I've got all the parts to build a Charlize amp and was wondering whether I should build it as an integrated, with an Alps Blue velvet pot directly to the amp, or should I use an active pre and bypass the Alps entirely. I guess I'll find out soon enough, but I was wondering what others have found, if anything.
It'll be mostly used with an iPod as input, and I've built a pair of cardboard Metronomes with Radio Shack drivers as speakers. The speakers will eventually get replaced with some real metronomes, but they'll have to do for now. This system is for my kids so it doesn't have to be perfect, but I do want it to be able to go somewhat loud so I don't hear complaints from them. I'm looking to get them away from my main system so I can use it!!
It'll be mostly used with an iPod as input, and I've built a pair of cardboard Metronomes with Radio Shack drivers as speakers. The speakers will eventually get replaced with some real metronomes, but they'll have to do for now. This system is for my kids so it doesn't have to be perfect, but I do want it to be able to go somewhat loud so I don't hear complaints from them. I'm looking to get them away from my main system so I can use it!!
Does the Charlize have an option for higher gain? I should know, but I don't.
If so, you want to use it for iPod as a source. A 1V source like most MP3 players won't drive the inputs of the chip to full power, unless you use the option of more gain.
The gain is set by the ratio of the input to feedback resistors.
If so, you want to use it for iPod as a source. A 1V source like most MP3 players won't drive the inputs of the chip to full power, unless you use the option of more gain.
The gain is set by the ratio of the input to feedback resistors.
One way of increasing the gain of Charlize is by changing the value of resistor, Ri; which is R371 and R372 on Charlize
The gain calculation is done as follows....
Gain = 12 (Rf/Ri)
Where Rf and Ri on the existing Charlize is 20K ohms
As the 2 resistors are in smd package, it will be abit tricky to change.
The gain calculation is done as follows....
Gain = 12 (Rf/Ri)
Where Rf and Ri on the existing Charlize is 20K ohms
As the 2 resistors are in smd package, it will be abit tricky to change.
I "finished" it last night and have it on now and it sounds fine with the blue velvet pot as the only control, with a low output modded Toshiba 3960 as source. I'll still give it a try with my Aikido which is sitting right next to it for kicks, but since this is for a kids iPod hookup I'll use it as is when I'm done swapping around.
I still have to install permanent RCA jacks in it, the ones I have are PCB mount and the body isn't deep enough to mount on the wood box. The box came from a smoked Alaska salmon gift box.
And for anyone building a Charlize, follow the instructions on the speaker outputs. The square and circle solder pads are backwards on one side, but the picture on the website is correct. I turned it on and was listening for a short while when I was bothered by the fact that the sound was coming from behind me and I realized I was out of phase. I swapped the cable on one side and all is OK, but I still have to swap them on the inside now.
I still have to install permanent RCA jacks in it, the ones I have are PCB mount and the body isn't deep enough to mount on the wood box. The box came from a smoked Alaska salmon gift box.
And for anyone building a Charlize, follow the instructions on the speaker outputs. The square and circle solder pads are backwards on one side, but the picture on the website is correct. I turned it on and was listening for a short while when I was bothered by the fact that the sound was coming from behind me and I realized I was out of phase. I swapped the cable on one side and all is OK, but I still have to swap them on the inside now.
Zacster,
If you have no gain issues and can use either the pot or the preamp, I think you'll find a good tube preamp can raise the performance of the system up a whole level. I've used my Charlize with a tweaked out Cary SLP-94 and it sounds so much nicer than just the Charlize with a passive pot attenuator.
I've also used Charlize with the Dave Slagle autoformers and that sounds great, too. Perhaps not as lush and lucid as the tube pre, but very soft, dynamic, and musical. Less of a resource hog, too - important if you listen to music in bed at night and end up leaving the system powered up until morning.
Of course, if you're setting it up for the kids, maybe just using a pot is enough. It'll sound good enough that they'll be happy (unless they're starting down that dreaded audiophile path) and is a whole heck of a lot less fussy.
Having said that, I found that the PEC carbon pots to sound very musical and I prefer them to most others I've tried, which include the Blue Velvet, Black Beauty, Noble, RadioShack Alps, and others. The stereo tracking is not always the best with the PECs, however, so it's sometimes a pain to get the initial setup right.
Also, those tiny little green pots from Australia sound really good. Clean and slick sounding - not warm and lush like the PEC, but musical in a different way. My initial impression was that they were too quick and slippery sounding, but after a while I found I preferred them to the more sedate sounding Blue Velvet and Black Beauty. Could be a system thing.
Best,
KT
If you have no gain issues and can use either the pot or the preamp, I think you'll find a good tube preamp can raise the performance of the system up a whole level. I've used my Charlize with a tweaked out Cary SLP-94 and it sounds so much nicer than just the Charlize with a passive pot attenuator.
I've also used Charlize with the Dave Slagle autoformers and that sounds great, too. Perhaps not as lush and lucid as the tube pre, but very soft, dynamic, and musical. Less of a resource hog, too - important if you listen to music in bed at night and end up leaving the system powered up until morning.
Of course, if you're setting it up for the kids, maybe just using a pot is enough. It'll sound good enough that they'll be happy (unless they're starting down that dreaded audiophile path) and is a whole heck of a lot less fussy.
