They are back

I got my MV60's back from Conrad Johnson. I sent them off to be converted to mono. I got them in my system and biased but haven't been able to do a great deal of listening yet. The biggest difference is obviously the power. They drive my Dyn's as loud as I care to hear them. It appears that the bass is slightly increased. So far I can't tell if control is any better. I can probably only expect so much control from an EL34. I have to say that the original MV60, for having EL34's, the control is far better than I expected from tubes. It makes me interested to hear what CJ does with 6550's. One of the CJ reps said I should be able to tell an improvement in the sound stage since using mono amps will totally separate the channels. Again, soundstage was another strong point of the MV60 and, so far, the difference is not obvious. More differences may become apparent with further listening. Or, it could be that my room limits the ability.

I am really a novis with tubes. I did learn something. When the amps arrived all the tubes had been removed from the amp and packed. When I unpacked them to install them I noticed one set of EL34's had 8 pins and the other set had 7. Being caught off guard and being ignorant I was afraid to put the 7 pins in and wondered what the heck was going on. Luckily I had another set and upon inspection they had 8 pins. So I installed the new set. I later learned that EL34's can come in either 7 or 8 pins and I guess the 8th one when it's there is nothing more than a place holder. Can anyone add any additional info on this? A friend of mine did send me a diagram of the tube.

It is #6 pin that's missing? #6 pin on EL34s are not connected. So, I guess they just placed one there for more secure connection.

Install this free program. http://www.duncanamps.com/tdslpe/download.html

It should help you and this program is really easy to use.

Best wishes,
-JRA

Thanks. I downloaded it, now I have to see what it is.

I don't recognize the numbers on the program. What do you do if you want to look up a EL34 or 6550? Is there a cross reference to the numbers in the dialog box?

Just go to top left under Search. Then Search Designator. Type in EL34
There are letters listed for each pinouts, such as g3, k, n/c, a blah blah. I didnt know what those are either. But you are find out by,

What does k+k'd+k'''d mean on the pinout list?


Click in the area where the pinouts are listed, and press F1 to see a list of what all the pinouts mean.

If you have anymore questions, I'll try to answer

After some more listening and especially noticeable on my James Newton Howard & Friends, Telarc, CD, the mono versions of the MV60's do have more bass slam and snap than in stereo. I'm not sure what to attribbute this improvement to, either increased damping factor, more power or each channel having a dedicated power supply. It really seems like the entire sound has improved as well. I'm not sure if this is true or I'm just glad to have them back in my system.