The website of Stephie Bench
This information was placed here with the kind permission of Stephie Bench, a most interesting and friendly person, which I met at the 2004 European Triode Festival in Langenargen, Germany.
The Website of Stephie Bench
This is a collection of some of the most interesting and amazing tube design ideas I have ever seen. The things you'll read about are not just ideas, these are working designs, and I want to document those here, and keep it alive. This information is put together by somebody who went to the bottom of things, with 30 years of design experience and tube passion. She has 10 patents on her name, so this is not just somebody. Then put several years of hard work in following and realizing some really very unusual tube design concepts, and stay down to earth during all that time. I think very few people are like this.
RIAA Blind Hearing Test.
Last time we met, at the European Triode Festival, there was a blind hearing contest for tube RIAA Phono pre-amplifiers. Let me tell you more about this. A tube phono amp is a very difficult amplifier. There were several great names presenting their creations there, like Jean Hiraga, Linn Olson and Steve Bench. Also some very talented DIY who build phono pre-amps of finest quality as well.
The actual Voting
So we could not see which pre-amp was playing, and also you could not see the pre-amps. So there was only the sound of it, and the same song was repeated. The winning product was a battery operated pre-amp, hand-wired into a tiny little box, with pencil tubes. I remember I also voted for this one. And guess who build it....
The schematic is found on the Stephie Bench Website, but you need to look for it, because it was there for many years before, just listed, as one of the many other good ideas. Congratulations Stephie!