Monday, January 29, 2024

German made EL3N - “Puissance” - triode strapped amp



















 This time with a German made EL3N NOS NIB, new Svetlana 6N1P and Sylvania 5U4GB NOS NIB.

Interstage caps are Mundorf Supremes which I have used in a number of amps. Big and expensive but sound good. Hammond power tranni and Asian OPTs. The OPTs were meant to have the UL tap but didn’t. This amp then is triode strapped. Base is heavy and of blonde fine grain timber. Top plate is 2mm Al.

The EL3N sockets are made in Japan and are CNCed from a block of teflon with phosphor bronze contacts. Again expensive. PS is double Pi with 247uf of caps and a 5H choke. Total current drain is low and just over 20mA. The sound is big and warm with lots of drive. Though triode strapped it sounds very similar to my French tube SE UL version