@claycountyredneck It's an old Philips amplifier. They were all built to order, and were used mainly in stadiums and concert halls. The output tubes are QB3/750 transmitting tetrodes, driven very conservatively as I understand it. It was made to be run on 3-phase power.
This appears to be an audio amplifier being fed w/ a low freq. AF signal. The tubes seen glowing blue are the now-obsolete mercury vapor rectifiers used to feed the HV DC to the two final amplifier tubes (the HV anode connections to the top of the PA tubes can be seen just above the panel containg the meter). The orange glow of the PA tube's heaters are also visible there.
10 downvotes? How dare you people. This has to be one of the very finest pieces of audio gear every produced. Objective / subjectives listening notwithstanding, get a decent life.
Once owned an HP 524D (all vacuum tube digital freq counter including multiple 5R4 rectifier tubes and utilizing a vertical 'readout' comprised of neon tubes behind 0 - 9 numerals) with the 'pre-scaling' plug-in making it good to 150 MHz ... used to use it to heat a room in winter while it was in use .. had a 10" (25.4 cm) cooling fan in the back for forced-air cooling! Enjoyed the vid, thanks for making it ... .
That is super cool, and I am equally impressed with your hp 521 counter. You are going to think I am lying, but I bought one of those this last Sunday....well, with the individual decade counters & thermometer display style and I've gotten it to work. I love old tube gear! Wish it wasn't so heavy, big and didn't heat up the room. Naah, that's all OK.
The transition from UV to x-ray to gammy-ray is continuous, so to ask for a threshold is like asking at what weight you're fat ;) However soft x-rays are considered to have energies in the range 100 eV to 5 keV and can therefore be produced with voltages from 100 V to 5 kV, but those won't even be able to penetrate the glass of the tube (for example less than 0.1 mm attenuation length in water). So below 5 kV you probably won't have to worry about x-rays.
As a guitar player I prefer solid state rectification in my tube amps, but as an organist I prefer tube rectifiers. Then again, maybe i would enjoy swapping out my 5U4's in my old 46' Wurlitzer 310 Vibrato tone cabinet. This was one of Don Leslie's first designs for a rotating baffle for tremulent emulation. In theater pipe organs the tremulent rapidly oscillates the airflow, resulting in a corresponding pleasant quivering of both pitch & volume. Google Don Leslie's incredible organ speakers.
good to see that youre not only controlling the Hz but the line voltage as well - i was a bit concerned about the HV rising beyond its limits as the Hz got lower.
How about making another video so we can see the amplifier. Show us some power output into a dummy load, THD or something like that. The MV rectifiers are beautiful - 3 phase I assume? I used MV rectifiers in a HP AM transmitter many years ago. The fact that they glow blue saved my life as I almost accidentally grabbed one once (while it was on) but the blue glow alerted me just in time to basically save my life. Never drank beer while working on HV after that...
Of course not. The dc-current is not affected by the processes within the rectifier. Especially because the tubes ionisise more gas with rising load, the output voltage is hold nearly stable. And a pulsing load affects a pulsing (contra) regulation process. And at low frequencies you can see this.
@srkh28 The things that are glowing blue are Mercury Vapor Rectifiers, and that's how they look, just out of frame on this video are two large tube final amplifiers with a nice warm glow.
The Tube-Amp Myth:. Well designed Transistor-Amps, produce extremely low noise & very low harmonic distortion.. Unfortunately, they also produce transient distortion, predominantly a 3rd, or uneven harmonic distortion, which for some, (including myself) find jarring to the ear, destroying the illusion. Tube-Amps on the other hand, produce a ton of noise and predominantly 2nd, or even harmonic distortion, which simply sounds less offensive to the ear, and somehow enhances the illusion
@claycountyredneck Your last sentence answers your question- Silicon rectifiers are boring!! And they give no visual indication that they are working or of the current load.
Is this an ex-Cinema amp? I never heard of one that large for audio. Usually massive amps using DA250 valves (one pair = 1,600w in push-pull) where in football stadiums, ocean liners or more usually pushing telephone signals across continents.
if it really is an audio amplifier, im impressed i thought it was some kind of lab/HF equipment still, i would rather "settle" with audio research, or similar they might not be as good, but WAY more elegant and practical but, hat off for the owner of this monster..definately HARD CORE
Okay, WHAT Is inside that frequency counter? Dekatrons? I'm intrigued..... LOVE that Nixie display that blanks out during the counting cycles (no latches!!)
