Hi, I'm joining because a lot of the posts look interesting and there are threads ones I could contribute to, now I am retired and have a bit of spare time.
I have been fiddling about with hifi for over 45 years, starting with a Sinclair Project 5000 amp that was pre-assembled but needed a degree of adjustment to keep the 5 pin DIN input plugs working, not to mention the plastic slider potentiometers. As I am a mechanical engineer, I have some appreciation of analogue electronic components as in my youth they were used in control systems and instrumentation – for example, I could calculate the LaPlace time domain transfer function of a simple circuit which really helped understand loudspeaker crossovers and what capacitors and inductors did to frequency response.
After the Sinclair, the next diy item was a Crimson Electrik kit amp, two CE1704 power amps driven by a CPS 6 power supply with a hefty toroidal transformer. This was complemented by a CE CPR 1 pre-amplifier kit. Over time the pre-amp was replaced by a NAD3070 with remote control, until that had protection circuit issues which were beyond my abilities. I now have an Audiolab 6000 pre/power amp, still with the Crimson Elecktrik CE1704 providing power for the bass inputs of a pair of Mission 773 speakers. The Audio lab 6000A not only provides power, but also the DAC for a NAD C541i CD player, now only a transport as the internal DAC shows its age in comparison to the Audiolab.
I have also inherited and refurbished various bits of kit such as a pair of 1990’s TDL Near Field Monitors – new Peerless bass/mid drivers and tweeters (the original rectangular faceplate ones are no longer available) and revised crossovers because the new drive units are 6- and 4-ohm nominal impedance, not the original 8 ohm.
At the moment I’m wrestling with a Cambridge A1-1 Integrated amp, I use it for audio with my computer. This is the original Mike Creek design with “Copyright MRC 1995” on the circuit boards. the main switch board fuse has gone and the power light won’t come on. Looks like the transformer secondaries have short circuited to earth, but I’ve put up a separate post to see if anyone has experience of this amp including what the secondary voltages should be.
I have been fiddling about with hifi for over 45 years, starting with a Sinclair Project 5000 amp that was pre-assembled but needed a degree of adjustment to keep the 5 pin DIN input plugs working, not to mention the plastic slider potentiometers. As I am a mechanical engineer, I have some appreciation of analogue electronic components as in my youth they were used in control systems and instrumentation – for example, I could calculate the LaPlace time domain transfer function of a simple circuit which really helped understand loudspeaker crossovers and what capacitors and inductors did to frequency response.
After the Sinclair, the next diy item was a Crimson Electrik kit amp, two CE1704 power amps driven by a CPS 6 power supply with a hefty toroidal transformer. This was complemented by a CE CPR 1 pre-amplifier kit. Over time the pre-amp was replaced by a NAD3070 with remote control, until that had protection circuit issues which were beyond my abilities. I now have an Audiolab 6000 pre/power amp, still with the Crimson Elecktrik CE1704 providing power for the bass inputs of a pair of Mission 773 speakers. The Audio lab 6000A not only provides power, but also the DAC for a NAD C541i CD player, now only a transport as the internal DAC shows its age in comparison to the Audiolab.
I have also inherited and refurbished various bits of kit such as a pair of 1990’s TDL Near Field Monitors – new Peerless bass/mid drivers and tweeters (the original rectangular faceplate ones are no longer available) and revised crossovers because the new drive units are 6- and 4-ohm nominal impedance, not the original 8 ohm.
At the moment I’m wrestling with a Cambridge A1-1 Integrated amp, I use it for audio with my computer. This is the original Mike Creek design with “Copyright MRC 1995” on the circuit boards. the main switch board fuse has gone and the power light won’t come on. Looks like the transformer secondaries have short circuited to earth, but I’ve put up a separate post to see if anyone has experience of this amp including what the secondary voltages should be.
