Happy New Year!

Hi!

Yet another year comes to it's end. This has been the third year since the start of the VinylSavor blog. It was a very exciting and productive year for me. Since the beginning of the year, I am working full time in audio. This summer I moved my workshop to a separate location away from the private apartment. This gives me a lot more room for storage and workshop. The office also got an own system which is still in preparation. Once it is set up I will describe it in a separate post.

Many projects got completed this year. Most of them shown on this blog. The most fun project was the Sound Processor.  Above a photo of one of the UX201A tubes glowing in this device. And a shot of the mercury vapour 866A glowing away in it's magic color in the power supply:

Definitely the most interesting meeting of the year was my visit at the last german vacuum tube manufacturer ELROG. Since my visit there I have worked a lot with the company the ER211 became my favourite 211/VT4C tube and was used in the latest 211 amplifier build.

The tube which I used the most throughout the year was definitely the 6AX4, which finds it's way into most of my power supplies. Typically in a set of 4 for an all tube full wave rectifier bridge:

Not all of the projects which I planned for 2013 got finished or even started. The mighty 851 transmitting triode is still waiting to find it's way into an amplifier. Here shown with a 211 tube to give an idea of it's size:

I guess this tube has to wait unit somebody orders such an amp. Who really needs 150W of single ended glory? Would definitely be a fun project though. Or maybe a 75W amp with the smaller sister of the 851, the 849:

Also the fully differential EC8020 phono stage is still waiting to be built. Hopefully in 2014.

Definitely in the plan is finally a 300B amp especially since there is hope for a german made 300B tube!

Also definitely planned is a new power amplifier with the 801A as output tube, Probably two versions one with an indirectly heated driver and an all directly heated one with a second 801A as driver.

Silver transformers will be a big topic for 2014 with a 211/211 amplifier in the planning using all silver transformers as well as a 45/45 amp.

I'd like to thank all my customers, partners, friends and readers of my blog for a great year. Looking forward to an even better and more exciting 2014. Stay tuned!

All the best for the new year to you and your families!

Thomas