Classic Kits

[Richard]

Should WD offer kits to reproduce, as near as possible, Classic Amplifiers of the past?

[Ianm2]

yes and no, undecided, yes in that it seems a great idea, as there are only failry limited permutations of topologies of amplifiers, and the classic ones have lasted, eg mullard and quad and the gec, and may well give people who are put off by the ages of these chance to own a new version of one.

no in the sense that people may not want a reproduction, they may want the original article.

I used to be indecisive, now I am uncertain....

you must come to the wadfest, Richard

In my opinion NO.

Certainly look at those designs and take the best elements of them (from appearance to circuitry), but try and stick to unique designs.

That is unless we would like WD to be seen as an 'Olde Worlde Reproductions' company...

[NealG]

I'd say no as well.

[alnewall]

No.
As Lord said in my poll.
You can find these designs quite easily on the internet.
Anyway most of them are likely outclassed by modern stuff.
However, I think that a modern kit with a vintage appearance might be nice.

[bikerhifinut]

I voted for a kit like the Leaks.
My own experience of the Stereo20 suggests to me that with decent modern parts, the circuit holds up very well.
Lets remember that we can "voice" our kits to our preference by choice of coupling capacitors in particular, and to a lesser degree with fiddling around with Resistor types.
The main advantage I would hope isthat a modern retro Stereo20 would still have the same high quality of output transformer, but a superior power supply which is the main weakness I feel ofthe original.
But hey we'd be back at the KEL84 kit.
The retro look would be good though, I just love that bronze chassis colour.

[Baggy Trousers]

A bit late to the party as usual but here's my contribution:

Is not the Leak Stereo 20 the same as the Mullard 5/20? So many of the '50s/'60s amplifiers were to some degree cloned from the Mullard 5/10 and 5/20.

Anyway, I think that whilst the Leaks and Quad II originals readily are available at affordable prices, there is little point in replicating these. In my view, there is too much wasted space inside the Leak (stereo) chassis and I'm not familiar with the Radford. In this age of rampant enthusiasm for single-ended stuff (I suspect espoused by those who were not brought up with it), Mr JNTW's offering which started it all post war, would not be well received.

However, I (and I suspect a significant number of others) would be interested in a monoblock version of something like the WAD 6550/Kel34 modelled on the Quad chassis which was and remains an elegant visual design.

[prince of darkness]

Originally Posted by Baggy Trousers

Is not the Leak Stereo 20 the same as the Mullard 5/20? So many of the '50s/'60s amplifiers were to some degree cloned from the Mullard 5/10 and 5/20.

Nope, if my memory serves me right, the Leak is an EL84 design giving about 2x10-15W per channel (a bit like Kel84), the Mullard uses EL34's to give 20+W.

[Shane]

Originally Posted by prince of darkness

Nope, if my memory serves me right, the Leak is an EL84 design giving about 2x10-15W per channel (a bit like Kel84), the Mullard uses EL34's to give 20+W.

If the Leak is a bit like KEL84, and the Mullard is a bit like KEL34, then what is the point in WD making replicas? If they dress up a current design to look like an old Leak or Radford, then you end up paying for a pointless pastiche, but if you build a genuine replica, you end up buying an amplifier which is inferior in it's performance to the more contemporary WD designs. Isn't it better to acknowledge the greatness of those who went before by building on their achievements and producing the best we can now without compromising for the sake of sentimentality?

To use my favourite method of analogy, look at the new Mini. It's a brilliant little car, but what a pointless excercise it was trying to make it look like a real Mini. The design is compromised compared with what it could have been if it had been designed as a new car in it's own right, and all the looks do is point out how totally it fails to match the packaging brilliance of the original, which was two feet shorter and had more useful space inside!

[prince of darkness]

Hi Shane,
I was probably a bit misleading in my last post. In comparing the Stereo 20 to Kel84, I was only attempting to emphasise that it was far from being the same as a mullard 5-20. In fact, beyond both using ultra-linear EL84's, there is very little similarity in the circuits of the Leak and WAD designs.