Is that basically a Spark Gap inside those tubes that is making them glow and pulsate like that? (I am assuming you are changing the frequency multiple times per minute to make the pulsations)
I am almost sure that what we are seeing as 'interference' using these low audio frequencies is interaction with the 3 phase power that operates the amplifier. I have seen the schematic for this amp and it needs 3 phase primary power to make all of those watts. This is very old technology that was pretty novel in its day.
+AssAlarmMyLincoln Im not sure about these things but would it be anything to do with trying to keep AC 50HZ hum to a minimum. There is no hum with pure DC
Its a legitimate question. Sometimes retailers would cheat and advertize their sound system with the power they suck out of the grid in Watt and not with the music output in Watt, which is always less.
How much voltage would be needed to create x rays?,Its good to know a threshold of such :P,and commonly working with modern components, Ive been wondering what kind of vaccum tubes where used in logic applications, would any random triodes work, as most transistors do?, or would you specifically need/prefer a low voltage triode?
Actually if 1000W is the output, then the input must be greater than 1000W. I would say a large tube amp needs that much power, with all the energy lost as light and heat.
"///.Esse é um circuito de "Amplificador Valvulado superpotente ainda em uso nos Estados Unidos e em outros países da Europa.Válvulas ainda são fabricadas na China e Rússia,mas para possuí-las é necessário importá-las sob encomendas"//.
Yep it's a tetrode the mercury rect should be either screen or bias supply most likely bias the plate voltage is from 2000 or more volts hmm wait a moment, mercury rectifiers are for low voltage high current and this is a filament direct catode tube then they must be rectifiers for the filament voltage which must be DC to avoid any hum without the diagram or looking at the wireing I could only guess.
Damn,,,!! if that thing used for guitar amplifier and put distortion channel on it..then play on full gain of metal riff....it will be blow the moon...!!! I wanna that thing...!!!!
Whats so funny about that? You do know that to have music output of 50 watts, the unit must have an input higher than 50 watts. I am not talking about the music input, but you probably already did NOT know that.
Did ya ever wonder if these tubes are "hard" with a large voltage drop and emitting -rays? Why not get a meter and see. I used tube rectifiers decades ago, when they age, they drop large volts across them emit lots of xrays..........really. It's your health...
@claycountyredneck
It's an old Philips amplifier. They were all built to order, and were used mainly in stadiums and concert halls. The output tubes are QB3/750 transmitting tetrodes, driven very conservatively as I understand it. It was made to be run on 3-phase power.
This appears to be an audio amplifier being fed w/ a low freq. AF signal. The tubes seen glowing blue are the now-obsolete mercury vapor rectifiers used to feed the HV DC to the two final amplifier tubes (the HV anode connections to the top of the PA tubes can be seen just above the panel containg the meter). The orange glow of the PA tube's heaters are also visible there.
10 downvotes? How dare you people. This has to be one of the very finest pieces of audio gear every produced. Objective / subjectives listening notwithstanding, get a decent life.
Once owned an HP 524D (all vacuum tube digital freq counter including multiple 5R4 rectifier tubes and utilizing a vertical 'readout' comprised of neon tubes behind 0 - 9 numerals) with the 'pre-scaling' plug-in making it good to 150 MHz ... used to use it to heat a room in winter while it was in use .. had a 10" (25.4 cm) cooling fan in the back for forced-air cooling!
Enjoyed the vid, thanks for making it ...
.
This is as satisfying as watching the flicker from a wood fire, in an odd sort of way...
Behold the might of ANALOG! Haha, that's some really neat stuff right here. Wow.
That is super cool, and I am equally impressed with your hp 521 counter. You are going to think I am lying, but I bought one of those this last Sunday....well, with the individual decade counters & thermometer display style and I've gotten it to work. I love old tube gear! Wish it wasn't so heavy, big and didn't heat up the room. Naah, that's all OK.
The transition from UV to x-ray to gammy-ray is continuous, so to ask for a threshold is like asking at what weight you're fat ;)
However soft x-rays are considered to have energies in the range 100 eV to 5 keV and can therefore be produced with voltages from 100 V to 5 kV, but those won't even be able to penetrate the glass of the tube (for example less than 0.1 mm attenuation length in water). So below 5 kV you probably won't have to worry about x-rays.
