McChanson Valve Amp Owners Thread

[maxsimonjp]

Is that a 3 way speaker? How big is your bass.

Well looking forward to go active even i lf i am very impressed everyday with my 2A3

[Happy]

4 ways...i know...need another...

[maxsimonjp]

Whoaaa do you have a photo ?

Eric will work on my amp end of the month so i should have it early Sept. then the xover should arrive end of sept. Hard to wait even though i have been thinking doing that for 20 years.

The xover i chose is the Wharfedale 206, mainly for its look and simplicity. I ll probably need, from Georgehifi recommendations, to use it as a 2way to cut the bass at 150 Hz and keep the well made passive filters for mids and highs.

But i am sure i ll play more with it and might get a 300B at a later stage.

[lemarquis]

Thanks for a good read @Happy  

 

One of the "issues" I've had researching Eric's amps in the past, is that there is often not much info on ebay to match up with a particular amp that is on sale here in SNA. If I get around to acquiring more sensitive speakers (currently 86db which goes fine with the Opera consonance - 45w, but still feel it needs more..) I will keep an eye out for Eric.

 

Great pics btw, those output tubes look like 2 red skyscrapers in the night sky 

Edited August 24, 2018 by lemarquis

[Happy]

Thanks @lemarquis de Sade

 

@maxsimonjp my approach is hybrid. The bass is handled by bass bins with class d amplification. 440 wpc at 4 ohms. And there’s a sub. 

[maxsimonjp]

Thanks for the pics, it must sound amazingly dynamic!

Eric will send me both 6EM7 and a 6FD7 versions of his amp so i will be able to choose the one i prefer. I might keep both...

[Wimbo]

@Happy Good post mate. I always thought he was Scottish or something.

[Happy]

25 minutes ago, Wimbo said:

@Happy Good post mate. I always thought he was Scottish or something.

From a business point of view I can understand it....

[Happy]

2 hours ago, maxsimonjp said:

Thanks for the pics, it must sound amazingly dynamic!

Eric will send me both 6EM7 and a 6FD7 versions of his amp so i will be able to choose the one i prefer. I might keep both...

And those tubes are cheap as chips....

[maxsimonjp]

They just arrived and the first one sounds amazing already. Still breaking in but very happy and amazed with the quality of the sound.

It just sings right, 2W of pure hapiness, the bass are there, i was not sure it could drive the TAD TL1603

[maxsimonjp]

Still waiting for the crossover but i am ready, now playing one for each channel

[maxsimonjp]

Well it is done, i got the active cross over this week and i am using the 3 amps. Matched the 500 and 7kHz cut over frequencies and now enjoying active tri-amping SQ. The 2 McChanson mini 2W are now singing at their full potential.

 

Just one wonder with the crossover, is it a good choice to use a audiopro PA crossover or is there anything more audiophile like ?

 

I might give mini-dsp a try or should i look into the diy world ?

 

What do you guys use as active crossover ?

 

Could not find a topic on SNA

 

 

 

[Tarzan]

Interesting read, thanks for posting. Have you tried the pre amp on solid state amps?

[mkaramazov]

Great review,  I am listening to one of Eric's amps right now - great value devices.  

[was_a]

Thanks for all the feedback. Yes, McChansons equal similar designs that cost twice or three times as much - not taking into account the convenience (and cheap delivery) of local manufacturing. 

 

Tarzan - the amp I reviewed was purely a headphone amp, but the prior McChansons I tried did have RCA outputs - albeit via volume control. This worked well with two different solid state power amps: nice texture courtesy of the valves, yet good clarity and transient attack - a common characteristic across Eric's amps. Eric does offer a pre-out option (bypassing pot meter) when requested.

 

A small update on the Super-amp review: Eric installed a second output jack for higher-impedance cans. This provided more gain and power for my Sennheiser HD600s - which need plenty of juice to bring them to life. This still doesn't utilise anywhere near the 2W potentially on tap, so those with demanding cans should be sure to let Eric know if commissioning an amp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 25, 2019 by was_a

[maxsimonjp]

Great review, i have 3 McChanson amps. Your topic made me dig for my old HD 580 and i plugged it into the 6FD7 i was not using anymore.

Directly to the speaker outputs of the amp, it made me enjoying listening to music through headphones again and really enjoy tube amps compared to McCoy based designs i tried in the past

Thanks!

[ophool]

On 02/06/2019 at 4:24 PM, maxsimonjp said:

compared to McCoy based designs

Would that be Cmoy perchance ? - those I have heard of.

