The Best Tube Amp $40 Can Buy! Converting a Westinghouse Console Amp
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- It's a single-ended amp using 7591 pentode tubes on the outputs, 12AX7 triode tubes in the preamp and gain stages, and a 6CA4 rectifier tube for the power supply. OK! So all the parts I added made the amp cost more than $40, but I didn't buy any of those parts specifically for this amp. Rather, I rebuilt the amp using things I already had on hand, and I kept the original tubes and transformers and even some of the original resistors. At six watts per channel (6 wpc), it's got double the power of my other single-ended tube amps!
Back in the day attending some interesting parties around a console stereo.I miss those things, yeah you are taking me back, so far back. Thanks man.
A true icon!
We’re neighbors…46N very near the Divide!
Sweet demo and breakdown. I’m just learning but impressed.
I enjoyed this. 👍A couple of your videos have been brought up to me in the YT algorhythm and I watched some of those, now it's time to subscribe😀
Awesome. Thanks!
Great video! Beautiful job on an old amp that now has a new life. Love these electronic rework videos and the fact you made the Cherry woodwork completely from scratch!
Lerxst: You've given it a new life.
Dirk: Its a New World Man.
Fans: Why?
Pratt: YYZ!
Nice work, and nice taste in music.
Cost you next to nothing is the understatement of the decade!!. You have a lot of education, training and experience. Let's talk about how much it cost and how 12:23 many tube amps you worked on and screwed up. Education is expensive, experience is priceless!!
Big thumbs up! I have this exact 7591 Westinghouse amp in storage in Idaho, I'm in Oregon now. I seem to remember that the stock speaker output was wired differently, but it seems like it was straightforward on yours so I was mistaken. I remember the 7591's glowing blue on mine, it was really beautiful to see. One of these days I'll get my stuff from storage and do the restore.
You remember correctly. The original speaker (outpt) wiring was complicated, so I changed it!
I just came across your channel. I was impressed by the work you did both electronically & style wise. Using wood from your own Cherry tree is nice & the amp cover I think looks very cool. Gives it a natural/midcentury modern design combo. Actually, reminds me of a cool midcentury vaulted ceiling grocery store my parents shopped in during the 60's. I have a Magnavox two section console that I have kept the very nice midcentury design but, moved the amplifier to the top of one cabinet & mounted on a rustic maple base. The transformer was leaking out the bottom so I replaced it & did some parts replacements. I also improved the speakers by modifying & replacing the midrange paper cone drivers with Magnavox midrange horns I found locally. I surely will watch some of your previous videos & keep track of your upcoming ones.
Thanks, very posting the restore of this console tube amp! Here is a tip you might already know about. The screw-on speaker terminals can be replaced cheaply without much fuss with Staubli 4mmm female screw-in banana sockets part number 23.1033-22. I've bought black and red ones and replaced the screws on my Luxman A3600. They work great and keep the original terminals intact!
Hello from Portland!
Hello from France good job respect Thierry
Enjoyed - great stuff!!!
Awesome, thank you!
Very nice cosmetics. Good job.
Nice! Thanks for sharing!
Poking inside a tube amp with a metal tweezers is making my skin creep. Chop sticks, man, chop sticks!
Goodness! I wouldn't do that with the power on!
@@Lancaster_Hi-Fi Still a bad habit to get into or to show the viewers. You'll stop using the tweezers the day you touch a charged electrolytic with the power off ;)
I have recently insulated them with shrink tubing. But I understand what you're saying and appreciate your advice!
DOA consoles are still plentiful. Doing the work yourself is how to make it cost effective. I have two consoles right now, a homemade (not by me) unit with top end components and a Barzilay console missing everything but the Dual turntable and JBL speakers. Got to figure out what amp to use. Meanwhile, I am fixing the console itself as it had damage.
i think Molex plus and jacks are pointed on one side
Chance's are you need change all caps probably some resistors & maybe tubes i would check power transformer and audio out and if a line choke if your gonna use as a guitar amplifier its only gonna play clean and has to match pickup impedance. Soo far looks like your doing okay on referb
"Check" on the caps and resistors. I may have left an odd ceramic cap or two in place if there were any (but maybe there weren't), and I left some resistors that were still in spec. So far, the tubes seem fine, and I kind of dig that they're Westinghouse branded. After the fact, I read that Westinghouse designed the 7591, so it's neat to have the "original" 7591's. I have thought of adding a choke and new outputs, but so far I'm just enjoying the amp!
