Actually I would have liked to be there, but it was not possible, I did go a few times before, the link shows some of my pictures. I love Munich, the Marienplatz, and the Radskeller
. Next year ...Ratskeller München: Ratskeller München
Munchen, High end, 25.26,27,28 Mei 2006 - a set on Flickr
I met Hesener on the High End. We had a meating with Stig Björge of Lyra and also Michael was there. Hesener gave me some samples of the Mini ATL shunts. The layout of the new version of the Paradise is ready and we also discussed posibilities to get the oszillation out of the original version. I will be back on the bench next week because i still have to take care of visitors.
I had with me an oscillation free simplified version version of the paradise..very quiet and very detailed. I seem like all is in the layout and grounding. I now prepare version 2 of the simplified paradise, this time with a 4 layer board, with a complete GND plane. this way we can avoid most of the stray capacitance between components, also as the circuit is very very fast we must have very very good decoupling of the supply, here oscillation was tamed with ceramic supply decoupling directly at the mirror resistors.
I will try decoupling on the original Paradise too.
I brought back the Spiral Groove Centroid tonearm from Munich. I have mounted it on the SG1. What is obvious on first listen is a very potent bass although this is a single point bearing. I knew this from CES but hearing it in ones own system is something else. I may not have adjusted it 100% ( that will be done tomorrow when Stig and Martina come ) but i can hear no glaring problem. What is also interesting at the moment is that all electronics and speakers in my system are all my own design and build. I am particular happy that i was able to build my own power amp. It is based on Lazy Cats TSSA concept with some additions that i think are improvements. The preamp is so simple that i can build it in less then an hour. Holger Barske will play it in his 100% solar battery based system on the forthcoming Frickelfest.
I brought back the Spiral Groove Centroid tonearm from Munich. I have mounted it on the SG1. What is obvious on first listen is a very potent bass although this is a single point bearing. I knew this from CES but hearing it in ones own system is something else. I may not have adjusted it 100% ( that will be done tomorrow when Stig and Martina come ) but i can hear no glaring problem. What is also interesting at the moment is that all electronics and speakers in my system are all my own design and build. I am particular happy that i was able to build my own power amp. It is based on Lazy Cats TSSA concept with some additions that i think are improvements. The preamp is so simple that i can build it in less then an hour. Holger Barske will play it in his 100% solar battery based system on the forthcoming Frickelfest.
We are working in the background but this time we will first build and then publish.
Here is a teaser:
New Paradise : PCB is ready and Hesener will build it.
ATL Mini Shunts : PCB is ready and i have build a set. I am testing it today.
High Speed Preamp : Marcin has made a layout and he will build it.
Power Buffer : Marcin has made a layout and will build it
Paradise original version : Hesener is experimenting with decoupling to get the oscillation away.
Here is a teaser:
New Paradise : PCB is ready and Hesener will build it.
ATL Mini Shunts : PCB is ready and i have build a set. I am testing it today.
High Speed Preamp : Marcin has made a layout and he will build it.
Power Buffer : Marcin has made a layout and will build it
Paradise original version : Hesener is experimenting with decoupling to get the oscillation away.
Breaking news - the "old" paradise can be fixed to make oscillations go away, by adding a bunch of ceramic caps on the supply rails close to the current mirrors. I actually soldered them right to the pins of the emitter resistors, and on the ground plane. I tried it yesterday night on Ricardo's boards, and they are now happily playing in my system!!
At the same time, the ground plane needs to be reinforced with a "spider", so that it behaves more like a plane and not like a distributed transformer ;-(
So, all in all, its a bit of work to get it going, and with all these things its better to go for the new version, no doubt.
The new version - layout is done and crosschecked, I will send it off for production today. It has one single ground plane on the bottom, with 99% of the signal wiring on the top so it should be a very good ground plane. It is much more compact, all the support circuitry has been put around the main amplifier. It has places for local decoupling. And it has the "simpler" output buffer that should be much less prone to oscillate. And it has the new current source in the power supply. All the bells and whistles....
As for beta builders, I noted: Bksabath, RCruz, Ulf and myself and probably Joachim. Thats 10 boards, sufficient for the first run. Beta builders will get the updated design documentation via email. (Ricardo, now that your boards are working, please let me know if you still want to betabuild version 2)
Please get in touch with me if you want to beta build as well - but be aware that the new board is not tested yet, so it may or may not be a frustrating experience!! Price will probably be the same as with version 1 (55 euro for a set of two PCBs, two heatsinks and the springs needed for the heatsink, and shipping).
At the same time, the ground plane needs to be reinforced with a "spider", so that it behaves more like a plane and not like a distributed transformer ;-(
So, all in all, its a bit of work to get it going, and with all these things its better to go for the new version, no doubt.
The new version - layout is done and crosschecked, I will send it off for production today. It has one single ground plane on the bottom, with 99% of the signal wiring on the top so it should be a very good ground plane. It is much more compact, all the support circuitry has been put around the main amplifier. It has places for local decoupling. And it has the "simpler" output buffer that should be much less prone to oscillate. And it has the new current source in the power supply. All the bells and whistles....
As for beta builders, I noted: Bksabath, RCruz, Ulf and myself and probably Joachim. Thats 10 boards, sufficient for the first run. Beta builders will get the updated design documentation via email. (Ricardo, now that your boards are working, please let me know if you still want to betabuild version 2)
Please get in touch with me if you want to beta build as well - but be aware that the new board is not tested yet, so it may or may not be a frustrating experience!! Price will probably be the same as with version 1 (55 euro for a set of two PCBs, two heatsinks and the springs needed for the heatsink, and shipping).