improving parts on Audiosector kit

[pjpoes]

I bought an Audiosector kit, which I am currently putting together. I bought the premium kit, which is the gold plated board, Caddock resistors, and I thought better caps, but I have all panasonics as far as I can tell. May have been an oversite on Mr. Daniels part.

My first question is the capacitors. Are the Panasonic FC's pretty good, what are better choices. Is a Blackgate Standard an option, the N's are pricey and would take longer to get. I even considered the Jensen 4 pole, but didn't want to mess with the added work of installing those on my first chip amp, and are just as expensive. For the 1500uf, it looks like I would have to go with a 1000uf Black gate. Are there any Nichicon or Elna's which are a better alternative to the panasonic, while not being as expensive as the Black gate. How about some as exotic and expensive, but possibly easier to get?

For the 10uf cap, what is the purpose of this one. Is this just to help further smooth the ripple closer to the diodes? At such a small value, could a film cap be used with better results, or is that a waste of money. Would cost probably as much as a black gate.

Are Caddock resistors known to be delicate. I already broke two of them trying to clamp them while I solder(aligator clamp). I ordered some replacements as I felt bad asking Peter to send me more, I figure I have bothered him enough with my questions.

Are there no input caps used in this design? I didn't notice any, so I will assume not, just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing the obvious. Why is that, For whatever reason I thought people had said you needed them on this circuit.

Final question, what are all the extra holes and spots for on the boards, they are not covered in the manual. My assumption is that they are for implimenting various other cuircits that people have brought up on the boards, but without mention of it in the manual (it may be and I missed it) I am not sure which area goes to what.

Thankyou if you can answer any and all of my questions.

[maf_au]

Hi.

I think I read somewhere deep in the forum that they had settled on the panasonics because of their good performance. If you read the premium components list on audiosector.com, you will see that you got what you ordered In any case, it would be a good idea to build with the supplied parts so that you have a reference to compare against as you chase nirvana by replacing parts...

The spare holes are probably for the zobel network, which is discussed on the Audiosector website: " Zobel components are not recommended for Premium kit, but can be included if required."

I'm mystified how you managed to break the resistors soldering them. I'm no ace, but I haven't managed to break one yet. All I do is to pre-bend the leads to the correct spacing with small pliers (a clothesline peg has been suggested for this task as well), place the leads through the holes, bending the tails slightly on the rear of the board to stabilise the component and stop it falling out, then solder it in and cut the excess lead length.

There's a soldering guide in the nigc users manual as well.

Hope this helps, good luck with the amp!

Michael

[mastertech]

dont bother with panasonic
sony is better because is japans no1 quality manufacturer, if you cant get
sony try sharp

Philips is europe's best part manufacurer

in america i dont know it's chaos there at silicon valey the best is yet
to come try intel and youll see what i mean the cpus have stoped
growing maybe it is because the japanese are not a force anymore
who knows

cheers

[pjpoes]

the only part I was confused about is the 10uf which I thought it said was supposed to be a Black gate part. I will go and check again. I had emailed Peter once before, and he had suggested upgrading to the Blackgates if I wanted, but I just wanted to feel it out.

As for breaking them, it really isn't an issue of my soldering ability, I didn't do it soldering. I was clamping an aligator clip around the body, and another to the board in order to hold everything for me. I twisted the board a little trying to get the resistor sitting level and it twisted the soft plastic body off the resister and broke the leads out. I also broke a small piece of that soft plastic body when I was pushing the resistor into the pcb. My solder joints are perfect thus far. I a big part of the problem is that I decided to start some of it at 1am last night. I will just wait till I have more time to dedicate to this, as I dont want to break any more costly parts.

I actually may consider switching to the power supply now being offered on the Chipamp.com sight, but I think I will do as you suggested. The reason I wanted to start with the good part is that I dont like desoldering parts, the pads can begin to fall off and the boards get messy, things break, its always easier to start fresh I think. However, the other power supply is more inline with what I am used to, and may make me feel better, it has a great deal more overal capacitance, and a great deal of small ones used, which sounds inline with what I know to be good. I will listen to both and see which I like, its not all that expensive. Maybe later on I will try a more expensive cap here and there.

[dsavitsk]

I am usually a sucker for fancy parts, however I built one briangt kit with panasonics, and another with Nichicon Muze/relcaps (with the carlosfm upgraded PS.) While they sound different for sure, I am not sure I like the expensive one better. I think the panasonic caps are pretty good in this spot.

[maf_au]

Originally posted by pjpoes
the only part I was confused about is the 10uf which I thought it said was supposed to be a Black gate part.

Is this the 3875 premium kit?

From the website:
4 10u Panasonic FC Capacitors

There's no mention of any included BG caps.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you didn't know how to solder, I was trying to cover all the bases. It sounds like those resistors are very fragile!

Not sure what mastertech is on about Anything I've had from Sony recently has been of quite average quality, and not made in Japan! The Panasonic FC caps have a reasonable reputation... ???

Anyway, good luck with the kit, hope it comes together nicely for you now.

Michael

[rabbitz]

Panasonic FC's are an excellent good value cap. Have never seen a Sony cap and every Sony component I have here uses Nichicon or Elna caps.

[The one]

I think the kit sounds better with input caps. You could use the 10uf panasonics in this position. I ditched the caddocks and the Rikens. They do produce a kind of hifi sound that many like. I mixed the panasonics fc(V+) with bc component capacitors(V-). This was the right combination for me. Experiment with different parts. You can get many different kinds of sound out of it.

[pjpoes]

Thankyou for the comments. I probably would use a polyester or teflon film capacitor as an input cap if I did use one, but only if I really felt it was needed, I generally like to avoid using them if I can.

[Gerben]

Hi,

I also bought the premium kit. I suggest to just build it as per Peter Daniels recommendations and go from there. Peter has got good ears IMHO. My eperience is as follows

As for the PS caps. I swapped the Panansonic FC 1500 uF for Black Gate N-type 100 uF (no typo) near the chips and no additional caps on the diode bridge.

I was and still am amazed by the transparency with this setup. Real bass 'umph' is lacking and some hum is coming tru your speakers. Also the amp sags to much when listening at louder levels. Since i don't listen loud and I am in the proces of using a subwoofer to take care of the lowend (Jordan TL's for mains) the tradeoff is no concern to me.

The 'save'route would be going with 1000uF (panasonic FC/Philips BC or Black gate standard if you can afford) at the diode bridge and 100 uF Black gate N-type at the chips. However it's all personal: you might like a snubberized setup. try try try.

Regarding the input cap: just measure the DC-offset and go from there. My TubeDAC has an outputcap (Black Gate again) so no input cap at the amp.

One suggestion when using bipolar caps like the Black Gate N-type. Connect the foil-side to the lower impedance point. That usually means foilside pointing to the 'input 'when used in the signal path and going to ground when used for bypassing. Just study the pics in the Audiosector thread in the Vedors Bazaar and you get the point.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...319#post584319

I believe this also answers lot of your questions regarding the PS options etc.

Good luck and enjoy!

Gerben