New leaked pics of the VACUUM TUBE powered 4runner hybrid engine!

Pumps 15k watts of power. This thing is gonna be sick. Glad they dumped the modern ECU and went vintage power...

 

I think those are EL-34's but 6CA7's should work. With some work, the adventurous soul can probably fit KT-88's in there

 

Does it make the exhaust note sound more analog?

 

Definitely fatter sound with the 6ca-7!

 

6L6GC or go home.


They can take my McIntosh from my cold dead hands.

 

Will supercharging void the warranty?

 

I thought I heard that the ECU was running on 12ax7's? Was that just a rumor?

 

That’s hot.

 

Don't know much about tube amps but did have one of these for a while back in my home audio days. (not mine- but a pic I pulled from the web)

 

Tube amps are a ton of fun. I wasnt joking about the Mac's - this is my stack. The power amp I've had for over 20 years, I rebuilt it myself just after college.

 

W

That's true, and if you can afford to swap to some NOS Telefunken it should be worth the investment.

Also, I think that if runs 4 matched quads in full pentode, except that section in the front, which is triode. We really need to get our hands in one to see.

 

Here's a project I have lined up to chip away at, when I can throw some money at it. All original HK Citation 1 and 2, with full complement of original tubes.



My current setup is a 1959 Dynaco ST-70, and PAS-3X preamp, both if which were my uncle's, and I rebuilt a couple years ago. I sold my tri-amped Rotel solid state system, because this sounded so much better. But now I can't wait to get the Citations up and running!

 

... powering new JBL L100's

 

Damn.

I had no idea you guys were so old, and nerdy. I dunno if I can be scene with y'all in public anymore.

Gotta maintain my rep's n shit.

 

Lol man you don't have to be old to appreciate tube power.

 

That's an awesome collection!

Seeing the words "high fidelity" on a tube amp made me chuckle.

 

True! They make the best guitar amps!

 

Was gearing up to type that and ya beat me to it..

 

The last band I was in, the singer had a Fender Blues Deville, and the other guitarist had a Hot Rod Deville. They both had such great sound!

We went to record a 10 song EP, and they both used an amp the Studio had to record their tracks!

I couldn't understand why. It was a cool Sovtek amp, but it didn't have the personality of the amps they usually used.

 

6L6 power tubes in my old Ampeg V4, def would give that engine some bottom end punch!

 

Love it! My Dad (80) still has a set of old H/Ks up in his attic that he got new in the 60s.

 

Very cool. I didn't even know what I got until I looked it up at home and realized these things are worth a small fortune, even in unworking condition. I found mine... In the electronics bin at the town dump!!!

 

An ecu might come in handy for an auto bias function.

 

They also look really cool in the dark with cover off. Its got a matched quad of the old Svetlana winged C 6L6GC... still test good and they are now long out of production and getting as hard to find as NOS american made tubes where in the 90s...

 

Speaking of Projects....

In our last house I built myself a set of DIY 3-ways with 10inch woofers...



Unfortunately at the new place the "boss" decided they don't go with the living room decor so they are in storage, but someday I am going to resurrect them for a shop stereo hooked up to one of my other project pieces - an old Scott 340B tube receiver that I came across free in the 90s - a retired couple was just throwing it out. It even has the original walnut veneer case. It worked for a few years but now needs a full rebuild and Im afraid to even start its so complicated... Professional repair shops who know how to deal with these are not exactly a growth industry either.



Maybe when I retire I will pick away at it... Ive picked up a number of the tools to do it over the years...

 

Nice work on the speakers! I hope you'll have the opportunity to enjoy them again soon. As for the amp rebuild... You already did the Mac, so it shouldn't be a problem for you. Just add a variac to your tool set. What's your tube tester? I have a Sencore mighty mite iii


Here's what the inside of the Citations look like...


Preamp tubes are all original Telefunken, 5 12AX7 and 4 12AT7 (if I recall correctly)


Definitely more complex than the dynaco, which has been hot rodded a bit:


It's a fun hobby. And it's why I don't worry about the system in my 4R, I LISTEN to music at home

 

Damn you're right, that's a lot of tubes to bias manually

 

Its a very early Hickok, havent pulled it out in years but IIRC its a 533A. I got it on ebay in the early days of ebay. Never been calibrated so I have no idea how accurate it is but everything works and it still has the cool gas discharge rectifier tube that glows some funky shade of purple.

The Mac was actually a pretty easy rebuild. Its just a simply stereo power amplifier. There are no bias adjustments on it, their special unity coupled output circuit auto biases the tubes. the rebuild was basically replacing the selenium rectifiers with silicon diodes and replacing all the large multi-section can electrolytic caps in the power supply (had to do some subsituting). I also bought a kit that replaced most of the small caps a few key resistors that tend to drift.



The pre I use with it is a MX110 tube tuner/preamp. I bought that one already professionally restored and aligned.



The Scott is a totally different animal. Its a full blown receiver in the modern sense (they called them "tuner-amplifiers").. a power amp, preamp, phono preamp and FM tuner all in one box. 18 tubes total and some of them in the RF stage are fairly rare. Its not just a matter of bias adjustments, if I touch anything in the FM stage it would need to have a full RF alignment done which requires a good scope and signal generators and know-how that is very rare these days. Its also a massive rats nest under the hood and following ht wiring to find parts takes time even with teh factory schematics and photofact binder (both of which I have).




The other challenge with the Scott, and the reason I put it into storage 2 decades ago is it uses 7591 output tubes. They are a type that never got used in guitar amps (unlike hte 6L6, EL34, etc) so where really hard to find for a long time but now there are new ones being made by the various Eastern European tube factories.



Note: the images above are stock from the web, not mine - but mine basically look similar. I am at work right now and don't have photos handy.

 

surprised how long this thread has stayed in the 6th gen forum and not moved to the general forum.