Category Archives: Uncategorized

After five long years I finally received another run of custom lacquered litz cable from Draka France, and am producing interconnects again. Individual cable strands are high purity copper with heavy silver plating and individually lacquered before being wound into … Continue reading →

The first DHT amplifier that I built was a 71A.  It was a bear to tame.  The low power output (0.7 watts) dictated extremely high efficiency speakers, which were in turn very susceptible to AC filament hum.  The 71A did … Continue reading →

This one is a departure from the norm for me.  I usually don’t dabble with solid state, but when I found this early Magnavox Transistor amp, I was intrigued.  The transition from vacuum tubes to transistors didn’t happen overnight. Many … Continue reading →

Hello my fellow Star Wars Fans, Here is a fun amp that has been percolating in build for over three years.  Pre-pandemic I was originally going to build a generic follow-on to my previous 6AM4/EL84 SE amp, this time refining … Continue reading →

Okay, so I spent some time bringing the stock unit up to full voltage on a variac and let it set overnight – no overheating, weird smells or capacitor barf.  That is the good news.  The bad news – the … Continue reading →

I picked up another Magnavox amplifier a while back, and finally have had time to get it on the bench and look it over.  This one is model 8301 stereo single ended amp with EL84/6BQ5 outputs, each driven by individual … Continue reading →

By request, here is the schematic for my dc coupled EL84-drive-EL84 amplifier.  If you build one, be sure  that you keep the heater to cathode voltage differentials within limits. The voltage divider I used works, but there are other ways … Continue reading →

This was a fun weekend project – resurrecting an old Magnaovox Model 8802 Push-Pull 6V6GT console amp. Required mods were minimal, as all of the original amplifier and its components checked out as completely solid.  I did replace the coupling … Continue reading →

Went with something along the lines of ‘Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull’ this year. A deep purple UV LED gives the skull a creepy glow, offset nicely by the weathered barnwood front facade.  The circuit itself is my own … Continue reading →

Trick-Shot now has its own page on the site (see above) with all the build blog posts consolidated.  It is available for sale here for $1625, and will be going up on Audiogon this weekend.  SOLD.  Funds from the sale … Continue reading →