danielm

I’ve basic solder skills, have been reading up on discharging capacitors. I was looking at buying a tool to help do that rather building my own. I’ve just struggled to find a local tech willing to step in and do some of the mods.

Hi brains trust, Am considering doing some of the Skunkie mods myself, at least the essentials from a safety perspective. A few weeks back I had a tube red plate, so took the opportunity to replace the whole power stage with matched Gold Lions KT88. I’ve now noticed V1 can’t be biased beyond the mid setting. It’s like that’s the maximum that it can be biased to. This isn’t the same tube socket that red plated either. I’ve not yet opened the amp but curious if anyone has seen this before.

I tried calling them to today and they didn't seem familiar with the amp and were reluctant to do mods to it. Have they done work on yours?

Thankyou.

Is there anyone or recommended tech in NSW (Aus) that knows the R8 well enough that could perform the Skunkie mods that would improve the safety etc.? I would really like to have these done to my stock R8 but certainly not technically inclined.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a tech in the Illawarra / Sydney region that would be qualified to work on an R8? Would love to have those Skunkie safety mods applied but fear I am in no way capable of doing them myself. If someone knows anyone could they PM me?

Does anyone know a tech in the Illawarra region or even Sydney who has worked on the R8 and has done any of the mods?

Hi team Does anyone know of a good amp technician in the Wollongong area - looking for someone who can do some work on a tube amp. Cheers Dan

Yep, just found those posts. Very similar experience. Will wait to see what his tech says. Thanks guys.

Hi team, hoping for some advice on my R8. -I've noticed one of my power tubes (KT88) often goes out of bias when I crank the volume up high and I need to adjust it. If I return to a regular listening level the tube is then under biased. This only happens on the first power tube and while there is a occasional change with the others, the first one seems to go out quite a bit. The tube is not exhibiting any strange noises nor appears to be red-plating. -I'm running some Klipsch Heresy IVs and found the 4ohm taps dig a bit deeper in bass, with a drop in treble and overall brightness that I think smooths out the treble somewhat. What's usually considered the best approach with correctly matching the nominal ohms with the amp? I gather this is a case of whichever I think sounds better but sometimes I'm not sure I'm the best to answer that! -I'd love to get into upgrading some of the caps, I'm coming up to nearly a year with the amp and thinking its time to experiment a little. Anyone know a tech near the Wollongong/Illawarra area that might be up for that type of work?

Item: Santana - Abraxas (50th Anniversary) vinyl Price Range: $50-100 Item Condition: New or Used Extra Info: Released in 2020, this appears to be OOP, or at least impossible to find online. If anyone can point me in the direction of the anniversary version or is willing to part with theirs let me know. This one is cut by Kevin Gray.

Very cool, I own the actual Simply Vinyl release and it sounds fantastic. GLWTS.

Further information: Purchased from another SNR member back in 2020, these have been a wonderful gateway into quality audio. They are in excellent condition and the veneer is just perfect. The only issue I can see is a couple plugs on the grills have broken (can be glued) but this does not impact the how the grills sit when attached - and there is some very very slight fading on the veneer from where the grills have sat but it's barely noticeable. These do not have spikes and the IsoAcoustics GAIA IIIs in the picture, they were sold separately. I do have the original packaging so these can be easily shipped anywhere in Aus. Spendor are renowned for sweet and musical reproduction as well as outstanding build quality, being designed and hand-built in the UK. The elegantly shaped floor-standing enclosures are constructed of heavily braced and damped panels and finished in real oak veneer, reducing unwanted vibrations and box colouration. The "S" Series introduced several innovations including "linear flow port technology" to reduce low frequency turbulence, the "e" bass/mid driver with light but stiff damped polymer cone for ultra-low colouration and an even more seamless crossover. Subjectively they are very coherent with realistic imaging, openness and tonality. Remarkable speakers for the price, needing quality electronics and cabling to reveal their true potential. They sound wonderful with the Willsenton R8 tube amplifier.

Open to offers. I'm unable to edit the listing now but these are still for sale.

I don't, is there a calculation I can do to see whether there is an input sensitivity mismatch?

I just would expect more notice that something was wrong before the left channel would suddenly drop in volume and bein to distort. I wasn't driving the amp hard, it was loud, but not earth shattering loud. I would've expected some natural tube distortion/breakup to kick in before something like that would happen. I can live with the 60db setting, but the recommended Rega setting is 69db (if you use their own pre amp), so surely 3 extra 72db is not unsafe. The cartridge is designed for Rega tonearms so there are no VTA, azimuth etc requirements and the weight is bang on. I had another theory this morning. The IEC plug I was using was not pushed fully in, which I always put down to it being slightly too big but this morning I realised it just needed a bit of force to push it fully into the socket. Could this cause an issue when giving the amp a bit of a push? The amp has never shown other symptoms of poor power, so I assumed the plug was fine but maybe not?

The phono preamp runs into an auxiliary input not the pre-in. I assume that’s fairly normal. I’d have no way of controlling the volume if I chose the pre in (without a passive pre amp or something to attenuate the signal.

8ohm taps.

