Is the Aikido too 'bright'?

[manlystanley]

I found this review on the below site:

http://diyaudioprojects.com/Forum/vi...t=127&start=20

In it, is says that the Aikido is too bright for many peoples tastes. I was wondering what you all thought about that? Those that own Aikido's do you think that it lacks bass?

Thanks,
Stan

[athos56]

Originally Posted by manlystanley

I found this review on the below site:

http://diyaudioprojects.com/Forum/vi...t=127&start=20

In it, is says that the Aikido is too bright for many peoples tastes. I was wondering what you all thought about that? Those that own Aikido's do you think that it lacks bass?

Thanks,
Stan

I would call mine clean, or detailed. With so many tubes to roll through the circuit I'm sure you could get the full range of sound qualities from Dark to bright. I'd look to the synergy of someones entire system rather than one element.

Athos

[DF96]

Frequency response depends more on capacitor values than exact circuit topology, so all they are saying is that one particular person's build of the Aikido circuit happens to have capacitor values which produce a frequency response which some people find subjectively too bright when compared with the response produced by someone else's capacitor value choices in some other circuits. This actually tells you almost nothing about the Aikido circuit!

[syyma]

I second to Athos, clean and detailed. I breadboard two Aikido, one with 5687 as the output. I keep the one with 5687 and ordered the Aikido 5687 board from JB. You may consider the Aikido Cathode Follower board if you don't need a lot of gain.

Just my 2 cents

Sidney

[tinitus]

Broskie is running a new ECC99 Aikido on 24V, heater and all

[woodturner-fran]

I have 2 aikidos running ECC86 tubes on 24V supply and they sound pretty neutral - definitely not bright.

Sadly the ECC86 are unobtainium or $$$ - must look up what he is doing with the ECC99

Fran


EDIT: what I really must do someday is set up a shunt reg supply for the aikido and separate out the heaters from the main B+. It would be a very interesting build I think.

[manlystanley]

Great help, thanks! I have one question, why should I consider the cathode follower version of the Aikido??

Thanks,
Stan

[vanofmonks]

Use the CF only aikido if you don't need gain. If you do use the regular which has a gain stage in front of a CF.

[manlystanley]

Ok, so I'm sold. I'm going the Aikido route. With some pointers from your guys:

--> If it's to 'bright' then I can tweek the output capacitors for the CF; or I can get different tubes.
--> If the gain is to much, then I can tweak the amp section.

It seems like a no brainier to me. I've got surgery next week, and will be out on my back for a while, but afterwords, I'm looking forward to the project.

Best Regards,
Stan


Best Regards,
Stan

[danny_66]

You have plenty of options with the Aikido circuit:
GlassWare Line Stage & Headphone Amplifiers Kits and PCBs
Broskie has some PCBs where there's room for two output capacitors for each channel. So depending on your mood/preferences you can choose which output capacitor will be used.