for another 20 years if you like the sound!
Seeing comments about some of these amps running "hot", when my local tech helped me further upgrade my CAD V12R, he took some measurements for me that indicated there was no need to run the tubes up to the high limit as some of the older manuals suggested you could. We tested and listed to confirm that, and he knows what he is talking about as I've learned. I was at the California Audio Show yesterday with friends, and gotta say with the right upgrades and tubes some of these older amps hold their own and then some. It reminded me to squelch upgraditis.