New Vox Valvetronix Series on the way

[marnold***]

Hey, I _like_ the cheese grater! Not only is cheese a cherished way of life up here in artery-clogged Wisconsin, it keeps the speaker nice and safe from the feet of small children.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Hey, I _like_ the cheese grater! Not only is cheese a cherished way of life up here in artery-clogged Wisconsin, it keeps the speaker nice and safe from the feet of small children.

Yup, I'm a cheesegrater fan as well.

I think the VOX diamond grill cloth is ugly.

[TS808]

Yup, I'm a cheesegrater fan as well.

I think the VOX diamond grill cloth is ugly.

I painted my cheese grater flat black.

[Duff]

That Black Diamond is supposed to be a really awesome amp and this whole series of amps has been highly protected behind a heavy curtain of secrecy.

Supposedly the industry is very highly competitive with survival being something that is very important and the development of a new amph from the ground up is not a light endeavor. I'm sure they constantly reverse engineer each other's stuff regularly.

I'd buy a blow out Cheese Grater 50 or 50 two twelve or 100, definitely, if the price was right, which it probably will be. I love my little DA5 and it isn't even a valvetronix.

I did some repairs on my DA5 the other night. The power plug jack was not working. I took it apart, the cabinet, and spotted some broken solder joints at the power plug jack and heated it up and added a small amount of new solder. The I notices some semi microscopic breaks in the trace right at the same spot and heated them up gently with a pencil fifteen watt weller iron. Added a small amt of solder and it works great. I almost always use flux. Flux will greatly, greatly help you with your soldering jobs if you are just learning how to solder.

Flux is a paste that when brushed on the joint to be soldered burns off rapidly when you hit the area with a hot soldering iron. It burns off impurities, oil, etc., and prepares the solder joint to accept solder for optimum adherence, then you apply some very thin solder and it flows and sticks well instead of beading up and rolling off.

Also, flux core solder, a good thing, is NOT a substitute for using brush on paste flux.

I have been soldering before I knew how to read and I'm still not a master. If you can solder, you can fix a lot of things and put in new pups, etc.

I'd love one of those Black Diamonds but will settle for a blow out chromie 50 or preferably 100. Should have gotten a AD60VTX back when I was looking at them. I guess these are what the Black Diamond is replacing due to design improvements suggested from various quarters.

Duff

[Duff]

Check this dude out. This is the one that has been behind the curtain of security and is supposed to be the long awaited replacement for the discontinued AD60 and 120VTX. Should have an all tube power section with a lot of other things, as you can see, plus a large price tag.

Quote from the Vox link page below. This is supposedly a very important design change suggested by a prominent amp expert and possibly taken seriously by Vox, in conjunction, of course, with their crew of expert professionals:

"...the 12AX7 vacuum tube typically used in a preamp is operated as the power amp. Since the 12AX7 is a dual triode tube, it allows the push-pull circuit seen in many guitar amps to be created using just one vacuum tube. However even if this small vacuum tube is operated as a power amp, it will naturally produce only a very small output. Thus, it is connected to the VariAmp power circuit which merely increases the output power in a very clean way, and a special circuit that applies the varying impedance of the driven speaker to the vacuum tube. The result is that using just a small 12AX7 vacuum tube that can be easily obtained anywhere, we can obtain the same response and playing feel of an all-tube amp."

The old valvetronix amps, AD30VT, etc., had only a tube preamp and this was thought in some circles to be a good idea but that the tube would have had a better effect if linked to the power amp section, for tone,etc.

This new design, therefore, is seen by some to be a MAJOR design improvement and suggests that this amp will be awesome and very sought after, despite its reputably high price tag.


Sure looks like a great item.

Maybe I'll be able to get an AD100VT soon.

I hope this info is found helpful to some of us that are both familiar with this issue as well as those that have not heard about this important aspect of modeling amp design.

