How about a Zen Triode headphone amplifier?

[quote author=Jason_S  link=1061610565&amp/45#47 date=1063802934]
Brian touched on this, but how about a mono block subwoofer amp, specifically designed to mate with the WO32 or wicked one.  It could even be a EL34 based PP and probably sound good.
[/quote]

I think it'd be a bit tricky to get the required iron on a single  6x10" plate and still have room for signal & pair of big bottled output tubes; SS rectification with appropriate snubbers, etc would probably be acceptable on a sub amp.  

Believe it or not, this is an application where the $99 Parts Express or similar SS plate amp works remarkably well.  Ed Shilling's Hornline bass extender utilizes such an amp, and I've heard it integrate quite well with a pair of his Horns and Paramour 2A3 amps.  To paraphrase our friend  guru Randy ; not at all hurtfull 

Thanks Chrisby,  I knew many people used SS sub amps with their Tube main amps but I had never heard whether it sounded good or bad.  I am glad to hear I was wrong to assume it must sound bad.  I always like to save money.  

chrisby,
 The signal only passes through one wire at a time.  There are multiple wires because the transformer volume controls "autoformers" are basically just multi-tapped transformers - one wire per tap.  When adjusting the volume know you are basically just switching from one set of input taps to another.
The desing is quite simplistic, though building it looks not to be - that's allot of soldering!  

In total the signal passes through connectors, the volume switch, some wire, and from the input to output tap of the autoformer.  No resistors, no capacitors, no tubes.

Btw, besides S&B, Sowter seems like a mfg'er making good attenuation transformers (TVC's), though like S&B they are not cheap (~$150ea) ...

http://www.sowter.co.uk/attens.htm

... and another rave review thereof ...
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/tubediy/messages/18762.html

Ya know what I think would be really really cool for us tinkerers.  What if you made plates for various stages of an amp, say a input, a driver, then an output, and a separate power supply plate.  What a guy could do is sub values of resistors and caps for various tubes used, say you like a 6SN7 as an input tube better than the 6922, change a few components to make it work, and you have it mated to a SV83 SET output.  Or say you wanted a push pull output for more power, you could connect this to the existing stages and have a drop in output replacement.

Another plate amp I would like to see happen is a active crossover, of two and three way.

I have seen amps build to where you could change out tubes and set switches and your off, what I am proposing is more like a plate set where you switch out plates and hardware it together.  Like one chassic three plates.

One think I like about separate power supplies is that you can mod it to death and make it as beefy as you want.

TG

Found another source for DIY TVC's ... Wish I could pull all these TVC msg's to their own discussion thread.

http://www.audio-consulting.ch/DIYPot.htm



btw, forget the Antique Sound Labs Passive Ti (tvc based) preamp, at least for your MAIN system.  While it's good sounding for the money, and would be good for an intro or budget system or for a second/bedroom system, it DOES NOT sound better than the ZTPRE - which is probably no surprise. I've been listening to one I picked up on Audiogon with my Sony DVP-NS999ES SACD player and the SV83M amps.  

Hovever, I don't think the ASL Ti is necessarily indicative of the TVC idea/technology, and it's potential, on the whole.

-How about amps using 845, 572, or 833A, tubes? Muscle madness.

-A tubed output stage for the the Behringer:
 -ULTRACURVE PRO DEQ2496  This would make the ultimate DAC, allowing digital room correction and e.q. I am buying one of these one day, tube output stage or no tube utput stage. Read about it here: http://www.behringer.ca/02_products/prodindex.cfm?id=DEQ2496&lang=eng
-ULTRADRIVE PRO DCX2496  For those who want to bi, or triamplify.
http://www.behringer.ca/02_products/prodindex.cfm?id=dcx2496&lang=eng