Aleph 5 has arrived

[SteveA]

I have finally finished, well nearly so, my Aleph 5. I would like to say I did it all by myself, but that would be grossly inaccurate. BDP (Bryan) answered my call for assistance and he held my hand for about two weeks troubleshooting the amp. I learned alot (and I have much-much more to learn).

I am not quite done. The amp plays music nicely, however, I have a bit of noise which doesn't attenuate and it seems to be predominently in one channel. I suppose it's a ground loop. Even with the noise the amp sounds great (once the music overcomes the noise).

It's great to have a forum like this to steal ideas. I've shamelessly copied (at least tried to copy) ideas from a number of chassis designs I've seen.

I am not sure what I should do next. Get rid of the noise in the Aleph 5 or move on and finish the Aleph 2's I've started.

Thanks again to BDP

SteveA

 

[Luke]

nice work.You got any pics to show us

 

[SteveA]

Hi Luke-
I haven't taken any pictures yet but will shortly.
Steve

 

[eLarson]

I'd recommend spending a little time de-buzzing/de-noising the one channel of the Aleph 5. (It would drive me crazy knowing one channel has it but the other doesn't... but that's just me.)

What type of sound are you hearing? Is it a 120 Hz buzz, or more like a whooshing sound? Perhaps there is a cold solder joint somewhere?

Erik

 

[SteveA]

The noise is a steady buzzing sound. I used a 3 to 2 prong "cheater" to lift the ground (per my "mentor" ; you know who you are) and the buzz was gone. The music isn't tho, this is one nice amp. Still, I will need to figure out how to remove the buzz without the cheater.
Steve

 

[SteveA]

Here is a picture of my A5 with top and front removed. It's a bit difficult to see the heatsinks but they're R-Theta's (11x11x2.25) . I'll shorten the leads after I remove the ground loop issue.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

SteveA

 

[relder]

Here is a picture of my A5 with top and front removed. It's a bit difficult to see the heatsinks but they're R-Theta's (11x11x2.25) . I'll shorten the leads after I remove the ground loop issue.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

SteveA

Can't get to it, perhaps you need to give permissions for others to see it?

 

[SteveA]

I just allowed sharing. Try it now.
SteveA

 

[relder]

I just allowed sharing. Try it now.
SteveA

Yep, works now, fun to see someone else homebrewing PCBs. Seems most Alephs here are using professionally made boards. Mine was ugly, but works: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=260717#post260717

Nice and roomy without the PS circuitry in there. Mine's so tight it's a pain to mod things. Good job, enjoy.

 

[SteveA]

Hi Relder-
I was going to say something about ugly but effective, but after looking at the pics of your Aleph ugly is certainly not a description that comes to mind. Your layout is neat and tidy. Your chassis design is a thing of beauty. Mine should be half as nice and I would be pleased.

I would like to get to the point where I could "brew" the pcb myself but I just used a design I found on the web.

I have a few Aleph 2 boards assembled and tested. I will be ordering transformers, some aluminum, etc to finish them. My goal is to build one of each of the Aleph's. Hopefully during the process I will advance my understanding of electronics.

SteveA