Link to the full description page: http://www.voxamps.co.uk/valvetronix/blackdiamond.asp

[tot_Ou_tard]

Check this dude out. This is the one that has been behind the curtain of security and is supposed to be the long awaited replacement for the discontinued AD60 and 120VTX. Should have an all tube power section with a lot of other things, as you can see, plus a large price tag.

Quote from the Vox link page below. This is supposedly a very important design change suggested by a prominent amp expert and possibly taken seriously by Vox, in conjunction, of course, with their crew of expert professionals:

"...the 12AX7 vacuum tube typically used in a preamp is operated as the power amp. Since the 12AX7 is a dual triode tube, it allows the push-pull circuit seen in many guitar amps to be created using just one vacuum tube. However even if this small vacuum tube is operated as a power amp, it will naturally produce only a very small output. Thus, it is connected to the VariAmp power circuit which merely increases the output power in a very clean way, and a special circuit that applies the varying impedance of the driven speaker to the vacuum tube. The result is that using just a small 12AX7 vacuum tube that can be easily obtained anywhere, we can obtain the same response and playing feel of an all-tube amp."

The old valvetronix amps, AD30VT, etc., had only a tube preamp and this was thought in some circles to be a good idea but that the tube would have had a better effect if linked to the power amp section, for tone,etc.

This new design, therefore, is seen by some to be a MAJOR design improvement and suggests that this amp will be awesome and very sought after, despite its reputably high price tag.

I think that you are a bit confused Duff. That is the way all Valvetronix amps have always worked.

The 12AX7 has always come after the all-digital preamp & is used as a very small class A (one triode) or Class A/B (both triodes) power amp. This 12AX7 power is followed by a very clean solid state amp (VariAmp) with an adjustable wattage to bring the volume up to the spec'd wattage. I believe that the speaker impedance feedback mentioned above comes from a dummy speaker load located before the VariAmp. This is also why the adjusting the wattage on the back works so well.



You are simply turning down the clean solid-state power amp & are thus not affecting the tone or feel at all--save for the fact that the brain perceives timbre differently at different volumes.

For the latter problem you'd need to mod your brain.

[tunghaichuan***]

I wonder why Vox went with a 12AX7 for this design? The 12AX7 can work as a power tube, but isn't really suited to it. A better choice would have been the 12AU7. Even though it is a "preamp tube" (technically a small signal dual triode) it is a better current amplifier, which is what power amp tubes are. In fact, the 12AU7 is used in the 1.5w Firefly which Shiner and Vood have built.

The only thing I can think of is that the 12AX7 is still made by a bunch of manufacturers. I don't know if the 12AU7 is still in production, and even if it is, it probably is not made in the quantities that the 12AX7 is.

tung

[tot_Ou_tard]

I wonder why Vox went with a 12AX7 for this design? The 12AX7 can work as a power tube, but isn't really suited to it. A better choice would have been the 12AU7. Even though it is a "preamp tube" (technically a small signal dual triode) it is a better current amplifier, which is what power amp tubes are. In fact, the 12AU7 is used in the 1.5w Firefly which Shiner and Vood have built.

The only thing I can think of is that the 12AX7 is still made by a bunch of manufacturers. I don't know if the 12AU7 is still in production, and even if it is, it probably is not made in the quantities that the 12AX7 is.

tung

I'll try a 12AU7 in my Tonelab. I'll use the tube trim mode to make sure the output is what the AD converter that comes after the tube expects.

[just strum]

The 15 and 30 are suppose to be available end of October and the 30 has a MSRP of $375.00. What is the adjustment on amps for street value?

[tot_Ou_tard]

The 15 and 30 are suppose to be available end of October and the 30 has a MSRP of $375.00. What is the adjustment on amps for street value?

According to Musician's Friend the old model AD30VT has an MSRP of $350.00 & now sells for $249.00. So I'd say that that the VT30 might sell for $274.00.

Anyone lusting for an AD series amph should keep their eyes peeled for a blowout.