[maxsimonjp]

Yes CMoy sorry. The altoids tin box

[Bensoundresearch]

Dear maxismonjp,

Yes I believe there is likely a better crossover.  It is called xKitz https://www.xkitz.com/.  They are designed and made in California.  They have kitz that are affordable or fully made enclosures.  You have to nominate your xover frequencies.  If you want to experiment, you can buy extra "cards" / devices to put in that cost $11 US each.  I have the two kits on order.

 

I am looking at buying another valve amp.  I have a Son of Beast (SOB) transcendent sound OTL with Slagle Autoformer volume control and no active pre-amp, but it has gone through a few EL509S output tubes and they are expensive.  I have ordered another set of tubes, but was looking at possibly getting a transformer coupled amplifier that could be used more often. 

 

McChanson's look interesting.  They look like they may last longer than the Cheap Chinese APPJ PA1501A, which intriguingly uses "compactron" tubes,  only two 6AD10 tubes per stereo amp.  The driver tube and power tube are combined into one tube.  They put out 3.5W nominally, but more like 2.6W in reality.  That would be fine with my 100db/watt Bastanis.  The problem with the PA1501A amp seems to be it's switchmode power supply which uses an integrated chip diode (TOP250YN) mounted on a rather small heatsink.  These diode's performance and longevity appear to suffer with higher voltage and temperature, going by what I glean from their data sheet. Three Amazon reviewers said the diode burned up.  One of them after only two week's play.  Both were in the US, so lowish voltage.  Its is rated to work with 100 to 240V.  I don't know how it would go at my place here in Aus where my mains is anywhere between 232 and 244V. 

 

Indeed the high voltage may be the reason my OTL output tubes haven't been lasting too long.  The Transcendent Sound Website says their transformers are made for 230 to 240V, but I don't know how true that is.  Eric of McChansons seems to indicate that his amps and tubes last a reasonable while and the tubes are inexpensive to replace.  Does that sound right? 

 

Also does anyone know the input sensitivity for any of McChanson's amps.  His add on ebay seems to indicate that no preamp is required, but does anyone actually know a rated input sensitivity?

 

Kind Regards,

Ben Gaffney

 

[bryansamui]

I Wonder if Eric makes 'one off' bespoke amps as long as they not too much of a unusual/ difficult build?. I have interest in a basic EL 84 push pull power amp of which i know of no current commercial product available.. There used to be a 'Beard Audio P35'  (6 EL84 per side) which sounded syrupy & golden... This would not be a difficult build one would think?

 

[was_a]

McChanson website

 

Shoot him a message. He's very adept at building tube amps (I've had three of his) and provides great customer service.

[Uncle Seth]

12 hours ago, Bensoundresearch said:

<snipped>

 

Also does anyone know the input sensitivity for any of McChanson's amps.  His add on ebay seems to indicate that no preamp is required, but does anyone actually know a rated input sensitivity?

 

Kind Regards,

Ben Gaffney

 

Eric does make amps with a built-in pre-amp, but if it's not specified, I'd not assume that is the case.

I have a 3 in 1 amp/pre/headphone amp from him, which can be used as an integrated amp (with only 1 or 2 inputs) or as separate pre to feed an amp (or mono amps).

1 hour ago, bryansamui said:

I Wonder if Eric makes 'one off' bespoke amps as long as they not too much of a unusual/ difficult build?. I have interest in a basic EL 84 push pull power amp of which i know of no current commercial product available.. There used to be a 'Beard Audio P35'  (6 EL84 per side) which sounded syrupy & golden... This would not be a difficult build one would think?

 

If you want something special/unique/"no longer on the market" , I read that Eric is happy to work with you and meet your needs. He often spends significant time testing and adjusting amps.

Contact and discuss your requirements. You might be very pleasantly surprised. Same advice goes out to @Bensoundresearch for info re input sensitivity.

[AstroNerd]

Had my eye on a McChanson tube amp for a while but without listening just cannot bring myself to pull the trigger. 

 

There's two other custom tube amp builders in Melbourne, one in Mulgrave and another in Mornington, just with there was somewhere you could take in your speakers and test them all out at once. 

[Ihearmusic]

On 06/04/2020 at 1:10 PM, AstroNerd said:

Had my eye on a McChanson tube amp for a while but without listening just cannot bring myself to pull the trigger. 

 

There's two other custom tube amp builders in Melbourne, one in Mulgrave and another in Mornington, just with there was somewhere you could take in your speakers and test them all out at once. 

Don't pull the trigger just from hearsay. I have my reservations about builder that use cheap Chinese Iron and undersized output transformers.

You have to listen to an amplifier in your system. I am sure them custom tube amp builders In Melbourne will be happy to take a unit to your place for a demo?

That is what I do anyway.

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by Ihearmusic

[Anton Mullet]

Interesting.