DIY talk

The stuffing (damping) material is there to absorb some of the cabinet resonances. If you had a mic and measurement setup, you could see the difference with/without it. By ear you may or may not hear a difference. Listen for a while and when you know what they sound like, put the dampening back in and see what you think.

 

Thought I would give you all a good laugh - was browsing through some old images when I stumbled on this


it actually worked and surprisingly didn't have any hum / noise despite the spaghetti junction

 

That's f'ing glorious lol.

 

what is even more poetic is that it gave life to the Crimson

 

Has anyone ever thought of a clever way to send a trigger signal from an HTPC to downstream audio gear that utilizes a 12V trigger? My motherboard has all the typical I/O one would expect. The first thing that came to mind would be hijacking one of the audio output channels.

 

I doublechecked and I actually do not have a ye olde RS232 on this motherboard. I will dig up my Arduino instead.

 

This is kinda cool

https://twitter.com/wtfthatscool/status/1613592802977251337

 

That's a cool pic. I love cutaways.

 

it’s all in a book I’ve seen my electronics groups mentioning

https://www.opencircuitsbook.com/

 

Saw this cooling chip that uses MEMs and can generate a very high air flow quietly.



I hope to see it adapted to transistors and other chips

 

^^^ that's really cool.

 

I'm working on a transformer-coupled solid state amp and had the opportunity to pick up the new nanocrystalline core Lundahl output transformers. It's a work in progress, but here it is wired up.



(the power supply is a work in progress )

It's difficult to get anyone to tell you how the NC cores differ from amorphous or steel. Lundahl says the inductance is more or less the same (which was a surprise to me), but that the level handling is a bit higher. There are some other benefits such as temperature stability that presumably nobody in audio cares about. The US distributor has some info about it here.

A few people have complained about the amorphous core transformers having a harsh or dry character to them. I can't speak to how much is core vs coil design-- I haven't tried these with the amorphous cores-- but, having rolled a few different OPTs in this circuit, I'll say that these really do sound great. Sibilant passages sound right, neither emphasized nor smoothed over, and the detail retrieval is excellent. These are likely the same cores that Monolith uses, so it's great to see some new options.

 

Definitely would like an A/B comparison with Monolith transformers, as highly improbable as this experiment sounds

 

Any thoughts on this 45 amp? http://tubelab.com/designs/tubelab-se/

 

It's a classic for a reason, if not a bit long in the tooth. For something a bit more modern, I'd take a look at the Bartola 45 amps. They revised one is very much cut from the same cloth, using a MOSFET follower after the coupling capacitor to reduce distortion.

https://www.bartola.co.uk/valves/2016/07/17/45-se-amplifier/
https://www.bartola.co.uk/valves/2019/03/23/45-se-amplifier-revisited/

Edit: Or perhaps the EP DRD design?

https://web.archive.org/web/20180528172957/http://www.electra-print.com/45drd.php

 

How do these compare to say, an entry-level DNA amp?

 

I'd be surprised if you found anyone who has heard both designs. SE amps tend to be very sensitive to part selection as well, so the "how" matters every bit as much as the "what."

With that in mind, you can probably build it for slightly less and get similar sound. You could certainly build it for more, and possibly get better sound. The DNA is far more likely to power on the first time.

 

Anyone here ever heard a commissioned Oliver Sayes DIY/custom amp?

Edit: or built an Allen Eaton design?

 

Perhaps some of you DIY guys who know where to find vintage components can help me out.

I'm looking for this:
https://theelectronicgoldmine.com/en-ca/search?options[prefix]=last&q=sprague+88d
except in 5600uF 50VDC 9241L