wad kel34

[edwar65]

hi, i'm a newbie to site,been looking to buy a british valve amp and noticed a kel 34 on a well known internet site for £400, may be a little less.
Was built by an electronics engineer(apparently) with mods as follows:

OFC signal wiring, 2 additional inputs, mono switch, star single point earthing, greater Mains Earth filtration, speaker outputs changed from XLR to gold plated 4mm conventional connectors. Re-commisioning highlighted a couple of components out of spec so these have been replaced with new parts.

Can anyone advise what these are like and reliability issues plus any other questions to ask vendor as he would like a quick sale b4 xmas?
I will be using this with a pair of monitor audio s6 speakers which are approx 89db
any help greatly appreciated,i'm hoping to speak to vendor today.
thanks
tom.

[John Caswell]

Hi Tom,
First of all puzzled by a couple of things.
WAD never used XLR connectors for loudspeakers on their amplifiers .
You say the amp has had additional inputs wired in, but it was an integrated with four inputs already.
It suffered from a common WAD problem of that era in that the anode loads for the ECC82 phase splitter appear to be underrated. All calculations show the original rating to be well in spec but the resistors just got overloaded so most people changed them for a higher wattage rating.
Apart from that an excellent amplifier and a good buy!

John

[Richard]

Hi Tom, John,

Can you post a link? It sounds like the original Kel34 which did have XLR speaker outputs. Many folk, inc me, converted them to 4mm posts so that's a good thing anyway.

It could then be early, with toroidal (round) output transformers, or later with EI (square) ones on top. In both cases the mains TX is toroidal and inside the case and the circuit and valve bases were on a thick glassfibre pcb.

I loved mine, very punchy rocky valve sound, at least the ones with original round TXs were, just how you might expect a 40W pentode output EL34 amp to sound, the later ones were a little smoother sounding.

I built the similar KT88 based amp following and wasn't the only one to express joy at it being more refined but somehow felt we had lost something special in the colour and life dept.

Easy to maintain with auto bias if it's well built with those uprated resistors as John says. If it's nice condition and you like the sound go for it

[John Caswell]

Hi all,
Curiouser and curiouser.
The first HFW supplement photo shows 4mm sockets on the amplifier and XLR in the parts list, and then the next supplement shows XLRs on the amplifier so I stand corrected. Personally never seen one with XLRs.

John

[Richard]

Yes, same on K6L6, see Nov 1995 supplement, similar or maybe same chassis, a bit before we all got together here on the web...

[edwar65]

Hi, not got a link to unit but its advertised on gum tree website in uk.
If you type in valve amplifier for national adverts, you will have to scroll thru a bit to find item.
I've mailed vendor again today and he has said none of the caps or resistors have failed,all look good sonically and physically? This unit has the square trannys on top.
Let me know if you find it on gum tree? It's up for £400, is this too much or should I haggle as postage will be quite high as I'm not able to view it, it's in Scotland and I'm in Cardiff, Wales so a bit far!!!
Thanks all,
Tom