Having said that, I found that the PEC carbon pots to sound very musical and I prefer them to most others I've tried, which include the Blue Velvet, Black Beauty, Noble, RadioShack Alps, and others. The stereo tracking is not always the best with the PECs, however, so it's sometimes a pain to get the initial setup right.
Also, those tiny little green pots from Australia sound really good. Clean and slick sounding - not warm and lush like the PEC, but musical in a different way. My initial impression was that they were too quick and slippery sounding, but after a while I found I preferred them to the more sedate sounding Blue Velvet and Black Beauty. Could be a system thing.
Best,
KT
I put my Aikido in yesterday and it was better, a little more detailed and a lot more oomph. I have a Bottlehead Foreplay II sitting unused so I may hook it up with that for the kids, but I'd have to seal the insides on it first. With just the pot and an iPod as input it didn't go quite loud enough, although maybe that's a good thing. I set my son up with an amp and Murphy Blaster speakers a few years ago and guess what, he likes it LOUD, and he likes cranking his guitar up even louder.
The kids were happy enough with computer speakers so this will be light years ahead.
And another NYer, whereabouts? Brooklyn myself.
The kids were happy enough with computer speakers so this will be light years ahead.
And another NYer, whereabouts? Brooklyn myself.
Hi Zacster,
I, too, live in Brooklyn... well, I lived in Brooklyn, anyway. I recently moved back to Seattle where I grew up.
I lived in Willamsburg, 3 stops in on the L train (the Graham stop) for 5 years. That was after a 2 year stint in grad school in Rhode Island.
When I was there I didn't hang out too much with other audio nuts, maybe a brief appearance at the AudioCircle New York meeting once, and I did work at In Living Stereo in Manhattan for about a year, but other than that my audio interested has been mostly a solitary and online pursuit.
If I were still in NYC, though, I would have loved to have meet with you to compare Charlizes.
I do miss New York.
Best,
KT
I, too, live in Brooklyn... well, I lived in Brooklyn, anyway. I recently moved back to Seattle where I grew up.
I lived in Willamsburg, 3 stops in on the L train (the Graham stop) for 5 years. That was after a 2 year stint in grad school in Rhode Island.
When I was there I didn't hang out too much with other audio nuts, maybe a brief appearance at the AudioCircle New York meeting once, and I did work at In Living Stereo in Manhattan for about a year, but other than that my audio interested has been mostly a solitary and online pursuit.
If I were still in NYC, though, I would have loved to have meet with you to compare Charlizes.
I do miss New York.
Best,
KT
KT, I lived in Seattle for a while before moving back to Brooklyn, near where I grew up in Ditmas Park. My Seattle years were in the '80s, and I've only been back once since, just last summer, and it changed a lot in some ways, and was still the same in others. I also went to one NY Rave meeting in January, and I'm going to another one next week in Park Slope, but I'm not all that active. They tend towards the commercial high-end stuff that I'm not interested in. I've only been in In Living Stereo a few times and they have some nice sounding gear but its way out of my price range. Besides, if I can build it myself why would I buy?
I put the Charlize in the kids' room without the pre and they're happy. If it were any louder it would start going through the walls and I wouldn't be happy.
I put the Charlize in the kids' room without the pre and they're happy. If it were any louder it would start going through the walls and I wouldn't be happy.
A friend of mine was looking for a low powered amp for his small apartment system and I recommended the Charlize I have.
I took my Charlize off the shelf and fired it up for the first time in months - I grabbed an old SMPS laptop powersupply I got from here from work and used my DIY tube preamp based on the C3m tube - the Charlize sounded even better than I remembered. It drove my Altec speakers quite well.
Anyways, he sent me an email today and he is very happy with the Charlize. He also uses a tube linestage and separate tube phono stage (I built both of 'em) and was thrilled with the results with his Adire HE10 speakers. It seems that the Charlize picks up the character of the source driving it.
I took my Charlize off the shelf and fired it up for the first time in months - I grabbed an old SMPS laptop powersupply I got from here from work and used my DIY tube preamp based on the C3m tube - the Charlize sounded even better than I remembered. It drove my Altec speakers quite well.
Anyways, he sent me an email today and he is very happy with the Charlize. He also uses a tube linestage and separate tube phono stage (I built both of 'em) and was thrilled with the results with his Adire HE10 speakers. It seems that the Charlize picks up the character of the source driving it.
On the day I got my Charlize working one of the power tubes in my pushpull 6B4G amp went out and I didn't have a spare. The Charlize immediately became my main amp, but you know what, I wasn't in any rush to get my tube amp up and running again because the Charlize just sounds so nice. Powerwise I think it's a wash, they both put out about 10wpc.
Someday I'll have to build an amp with lots of tubes glowing (my current amp has 9 so that qualifies), but on the inside just have a Charlize doing all the work. I'll bring it to one of the area DIY meets and see what kind of reaction it gets.
Someday I'll have to build an amp with lots of tubes glowing (my current amp has 9 so that qualifies), but on the inside just have a Charlize doing all the work. I'll bring it to one of the area DIY meets and see what kind of reaction it gets.
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