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Since I never got around to building Eiclones, I tried a different approach and built P to P drivers for my MK-3s using the Ike circuit and octal tubes.

The tubes are 6SF5 for the VA and 6SN7 PI. It sounds excellent with EL34's but when I can afford (and find) another pair of Sylvania 6550 tubes to go along with the pair I have, the EL34's wil have to do.

That looks awesome !

Hi Terry,

Very impressive!! I'm not very familiar with either the Ike or the MK3. Can you explain a little more what you have there? Looks like: MK3 chassis (Triode Elec?), xx cap board, and the VA-PI are pt-pt wired. What trannys did you use? Whose cap board is that? And I presume the driver circuit is the Ike? 5U4G or 5AR4? I want to build a "big" PP one of these days, and yours is a likely candidate!

The transformers and cap-board are new from Triode, the chassis came from Soundtastic (no longer in business). You can get a much better stainless chassis from Triode or Dynakitparts.

Yes the driver circuitry is a P to P version of the Eiclone. The Mk3 Poseidon and Eiclone circuits are almost the same except the Ike doesn't use the CCS.

Right now I'm using a 5U4G rectifier and EL34's. Depending on what output tubes I finally get I will use a 5R4 potato masher with EL34 and 6550 types, and SS diodes if I go with a KT90 or EL509.

I finally made up my mind and went with the repro Tung-Sol 6550 tubes. The quality of the glass is very good, no lumpy tops and none of them lean to one side. They sound EXCELLENT and at a decent price! Also scored a pair of 5R4WGB, they look cool and knock down the B+ close to original values.

I'd SWAG the Sovtek, EHX, Tung-Sol and the Genelex 6550/KT88 repros all have the same innards, at least they look like it. The Genelex is about twice the $$ as the others, I wonder if there's really a difference?

These are beautiful! Thanks for sharing the excellent pics. It only tatalizes our desire to build more quality amps. I really like your choices of parts, layout, circuit. No cost cutting parts. Nice job! I'd be curious to how they compare to other amps. I'm gonna start new thread on my Posidons, because they don't sound that good. But I want to have a pair of 60 watt amps in my collection to drive those hungry speakers I come across... Very Cool !!