Handcrafted Stereo Tube Amplifier 6L6 Amp 5881 The Mirror Returns Start Price USD 599.00 Current Price USD 599.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price USD 600.00 Reserve Price - Start Time Wednesday, August 27, 2008 End Time Monday, September 01, 2008 Location MORRO BAY See more about 'Handcrafted Stereo Tube Amplifier 6L6 Amp 5881' Description It's not easy taking photos of a black unit. The photos all look like a black blob unless you flood the area with light. I'm no professional photographer. I'm an amplifier builder. In the last week or so I've heard from a few guys that bought my designs and they're dumping on Ebay a McIntosh Mc225, a McIntosh 240, and a McIntosh 275. Why? Because even though the McIntosh look great, they don't sound very good compared to my designs. If you know how much those McIntosh fetch on Ebay you'll note how much less my amplifiers cost. My overhead is much lower. I don't pay for ads in the trade magazines. I don't have a team of designers either. I do it myself. I use something it appears they don't too. I use my ears. I remember one time talking to a guy that had bought one of my smaller units. I mentioned that if you can't tell in five minutes you can't tell. He laughed at me. He said five seconds, that's all it took. What are you talking about with this five minutes stuff? He was right of course. If you can't tell pretty much immediately that something is outstandingly good, just way beyond what you've been used to, you start to compromise. It does this well and that's pretty good too. You fool yourself. Everybody does it because most everything out there really isn't that much different from everything else. If you can't tell immediately, it's not there. I'm setting this unit at a buy it now of $600. That's very low considering that it doesn't compete with units that cost much more, it beats them. Beats them handily. I'm used to that and I get tired of repeating that in every listing. One thing I never get tired of is hearing from guys that take units they get from me over to some fancy pants friends house. You know the guy, you all know the guy, the friend with unlimited funds that buys the most expensive and glittering equipment and lets you know about it. Everybody knows that guy. Taking one of my units over to that guys house and making him look silly is one of the HiFi worlds great pleasures. I hear about that all the time from guys that like to have a hoot at some stuffed shirts expense. Fine by me. Here's what you need. Just tell me about it later please. Thirty watts or so a side which will easily embarrass any McIntosh tube amp ever made. The input tubes are included, nice RCA cleartop 12AU7. The output tubes are not included. Get a new set of 6L6 or 5881. They're not high priced and they last a long time in my circuits. No adjustments whatsoever. The outputs autobias, the phase inverter autobalances. Plug it in and off you go. This is a basic power amplifier so a preamplifier is required. This is a heavy unit so take that into consideration in shipping. $30 West of the Mississippi, $45 East of the Mississippi. Other countries will be very high as International shipping of heavy items is out of sight these days. The best buy in HiFi. Completely plug and play. In case the subject comes up, yes I do prefer the mirrors. Maybe it was the mirror maze in the Fun House left over from the 1894 Midwinter Fair. Always used to run through that. Nothing like the good old days.An addendum--years ago I sold all my oscilloscopes and distortion analyzers and esoteric equipment. I found that they deceived me. I started tuning my units by ear and I've got my students doing that as well. Jim, Steve, Dave, and now Moe joining the group. They all have individual styles and talents. They also all use my circuit. It was several years ago that a fellow measured one of my amplifiers and he surprised both of us with how good the measurements were. I tune for sound, not for meter readings and it's curious that when you do that the meter readings confirm what you hear. A correspondent just measured an amp made by one of my students with the following results--BTW I thought I would let you know that I hooked up Steve's 6l6 amp (the first one he built which I now own), from your circuit to my B&K 10 megahertz dual trace oscilloscope (hooked both outputs to it since it's dual trace I thought what the hell see what its like, and put an signal generator on the inputs at high and middle and low end and let it go at full tilt and I measured the total harmonic distortion and got .0001 out of it. Even better both sides were perfectly balanced meaning equal! I simply just does not get any better!!! Needless to say your amps are the end all of amps.. "In your face McIntosh!!!" NO ONE can boast that!!! The sine wave was so perfect it would have made you cry! Now how's that for quality?? Kinda sounds like an old "Zenith" commercial "The quality goes in before the name goes on!!!" Ever consider changing your name your name to "Amp God?" LOL!! Now I don't claim that for this amp. I don't bother. It's not that important to me how it measures, only how it sounds. I do find it interesting though that when a fellow measures an amp that I or one of my students has constructed, the results come up the same. Still, listen with your ears. That's what this is all about.   Place a Bid!