As a guitar player I prefer solid state rectification in my tube amps, but as an organist I prefer tube rectifiers. Then again, maybe i would enjoy swapping out my 5U4's in my old 46' Wurlitzer 310 Vibrato tone cabinet. This was one of Don Leslie's first designs for a rotating baffle for tremulent emulation. In theater pipe organs the tremulent rapidly oscillates the airflow, resulting in a corresponding pleasant quivering of both pitch & volume. Google Don Leslie's incredible organ speakers.
Cool diodes. You can clearly see the directly heated cathodes and plates. All those tubes must have been before the first half of the 20th century
Philips made some real cool stuff back in the days. Thats an EL6471 1000Watt amp.
good to see that youre not only controlling the Hz but the line voltage as well - i was a bit concerned about the HV rising beyond its limits as the Hz got lower.
MV= Mercury vapour. The mercury glows with very fierce UV, and converts the AC to DC in the process. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-arc_valve
How about making another video so we can see the amplifier. Show us some power output into a dummy load, THD or something like that. The MV rectifiers are beautiful - 3 phase I assume? I used MV rectifiers in a HP AM transmitter many years ago. The fact that they glow blue saved my life as I almost accidentally grabbed one once (while it was on) but the blue glow alerted me just in time to basically save my life. Never drank beer while working on HV after that...
Of course not. The dc-current is not affected by the processes within the rectifier. Especially because the tubes ionisise more gas with rising load, the output voltage is hold nearly stable. And a pulsing load affects a pulsing (contra) regulation process. And at low frequencies you can see this.
@supermanjamil1992 its a tube amp used in the older days and now only the more exspensive amps have tubes such a better and warmer sound quality
@nakayle I agree, valve technology still produces the best audio iv ever heard, its punchy, warm and pure bliss to listen to =]
@srkh28 The things that are glowing blue are Mercury Vapor Rectifiers, and that's how they look, just out of frame on this video are two large tube final amplifiers with a nice warm glow.
Would love to know more about these amps. Where did you get this? How old is it....and what was it originally used for? Stunning piece.
The Tube-Amp Myth:.
Well designed Transistor-Amps, produce extremely low noise & very low harmonic distortion..
Unfortunately, they also produce transient distortion, predominantly a 3rd, or uneven harmonic distortion, which for some, (including myself) find jarring to the ear, destroying the illusion.
Tube-Amps on the other hand, produce a ton of noise and predominantly 2nd, or even harmonic distortion, which simply sounds less offensive to the ear, and somehow enhances the illusion
@claycountyredneck
Your last sentence answers your question- Silicon rectifiers are boring!!
And they give no visual indication that they are working or of the current load.
jamil, this is tube amplifier,,,,better sound and clarity than transistor.,
Is this an ex-Cinema amp? I never heard of one that large for audio. Usually massive amps using DA250 valves (one pair = 1,600w in push-pull) where in football stadiums, ocean liners or more usually pushing telephone signals across continents.
That amp looks so damn badass
this is nice, can impress the viewers!
if it really is an audio amplifier, im impressed
i thought it was some kind of lab/HF equipment
still, i would rather "settle" with audio research, or similar
they might not be as good, but WAY more elegant and practical
but, hat off for the owner of this monster..definately HARD CORE
Are those Eimac triodes with plates glowing? Look sort of like 3-500Zs.
this is sorcery
holy shit acdc needed one of these at donington
Well, that beats the snot out of TV. Put on a little Fleetwood Mac, and watch the pretty lights.
@supermanjamil1992 Its a very large very cool tube amplifier. It does the same thing your amp for your guitar does but on a larger scale
This is something that Spinal Tap will be interested on
Okay, WHAT Is inside that frequency counter? Dekatrons? I'm intrigued..... LOVE that Nixie display that blanks out during the counting cycles (no latches!!)
they aren't nixie tubes but a rear projection incandescent digit display
Is that basically a Spark Gap inside those tubes that is making them glow and pulsate like that? (I am assuming you are changing the frequency multiple times per minute to make the pulsations)
maybe theres a special gas inside the tubes which is emitting light when theres electricity
it's mercury vapor rectifier
See ! It's alive ! Alive I tell you !
are the two bulbous valves at the font diodes? the ones with the visible hot element, square plate and kidney shaped plasma round them??
I am almost sure that what we are seeing as 'interference' using these low audio frequencies is interaction with the 3 phase power that operates the amplifier. I have seen the schematic for this amp and it needs 3 phase primary power to make all of those watts. This is very old technology that was pretty novel in its day.
Why couldn't they have ever made an AC powered amplifier that would use both current phases, instead of always rectifying it to DC?
