me again ...... as I said , something explained in one of opening posts in this very thread
though , it deserves more explanation , and I can't do that much better than already explained in Euridice article published in Sound Practices
Joe Roberts - his CD listing on Ebay is Dodo , but he's member here and you can ask him ..... buy Sound Practices CD , it's worth every dime , not just because of schematics and info inside , but you can learn very important fact about DIY Audio from it - it's primarily the fun , everything else is later and less important
when I read it , I was mad , simply because I already made my own WOT preamp , and I became aware of (again) reinventing the wheel
anyway - read two attached articles ; Iron Pumpkin is result of thinking in pretty much same way ..... while Mighty ZM trying to act as Mighty Mickey , killing seven with one stroke!
I've had this preamplifier for a while now - if this device can be called a preamplifier at all. I would call it a Gain machine.
My music begin to live a new life with a incredible naturalness without any plastic nervousness.
The only way that comes to mind to describe what the Iron SE have done to the music is - taking away any digital artifacts (for the lack of a better word) - SACD/CD - especially well-recorded ones - sound simply more natural without any digital "harshness" - and those that are less well recorded?
Well, they sound the way they are, but still a lot better than before - and some even far less thin that I had always believed.
So, yes, I am a very happy - this black box + Sissy opened my “the third eye”.
My music begin to live a new life with a incredible naturalness without any plastic nervousness.
The only way that comes to mind to describe what the Iron SE have done to the music is - taking away any digital artifacts (for the lack of a better word) - SACD/CD - especially well-recorded ones - sound simply more natural without any digital "harshness" - and those that are less well recorded?
Well, they sound the way they are, but still a lot better than before - and some even far less thin that I had always believed.
So, yes, I am a very happy - this black box + Sissy opened my “the third eye”.
Poorboy Pumpkin
Hey ZM, this has been quite an audio journey. It all started with MR's MoFo, to get the most out of that amp, it turns out I need this first. I finally got your iron pumpkin buffer boards mounted in a chassis along with Dave Slagle AVC irons. Also has passive baffle step correction built in. I have to agree with the concensus of transparency machine, it's a volume control that just gets out of the way. It really makes for a smooth system playing either turn table or PC digital as sources.
I call it Poorboy Pumpkin due to skin-flint, penny-pinching scrouging techniques employed in assembling this amazing music machine. Chassis was a Hammond 3U aluminum one I've for about 20 years left from an abandoned vacuum tube project. I wish it had a brushed Al face plate
Lone switch on the back is for 0dB, +3dB, +6dB Gain. The rotary and toggle switch are for baffle step controls, it can be defeated.
The MoFo is still on bread board (towards the bottom of the rack) because of pumpkin experiments and construction totally worth while side tracking.
Thanks for your thinking outside of the box inovations.
Cinco
Hey ZM, this has been quite an audio journey. It all started with MR's MoFo, to get the most out of that amp, it turns out I need this first. I finally got your iron pumpkin buffer boards mounted in a chassis along with Dave Slagle AVC irons. Also has passive baffle step correction built in. I have to agree with the concensus of transparency machine, it's a volume control that just gets out of the way. It really makes for a smooth system playing either turn table or PC digital as sources.
I call it Poorboy Pumpkin due to skin-flint, penny-pinching scrouging techniques employed in assembling this amazing music machine. Chassis was a Hammond 3U aluminum one I've for about 20 years left from an abandoned vacuum tube project. I wish it had a brushed Al face plate
Lone switch on the back is for 0dB, +3dB, +6dB Gain. The rotary and toggle switch are for baffle step controls, it can be defeated.
The MoFo is still on bread board (towards the bottom of the rack) because of pumpkin experiments and construction totally worth while side tracking.
Thanks for your thinking outside of the box inovations.
Cinco
Attachments
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the unexpected bonus with the iron pumpkins ---
This thing makes a pretty decent headphone amplifier too. I have 80ohm headphones that pumpkin drives with ease because of its low impeadence output. At the low level settings for head listening, -21dB or lower, output Z is 1 ohm or lower. My sources all capable of 1.5Vpk or more.
Try it. Vinyl never sounded so good!
This thing makes a pretty decent headphone amplifier too. I have 80ohm headphones that pumpkin drives with ease because of its low impeadence output. At the low level settings for head listening, -21dB or lower, output Z is 1 ohm or lower. My sources all capable of 1.5Vpk or more.
Try it. Vinyl never sounded so good!
my Preamps will rule all those Papamps!!
Yeah, I'm ruined forever. I used to use stepped resistive attenuators to contol various papaamps. I tried conventional stepped, series/shunt, ladder, etc.... they all sucked the life out of the music, even using buffers. The only time they work ok is when they are all the way up (low series resistance).
Then I tried AVC and finally low Z buffer in front, Iron Pumpkin configuration. I can now never go back to inferior, icky resistor methods. Long live iron pathways to Zen in music reproduction.
Cinco