Long time lurker, first time ranter. I bought this setup with the intention of completely restoring it. That was a couple years ago… It seems like such a slam dunk for a first project that it’s killing me to part ways, but the writing is on the wall. The reason I picked this as my first tube project is the documentation. It came with all the schematics!! (see image 3). So I carved out the space. I upgraded my kit to include a variac, signal generator, oscilloscope, analog meters to compliment my digital, a power supply, upgraded my soldering station, etc.. all that is to say I am invested, which makes it difficult to let go. But life happens, and this console keeps getting pushed further down the list. For sanity’s sake, I need less projects collecting dust. Workshop space is valuable… So I am going to let it go. It’s the right decision, right?
The trouble is I can’t decide how much work to invest before I sell it? I haven’t powered it up for fear of destroying it. I think the folks I bought it from might have. Should I a try to power it up or leave it to more capable hands? It’s lacquer and has some finish issues. Should I fix the glaring ones? Without much effort it’ll really clean it up. Another part of me just wants to post it as is and trust it’ll find its way into good hands. What do you think? Is this all nuts? Do you think it’s cool or am I a crazy person?

I ordered this amp from Mesa Boogie in spring of 1983 with all the bells and whistles. In early 1984 I received it. I had it flown from CA to the east coast and my place of business. I ordered black Anvil ATA cases for it to be able to be shipped by air. I played it until 1997. How much, realistically, can I expect to sell it for ? I’ve also got a full set of replacement tubes (preamp/power) that I bought from Mesa in ‘84. (Serial #418) The values I’ve seen are all over the place. I get it out and clean it once a year… I replaced the top Black Shadows with Celestion Sidewinder 120’s back in the late 80’s/early 90’s. It’s a beast. I remember asking the nice lady that took my order if it could compete with a JCM 800 and she just laughed and said, “Oh… I guarantee it…”😂
What are your thoughts?

Surely in recent months you will have begun to hear about concepts such as Order Blocks, Break of Structure or Liquidity Voids, all related in some way to a new philosophy of understanding trading called Smart Money Concepts.
To put some order and explain these concepts with some clarity, shedding some light on all this mass of names, we begin here this series of articles with which I hope to clear up all doubts.

The Origin: The Inner Circle Trader

To understand what Smart Money Concepts is, it is inevitable to talk about the creator of this trading philosophy: Michael J. Huddleston.
Known online as The Inner Circle Trader (ICT), Huddleston became popular more than 10 years ago when he started the eponymous YouTube channel, posting videos in which he discussed his trading ideas, his approach to trading in the currencies and his vision about the impact of psychology on trading.
In case you dare to watch all the videos published by this good man from the beginning, I can tell you that some of them last more than 2 hours! Apparently, this long duration is completely intentional, because as he himself points out, he likes to leave hidden clues about his methodology in the videos, with the student being the one who must take the time to look for them and investigate them in depth.
Huddleston initially published all of his materials openly (in fact, you can find links to his old videos on BabyPips under the pseudonym System, although they no longer work), but he later decided to eliminate much of the original material and create a mentoring service in 2017, which provoked the ire of his followers, receiving a multitude of negative reviews since then (especially because he originally said he would never charge for information).
All this adds to the black legend that circulates in the forums that he managed several million dollars for a family of Greek millionaires settled in the US, to whom he lost a lot of money. In this way, Huddleston has become a quite controversial character, defended and hated in equal parts on the Internet.
But there is no doubt that, today, its methodology based on Price Action has spread widely among traders .

Smart Money Drives the Markets

The starting point of the ICT philosophy is that Smart Money (basically, banks and institutional traders) basically acts as a price manipulator, looking for large accumulations of resident stop orders in the market to make them jump and achieve its goal to execute its orders and those of its clients at the best possible prices. And, in the words of Huddleston:

Huddleston calls the algorithm that manages the markets IPDA (Interbank Price Delivery Algorithm) . The function of the IPDA is to manipulate prices in order to create liquidity in the market. Smart Money, which understands how this algorithm works, manages to take advantage of price movement by exploiting two aspects:

1. Liquidity above/below old highs and lows. 2. Inefficient price action areas.

For all this, understanding when and where the IPDA will manipulate the price is the only way for the retail trader to make money, taking advantage of the upward and downward movements that Smart Money creates. And absolutely all the patterns seen on the charts, such as shoulder-head-shoulders or trend lines, are generated by the IPDA to attract retail money to the market. Thus, the correct question to ask if we want to make money in trading is: “ Where are the retail stops located?” ”
After reviewing a little what the philosophical basis of this method is, perhaps it is advisable to adopt a critical view (in fact, you always have to be critical with any trading methodology): although at first glance, the idea that the market is manipulated may seem seductive for many retail traders who seek to justify their losses due to this type of manipulation (how many times have we heard that: they have gone for my stop!?), the theory behind Smart Money Concepts must be taken with a grain of salt, since It is evident that:

• It is unlikely that the price action will be generated by a single algorithm designed for it.
• Institutionals play in a very different league to that of retailers, with the latter's volumes being too small to be relevant.
• It is true that price sweeps and false breakouts sometimes occur, but this does not prove that they are necessarily the result of continued market manipulation.

However, and although the starting point of this method is surely wrong, one thing I have learned in trading is that we should never discard any idea, no matter how crazy it may seem to us (perhaps we are discarding the Holy Grail and we don't know it: P).

Fundamental concepts

We now move on to define some of the most important concepts used in the methodology developed by ICT and that we will use throughout the following articles.

