Please excuse the title, around 7 years ago I bought this amp, at the time it was a mystery item, I really tried to get advice on other forums, unfortunately everyone seemed to have an SP3mkii, no one had seen the guts of mine, I did try to contact Melody by email but they never responded.
So my amp is black, marked anniversary edition, with .4v bias, no pio caps and were all .22uf and look like small round mkp. No idea whether the previous owner replaced them though, but the solder joints did not really look like replacements. Volume is not a stepped attenuator, circuit board is marked SP8.
12AX7 in front, 6922 in second, 12AU7 in third and 5881 power tubes.No AV123 to refer to now.I have read as much as possible over the www for tubes, but my issue is this amp is so bright, and seems to really lack bottom end grunt across all my vinyl.I have increased all caps to .57uf by piggybacking mundorf mkp across
Turntable is Luxman PD375 cart is Shire V15 type V-b in ex condition. Preamp is Lesbox m23b which is a Yaqin mod running Svetlana 12AX7 winged c.
SP8/3 I have Siemens nos 12AX7, Siemens nos, 6922, stock Melody 12AU7 which are prob Shuguang and stock Melody 5881 which again are prob Shuguang.
I have CBS 5963 on the way, shiny black plates D foil getter but I cannot find any info on CBS date codes or Hytron date codes, they are only marked with DE and VP, no idea, as nothing on these tubes has any USA manufac codes that I can see, but these tubes I have been told will have very little effect on audio output. I also ordered 6p3s-e quad from ukraine with 1980 date codes with the usual flying saucer getter.
I did do my research as you can see i am on a tight budget, even affording these on ebay was a stretch.
So not sure what to do or what to try, my speakers are floor Atlanta APC 3000 which are 3 way which I have had since early 90's reformed the mid and 10 inch drivers x2 in each speaker and replaced the tired capes with same value mundorf map.
Open to suggestions, I am no audiophile but through the SP8/3 the audio is out of balance with no kick, its fine at low volume, but tiring and bites if you want enough kick drum which I do.
My second ss integrated is a Pioneer VSX AX4ASi which is nice and I can go 2 channel and utilise bass/treble and one of my 12inch subs to get the bottom end if i want to shake the lounge chairs from time to time.
I am no electronics expert, but perfectly capable of basic understanding and soldering and enjoy modding and kit electronics.
