Death of Gain Clone

[Upupa Epops]

This amp have " high biased driver stage ", which drive load and by higher levels also OS. Crossover distortion will be " shifted " near to higher levels and probably will be less hearable, than by " normal " amp...Thanks to using of input j-fets sound will be little bit softer, than by using of BJT ones at this position... Price of devices will be funny...

[Samuel Jayaraj]

I dare to say to all Gainclone lovers that the Gainclone is not the final word in SS amplification.

Perhaps, Widowmaker's circuit sounds 'significantly better' than the gainclones that he heard.

I for one have the Stochino Amp which leaves the competition of the Gainclone far behind.

Those who want to debate can define 'significantly better' according to their terms and I mean it includes all that.

[thanh]

I'm using amp with current mirror . I found that matching input tst will give a strong bass . Perhaps you matched input jfets well

[ilimzn]

Looks like something similar to a current dumping scheme to me, rather than error correction as such. I've done something similae but with BJTs and OP-amp front end, perhaps 7 years ago, worked quite well, actually.

[Hanzwillem]

Originally posted by rick57
What is the degree of difficulty to build, vs gainclone, or a Nelson Pass class A amp?

And what was the total parts cost?

Thanks

I believe by these points this can never be competition. The difference in number of parts (and thus price) is just too big. I do not believe everyone that has a GC can say that it is the best amp in the world. But could just be the best that little money and specially effort can buy.
Unless you put all the fets for the amplification stages of this amp into one IC and sell it for 5 bucks... I thought the whole idea of GC is the minimal component count, you do not even need a circuit board to build one, just solder the few caps and resitors onto the pins...

My compliments for the excellent design. But I think the name is not appropriate. It is just a different league...

[Upupa Epops]

I don't understand uninterrupted desire for some simply design... Man, who knows to solder twenty devices, quite well solder thirty or fifry devices... I'm asking : Who wash you brains, that you are still thinking it ? I know one apostel...

[Peter Daniel]

I would suggest a name for that thread: 'The Death of MY Gain Clone', because mine is still doing very well:

http://www.6moons.com/lettersfeedbac...sfeedback.html
My current system consists of Zu Druids, Modwright SWL 9.0 SE and I just received my Patek SE. That little amp is a freakin' work of art. Small yes, but like the watch, it is a gem. WOW!

Now to the sound. My last amp was the Aleph J and prior to that was the First Watt F2 and a Butler 2250 before that. All pieces I learned about from 6moons. Anyway, I thought the Aleph J was superb, but the Patek is in a different league. Stunning, dynamic, powerful and yet smooth as silk. Massed strings have no etch whatsoever, bass is deep and powerful and tuneful. The imaging and layering of the soundstage is unlike anything I have ever heard. I have had a pretty good sense of images across the stage, but never the layers of depth that I am getting now.

I just wanted to thank you for going down this path and writing about it. This combo is going to get me off the treadmill, that's for sure. Ear-to-ear grins abound!

Steve Jeffcoat

[Upupa Epops]

And all tested by listening of CD format....Or not, Peter ?

[Peter Daniel]

I actually find myself listening a lot to live FM transmissions these days.

[lineup]

Originally posted by Samuel Jayaraj
I dare to say to all Gainclone lovers that the Gainclone is not the final word in SS amplification.

Perhaps, Widowmaker's circuit sounds 'significantly better' than the gainclones that he heard.

I for one have the Stochino Amp which leaves the competition of the Gainclone far behind.

Those who want to debate can define 'significantly better' according to their terms and I mean it includes all that.

This is the schematic of a 'High-speed 100W amplifier' based on Stochino design from 1997 Electronics & Wireless World.

It is far more complicated than DoGC.

Notice use of parallelled 2N5551 and 2N5401 small signal transistors!
as drivers of IRF640 and IRF640 HEXFET.

Aslo using TL431 as VBE-multiplier to set/hold output stage bias.