+AssAlarmMyLincoln Im not sure about these things but would it be anything to do with trying to keep AC 50HZ hum to a minimum. There is no hum with pure DC
This is an audio amplifier? Where can I learn more about it? I MUST KNOW MORE.
electronics are just magic!!!
that looks scary as fuck, I WANT IT ON STAGE!
I am assuming that this is an Audio amplifier?? Still, nice too see vintage gear kept in working order :)
Its a legitimate question. Sometimes retailers would cheat and advertize their sound system with the power they suck out of the grid in Watt and not with the music output in Watt, which is always less.
Cool nixie tube counter!
@omfgg3tlost 8 Ohms are connected, 10 ohms would be the exact load impedance
How much voltage would be needed to create x rays?,Its good to know a threshold of such :P,and commonly working with modern components, Ive been wondering what kind of vaccum tubes where used in logic applications, would any random triodes work, as most transistors do?, or would you specifically need/prefer a low voltage triode?
BumboCLaat! you have so much power
Genial!!!!
I turned down my headphones in fear.
thumbs up for nixie tubes
they aren't nixie tubes but a rear projection incandescent digit display
this is the Fallout 3 Radio !
what makes the tubes glow blue smoke? and flicker? mine are orange when on
GREAT absolutely great
@supermanjamil1992
Its probably a vintage PA amplifier.
i always liked blue glows on tubes.
how the heck do you want to get a 1000W input
i mean what amp has so much power that it needs to be driven by 1000W
Actually if 1000W is the output, then the input must be greater than 1000W. I would say a large tube amp needs that much power, with all the energy lost as light and heat.
I don't mean to be a jerk....but could someone please explain to me what this is and does??? I'm honestly curious as a guitarist.
This is what the dwarves use to detect orcs.
Is 1000 Watt the input or the output?
can i hook it up with my ipod?
I'm thinking it's a transmitter amplifier either am or ham not sure though.
"///.Esse é um circuito de "Amplificador Valvulado superpotente ainda em uso nos Estados Unidos e em outros países da Europa.Válvulas ainda são fabricadas na China e Rússia,mas para possuí-las é necessário importá-las sob encomendas"//.
Was this used to revive frankenstein?
I wouldn't get too close to those tubes, it's probably not healthy. Very cool amp though!
I had a small old tube amp and the power tube would glow blue....not so with all my other tube amps....why?
I love that amp
Groovy.
What type of Furnace is this again????
What is it for ?
nice, and, also, why I avoid tube rectification.
@histelek DC current?
Direct current current?
Yep it's a tetrode the mercury rect should be either screen or bias supply most likely bias the plate voltage is from 2000 or more volts hmm wait a moment, mercury rectifiers are for low voltage high current and this is a filament direct catode tube then they must be rectifiers for the filament voltage which must be DC to avoid any hum without the diagram or looking at the wireing I could only guess.
Damn,,,!! if that thing used for guitar amplifier and put distortion channel on it..then play on full gain of metal riff....it will be blow the moon...!!! I wanna that thing...!!!!
What is this used for?
those are indeed nix tubes made by Burroughs
Hows 'yer electric bill these days?
MV rectifiers rock...! :D
funny you say that, these work on the same principle as tubes from tube tvs
am i seing a super heterodyne?
1000watts at what ohms 8?
Peter green Fleetwood mac?
But -can I heat my house with it too?
nice
what's its input??
Nice!
This is rectifier mercury 👍🏻
Use this as a guitar tube head and I guarantee you will not need to mic it, ever! You would probably need 2 full stacks just to make it work though.
Can I play guitar on this amp ??? :D
@beou1980 actually... they are science :-)
Oh yeah... They will flicker at a gig too!
Whats so funny about that? You do know that to have music output of 50 watts, the unit must have an input higher than 50 watts. I am not talking about the music input, but you probably already did NOT know that.
no, I hope I will get one some day...
Did ya ever wonder if these tubes are "hard" with a large voltage drop and emitting -rays? Why not get a meter and see. I used tube rectifiers decades ago, when they age, they drop large volts across them emit lots of xrays..........really. It's your health...
?????? e ai??????que dê o som, mais parece um compressor de ar para asmatico do que não sei o que.
@Triodus09 In line 6, like a Supra.:)
@cassius969 output!
my impression or this ionizing the air?
X-ray detected
I want this one ... lol
mercury fapor tubes
those are only for rectifien the power
nixie tube frequency counter :)
Propane powered amplifier.