1. Order Blocks

Order Blocks are specific candles that, when properly analyzed in an institutional context, can highlight smart money buying and selling. In particular, we will say that:

• A Bullish Order Block is the lowest candle that has a bearish close, that has the largest body (that is, the distance between the open and the close), and that is close to a Support level. The pattern is confirmed when the maximum of the candle that forms the Order Block is surpassed by a candle formed later, which closes above said maximum.
• A Bearish Order Block is the highest candle that has a bullish close, that has the largest body (that is, the distance between the open and the close), and that is close to a Resistance level. The pattern will be confirmed when the minimum of the candle that forms the Order Block is pierced by a candle formed later, which closes below said minimum.

Graphically you can see in the following graph what a Bullish Order Block looks like (the bearish case would be the opposite):
https://preview.redd.it/nzdsr5azpr1d1.png?width=273&format=png&auto=webp&s=96a352636e93174212567279d9d5b74418574caa

2. Imbalance / Fair Value Gap

The Imbalance or Fair Value Gap (FVG) pattern is a clear sign of market imbalance. To identify this pattern, simply take sequences of three candles and look for wide-range candles that barely overlap the upper and lower wicks of adjacent candles. That is, there is a price range in that large candle that does not touch the range of the previous and subsequent candle , leaving a kind of gap called Fair Value Gap.
The size of this gap is obtained by measuring the distance between the maximum of the previous candle and the minimum of the subsequent one (bullish case), or the minimum of the previous candle and the maximum of the subsequent candle (bearish case).
In the following graph, you can see a schematic explanation of what an FVG looks like within a bearish movement:
https://preview.redd.it/sho820l1qr1d1.png?width=956&format=png&auto=webp&s=7de12836a101c240c887985a6c258f853123b088

3. Mitigation Block

In this case, we are dealing with market failure structures, in which the price fails to exceed a previously established maximum or minimum. In particular:

• Bearish Mitigation Blocks are formed when the market forms a short-term resistance, then the price turns around marking a minimum and then turns upward again but fails to overcome the established highs, forming a new high below the resistance. Finally, the market breaks the intermediate low downwards, closing below said level. The candle that closes below this minimum is called Bearish Mitigation Block.
• In the case of Bullish Mitigation Blocks , the market marks short-term support; The price then turns, marking a maximum and then falls again but fails to break the established minimums, forming a new minimum above the resistance. Finally, the market breaks the intermediate high upwards, closing above said level. The candle that closes above said maximum is called the Bullish Mitigation Block.

Graphically you can see a Bearish Mitigation Block schematically in the following figure:
https://preview.redd.it/j7e4vrv3qr1d1.png?width=513&format=png&auto=webp&s=f7ab92f4e5f25c580726e6d4a7854f4769855705

4. Liquidity Voids

This term, which we can translate as “liquidity gaps,” refers to explosive movements , generally broad and without pauses in a single direction, that occur after consolidation, and as a consequence of the lack of liquidity for a given address.
These types of long-term movements are usually “filled in” later , with the price making a reverse movement that sometimes even manages to reach the order block prior to the explosive movement.
In the following chart you can see an example of Liquidity Void in a bullish context:
https://preview.redd.it/8ymm2w26qr1d1.png?width=768&format=png&auto=webp&s=8b5f319229a6dd89fc951e69a6d91959cae82611
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Dialing in my set up, ran into a few hiccups but figured it out!!!
Set up: Turntable: Thorens TD135 w/ Ortophone Blue Pre-Amp: Douk Audio Tube Preamp, upgraded tubes EQ: McIntosh MQ 101 Amplifier: McIntosh MA 5100 Speakers: Jamo 809s
So I picked up my system today but ran into an issue with the pre-amp from the MA 5100, the left feed isn’t working on either pre amp on the 5100.
I had a pretty simple set up before but noticed these McIntosh color the mix heavy on the upper end. Found a good balance for today but will have to go through a few more records to dial it in.

Schiit Mjolnir 3 in good condition, only issues are cosmetic, see pics. Best solid state amp for under $2k maybe even $3k. Runs my Caldera’s with authority on both high and low gain, I personally prefer it on high though. Also pairs well with a tube preamp if you have one. Selling because I fell down the damn tube amp hole and have another tube amp on order. Please help me continue to make bad financial decisions.
Includes amp and power cable. Asking for $999 (firm) PayPal G/S includes insured shipping and PayPal fees.

After a little revamp here is the stage of my budget hifi setup. I was using the Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum for several years and thought it would be the last amp I ever owned, but once I bought these JBL’s I couldn’t stop wondering how they’d sound with big solid state power. So I made a few changes… My media of choice is vinyl so analog 2 channel has remained my focus.
Turntable is a Technics 1210GR with an Audio Technica AT33/PTGii which runs into a Ned Clayton Cinemag 1254 SUT, then into a tube preamp based on the EAR834P running three matched E83CC frame grid tubes. The 834 “clone” is one of the best pieces of gear I’ve ever owned. It’s filled with high quality parts and it absolutely dead silent even at max gain. And the best part is that is cost about $300.
For digital sources I’ve got a Yamaha S303 CD player working as a transport that’s connected via coax to a Topping D70s. The speakers are JBL Studio 590’s.
The preamp is Schiit Freya S, and the amps are Outlaw 2220’s (one per speaker, bi-wired) the Topping is balanced, and so are the Freya and Outlaw’s so the only single ended connection here is the turntable.
With the exception of the turntable and the phono stage, everything was purchased used at huge discounts over new, so it’s definitely a budget-minded setup at its core. Most importantly it sounds really really good!