rooster wrote:Chris - Wow, a man possessed. Good call on the 6600 single tap and the change in steel. When you get the Rocket iron in house, let me know? I am still thinking a single tap is my preference but I would still try it.
Yeah, I wish I had rocket iron for you, but I haven't made the jump, yet.
I'm trying to sort some things out and this steel experiment has been kind of ... consuming. I pulled in double my normal stock and spent a lot of time both soldering and talking to others who were trying things for me. I enjoy that, but it does sap some resources. I also have had to arrange different shipping methods since I get up to half a ton of transformers at a pop, anymore. Lord knows how I got from 6 of us saying "what should we ask Heyboer for?" to ordering whole pallets at a time, but it was past time to streamline the shipping operation.
And, to be honest, I was worried about the economy slowing demand -- Rocket OTs done rhinson-style might come in $20 more expensive than the stancor-clone stuff, making it more of a specialty item. And I got especially spooked when steel prices hit the roof (from $500/ton to $1100/ton in 6 months) and my power tranny cost rose $10 a pop. I think now that I was over-cautious.
Jackie Treehorn wrote:
I bought my original transformer from Doug Holt, too, back in July/August 2003. It's a heyboer marked 11415 TW-OT. The interesting thing is that's the same part number Pacific uses, I believe. Also, I measured it and it's a 6.6k although for a long time I had thought Doug Holt sold 5.2k's. Do you know the model number of that transformer in your amp? It would be interesting to document all the different transformers that have been sold as trainwreck replacements.
Mine is identified as "HTS-5200 Train Wreck-OT" on the wiring diagram from Heyboer... I bought mine from a third party that had purchased it from Doug, probably in 2002-'03. I bought it in mid-late '03. I'll have to go open the amp of to see if it's labeled any different on the OT.
Edit: The plot thickens; the OT has a sticker that says 11415 TW-OT...
i don't post much anymore, but did quite a bit back before a lot of you guys joined up. the rocket set (and before that the komet sets) originally came from me---i was the first guy to have those done by heyboer. those part numbers are my part numbers. but since i don't build amps for a living (although i've probably got aobut 300-400 builds under my belt by now and have worked on about 2-3 times that many amps over the yrs), and don't want to be a trannie salesman, i left them open for public consumption instead of having heyboer keep them private for my own use. rh
i don't post much anymore, but did quite a bit back before a lot of you guys joined up. the rocket set (and before that the komet sets) originally came from me---i was the first guy to have those done by heyboer. those part numbers are my part numbers. but since i don't build amps for a living (although i've probably got aobut 300-400 builds under my belt by now and have worked on about 2-3 times that many amps over the yrs), and don't want to be a trannie salesman, i left them open for public consumption instead of having heyboer keep them private for my own use. rh
Rhinson,
I will certainly say thank you, you provided a great deal of assistance to all of us.
If you don't mind a few more questions (hopefully not all redundant to others you have answered)... There seems to be a leaning toward the Pacific's as the better sounding output transformers, and an indifference as far as the power transformers go. Would you agree with that? If so, assuming(?) the two companies use "identical" specifications, is there something obvious that makes the difference? Then finally, if these are essentially clones of the Stancor 3800 and 3801, do either sound drastically different than the Stancor?
Thanks again for the good work in your past and being willing to endure these questions.
i don't post much anymore, but did quite a bit back before a lot of you guys joined up. the rocket set (and before that the komet sets) originally came from me---i was the first guy to have those done by heyboer. those part numbers are my part numbers. but since i don't build amps for a living (although i've probably got aobut 300-400 builds under my belt by now and have worked on about 2-3 times that many amps over the yrs), and don't want to be a trannie salesman, i left them open for public consumption instead of having heyboer keep them private for my own use. rh
Rhinson,
I will certainly say thank you, you provided a great deal of assistance to all of us.
If you don't mind a few more questions (hopefully not all redundant to others you have answered)... There seems to be a leaning toward the Pacific's as the better sounding output transformers, and an indifference as far as the power transformers go. Would you agree with that? If so, assuming(?) the two companies use "identical" specifications, is there something obvious that makes the difference? Then finally, if these are essentially clones of the Stancor 3800 and 3801, do either sound drastically different than the Stancor?
Thanks again for the good work in your past and being willing to endure these questions.
rj
i think the leaning is because the pacifics were known to be used by ken in the real wrecks that have been documented by the more serious of the cloners here. i've had heyboer make express outputs with the correct steel and compared them to the pacifics and they sounded practically identical to me. these pacifics are the same trannies as the two-rock ruby trannies that folks bought surplus of a few yrs back.
the heyboer and pacific power trannies are different in: hv sec (a very slight diff) , and 5v winding---the pacific doesn't have one. the pacifics say they're 280-0-280 on the spec, but they're not really----it's more like 299-0-299 n.l with 120v stuck on the pri. the original power trannie on which they were based probably had a 115v pri and they just compensated to get close the same n.l. voltage with a modern 120v pri winding. the heyboer's are closer to the listed spec at n.l. (i think they're about 307-0-307 n.l., but i can't remember off the top of my head) (all power trannies have secs. speced higher n.l.---the amount depends on a few factors and which winding).
without trying to sound evasive, how they sound is subjective. i've got an old stock 3801, but i've yet to build an express with it so i can't comment on it. i know of other very good builders that have used them and say they sound killer. i DO know that old iron does indeed sound different, and for all intents and purposes better to me in most applications, than a lot of new stuff. i've experienced it many times with pulls from old p.a's, speaker power amps, etc. rh
