Sound Valves

Anyone know what happened to them????

 

Sound Valves AKA "soundvalves.com" AKA "Sound Values"

Purchased the "what was left of" Dynaco company and reissued reproductions of the PAS3 and ST-70 though 2002. Then POOF......
GONE........!! Disappeared like DCC!!!

 

Oh yeah....Sheesh, I got one of their stupid boards on one of my Dynaco's. They're pretty much gone, along with the overpriced tubes. The board is actually OK, but really had been surpassed with other "drop in" replacements. Heck, 7199's aren't rare, but sparce and rarely go FOOM, so why buy a replacement board they doesn't sound that different to a 7199 one? MHO...

I think they went out a year or so ago...

What were you lookin' for?

 

Have one of their preamps... Sounds great... Never bought ant of their other stuff. Just gutted the original boards of my ST-70 and restuffed them.
I DID use the cap board from Triode Elec. in Chicago. That worked out REALLY WELL!! They would sell allot of the NOS Dyna stuff on Ebay. Haven't seen any of that stuff around!!

 

I think they were based right here in Columbus, Ohio. I found their web page when I first started getting interested in tubes. I called and received no answer. They weren't sold in any stores and the impression was that they didn't let you come down and listen. Think it was just a mail order business. Heck, a Jolida 202A was comparable as far as power output and price and you didn't have to build it yourself. (not that I'm endorsing Jolida BTW)

If your looking for a kit that uses EL34's there's a few out there. I won't slam what I haven't heard myself but how it will sound compared to vintage gear is anyone's guess.

 

Bill,
Nice to see you posting again! I see you've upgraded some of your equipment. I have one of the Sound Valves/ Panor PAS-4 preamps that is one of my favorites. I've bought and sold a bunch of pre's but I'M hanging on to this one. Nice Chrome face, great sound with Telefunken's and Amperex's. Nice build quality, too.

Anybody else have any info on what happened to that company?

 

Yes, in fact there is one guy out there on eBay that grows Dynaco stuff on trees outside his house. Donno how, but he always trannys, boards, caps and socket boards for ST70's. I think it's lowtechelec or something like that.

With all due respect to soundvalves, more is out there for cheaper or the same money on eBay. Unless your quad cap is actually gone, the bridge, the .02 caps or the other bias stuff, there's NOTHING wrong with having original parts. Most of the Black Cat caps or the Pyramid caps on some of the original 7199 boards will kick ass. The vocal area of the midrange is magical.

Now, the SV board achieved the same basic pre-amp boost using less voltage and better tubes, but the sonic improvement, at least to me, is debatable. Electronically, the original 7199 boards are king.

The Cap board from Triodeel is actually really very fine. Stability of the ST70 is tighter, and the bottom end becomes smoother. I'd rather have the can cap there for originality, but on one of my ST70's, built from scratch, an original can with decent low hours wasn't going to happen. I noticed the board doesn't always fit perfectly, I had to stand off the power tranny about 1/4" using washers, or the board was going to ground out on a bolt protruding through.

But that being said, there's tons and I mean TONS of original parts floating around, and if I can build a whole ST70 from scratch using odd parts from here and there within 2 months, that's gotta be good...

Right now, the most stable and most used ST70 in the house is the most modified, the one I built from scratch. National Electronics Chinese El34 tubes, a real generic OEM Chinese 5AR4, the 7199's are Sovtek. I haven't had to take it down for tubes for quite a long time, and doesn't mind getting pushed.... Hope that helps...

 

Glad to see the Dynas are still treating you good. I passed mine on for my Fishers. Sometimes I miss it.... Sometimes I don't. It sure looked good though. One of these days I might get another one to tweek with if I have the time.... .... Yea Right ! Stop stalking me Dean!!!....

 

BTW.... Lowelec or whoever he is.... Buys the whole unit on ebay then guts em!! That's where he gets it all!!! Go figure... WE spend HOURS putting them back together whilst he rips em apart!! And makes a small fortune at it I might add.....

 

Yep, he found a market and tapped into it. I always wondered why he would take apart a perfectly good set. He's a tad expensive, but he's got what you need....

 

Just an update... L@@K who's back in town!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3038804745&category=3284

 

I've purchased from lowtech several times. There's more money in gutting out those Dynaco amps if you think about it - an amp with a rusty chassis/cage won't get top dollar, but can yield a pile of goodies like transformers, boards, and hardware so if you like to rebuild you don't have to use new parts that will change the sound. He's near D.C., so he probably can hit yard sales in well-to-do neighborhoods - lotta money out that way. Be glad he does this, cause where else you gonna find working parts so readily available to keep things stock?

As for Sound Values, I found an old catalog they put out right around the time of the Dynaco parts buyout; the prices would make you cry for ST-70 kits....

A good place to look into for upgrading is at Joe Curcio's site - he'll answer questions and their literature is extremely helpful:

http://www.curcioaudio.com/dynadr_3.htm