ampsandsound (aka Amps & Sound)

Oh! Yeah, that could be. It happened Saturday either way, and I was only there Sunday. Sucks for him though. When you're selling relatively few amps at small margins, losing $200 on a custom wood job actually matters.

I think after what people heard at the show, "relatively few" amps is quickly going to become "too many for him to make alone."

 

Yep. He's on the fast track! He may have to quit his regular job as a social worker for OC.
Btw, what kind of wood is on the Mogwai? The Kenzie is walnut.

 

The Mogwai also uses walnut with ebony edges, I think he just chose a particularly nice looking piece of wood for the show piece. Part of the appeal of these amps is the aesthetic quality. No two will ever look exactly the same.

 

They should really dovetail the the corners, IMO. That'd be a really nice, classic finishing touch.

 

@Mithrandir41 sent this pic over of his Kenzie since he can't upload it himself:

 

What's the difference between the Kenzie and mogwai? Mogwai has the 3 watt 8 ohm speaker taps and more power for headphones?

 

They also take different tubes. It costs ~$120 to replace the Mogwai's tubes and something like $40 for the Kenzie.

 

I went to grab another tube to play with from Justin and he let me take a fun DIY project of his back with me to test the speaker taps... Whiskey Box Speakers.

They shouldn't sound as good as they do.

 

Oh thats neat. Yah.i saw he makes those sensitive full range one driver speakers that firstwatt amp users like

 

That's pretty cool, man. Very cool that you're a local and he can hook you up like that

 

I didn't take any pictures, but he also builds unbelievable speakers the size of a very small elephant. I got to hear them from his own listening chair. Pretty cool stuff. They sounded amazing and vibrated the entire room even at listenable volume.

So if you're looking for speakers... recommended!

I'm still not sure if I'm going to buy the whiskey box speakers off him or take them back with the tubes. They are definitely fun little things.

 

If I didn't live in Hawaii I'd definitely own mastodon sized speakers for every room

 

The Mogwai is still a joy to listen to!

I swapped the nice Svetlana 6550C tubes with some JJ 6CA7 tubes. Amazingly, I prefer the el-cheapo JJs. They're super quiet, no microphonics, full, punchy, really tube sounding with subdued treble. The beloved Winged C Svetlanas are really amazing tubes, but they hit a peak where I'm sensitive to treble. They also ring like bells if you tap on the unit.

I have a few other tubes to test out as I zero on on exactly what I'm looking for. A JJ KT88 (apex matched like the 6CA7) should arrive today. For the preamp, I should have a Tung-Sol 6SL7 (new production) incoming today.

I'm also trying out a 7F7 with an adapter once the adapter arrives from China.

I ordered some Russian equivalent tubes as well. I tend to love their overbuilt tubes. Those are going to take a long friggin' time to get here because they're coming from overseas, but it'll be fun to try them.

 

Can someone decode what 500 microvolts of noise translates to a standard dB figure? Do you need the reference voltage for that?

 

Wow. I honestly, really, was just curious. I tried finding a calculator but just got into a bunch of advanced math. Why is it that everytime I say something, it's automatically has to be an attack of some sort? Jeeze!

But okay, I get where you're coming from. Let's be friends, okay??

 

Really? I've tried jj's in other amps like the Ember II, and the Crack, but they just don't do it for me, tonally. Each to his own, though! Stay away from Genelex, though. I hated them . Grainy and unrefined,imo. But generally speaking, I'm a nos guy outside of guitar amps. Justin's gonna send me a 2c52 signal tube to roll in for a little extra flavor. He's got a cool stash, it seems!

 

All you can safely say for certain is "in this specific circuit, I prefer the sound of this specific tube" as things tend to change design to design IME.