User:Eeamps

My name is Steve White. I am a vacuum tube amplifier scratch builder from Peterborough Ontario Canada. I also go by the name “EMPIRE ELECTRON AMPLIFIERS” and “E E AMPS“. I am a one man operation building the entire amplifier myself by hand. I learned this old world art form from a well known and admired builder from California by the name of Lance Cochrane. As his apprentice, I worked very hard to develop and perfect my own style and master the electronic theories. In order to accommodate the various differences and characteristics of the different components I use (such as different tubes and transformers etc.), I must make changes in the circuit to achieve the best results in sound quality. This tuning is the make or break point in the successful completion of any amplifier. This can only be accomplished by listening and making the appropriate changes using your ears. Your ears will tell you if it sounds good or not, not any kind of measuring equipment. Those devices are simply not accurate enough. With that said, I have measured the T.H.D. (total harmonic distortion) on these units and they consistently read .0001 T.H.D., so if you like numbers, there you go. I am not only the designer and builder of the look of the amplifier, but I also make design changes to the schematic template I use in all of my vacuum tube amplifiers. This is the true definition of a scratch builder, one who builds all aspects of the amplifier including the circuit itself.

Handcrafting these amplifiers has been my calling and passion for quite sometime now and I am more than happy to share my work with all of you out there who are like me, passionate about great uncoloured sound reproduction. What I build are 100% handcrafted, one-of-a-kind, custom, never to be duplicated, signed and dated on the inside ~ as all great works of art should be, vacuum tube amplifiers. I build all three types of vacuum tube amplifiers, power, integrated and phono stage pre amplifiers. I will bet that once you’ve heard one of these amplifiers, you will say that it is the BEST sounding amplifier you’ve ever heard, and once you’ve seen one of these amplifiers, you’ll say it’s the most unique translation concept of electronics you’ve ever seen!

Please view my web site here http://vacuumtubeart.wordpress.com/

Born in Toronto Ontario Canada February 10 1966. Electronics has always been my calling. As a child my parents would find me taking something apart just to see how it worked, this used to drive them crazy! I then started making simple machines and electronic circuits by the age of five. My Dad used to say,.. “He’ll be an engineer if he doesn’t burn us out first!”

In high school I majored in electricity and electronics, with marks in the high 90′s, while my core subjects only saw minimal passing grades. My electrical teacher, Mr. Grant Soper who was the head of the technical department saw this potential in me and encouraged me to enter a project of a working model elevator I built at home during my spare time in the regional science fair. My model was a huge hit. People could actually work it themselves and that made it fun. I never thought the project was good enough to place in the standings, but the judges did and it took second place.

By the age of sixteen I had entered the work force and applied for a job in the manufacturing sector. It wasn’t long before I went from a general labourer to lead hand, and by the end of one year, shift supervisor. I was able to strip down every machine in the plant and repair or even rebuild it. Management saw my potential and capitalized on it. I was in-charge of a shift 18 workers strong and some were more than twice my age! Since the plastics field was so competitive back in the 1980′s, it wasn’t long before a competitor took notice of me and made me a better offer. So at the age of eighteen I was offered the position of “Electrical Maintenance Mechanic”. I was given an electrical/mechanical aptitude test to see if I was qualified for the position. I scored 98%, the highest score ever seen on that particular test. I was told that that test had been used for over 20 years and no one had ever scored more than 83%. Needless to say I got the job.

Time went on and I worked in the oil industry for 15 years until I decided I’d had enough. I took 2 other job offers in the next two years, but soon realized I had the means to “retire” and find my true calling in life. I was only 39 years old when I did this. I dabbled in a few other unfulfilling job positions and realized that I needed to do something much more rewarding. As fate would have it, I found Lance Cochrane, my mentor and teacher, and the rest, as they say, is history!