Fun facts about the music played at the very end of the video:
The guitar ist had to borrow an instrument to nakethe recording.. His guitar was destroyed after airline persnnel nisisred aurlun insisted that he check it prior to boarding the plane.
The flutist was born i n Chile, but she and her family moved to the U.S. when she she was five years old.
She one of the greatest flutists in the entire world and the most incredible woman I've ever met. ❤️
Satie
@C-man553 Gymnopedia .... something or other. The cd came out circa 2013 and was Grammy nominated unflder Classical : Productions. I'll post a link to performance to my fave selection.
ua-cam.com/video/_zOU1zHUrGs/v-deo.htmlsi=tWx8HxLwktWfQpbT
Corvallis, Woodburn? I'm nearby in Dundee of you ever need anything. Maybe a pair of JBL Lancers that were given to me? need re-foaming but otherwise all original.
I got my first JBLs recently: 4411's. Before those, I would have jumped on some Lancers!
Man all those discarded console with perfect gems of transformers gone forever (and turntables like Gerrard 301/401). So flipping sad. Not feeling confident about the future but if I were I think I would be actively searching out and collecting these. I know someone has a business restoring the whole console he does ok with that.
Like Matt at Texas Toast Guitars says to critics, if you think you are so smart, you should start your own YT channel
Flying leads and not-bundled semi-pt-to-pt is one of the best ways to prevent hum. Watching somebody poke around with metal tweezers, even with the amp off (was it unplugged?) shows, well what does it show old-timers? Can't watch anymore.
Of course, unplugged. I use those to pull and bend leads, well, those and jeweler's pliers. Can't do that with chopsticks!
Tube amp lovers are like vinyl.lovers; and they are often one and the same. They think vinyl has better sound quality until they hear a cd player that blows their coveted $600 phono cartridge out of the water. Some people think you have to go tubes to get amazing openness, smoothness, lack of edge, warmth, depth etc. until they hear a solid state amp that does nothing whatsoever wrong, and does all those thing above in spades too. I like both though; but I know now that tubes do not necessarily rule in many areas that I thought they did. They can be equalled. All those special qualities are ON good recordings and there are solid state amps that do not degrade those things either. Both types of amps can do it all,..if they're good enough.
Good points. I’ve settled on a tube pre and Clayton class A mono locks. The pre uses a a Tele 12au7 and a mosfet buffer output stage. The mosfet stage is extremely transparent and is better than any cathode follower output circuit I’ve tried.
CDs vs vinyl …. The eternal debate. I do both. DIY tonearms are an interesting endeavor.
Once you reach a certain level of sound quality, which you can reach with both tubes AND solid state, and with both vinyl AND cds, you have pretty much reached the sound quality limit of the source, which ultimately is the limit. With my extensive mods over the years, using totally different equipment, I keep reaching the same sound quality level, and then that's it. It's a dead end. Considering that each of these systems have totaly different equipment, and I keep reaching the same no more major sound quality improvement point....well,.. it would be an enormous coincidence if all those different system all stopped at the same point. More likely by far; the limits of the source has been reached. You can only get how much is on a cd, lp, or tape. What is AFTER the source in the chain, cannot magically create detail or sound quality levels that are not there on the source material; the recordings recordings.that is. What is the best source material? Because of its honesty to the signal without adding hifi artifacts, it is neither lp or cd. It is reel tape. Usually by far.
Try a Blu Ray player with your CDs and tell me what you think.
I don'thave a blue ray player. Do they sound better than your average cd player? Let me know. I listen to cd players with my now 70 step modifications. I doubt if you can tell that the sound is not analog. The best modded players start sounding like they have that smooth. analog texture without the edge; and of course without the noise of analog. accentuation and glae. The cd format (regular redbook cd) is so much better than most people think. A lot of them would be dumping their lps (again), if they ever heard cd playback at its best. But they might keep them for the bigger covers and nostalgia. I was able to keep at least a small portion of my lps; but the only real reason to play them, besides the direct to discs I have, is if I don't have them on cd. Some music may never be on anything but lp (or cassette). The really obscure stuff that is great is reason enough to have a tt.
@sidesup8286 Blu Ray player has the best sound by far.
Definitely try one , you don't even need an expensive brand, they are better than CD players that's for sure.
The sound quality is amazing.