If you know thehifi products that Don Garber makes or if you’ve seen any of his ads from Sound Practices or if you are fortunate enough to own something made by Don, you’ll know he has an eye and attention for design. In general, I’d call it a distillation where the working process appears to be about removing the unnecessary rather than adding the superfluous. You won’t find any adornment for adornments sake on a product from Fi. What you will find is to my eyes some of the most exquisitely designed and cared forhifi products you can buy.
Fi 46 ‘test mule’, photo: Don Garber
The Fi that occasioned this event is the new Fi 46 monoblocks. “The project began as a continuing experiment with different possibilities for the 2A3 circuit—power supply options, an even lower operating point, different transformers, etc.— but a chance encounter with Gerry E. led to experimentation with the 46.”
Based on the circuit from the Fi 45 with a newly designed power supply, as the name suggests the 45 has been replaced by the 46. The 46 is a directly-heated, double-grid power amplifier tube produced from the 1930s through the ’40s. Here’s a description from December 1932 in Popular Mechanics: “It has great power output at relatively low plate voltage and is also capable of full volume range without overloading, or “blasting.” It has excellent fidelity at high volume and allows tone compensation in speaker circuits. For multiple-speaker installations, the C-46 is ideal. “Originally a multi-purpose tube, Grids 1 and 2 were connected together for use as push-pull Class B outputs, Grid 2 and the plate were connected together for use as a single-tube driver. Don mentioned a common implementation saw a single 46 driving a pair of itself which made tube replacement a single tube-type snap. Here, Don is using one 46 per side in single-ended triode mode for roughly 2 Watts of output power.
While the final design has not been completed, from Don’s description the finished Fi 46s will resemble the stacked layout of the Fi 2b preamp.
The idea for this amplifier and for trying the 46 tube came about from the experimentation and experiences of Gerry E. For those who are familiar with my Road Tours for 6moons, Gerry E was Exit 14 and his system included a lovely integrated amplifier designed and built by James Burgess based on the 45 power tube. Gerry started experimenting with the 46 tube back in late 2008 and he first posted about his experiences on the SET Asylum of Audio Asylum in March of 2009: “I like 46s better than any 45, current production or vintage old stock. This includes EML solid plate, TJ “mesh-plate”, Raytheon globe box-plate ER-245, Silvertone 45A, etc. Matter of fact, I have sold all of those and kept only several pairs of ST-shape 46s.”
At some point Don, intrigued by what Gerry was saying about the 46, picked up a few pair and started building. And here’s his comment to Gerry “…the 46 has sort of stopped me in my tracks. And I’ve hardly begun to listen to them.” And here’s something from Don in the initial email setting up this event, “The 45 sounded really good, but lately there’s been another tube in it that I think approaches being spectacular. A little more forward, detailed and downright lush. It’s this last that’s really got me.” This was back in August of this year and we finally got around to hanging around and listening the other night.
I live the lush life.
Then you came along with your siren of song
To tempt me to madness
Listening to music in Don Garber’s home is a feast for all of the senses. Everywhere you look—up, down, left, right, around and behind, there’s something fascinating. Something you want to explore, something you want to get to know better. This town home was built in the 1850s, Don moved in in 1969 and within minutes of arriving you feel enveloped by a warmth that comes from a home well-lived-in and lived in well.
We listened to hours of music. Don played us a track from Sacrificium: The Art of the Castrati [Decca 478 1521] featuring Cecilia Bartoli all over Geminiano Giacomelli’s “Sposa, non mi conosci” (“she sounds like a theremin” said Don and we all agreed) and later on the wonderful (and new to me) Wanda Jackson from Lovin’ Country Style who sounded like so many other wonderful country singers only better. Stephen brought and played a side from what sounds exactly like a record I must own – For the Ghosts Within on Domino featuring Robert Wyatt, Gilad Atzmon and Ros Stephen. We filled in the rest with some great blues, folk music, I’m Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die one of the wonderful Alan Lomax LPs from Mississippi Records (every track is simply stunning), Norwegian folk songs with improvised church organ accompaniment and more.
We also ate, drank and conversed about many things, mostly music, some talk ofhifi and vacuum tubes, art, Eames, Komuro’s forthcoming Type 50 amplifier (stay tuned) all accompanied by lots of laughter. Don is a wonderful and gracious host with a keen eye and ear for cracks in the veneer of pretense. I think one of his least favorite words is “favorite”.
I tend to agree with and appreciate this distinction so I won’t say the new Fi 46 monoblocks are my favorite Fi amplifier. Are they better than the 2A3, 45, 300B, or 421A? I’d suggest that depends on many things including your speakers and your tastes but I will say they sound different yet they sound like Fi.
One other bit of what is to me some greathifi news – the Fi X4 which utilizes the 46 is in production and available right now ($995 w/Hammond 125E outputs or $1395 with Magnequest DS050). If you think about the cost of NOS 46 tubes (I will let you figure that one out) as compared to 45s and 2A3s and have been considering a Fi X 2A3 or 45, you may want to re-consider and consider the 46 instead. I know I would.
The system we listened through consisted of the Fi 2b full function preamplifier, a Garrard 301 (formerly owned by Julius Futterman) fitted with an SME 3012 tonearm and Denon DL-103 cartridge, some CD player or other, and the speakers were a four-way, two-pair Fi open baffle meets Cain & Cain Abby nearfield version. I suppose you could say it has dual mid-range drivers with one pair run full-range. A three and a full way. Cables were very thin.
I’d like to leave you with images instead of descriptions and thank Don Garber for letting us have a look inside.
