Neither my mind nor my body are ready!

Interesting stuff.  I am surprised Craig would go for a 45 only tube amp.  When I talked to him about the 445 he told me that NOS 45s are rare and that the only current production 45 that was any good was the EML, which is $$$$

Is this going to affect the first run of 2A3x4?  Last time I spoke with Craig he said that the chassis were being sent off to powder coat/finishing.  It seems weird that the design would change if he had already sent them out.

Either way it looks good, I hope you are getting paid for the concept art.  I think I may like that design better than the 445.

Is this going to affect the first run of 2A3x4?  Last time I spoke with Craig he said that the chassis were being sent off to powder coat/finishing.  It seems weird that the design would change if he had already sent them out.

I don't think so. As you said, he's got the metal for the first run of Levis / 2A3x4.

Drivers are the 5682 x 2.

Rectifier will consist of 6D22 diodes. The glowie Xenon's are a possibility. Craig mentioned maybe as low as $600 (don't quote me) for the Xenon PS if 6 or more people decide they want it, but this could only be for the Levi project (separate amp).

Mercury vapor tube and solid-state damper diodes were also tested. The Xenons and 6D22s came out on top. See purple glowie tubes here: http://i.imgur.com/hP1Uujg.jpg

EML Mesh 45s are good. Very solid-state sound. Tight bass, great articulation. I bought a set of 4 and Craig is testing the development version of the amp with them.

Amazingly the cheap-ass Sophia Chinese 45s sounded good (they are actually good when doubled up in parallel), but the lack the immediacy and layering of the EMLs. They are a little more lush too.

The NOS tubes are somewhere in between the EMLs and Sophias in terms of control and lushness.

The current issue now is with the OPTs. Will need 2.5k to 8. Dave @ Cinemag has agreed to make them. They will be similar to the BA transformers.

Just the burnt out aging Ken Rad 45s Craig had on hand. If you've got good old stock 45s on hand, may as well use those. I really wanted a very un-tubey sound, so I went with the EMLs 45 meshes, based on my extrapolating from the EML 2A3s I've heard.

I originally wasn't too interested in the BA chassis (extra cost associated with that), but when I sketched it up, it just looked too cool.