my own VTA70 amp

not the greatest photo, but I wanted to give you an idea of how you can make your amp look different.
This is a standard VTA70 mounted in my usual preamp chassis, cost of chassis and faceplate around $200.
About $50 more with the VU meters and dual gain controls and input selector.

The lower photo is another custom VTA70 amp I built a couple years ago.

Roy, so you mean you've got an SP 14 AND an ST70 inside that amp in the top pic?

The one in the bottom pic is nice. Do you sell that top plate separately? If not, I bet many do-it-yourself wood workers would go for that.

Hi Dave,
no preamp in there, just a source selector and volume control.
The amp has enough gain to handle most line level inputs.
I'm always doing custom stuff for customers.
Roy www.tubes4hifi.com

I really like the top one! Got an interior shot?

sorry CornDog, no photos, and the amp is out on loan right now, but here's a couple shots of similar amps I'm starting on . . .
as you can see, an ST70 (or ST120) amp chassis can drop right into this chassis, and the top cover is 6" high so it all fits nicely
On lower powered amps, using small output tubes, a 5" tall chassis is fine. Makes a nice match for an SP14 preamp . . .

Does that case have enough ventilation?

yes, plenty!

I'm real new and a amateur at this. So what does the VU meters indicate? When the needles are at 0 what does that mean? My experience with VU meters has always been on tape decks.

VU meters have been commonly used in audio equipment for over 50 years, if you want a good explanation read the article on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VU_meter
a level of zero VU is 1.2vrms, which is about the level of modern line outputs, and is enough to drive most amplifiers to their full output.
So similar to use on a tape deck, where you want to set the level not to exceed a signal level that will cause distortion

Thanks for the link.  I was wondering.  I've seen different meters used in these amps.  There is one I've seen pictures of and the meter is labeled mA.  And watt meters.  So I'm curious what they indicate and how interpret what they indicate.  And if I where to add meters what would be the must useful.

In the bottom photo, did you replace the standard E-core transformers with toroids?  Or are those just covers?

Mr C
meters labeled ma are to measure milliamps, usually the current thru the output tubes.
meters labeled watts are to measure the output power in watts
meters labeled VU are to measure volume units

WOTAN,
in the 2nd photo, those are very high quality toroid output transformers, and a 3rd internal toroid used for power

Could you share who the output toroids came from? Model number and brand?

the output toroids are sourced from Toroidy.pl in Poland, super high quality and great prices, takes 4-5 weeks to get them

tubes4hifi wrote:the output toroids are sourced from Toroidy.pl in Poland, super high quality and great prices, takes 4-5 weeks to get them

Cool, thanks for the data, I am familiar with them. Glad to hear you like them. I have two quick questions, what model number is it and are you using an Auto-bias board?  Thanks again!