Garage1217

[Luckbad]

Garage1217 (aka G1217) is a well-respected “boutique” type company based in Arizona. I’ve owned four of the amplifiers built by Jeremy Helms (the owner/maker). His co-conspirator is known as Solderdude (Frans), and he’s the technical brains behind the amps.

Here are a few relevant links:

http://www.garage1217.com/ - The commercial site where you can buy stuff!
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/ - Solderdude’s musings and measurements
http://diyah.boards.net/board/1/amplifiers - Interact with the makers

The Garage1217 Project Ember II is the most well-known of the amps. It’s beloved for near-infinite tube rolling options. That being said, I actually enjoy the sound of the Project Sunrise III and Project Horizon III more myself (these are siblings for slightly different headphone needs).

One of the wonderful enhancements you can make to any of these amplifiers is to provide them either with a linear power supply OR–and this is the cheaper option–build yourself an atomicbob Noise Nuke.

The Noise Nuke is an LC Filter that reduces the ripple and noise caused by the SMPS power supply significantly.

Tons of detail and objective measurements are provided here:

atomicbob's SMPS Noise Nuke for HP amps with external SMPS

And being DIY-hungry myself, I built one.

Subjectively, everything gets a little cleaner with the Project Sunrise III. If you read up on the previous link, you’ll find a couple more pictures and impressions from me in the thread as well. I highly recommend it if you have a soldering iron, as it’s a really simple project.

I would go on to gush about how enjoyable these amplifiers are for a more-than-reasonable price as well as provide comparisons between some of the top contenders… But, I’ve already done that in a rather long review at Basshead.Club, so I’ll link that instead.

Garage1217 Project Ember, Horizon, & Sunrise Review

Is anyone else out there familiar with these wonderful little amps? I actually don’t own one right now, but I’m almost certainly going to pick up a Sunrise again once I have the spare change to buy one.

[prfallon69]

What a great thread and what great info. I have looked at these Amp’s myself, though sadly only online. They’re really great looking and I really like their style. I know that there’s a few around here who speak highly of them. I would like to have one myself someday. It looks a good way to get into tubes. Though I think that maybe the other one that seems to be getting lots of love at the moment the Loxjie P20 seems a great starter too.

[Carmantom]

" Ditto " I’m with you on the good looking.

[Luckbad]

One of the great things about these amps is how much you can improve them without too much investment.

While some folks go crazy and get adapters that let them run two single triode tubes or other exotic combos, they’re compatible with tons of tubes stock (including 6SN7 with a G1217 adapter).

I’ve tried a ton of tubes and find I really enjoy current production EH 12BH7 and readily available NOS 6N6P tubes (yes, against some incredible old school tubes like Telefunken, Amperex, etc.).

These are the tubes the Sunrise is advertised as being compatible with:

6V Tubes:
6922, 7308, 8223, 6AQ8, 6DJ8, 6GU7, 6CG7, 6BQ7A, 6H23, 6H23N, 6L12, 6N11, 6N23, 6N1P, 6N2P, 6N6P, 6N30P, B719, Cca CV2492, CV2493, CV5358, E88CC, E89CC, E188CC, E189CC, E288CC, ECC85, ECC88, ECC89, ECC188, ECC189, ECC288, ECC289, JAN 7308, 6GM8, 6N27P, ECC86

12V Tubes:
5751, 5814, 5814A, 5963, 6189, 6201, 6681, 7025, 7058, 7729, 6L13, 12AD7, 12AT7, 12AU7, 12AX7, 12BH7(A), 12DF7, 12DM7, 12DT7, A2900, B152, B309, B329, B339, B749, CV0455, CV0491, CV0492, CV4024, E81CC, E82CC, E83CC, E181CC, E183CC, E283CC, E811CC, E812CC, E813CC, E2157, E2163, E2164, ECC81, ECC82, ECC83, ECC181, ECC182, ECC182, ECC801, ECC803, ECC803S

So, you can tune the sound significantly with tubes, but you can also improve it greatly with cleaner power. That means you can either use a linear power supply OR an atomicbob Noise Nuke to objectively and subjectively make the amp better.

Measurements before (already good):

Garage 1217 Project Sunrise III measurements

Measurements after:

SMPS vs LPS effect on Garage1217 Project Sunrise III

atomicbob's SMPS Noise Nuke for HP amps with external SMPS