As my leach amp comes to a close (finally working), I realize another summer is soon upon me. This requires another project. I want you aleph master's advise on the Aleph X.
First I will be driving mainily a capacitive load, but being that the Aleph X is PP, this will be fine correct? (is this model Aleph truly estat friendly)
Second, a rough price estimate. Let's assume I go middle of the road on cost. I am looking for about 120W a channel, two channels.
a.) How much will the boards cost me (12 boards by my count), and are there extras available anywhere from a group order? If not where can i obtain the gerber files to fab my own?
b.) About what will the components cost me per board, and where is the official parts list?
c.) One of the daunting tasks left for the leach is a decent case. In my research on the Aleph X, it would seem the case has to virtually be a giant heatsink. Where are these tyes of cases sold? Recommendations and cost estimates on these types of cases?
If i have sucessfully compleated a Leach amp buildup, is there any major difference in difficulty or skills required. (besides proficientcy with the scope, powersupply, ect.)
Thanks for your advice oh Aleph knowers.
Brian
First I will be driving mainily a capacitive load, but being that the Aleph X is PP, this will be fine correct? (is this model Aleph truly estat friendly)
Second, a rough price estimate. Let's assume I go middle of the road on cost. I am looking for about 120W a channel, two channels.
a.) How much will the boards cost me (12 boards by my count), and are there extras available anywhere from a group order? If not where can i obtain the gerber files to fab my own?
b.) About what will the components cost me per board, and where is the official parts list?
c.) One of the daunting tasks left for the leach is a decent case. In my research on the Aleph X, it would seem the case has to virtually be a giant heatsink. Where are these tyes of cases sold? Recommendations and cost estimates on these types of cases?
If i have sucessfully compleated a Leach amp buildup, is there any major difference in difficulty or skills required. (besides proficientcy with the scope, powersupply, ect.)
Thanks for your advice oh Aleph knowers.
Brian
VictorG said:
Though I'm also a newbe and not een master, my advice is use the upcoming summer studying the Aleph X postings and start the building next years summer. You'll see the answers to the above questions will be solved by youself. But.... you'll also find yourself ending up with a lot more questions wich will be more complex and with no easy answers. Meantime you can make some savings because you will need quite a bit.
Or you can take the easy road, choose an completed X-100 (Edwin Dorre, Blitz, Hugo a.o.) and copy the design and use the same parts. A little "sucking up with the teacher" and you'll know everything you need.
QUOTE]Originally posted by VictorG
In my research on the Aleph X, it would seem the case has to virtually be a giant heatsink. Where are these tyes of cases sold? Recommendations and cost estimates on these types of cases?
[/QUOTE]
Costs also depends where you live, heatsinks are cheap in Australia, Capacitors were cheap in America. The worst place to be is in Europe because every cheap part has to be flown in from another part of the world. And the costs are nearly doubled.
Succes
Jojo
VictorG
I read somewhere where Grey had hooked the amp up to a capacitive load without stability problems. Perhaps he could provide more clarification on this. I built my units for my future project of a pair of estats.
I'm not sure why you need 12 boards. 2 would be sufficient for for 2 channels. Unless you bi, tri or quad etc. amp each channel.
I used the boards provided by HiFiZen and they work great. However, after building the 100 watt version, I found that alot of the board area wasn't used since the big parts are moved to the sinks. I am seriously considering making my own boards for the amp using the freeware version of EAGLE. I think it is at www.cadsoftusa.com.
Best place to start is at the Aleph X WIKI. There is even a spreadsheet that calculates the power profile for a given voltage and bias. I found it to be very accurate. I havn't done a cost study (really afraid of doing it) yet but it is not an el cheapo amp since matching is VERY important and power consmption is high. IT IS VERY much worth the effort however.
The case is 80% of the project. If you have a table saw( with a fine tooth carbide blade), small drill press, a router, and good calipers you can easily make any case you want. ( I didn't say quickly ). I posted the basic design of my amp case on the Aleph X builder thread. If you purchased heat sinks instead of making them it would be even easier.
Both of my cases including plate, screws, connections, spikes and a new saw blade were under $300. or about $150 each. Transformers were about $275. Circuit components were $200 not including caps. Caps were $4.50 each bought some time ago from surplus. The kicker is the time. I figure that I have 400 hours easy into them from concept to their present state. I conservativly estimate my time to be $150/hr for a total cost of $60,000. A friend of mine wanted to buy them until I told him what I want to sell them for.
Have fun
Scott
I read somewhere where Grey had hooked the amp up to a capacitive load without stability problems. Perhaps he could provide more clarification on this. I built my units for my future project of a pair of estats.
I'm not sure why you need 12 boards. 2 would be sufficient for for 2 channels. Unless you bi, tri or quad etc. amp each channel.
I used the boards provided by HiFiZen and they work great. However, after building the 100 watt version, I found that alot of the board area wasn't used since the big parts are moved to the sinks. I am seriously considering making my own boards for the amp using the freeware version of EAGLE. I think it is at www.cadsoftusa.com.
Best place to start is at the Aleph X WIKI. There is even a spreadsheet that calculates the power profile for a given voltage and bias. I found it to be very accurate. I havn't done a cost study (really afraid of doing it) yet but it is not an el cheapo amp since matching is VERY important and power consmption is high. IT IS VERY much worth the effort however.
The case is 80% of the project. If you have a table saw( with a fine tooth carbide blade), small drill press, a router, and good calipers you can easily make any case you want. ( I didn't say quickly ). I posted the basic design of my amp case on the Aleph X builder thread. If you purchased heat sinks instead of making them it would be even easier.
Both of my cases including plate, screws, connections, spikes and a new saw blade were under $300. or about $150 each. Transformers were about $275. Circuit components were $200 not including caps. Caps were $4.50 each bought some time ago from surplus. The kicker is the time. I figure that I have 400 hours easy into them from concept to their present state. I conservativly estimate my time to be $150/hr for a total cost of $60,000. A friend of mine wanted to buy them until I told him what I want to sell them for.
Have fun
Scott
Scott,
Glad to hear that you are building stats, I am a big fan of such speakers, but speaking from experience you might meed more than a hundred watts, unless you are building hybrids.
I have not built Aleph-X's yet but I found thath the regular Aleph's were stable into all kinds of loads.
Regards,
Jam
Glad to hear that you are building stats, I am a big fan of such speakers, but speaking from experience you might meed more than a hundred watts, unless you are building hybrids.
I have not built Aleph-X's yet but I found thath the regular Aleph's were stable into all kinds of loads.
Regards,
Jam
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