Particle Accelerator - Alembic F-2B clone

[vigilante398]

Thanks for the cool project, @vigilante398 !

Have you tried running clean preamps like this with submini tubes, e.g. 6n16b and 6n17b? If so, have you noticed any sonic difference compared to a 12ax7?

When I was first getting into tubes a few years back I had originally designed Particle Accelerator for 6N17B/6N21B. It sounded great and a lot of people liked it, but the submini tubes are more difficult to source, more difficult to swap, pull more current, and are much more likely to go microphonic. That's why I started moving over to 12AX7.

6N21B is also interesting because its gain factor (mu) is 82, putting it nicely in between 12AX7 at 100 and 12AT7 at 60. It has a great-sounding breakup and does well in tube overdrives. I also used it in a Hiwatt preamp, Ampeg preamp, Soldano preamp, and even Mesa preamp.

 

[Mike McLane]

I've been working on taking a Particle Accelerator into a Class D amp to drive a conventional speaker cab. Have gotten less than stellar results. The output was muddy. . . . workable, but muddy. I even bought a Milkman Amp 100 to find out what his secret was. . . no secret, his output directly into Class D was muddy, too. Finally thought to place a buffer to lower the output impedance of the PA into the Class D and VOILA the sparkle appeared . . . and a stronger signal as well! I A/B'd it against my Deluxe Reverb into the same speaker cab and got very favorable results. So now I want to test the PA in tandem with a Vampire Slayer. Any problem putting the PA output into a VS? Can I put them both in the same box and power them both from the same DC jack as long as I've got sufficient current (1A +/-)?

 

[vigilante398]

Any problem putting the PA output into a VS? Can I put them both in the same box and power them both from the same DC jack as long as I've got sufficient current (1A +/-)?

Nope, seems like a good idea.