Lance Cochrane Leviathan

While building this amplifier I had visions of the grandiose. Leviathan,  Ouroboros, Jörmungandr, waves crashing against great scales in ancient epic.

The Wife took a look at it and said, "St. Patrick's Day".

Such is the lot of great artists. I can imagine the craftsman finishing the Venus De Milo, splendid and timeless, hearing  "Honey, shouldn't you put some arms on her?"

That's how it goes sometimes.

This is one large and heavy son of a gun. Not in the sense that some guys have
amplifiers the size of compact cars, not that way. Large and heavy in terms of
common sense. Yes, common sense on Audiogon, I know, but there it is. Sometimes
you have to pick up and move your amplifier. You shouldn't need a chain hoist to do
that.

I digress.

We have here a 30 watt per channel, push pull, 6L6 amplifier. It's all hard wired, hand
built from start to finish. At every stage it's tuned by ear. My ears. Cathode bias to
assure that the buyer never has to make any adjustments. That means no fussy
fiddling and no worry that things may be mis-adjusted. The phase inverters auto- balance. That keeps the imaging stable and gives reliable lower frequency
reproduction. Outputs are set for eight ohms and can't be changed. That's what the
output transformers allow.  The tubes are a single 5U4 rectifier, four Groove Tube 6L6, two Italian 6SN7 phase inverters, and a single RCA JAN 6SN7 VT-231 as the input tube.
All octal start to finish. The big oil cap at center chassis is in the right place in the circuit
to make a real difference.

That's all the technical stuff that I'm going to put in here. If you know my name you know that I've said for years that technical stuff is frequently put in listings and reviews as fill. Honestly, you read all that and think you know something. Then you get the new glowing component in your living room and reality sets in.

Ahem.

Recently I've gotten in a few old units for updates and cosmetic touch up. Units that have
over ten years in the field. Units bought second hand. In all cases I upgrade with reliability
in mind. I get back units that are over ten years in the field that have experienced no
issues and I upgrade them for long term reliability. If that sounds silly, it is. I do it anyway.

Why use such big transformers for only 30 watts a channel? That's all the power I need.
That's all the power most need. Sure, you can design a superb amplifier with small
transformers. I've made hundreds of those. Big transformers are something of an
unnecessary luxury. Luxuries are nice things. I had them so I used them.

The handles on the sides are not for decoration. They're at good balance points
for lifting and moving. Hopefully, there won't be much of that. Generally my units
go into a living room and stay there. If you've been on the amp of the month go round
and would like to get off, here's your chance.

This will be no pleasure to pack or ship.  The base is 20.5" x 9" x 9" tall. I know I'll lose
money on the shipping and I'm trying to be prudent by specifying Domestic shipping only.

The Best Buy in HiFi.

Lance Cochrane




Happy, uh, St. Patrick's Day.

Sheesh...