ECP Torpedo III [indexed in first post]

Yeah, it's funny that it's the Dr. problem. I'll have to somehow buy transformers with an indirect person in there now just to alleviate the problem

 

Logged some ~30hrs on the EVO SGO's; they're settling in nicely. I'm finding TIII (pimped) does a hella job driving the HE1K's, along with the HD800's. Running some NOS 1957 6072's - stellar.

 

I was hearing some nasty noise through T3 with my DAC on but without music playing, volume cranked up a lot. I just reconfigured things a bit. DAC is now feeding XLR to a Jensen transformer, and from there, Blue Jeans RCA cables going to the T3. It is now completely silent, even at max volume. If there's a noise floor coming from your T3 I would suspect interconnects or DAC, not the amp.

Note: I realize this is not the PT issue you guys were having, this is just to add my observations on some noise I was hearing.

 

@MisterRogers hi, MisterRogers, is the Soekris DAC satisfied? After modding, does it has the super-resolve such as Yggdrasil's?

 

It's fairly resolving, but it's no Yggdrasil. The entire Schiit multibit DAC line is unique in the MegaBurrito filter. There's some fairly decent filters available for the Soekris DAC, but... no MegaBurrito.

 

Any idea how this compares to Project Ember/II or Schiit Lyr/2?

 

So what's the word on the ccs boards?

 

The word is that the parts arrived just as I got super busy with other things. I should have a few moments in the next couple of days to actually give them a try.

 

Bit late to the party but I finally picked up my T3 kit from my sister and (almost) finished putting it together. Huge props to @TomB for the superb packing job and assembly guide that made building it that much easier.

 

The Mundorf SGO is a little too rich for my blood (~$300 for 4 caps).. so I ordered the less expensive Mundorf AIO (Aluminum in Oil) caps (~$80 for 4 caps) and shipped them to @MisterRogers (who's building my TIII). MR has the SGO's in his TIII, so we should have a little comparison between the two Mundorf varieties to see if the AIO's offer an effective value proposition for those who want to upgrade the caps.. but not go the megabuck SGO route.

Looking forward to more info & impressions on the daughter boards, @dsavitsk !

 

Yup

Listening to a K2 HD mastered version of Hell Freezes Over, Hotel California on TIII. Nice.

This little amp (with mods) is such an enjoyable listen, it's going to stay. Every now and then, I glance over at the amp - amazed at how well this amp performs. Not sure how the built amps on beezar.com are moving, but for the price with Cinemags - it's one hell of a bargain.

 

Mine worked without blowing up! Sounds fabulous with the EH 12AY7s, I'll probably try rolling next week after getting more headtime with them.

 

Congrats, and enjoy!

 

Since people here are thinking about mods, I should mention that the board was designed such that it is possible to build this with MOSFETs instead of BJTs for the output transistors. You'll have to remove a few resistors, possibly change a few others, jumper Q6, 7, 8, and 9, populate D7, 8, 9, and 10, and replace Q2, 3, 4, and 5 with FETs. IRFI720 and IRFI820s will probably be OK (those are the plastic tabbed versions) - it is just a matter of checking the input capacitance to see if you'll lose treble with any particular tubes (720's are better in this regard). I am sure there are other options, too, though for transistor snobs the old Toshibas have a different pin out so will not work. I prototyped a FET version early on (and preferred the BJTs -- I generally prefer BJTs), but I have not tested the current boards with them so I can't say whether, or how well, it will actually work.

Additionally, regardless of the above, replacing R19, 20, 21, and 22 with CCSes is likely the largest upgrade possible. This will require a daughter board, too, and careful consideration of heat dissipation. But it might be an interesting option.

Once I get over this head cold and get the other CCSes tested, I'll look into all of this with more attention

 

The stock tubes still aren't my favorite. A little too shouty in the upper-mid-range. Right around the snare drum level. Playing "Steady as She Goes" by the Raconteurs hits it hard on the first note.

So I did some tube rolling and my favorites are some Amperex E180CC/7062 from a McIntosh solves the problem and sound quite lovely.

I'll have this at the meet on Saturday and I'll probably leave it for Sunday.

 

Now that you mention it, how on earth am I going to remove the tubes in this? They sit pretty deep in the enclosure.

 

You have to take the top panel off of the enclosure to get to the tubes

 

I keep the top off when rolling, place it back on when I'm holding for awhile.

 

Thanks guys. Guess I was feeling a bit lazy about working on the case any more than I already have.

 

Yep. I have the MOSFET prototype that Doug sent me. It definitely lost treble (less treble than the Torpedo I) - but it was easy enough to tell that there was great potential for the overall design. As Doug says, he had some remedies for the lost treble, but I think in the end he thought the BJTs (and Darlingtons) was the best, most dependable solution. It worked the second time. He actually built an interim version where the ground plane/signal traces were flipped. This put the primary transformer traces for 120-220 conversion directly next to the signal traces and there was a bit of hum. We did another one with the 120-220 conversion traces opposite the signal traces and voila! - no noise.