Toolshed Audio

[Aercool]

Hey all,

I was starting to get frustrated with my Zu Soul Supreme's being too difficult to drive with a single-ended amp design, there's an odd impedance bump at about 50-70Hz that seemed to prevent good clean/strong bass to be reproduced. Tried for a while with the KT-150 Dennis Had / Inspire design, tried a huge array of different power tubes/drivers/rectifiers, and just couldn't get it to sound good all the time. A First Watt J2 solved the bass problem, but had a little too much solid state glare for me - I really wanted another tube amplifier - but didn't know where to go.

I was searching around on A'gon for a different tube amplifier and ran across a beautiful ToolShed Amp there. I started some discussions with Matt, and he even let me borrow one of his designs for a while to make sure it did everything I needed it to. It did. In spades. Add to the great / musical / authoritative bass that can be delivered by a pair of 6L6GC's, and some custom etching on the top plate, and I think I'm done looking for amps.

I can't tell you a lot about this Transcendence 12 model from a design perspective, other than it's tube rectified with a 5U4G, with a pair of EF86's driving a pair of 6L6GC's. Copper foil / beeswax capacitors and all point-to-point wired - and REALLY well made. You can customize it how you'd like. Mine was done in a Grateful Dead theme on top, with the rectifier sitting inside of the Steal Your Face logo. How cool is that?

[jwc]

Nobody ever responded here....but I must say the Toolshed designs look fantastic. You still enjoying it?

jc

[Eisener Bart]

Originally Posted by Aercool

Hey all,

I was starting to get frustrated with my Zu Soul Supreme's being too difficult to drive with a single-ended amp design, there's an odd impedance bump at about 50-70Hz that seemed to prevent good clean/strong bass to be reproduced. Tried for a while with the KT-150 Dennis Had / Inspire design, tried a huge array of different power tubes/drivers/rectifiers, and just couldn't get it to sound good all the time. A First Watt J2 solved the bass problem, but had a little too much solid state glare for me - I really wanted another tube amplifier - but didn't know where to go.

I was searching around on A'gon for a different tube amplifier and ran across a beautiful ToolShed Amp there. I started some discussions with Matt, and he even let me borrow one of his designs for a while to make sure it did everything I needed it to. It did. In spades. Add to the great / musical / authoritative bass that can be delivered by a pair of 6L6GC's, and some custom etching on the top plate, and I think I'm done looking for amps.

I can't tell you a lot about this Transcendence 12 model from a design perspective, other than it's tube rectified with a 5U4G, with a pair of EF86's driving a pair of 6L6GC's. Copper foil / beeswax capacitors and all point-to-point wired - and REALLY well made. You can customize it how you'd like. Mine was done in a Grateful Dead theme on top, with the rectifier sitting inside of the Steal Your Face logo. How cool is that?

Take NuPrime Power Amps (STA-9 has valve sound and bridgeable mode, 649 USD per unit!) and forget about valves till the rest of your life. It will control your speakers by iron fist.

[Aercool]

Originally Posted by jwc

Nobody ever responded here....but I must say the Toolshed designs look fantastic. You still enjoying it?

jc

I am. It's a really great amplifier, still loving it after well over a year of ownership. In between the Dennis Had Inspire and the ToolShed T-12, I tried a few First Watt SS amps (M2, J2), and they were good - but had that little bit of SS glare that you don't get from a well designed tube amp.

Lots of SS amp companies (like the previous post...) seem to be trying to make their amps *sound* like tubes - so why wouldn't you just GET a tube amp? Tubes are fun, sound great, and are wonderful to look at.

I'm having Matt from ToolShed make me a transformer coupled preamp now. Based on 6J5 triodes with an 80 rectifier. It's called the Exodus preamp.