Hi Brains-trust, Long winded story for your Sunday reading. Looking for some advice, and hoping to avoid taking the amp to a tech for the time being. A few days ago I upgraded to some Klipsch Heresy IVs this week and was giving them a good run through my favourite vinyl presses and while giving the 45rpm version of Rumors a spin, I started experiencing some nasty distortion in the left channel mid song. That distortion kept up even at low volumes so it was clear something wasn’t right. I began to check whether I had a bad tube or if one was red plating - swapping tubes around didn’t move the issue to the other channel and all tubes were biasing fine. In that time I had powered up / down the amp a few times in a relatively short time (tubes not hot but still warm) to do some diagnosing and after maybe the fourth time the amp no longer powered on and discovered the slow burn fuse had blown. I swapped in a replacement fuse and the amp powered up and the distortion was no longer there. I subsequently decided to take out all the tubes and clean the tube sockets with a little deoxit. Put everything back together and went to power on when the next fuse blew. Replaced the fuse again and powered it up re-biased the tubes and it’s been singing fine for the last few days with no issues since. Now the only other changes I have made have been changing the gain on the phono pre amp stage back to 60db from 72db. I honestly hadn’t been driving the amp that hard at the time but wondered if this gain stage potentially overloaded the amplifier. The Rumors 45rpm is cut pretty hot. Funnily enough, the same issue occurred several months back (i posted about it at the time in this thread), with the same album causing one of the tubes to fail and distort. I had suspected the gain on the phono preamp may have been too much but after a bit of research had determined it was unlikely and returned to the higher gain setting and have been using it fine up until now. I also replaced the stock Willsenton tubes with some Tung-sols and Mullards assuming they were just cheap crap. I also had been using an upgraded IEC power cable, but the plug is slightly too deep for the socket which hangs out a bit and I’ve always wondered if wasn’t connecting properly. I’ve now gone back to the stock power cable. Does anyone have any thoughts on what the issue might be? I really don’t want to take the amp to a tech to inspect if I can avoid it.

BUMP!! Need them gone soon. Grab a bargain and a wonderful sounding speaker too.

Further information: Stylus has approximately 450 hours on it. Always cared for with proper cleaning accessories. I don't have the original packaging, stylus was replaced back in 2018 but I will make sure this is packaged up well.

Further information: Purchased in September 2021 for RRP $698, these did wonders with my Spendor S6e speakers and looked absolutely stunning too. They are in excellent condition, with a couple minor marks that are barely noticeable. These are no longer required with the speakers I have upgraded to, so here's a chance to grab a bargain. Would love to sell with the Spendor's listed on this site, so let me know if you're interested in both.

Further information: Purchased direct from Schiit Audio in the US on April 12, I bought this because I thought I needed to attenuate my vinyl source. Turns out I don't need to and have literally plugged this thing in once and took it out of my system and put it back in the box. Currently sold out in Australia, this is a chance to grab a practically new Sys in Australia.

Further information: Purchased from another SNR member back in 2020, these have been a wonderful gateway into quality audio. They are in excellent condition and the veneer is just perfect. The only issue I can see is a couple plugs on the grills have broken (can be glued) but this does not impact the how the grills sit when attached - and there is some slight fading on the veneer from where the grills have sat but it's barely noticeable. These do not have spikes and the IsoAcoustics GAIA IIIs in the picture will be sold separately. I do have the original packaging so these can be easily shipped anywhere in Aus. Spendor are renowned for sweet and musical reproduction as well as outstanding build quality, being designed and hand-built in the UK. The elegantly shaped floor-standing enclosures are constructed of heavily braced and damped panels and finished in real oak veneer, reducing unwanted vibrations and box colouration. The "S" Series introduced several innovations including "linear flow port technology" to reduce low frequency turbulence, the "e" bass/mid driver with light but stiff damped polymer cone for ultra-low colouration and an even more seamless crossover. Subjectively they are very coherent with realistic imaging, openness and tonality. Remarkable speakers for the price, needing quality electronics and cabling to reveal their true potential. They sound wonderful with the Willsenton R8 tube amplifier.

Further information: Bought from a SNR member back in 2020, these have given me so much joy but it's time to move them on as the upgrade bug got me good. These can be shipped anywhere in Aus as I have the original packaging. They are in excellent condition, with minimal marks to the veneer (if any!). The only issue I can see is one or two of the grill cover plugs has broken off but can be glued back if need be. It doesn't impact the way the grill attaches either way. They do not come with spikes or the IsoAcoustics GAIA III seen in the below pictures. These will be sold separately, but if you wish to buy them with the speakers then I'll combine them for $1550. The RRP on the IsoAcoustics GAIA III is about $698. These are typical Spendor speakers, renowned for sweet and musical reproduction as well as outstanding build quality, being designed and hand-built in the UK. The elegantly shaped floor-standing enclosures are constructed of heavily-braced and damped panels and finished in real oak veneer, reducing unwanted vibrations and box colouration. The "S" Series introduced several innovations including "linear flow port technology" to reduce low frequency turbulence, the "e" bass/mid driver with a light but stiff damped polymer cone for ultra-low colouration and an even more seamless crossover. Subjectively they are very coherent with realistic imaging, openness and tonality. Remarkable speakers for the price, needing quality electronics and cabling to reveal their true potential. This is a factory-matched pair of speakers with original cartons for safe transport, offering a nice step up from Spendor standmounts in terms of bass extension, soundstage size and aesthetics.