EC Aficionado (was: The Studio Jr.)

Discussion in 'Headphone Amplifiers and Combo (DAC/Amp) Units' started by AppleheadMay, Nov 10, 2015.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Pyrate BWC
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    Don't you love our builder? That guy is amazing. I still dream of those tweeters.
     
  2. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Pyrate BWC
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    One other thing you can try is replace the electrolytic cathode bypass caps on the driver and power tubes with large film equivalents. There is certainly enough room in the chassis. Large film caps will be expensive though - so maybe a measure in-between might be to parallel the electrolytic caps with smaller film. No guarantees though as these are already good caps used.

    A more extreme measure would be to take the output from SE outputs, which is from the tertiary winding, and use it as feedback to the driver. Delete the cathode bypass caps if you do this. Use about 1.5db of feedback, and this will increase bass quality significantly, but at a small expense to depth, openness, and liveliness.
     
  3. Garns

    Garns Friend

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    What would you say cut more bloom, replacing the Marconi 2A3 with the EH, or changing the caps? I am in for round 2 of the AF, but don't want to dink around DIYing it (my DIY history involves lots of magic smoke).
     
  4. JK47

    JK47 Guest

    The Jantzen caps made a bigger difference than the tubes. I have Jantzen Superior caps in the L-Pads for the Fostex T500mkII, and they have been awesome. Jantzen Superior have a rep for being farely neutral maybe with a slightly bright tendency.

    I'm really enjoying these Jantz caps in the AF.

    Edit: I actually had black glass Ken-Rads in which sounded very similar to the Marconi black plate RCA clones before I switched to the EH.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 9, 2018
  5. raif

    raif Man made lobster/plankton

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    Apologies in advance for what is likely a stupid question... What is the gain setting on the Aficionado?

    I have been telling myself for years that I was gonna get an EC amplifier, and then for the last year that I was going to buy this one whenever it came out.

    The problem is, I am slummin' it with an O2 right now and even at 1.0X gain I am can't get above 9 o'clock(right where the channel balance starts to even out) before the volume becomes uncomfortable with the HD800S.
     
  6. monacelli

    monacelli Friend

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    One suggestion would be to buy a SYS and not worry about it. It's transparent, well-made, and a steal at $50. Between the volume control on the SYS and the one on the amp, you'd have all the flexibility you need.
     
  7. JoshMorr

    JoshMorr Friend

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    Channeling my inner reddit - stick with the O2
     
  8. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    Most of my listening on Aficionado with Utopia and Auteur is at the first dot up or about 8 o'clock. I have some volume play below that before channel balance becomes a problem but with a sensitive headphone like the TH-X00 I did have issues if I wanted to listen quietly. That's where a Sys might come in handy. I did use Freya for a time as a preamp into AF and that did help quite a bit.

    Here is a picture of my normal volume:
    [​IMG]
     
  9. Stapsy

    Stapsy Friend

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    I don't think this is a very good idea. If you are having issues with listening at low levels just upgrade the pot in the AF.
     
  10. raif

    raif Man made lobster/plankton

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    Based on recent stories of purported crankiness, is this is even something Craig would offer?
     
  11. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    You would probably be following the path of @JK47 and void your warranty. It would be worth it to some I suppose.
     
  12. Stapsy

    Stapsy Friend

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    In the past he has offered P&G pots as an upgrade option specifically for better channel balance at low volumes. If you are serious about buying and that is the one thing that is holding you back all you can do is ask.
     
  13. g_mr_p

    g_mr_p New

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    I only found out about this recently when scrounging about for DIY parts, but the venerable P&G RF15 pot has been discontinued. There are maybe a couple of places that still have stock left, but if anyone's looking they should be prepared for exorbitant prices and/or limited selection (didn't end up buying one myself, as I couldn't find a quad-deck unit).
     
  14. Garns

    Garns Friend

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    @Marvey Would 6SN7 work in the driver position? Electrically it seems OK if there is enough gain. However, heater current is higher (0.6A vs 0.3A). Wouldn't want to overload the power transformer.
     
  15. kirayamato

    kirayamato Friend

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    hi, can anyone help out. I am using balanced cables into a Yggdrasil and I need to set the volume to around 4 o'clock to get decent sound levels out of my vHE1000 2 on Spotify at full volume and even if someone is a lighter listener they would still need to go to around 3 o'clock on the dial.
    Am I setting something up wrong? or is this the amount of the power the amp has, seems weird to me as I saw @cskippy use utopia at 8 o'clockish which is not that much more efficient than my he1kv2 at least from what I know.
     
  16. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Do you have the switch at the back of the Af set to balanced inputs? The Af has a ton of gain.
     
  17. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    No. Too much heater draw. Do not recommend using tubes not listed in the manual.
     
  18. kirayamato

    kirayamato Friend

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    am assuming this is how its suppose to be

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  19. Melvillian

    Melvillian Friend

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    Yeah that looks right. Have you tried flipping the switch up and using the RCA inputs? Maybe try a different driver tube?
     
  20. kirayamato

    kirayamato Friend

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    5AR4 rectifier tube is the stock one thats comes with the amp
    so is the one thats infront of the 2a3's i ordered a WE 396A hopefully that fixed a problem any good recommendation for a rectifier tube?
     

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