I returned to DIY electronics in 2009 after a 20 year pause by building a few kits to get in shape. This blog is for me to keep track of my progress.
Zen V4
Posted 12th August 2010 at 05:16 PM by alexcp
Updated 14th May 2013 at 12:46 PM by alexcp (Amp reworked)
Updated 14th May 2013 at 12:46 PM by alexcp (Amp reworked)
Nelson Pass' Penultimate Zen (aka Zen V4) proved trickier to build than the simple schematic suggested. I used a chassis from designbuildlisten and PCBs made with the gerbers posted on passdiy.com. Initially I used some Chinese electrolytic capacitors that were easily available, but the sound was not good at all. I replaced them with ELNA for Audio, and things improved greatly. I found that the apparent simplicity of the schematic belies the difficulty of making it right.
Update: I replaced the gain stage MOSFET with a SemiSouth SiC JFET and got a noticeable improvent in both the sound and the measured performance, see a separate post.
Update: I replaced the gain stage MOSFET with a SemiSouth SiC JFET and got a noticeable improvent in both the sound and the measured performance, see a separate post.
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