Tribute to papa

[elviukai]

I have hapily lived more than 3years with Papas DIY xa160 (24v rails, 12A, 48fets) , but I always was jelousy on beautifil finishes of pass here on forum, even choky did not said fugly ever

once i saw original pass xa200 I realized how much I have missed- it has raw muscle beauty without any extra tricks like burmeister or mbl shinny toys.

so since then i decided to build 90% or so clone of thees ams, as speakers tooked most of my time, only now I was able to start this. today I bringed to studio aluminium parts for speakers and papas amps, it weighted 740kg only excruded aluminium.
they seems dusty and not well done on photos but everythuing is cuted at 0.2mm , there was not posible cut on cnc or laser because some parts was 40 mm ,there was used cut with watter,sand and high pressure computer programable big industrial equipment.

I asked one person for drawings(he done something similar) but did not get answers so everything started from zero. it took a tons of time and lot of photos of variuos angles to draw in archicad exact proportion of pass xa 160 and xa100 , the only diference is on heatsinks and front panel exterior parts(I did from 25mm, while original was made from 20mm I believe) it looks even more hefty

heastinks base is hefty 40mm each monoblock,
I also did similar looking MINI ME - its spencers pasd1 v3 modified dac with j-fets outputs , it also have inside passive pream swiched by relays )with nice LCD.

i have noit realized how expensive is to make theese beasts. I spended nearly 5000usd on aluminium, and more than 2000usd for cuting servises and it still half job done- parts need be brushed , cuted edges anozided white and black . I still have big head pain to design an make original look like ampermetres, I wish papa could sell some I think I will cost less than to manufacture by small qty'ies


if everyhing will be ok I will have 2x xa160 for studio , 2x xa100 for home, 2x xa100 for friend and 3 DAC I would like to thank papa again for sharing his beautiful projects


here is some photos.

[elviukai]

another one

[Zen Mod]

FUGLY!





btw. whazzat this fugly! :

[Magura]

Nice going



Magura

[Bakmeel]

Holy Macaroni!

That's serious heavy metal!

Nice work!

[elviukai]

actualy aluminium is not very heavy comparing to cooper, brass or lead but still its heavy. as for aplifiers its not very heavy- I believe one empty not stufed monoblock is somewhere arround 35- 45kg what is heavy is speakers enclosures (not here in photo,only one small midrange module could be seen) )

for my opnion aluminium speakers eclosure 15-20mm thickness with some extra damping are almost free of any box coloration in basicaly any spl level. at least comparing with the same thickness mdf they are 30-40db quiter in 100-700hz range.

Zen mod that small amp is enclosure for f5 its laser cutted ,just it do not have still fitted front and back panel so maybe he looks ugly anyway thanks

[Magura]

Originally posted by elviukai
actualy aluminium is not very heavy comparing to cooper, brass or lead but still its heavy. as for aplifiers its not very heavy- I believe one empty not stufed monoblock is somewhere arround 35- 45kg what is heavy is speakers enclosures (not here in photo,only one small midrange module could be seen) )

for my opnion aluminium speakers eclosure 15-20mm thickness with some extra damping are almost free of any box coloration in basicaly any spl level. at least comparing with the same thickness mdf they are 30-40db quiter in 100-700hz range.

Zen mod that small amp is enclosure for f5 its laser cutted ,just it do not have still fitted front and back panel so maybe he looks ugly anyway thanks

45kg for an empty enclosure is not too bad. It will keep your amp total weight under 80kg, which I have found to be the practical limit, as it's hard for two persons to move more than that, and it's hard to be more than two persons moving an amp.

As for the speaker enclosures, you're on to something right there, but you would get even better results by using steel. Relatively thin steel is performing even better.
As I see you also have access to a laser cutter, try 3mm steel. SPD sheet has shown very promising results, especially for full range speakers.


Magura

[elviukai]

I weighted xa160 empty weights 42kg and xa100 weights even more 4kg (i quess its because on xa100 i decided to use 40mm heatsink base) I quess i am litle bit overdone with front panel pads- front panel is from 15mm and panel pads machined from 26mm. orginals I quess use 14-16mm for front panel and 18-20mm for panel pads.
i believe xa100 will handle the same or even more heat than xa160.
ataching picture of todays work.
actualy I am not afraid of weight lifting, I can lift 220-240kg , it also happens to lift 80-100kg speakers alone sometimes . I quess workout in the gym sometimes pay out
as for steel is interesting idea, i always thinked for some reason that steel has some nasty resonanses in lower midrange. but its hard to work
with and aluminium from my listening tests proove very audible diferencies betwen plywood .mdf.no matter how heavily braced.

I have also an idea to release localy some small active 20liters 2ways monitors made from 17mm aluminium, they would be powered by class a amp not pass labs but local diyers designed . transitors would be atached to enclosure. now I made one of thees and I find no seriuos noise problems (powersuply is out of box also)

it would be nice option to throw in two dac and make digital xover. so it would be only mains in and digital in to feed transport or pc . word ?all in one" makes sense in this case..

[Nelson Pass]

Well aren't you sweet.

I shall place your name on the protected rolls, and when amplifiers
take over the world you will come to no harm.

[elviukai]

hello Papa, whatever point was I did not understand(i think it was targeted to sport activities) but I believe You as always are full of good sense of humor in case it was sport if i would be let in pass store and dealer would told that I can take as much amplifiers as I wil carry in hands, probbaly I would go for 3x xa200(pair for stereo, one just for beuty) ,or maybe smaller nine amplifiers (F1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9)

anyway at the moment I am proud owner of one original pass labs poweramp pickd up on audiogon , and wil plan in future to buy xa30.5 new or used
and also I would like to notice that older x preamps was MUCH better in estetic than new ones. probbaly I am too old for fancy estetic, I like better raw beauty