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Vintage Tape (Audio), Cassette, Wire and Magnetic Disc Recorders and Players Open-reel tape recorders, cassette recorders, 8-track players etc.

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Old 17th Jan 2019, 6:35 pm   #1
Clockwork_TV
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Default Philips EL3536 as an amplifier

Hi All

This tape recorder has a stereo valve amplifier in it so I thought it'd be interesting to try it as a straight hi-fi amp for my cd player and record deck.

I tried a couple of things -

I plugged the cd O/P then record deck preamp O/P into

1) the mic I/P and set the tape selection knob to PA – I could control the volume using the mic knob this worked though the sound distorted above ¼ turn. But this was loud enough.

2) Plugging into the 5 pin din I/P set to PA and using the radio knob to control volume. This I think sounded a little distorted whatever (I did this a while ago). I would have thought this is the 'proper' way to do it though?

Do these methods sound right?

Is the amplifier a good design anyway?

The mic I/P is very sensitive so could I use this instead of the preamp for the record deck?

Cheers
John
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Old 18th Jan 2019, 3:10 pm   #2
ricard
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Default Re: Philips EL3536 as an amplifier

The line level output of a CD or tape deck is principally probably too hot for any of the EL3536 inputs. The DIN standard for radio inputs specifies a much lower level than modern day equipment with Phono outputs.

Certainly the mic input, which feeds directly into the EF86 input pentode will overload. On the mono version of this machine, the EL3542, I seem to recall that the radio input feeds the corresponding level control before being passed on (to an ECC83 - the EF86 is bypassed by the radio input) so it should be possible to set a reasonable level that doesn't overload the rest of the amplifier. But I'm not sure how the EL3536 works, if the radio input in fact does hit a valve input before any attenuation can be performed.

If there is a gramophone input - which will be intended for a crystal or ceramic pick-up - you could try that, as that type of input in contrast to modern day inputs with RIAA correction design for moving coil cartridges usually have the lowest sensitivity of all and there is no equalization performed, as the cartridge would output a reasonably flat response without it, as long as the load impedance was high enough (the gramophone input input impedance is probably 1 megaohm or more).

The amplifier itself I believe is a run-of-the-mill design typical of its day, with a class A EL84 output valve probably delivering 3 W maximum.
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Old 18th Jan 2019, 11:55 pm   #3
wd40addict
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Default Re: Philips EL3536 as an amplifier

All inputs on the EL3536 go through a valve *before* any level control and the 2v output of a modern CD player will be too much. Specs are mic 2mv, radio 4mv & phono 150mv. Note the phono input is basically an attenuator in front of the radio input. Ricard is quite correct radio input on the EL3542 passes through the level control first and works fine with modern equipment (I have one).

If you really want to feed a CD into the EL3536 you will need to use an external attenuator.
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