Lance Cochrane Mariana Trench

Okay, I went a little over the top on this. it's a 6L6 push pull basic amplifier made at easily twice the size and weight necessary for a 6L6 unit. Why overdo it like that? Well, because I could, that's why. Those of you that have been in the hobby long enough may remember the old Leak 6BQ5 units that had transformers that were just massive. Much bigger than any 6BQ5 unit that I've ever seen. Nobody else made little amplifiers that were so big. Yes, I know that's an oxymoron. It's also something I always liked. I used that basic concept here. Consider, the unit is roughly 15 inches square at the base. Physically, that's much larger than any rationally constructed 6L6 unit needs to be. The transformers, well, you can see them in the photos, are lurking on the chassis like Half Dome overlooking the valley. That's just the obvious that's hard to miss. While you do notice that when you look at it you more notice that if you try to pick it up. Mass is mass after all. Tube amplifiers give off heat. That's the nature of the beast. Some get downright hot. Heat dissipation is a function of surface area if you don't consider fans and such. With this sort of surface area the unit runs on the cool side. The power transformer itself can handle easily triple the current demands of the amplifier. Under full load it loafs. I don't want to get technical here. Technical descriptions tell you nothing about how a unit sounds. Remember the early transistor units in 1962 and thereabouts? Great specifications on paper. Great sound? Not so much. For a window into how this sounds read about my amplifiers online. Most just say that my units sound right. No fancy overblown hyperbole like you get in HiFi reviews or in wine reviews. None of that poetic overwritten prose. They just sound right. That's good enough for me. Back for a moment to how this is built. You can see the size of the chassis. You can see the size of the transformers. What you don't see is that the theme is carried through in the whole unit. Where 2 watt resistors would be fine, I used 5 watt. Where 30 volt bias caps would be fine I used 100 volt. That method prevails throughout. It even goes as far as the rubber feet. Everybody uses four. This has eight feet. Unnecessary? Sure, but stable. Stable and meant to last long enough that the Grandkids will enjoy it. This is a fully handcrafted unit. All hard wired. No circuit boards. Built by hand and tuned by ear. My ears. That takes a while. This does not pop off the assembly line, go into a box and ship. That's not what I do. My amplifiers have to live here a while first. The transformer in front of the big power transformer, the one with the copper strips on it, is a filter inductor. Big one. Those were de riguer in the old days before capacitors became cheap. You don't see them much these days because they're expensive and that money can be spent on advertising or profit margin. I still like to use them though. When they change the laws of physics I may change but until then I'll use them when I can fit them on the chassis. The amplifier uses four 6L6 and three 12AU7. All included. You can use 5881 or KT66 if you choose. The unit runs the output tubes softly so you don't get that awful hyperdetailed, hard sound so popular today. There's detail, plenty of it actually, but it's out of a soft black backdrop. Not that hard sound that drives your guests out of the room. Designers for the last 30 years or so have run output sections at higher voltages and currents to get more power. Power sells. At about 30 watts a side this has more than enough power for me but then again, I wouldn't have power hungry, inefficient speakers in the house. I've had plenty of them mind you and can't understand why speakers guys purposely make speakers that soak up power like sponges. They don't have to you know. Not for me though. Running the outputs softly has another benefit as well. Your tubes last longer. Much longer. The prices of tubes is only going to go up. Having tubes last much longer and getting better sound at the same time seems like a good idea to me. The outputs are eight ohms. that's What the transformers are set to. That's it. I've been running the amplifier driving two pair of VMPS Tower II at an effective three ohm load with no issues. That's three ohms, twelve twelve inch woofers in four six way 96 pound cabinets. It struts along in low gear. The output tubes independently cathode bias. No adjustments needed when you change output tubes. No need for matched pairs or quads. Plug in what you want and off you go. The phase inverter autobalances as well. That means equal value feed to both sides of the output transformer primary at all times giving both consistently pinpoint imaging and solid bass. No adjustments there either. I hate fussy amplifiers that you have to always worry over. Adjust the bias here, tweak this and bother with that. For some guys that's Heaven. Fiddling constantly with settings and readings is not for me. I'd rather have all that done for me and listen to music. To each his own. Yes that is a volume control front and center. As a basic with a volume control you could use it without a preamp but even though I'm a minimalist I do recommend that you use a good active preamplifier. That's just me. It doesn't require much voltage at all to reach full output. I like the flexibility an active preamp offers, that's all. The finish is "London Fog". It's a satin finish so you're not having to constantly dust the thing like some of those piano black lacquer jobs. Most everything on this website is black and chrome. Like parking a 1958 Oldsmobile in your living room. This is more understated. This will be a pain to ship as it's big and heavy. I'll lose money on shipping. I always do. That's how it goes. Expect double boxed, bullet proof packing. The best buy in HiFi. Get it or regret it. Lance Cochrane P.S.: No overseas buyers please.