sonical differences
I build several zen amps, aleph 3 and aleph 30
I used better coppling cappacitors for the zen and a lot of bias, with realy big heatsinks it is possible to get 5 ampere at 34 volt
from two mosfets. I dont know how long they will last, but they are working for two years now. I made them mono with one transformer and one bridge for each and i never had any hum, not even with a 92 DB Tannoy, so i dont understand the problem with zen and hum. It turned out that the zen sounds much better without overall feedbackloop if they have 5 amperes ( 6 ampere will kill the mosfet in a year or faster depending on the mosfet and the temperature ) When you use so much power the distortion gets quite low without the loop and the amp sounds more liquid with better timing and more depth.
In comparison with the aleph 3 it sounds even more like a tube and its forgiving weaknesses in the equipment, the alephs are not forgiving at all. The aleph 30 has even more resolution and transparency and less distortion then the aleph 3 and the bass is better by far.
I build several zen amps, aleph 3 and aleph 30
I used better coppling cappacitors for the zen and a lot of bias, with realy big heatsinks it is possible to get 5 ampere at 34 volt
from two mosfets. I dont know how long they will last, but they are working for two years now. I made them mono with one transformer and one bridge for each and i never had any hum, not even with a 92 DB Tannoy, so i dont understand the problem with zen and hum. It turned out that the zen sounds much better without overall feedbackloop if they have 5 amperes ( 6 ampere will kill the mosfet in a year or faster depending on the mosfet and the temperature ) When you use so much power the distortion gets quite low without the loop and the amp sounds more liquid with better timing and more depth.
In comparison with the aleph 3 it sounds even more like a tube and its forgiving weaknesses in the equipment, the alephs are not forgiving at all. The aleph 30 has even more resolution and transparency and less distortion then the aleph 3 and the bass is better by far.
Differences between aleph 3 and aleph 30
The aleph 3 and aleph 30 are really similar amps. I am aiming the try and build something in-between the two. I only want to deal with matching two mosfets. I was wondering if you think you could pinpoint what about the aleph 30 makes it sound so much better then the aleph 3. The only differences I see are the ratio of the feed back resistors the lack of c104 and the use of 3 mosfet per rail instead of 2.
Does anyone know if c101 on the aleph 3 is really needed. It is the same as c11 on the aleph 30 and c5 on all the others. The only reason I can think of for putting this in is to block dc from getting in the negative input. Most preamps (the Zen line sage for example) have a cap on their output anyway.
The aleph 3 and aleph 30 are really similar amps. I am aiming the try and build something in-between the two. I only want to deal with matching two mosfets. I was wondering if you think you could pinpoint what about the aleph 30 makes it sound so much better then the aleph 3. The only differences I see are the ratio of the feed back resistors the lack of c104 and the use of 3 mosfet per rail instead of 2.
Does anyone know if c101 on the aleph 3 is really needed. It is the same as c11 on the aleph 30 and c5 on all the others. The only reason I can think of for putting this in is to block dc from getting in the negative input. Most preamps (the Zen line sage for example) have a cap on their output anyway.
aleph 3, aleph 30
LBhajdu, i think the advantage of the aleph 30 is that the output resistance, or the damping, is 50% higher then in the aleph 3 and this is audible from the bass to the midrange. The control is better than aleph 5 and almost on the level of aleph 4, if you dont need the power. The aleph 30 seems to have lower distortion than the aleph 3, maybe its an sideeffect of the lower impedance, or the higher bias is the reason. I didnt change the input stage because i use an unbalanced aleph L, i just cganged the outputstage from aleph 3 to aleph 30 the offset is nearly the same, between 20 and 40 mV, but the aleph 30 gets a little hotter because of the bias.
LBhajdu, i think the advantage of the aleph 30 is that the output resistance, or the damping, is 50% higher then in the aleph 3 and this is audible from the bass to the midrange. The control is better than aleph 5 and almost on the level of aleph 4, if you dont need the power. The aleph 30 seems to have lower distortion than the aleph 3, maybe its an sideeffect of the lower impedance, or the higher bias is the reason. I didnt change the input stage because i use an unbalanced aleph L, i just cganged the outputstage from aleph 3 to aleph 30 the offset is nearly the same, between 20 and 40 mV, but the aleph 30 gets a little hotter because of the bias.
SOZ
I compared SOZ to a triode push pull and an output transformerless amp. Listening to tubes for years I was not expecting much. But, SOZ held its own and I slightly preferred it because it was more extended in the high frequency and had more detail and clarity. My greatest fear was that SOZ would not be able to compete in the tone of instruments and voices. But, that did not happen. I did use a tube pre amp and tubes may be unbeatable when used in a pre amp. And this did influence the sound. When SOZ was run direct from a CD player the sound changed for the worst reflecting the bad analog section of the CD player and the poor sound of most CDs. On LP SOZ sounded great. At the very least SOZ simply sounded very different depending on the qualtiy of the source. I have to say that SOZ has few parts and is very sensitive to the quality of parts used and a very clean power supply. I tried big computer grade capacitors and these made the amp sound very ordinary. Using audio grade caps made a big difference. The tone sounded right instead of a bland and lacking natural body and warmth. I am now working on an aleph 5. For better sound the input will be biased up to 25 milliamps and the output biased up to 2.5 amps. My guess here is it will not sound better than SOZ. But, will sound similar and be more practical.
I compared SOZ to a triode push pull and an output transformerless amp. Listening to tubes for years I was not expecting much. But, SOZ held its own and I slightly preferred it because it was more extended in the high frequency and had more detail and clarity. My greatest fear was that SOZ would not be able to compete in the tone of instruments and voices. But, that did not happen. I did use a tube pre amp and tubes may be unbeatable when used in a pre amp. And this did influence the sound. When SOZ was run direct from a CD player the sound changed for the worst reflecting the bad analog section of the CD player and the poor sound of most CDs. On LP SOZ sounded great. At the very least SOZ simply sounded very different depending on the qualtiy of the source. I have to say that SOZ has few parts and is very sensitive to the quality of parts used and a very clean power supply. I tried big computer grade capacitors and these made the amp sound very ordinary. Using audio grade caps made a big difference. The tone sounded right instead of a bland and lacking natural body and warmth. I am now working on an aleph 5. For better sound the input will be biased up to 25 milliamps and the output biased up to 2.5 amps. My guess here is it will not sound better than SOZ. But, will sound similar and be more practical.
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