History of Tripletone Amplifiers?

[snowman_al]

I've had and repaired a few Tripletones over the years. Easy to repair and nice transformers.
They were cleverly engineered and obviously 'made to a price'. They performed adequately for their market place I guess, but I cannot say I ever got on with them. Though both of these went to Korea...

IMO best of the bunch was the Major 12 watt, EL84 PP amp.
Worst was the stereo 6BW6 SE amplifier.

[Nuvistor]

Photos from John.

[John10b]

Many thanks to Frank for inserting these pictures.
I hope these are ok RojDW48.
The plastic facia had a hole already drilled in it when I bought it many year ago, most unfortunate.
Cheers
John

[John10b]

From the pictures you can see that Tripletone design engineers Designed the amps to be Used in a stere setup, as heatercathodeshort pointed out in his post.
Cheers
John

[wd40addict]

Has anyone got a circuit diagram of a valve model showing the tone section? This is the interesting bit.

[RojDW48]

That's nice to see John. That hole is where the pilot light is on my older integrated Tripletone but it wouldn't have been designed to cut into the 'middle' tag I'm sure!

[Techman]

I once had one of the single mono ones shown above, but it got 'lost' in a move around 1983

[Edward Huggins]

Originally Posted by wd40addict

Has anyone got a circuit diagram of a valve model showing the tone section? This is the interesting bit.

The tone control circuitry varied from the basic "cut only" type (very crudely, it's like 3 volume controls in series) to a far more sophisticated circuit on the higher power models. It all depends on which type you are inteseted in.

[wd40addict]

The sophisticated circuit would be interesting. I don't own a Tripletone so am just curious from an engineering point of view.

[Techman]

Here's my remaining Tripletone amplifier with all metal front panel. It hasn't seen any mains for at least 30 years and is totally original inside as far as I can remember - I haven't taken the covers off for a very long time.

[Edward Huggins]

This looks very simlar to the Tripletone "Stereo 8-8" pre-amplifier which had a plastic fascia. Well worth powering it - who knows, it might well work!

I sold my complete, re-capped, Stereo 8-8 rig + Mono FM Tuner, to a Gentleman in Italy for £430. I miss it now!

[Techman]

I took your advice and powered it up, Edward (as if someone like me would need an excuse to give something like this the mains), anyway, I would have blamed you if it had gone bang! Edward told me to do it!

I took the top cover off and as can be seen in the first two pictures it was absolutely filthy from years of loft storage.

I took the bottom cover off and it was much cleaner from below.

Investigation showed that the on/off switch was o/c on both poles.

I managed to provoke one of the poles of the switch to make contact, but had to link the other one out with a croc lead.

I applied mains and the amplifier worked with hum from both speakers when the inputs were touched. I ran it up several times for no more than about 30 seconds at a time due to the likelihood of there being some leaky coupling capacitors. I didn't take any voltage readings, but nothing smoked and the main smoother remained cold. There was also some crackling from the volume control pot on one of the channels, so the whole thing will need a good clean and switch clean, and a thorough going over.

So the amplifier works, but will obviously need servicing. I think it could be as long as the late 1970s since this amplifier last saw any power. I'd forgotten that the neon front indicator lamp runs from the HT supply, so doesn't come on instantly, but lights once the rectifier valve has warmed up and HT is supplied. Last picture below shows it powered up.

[thermionic]

Just be aware that those Hunts red coupling capacitors WILL be leaky!

These sound quite nice through sensitive speakers, I’ve repaired a couple over the last few years. Well worth sorting out and enjoying their company.

Cheers. SimonT.

[Edward Huggins]

Well done! On this model both stages of the ECC83 are used, so there was sufficient gain for decent tone controls. So after your trepidations, how does it sound?

[John10b]

Techman in the pics you sent in I note there is a control marked SELECTOR, what does this allow you to select, different pickups or tuner etc ?
I am not familiar with the range of Tripletone products and I only have the very basic amps.
Cheers
John

[Techman]

Those Hunts capacitors look delicious in that colour, but they're likely to be electrically leaky by now and due to this being an amplifier they'll all be in critical positions. I only did a 'buzz' test Edward, so haven't really tested it for actual sound - that'll have to be after a look at those coupling capacitors etc.

The selector switch is basically to select between stereo and mono etc., but there's different input sockets on the back - I'll investigate further when I get round to giving it a proper service. I did originally use this amplifier for a while, but it's so long ago (40 odd years) that I've forgotten the exact sequence and didn't want to go twiddling that switch with so much muck on it until I've given the innards a good blow out, then I'll get the switch cleaner on it.

[RojDW48]

Mine is just like Phil's (but with a plastic fascia masquerading as metal). It's connected to this computer and runs into a pair of Dual CL270s. I have used it for about 2 or 3 hours a day on average for the last 4 or 5 years. I am very fond of it - it makes a nice noise.

[Edward Huggins]

Originally Posted by John10b

Techman in the pics you sent in I note there is a control marked SELECTOR, what does this allow you to select, different pickups or tuner etc?

As to the PU input options there is only one on this - for Crystal/Ceramic only.

[hifiltdstaffs]

Originally Posted by snowman_al

I've had and repaired a few Tripletones over the years. Easy to repair and nice transformers.
They were cleverly engineered and obviously 'made to a price'. They performed adequately for their market place I guess, but I cannot say I ever got on with them. Though both of these went to Korea...

IMO best of the bunch was the Major 12 watt, EL84 PP amp.
Worst was the stereo 6BW6 SE amplifier.

Hi, Snowman. I've just bought a Turntable on eBay and a Trippletone amp basically came free with it. I haven't been able to look inside it yet but as you can see in the pics its a Stereo model. Any idea what model it might be?

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I am really excited to finally get a valve amp to try out a pair of Wharfedale E50 speakers I've had for ages. They where supposedly designed to work well with valves being very efficient etc. Will be interesting to see how they sound. I realise I'll have to replace capacitors etc and take certain precautions before fist powering the amp up.

Thanks.

[snowman_al]

Just a guess; Transistor 8+8 MkII. (2 x 8 watts)
Not a valve amp in that sleeve, no ventilation.
The C/M switch on the back would possibly be to switch between Ceramic or Magnetic phono cartridges. That was an option on the MkII.

Alan
PS. I have taken the liberty of re-posting your pictures. I think the sleeve is on backwards(?) the bevel should be at the front.