Hifimediy T4 board

[CrashHouse]

Mundorf caps? I was just searching for some Mundorf M cap Supremes for inputs on my T4. The WIMAs just wore me out, too much midrange and no texture, everything to me sounded glossy.

I settled for some Dayton 1% precision audio with polyester bypass and it is quite an improvement and may not even get the Mundorf now.

The T4 sounds astounding now and am having some friends over to show it off.

Almost 100,000 uF power reserve and a 500VA provide some generous and very tight bass, tighter than from anything else I own. There are some qualities in this amp that I just do not hear in anything else.

How did you connect the giant capacitor. I'm still figuring out how to connect mine.I got 3 go them (Philips 22000uF 100V).

 

[dioheerai]

connected 4 brand new 12v lead acid jet ski battries in series tested and got got a perfect 48v connected this (carefully) to my t4 also tried 350w meanwell clone and 500 connex to find any sound quality difference. Tested with a pair of polk TSI500's and a set of sony sp6000's tower speakers and the result to my i admit non audophile ears was essentially a draw . this was shocking to me because the battries were a perfect power source zero ripple zero power lag . Have decided to forget about torroidal power since there would be no point . have also decided to house amp and power supply in seperate enclosures with a six foot power cable so amp stands alone in its tiny enclosure blowing away any who listen to it . T4 came with mundorf caps and has so much useful power talking about bass punch seems moot .
Now that power supply argument (Just my opinion) is settled . Time to start modding the amp itself so my first question is what is better than mundorf that will not affect the pot in my small enclosure , any suggestions?
Also how do i post pictures (forgive my Noobiness)

 

[PandazYa]

so you gonna keep the smps 500 right ?

 

[dioheerai]

Yes it is small, light and clean power with a lot of protections, but I wll be using it as a stand alone power supply (just like all high end woo audio headphone amps)

 

[dioheerai]

CrashHouse .. this site will answer all your questions
Power Supplies

 

[Centvrion]

. There are some qualities in this amp that I just do not hear in anything else.

Absolutely

 

[Centvrion]

the result to my i admit non audophile ears was essentially a draw .

To me it does not sound like a shock...it simply shows the goodness of the PS stadium of the board. This is why I would like to see again available MeanWell option. With no doubt Connex is better, but not required, in standard use. Just my opinion.

 

[PandazYa]

I've got mine for 3 months now, I just replaced input capacitors by some red jantzen superior and the sound is simply amazing.

I cannot expect more for the price

I little video of my T4 and his smps 500:

http://youtu.be/KDd2x-Zqr7E?hd=1

 

[dioheerai]

That was you ! I must have watched that a dozen times , pausing to check out your connections before you posted today thanks for sharing . Did you replace the Mundorfs with the Jantzens or the standard caps with the Jantzens. The amp sounds Great "as is" but the modder in me will not let it rest on its laurels and they are some big laurels .

 

[PandazYa]

It was the wima few months ago. the mundorf capacitors are not much different from the wima so I recommand to buy classic amplifier and put some obbligato/jantzen or what ever you like

Connections are basic in my video cause I took it about 1 hour after setting the amp!

I have solder the rca cable directly on board I'm not using the connector anymore. My next tweak is to bypass my jantzen superior capacitors with some ero kp1832 as they are very popular in french forums.

 

[nwboater]

.....have also decided to house amp and power supply in seperate enclosures with a six foot power cable so amp stands alone in its tiny enclosure blowing away any who listen to it .......

Seems like it was discussed somewhere on this forum that long power supply leads with Class D Amps can cause some problems. I had considered a separate power supply chassis for my amps and this was brought up as a potential problem. Don't understand why it should be if sufficiently large wiring is used.

Sorry I don't remember where it was metioned, but perhaps some of the more knowledgeable members here will address the issue.

Rod

 

[dioheerai]

I used at least that(6 feet) when i connected the battery supply and close to that with the other test power supplies and they ran for hours with no problems, but I will be researching to find out how this may hurt either the power supply, amp or sound quality thanks for the heads up. I would have thought ocillation due to stray magnetics would have been a much bigger problem . btw a lot of very high end amps have seperate power supplies . Hope to clear up confusion the best way I know how, try very short and very long connectors of varying sizes and use my ears as judge . It should be fun and learning experimentation. Ahh the joys of diy

 

[dioheerai]

nwboater..I found this link which should be made a sticky it is that important .
Understanding Class-D amplifier power supply requirements

the key paragraph (on last page) in keeping with your concern seems to be
"Power supply output capacitors must be of a low impedance type to minimize losses due to high-frequency AC current flowing through the ESR of the capacitor. Low capacitor ESR also provides a lower source impedance when looking back from the amplifier. The power supply output impedance acts in series with the amplifier's own output impedance and affects the amplifier's overall damping and efficiency"

since the cap impedance would be orders of magnitude larger than the conductors so that length of conductors would be negligable unless themselves tightly wound (like a torroid) maybe I am missing somthing any advice on this would be greatly appriciated for the enlightenment of all us novices

 

[nwboater]

Okay here's the thread on separate cases for supplies. I started it - no wonder the subject seemed familiar!

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/class-d/191508-separate-power-supply-case.html

Towards the end of the thread read the comments by nigelwright7557.

Rod

 

[dioheerai]

I tried a 25 foot regular extension cord wrapped it torroid style put it next to my microwave oven, cell phone, 6mhz cordless phone, next to my router and neither the smps (connex 500) or amp had any problems at all. I was trying to get the amp to reset or even clip at max output but it would not . No feedback no buzzing or crackeling whatsoever . All I can think of is that the 2050 controller in the t4 and the way it is configured is not your typical class D amp. The input though and speaker terminals seem extremely sensitive to interference but that is to be expected . Wrapping those around ferrite seem to eliminate any crosstalk and interference. will try again with individual leads to see if that is what was being referenced . but so far nothing

 

[whaleman]

How did you connect the giant capacitor. I'm still figuring out how to connect mine.I got 3 go them (Philips 22000uF 100V).

I just connected positive to positive and neg to neg from the rectifier bridge to the big capacitor, then to the T4 power inputs. See pic.

The amp is on another level with the WIMAs gone. I am going to check out that youtube video.

 

[D4ve]

My first try at putting together this kit. apart from a little glitch connecting the power supply, it was an easy build for my first try.
i used the connexelectronics smps 300r 48v 230 volt. works a treat.

i would reccomend this to anyone wanting an easy first build

 

[whaleman]

My first try at putting together this kit. apart from a little glitch connecting the power supply, it was an easy build for my first try.
i used the connexelectronics smps 300r 48v 230 volt. works a treat.

i would reccomend this to anyone wanting an easy first build

Very nice! Are you using it as a power amp? How do you like those Mundorfs? at least compared to the WIMA.

 

[dioheerai]

Tried individual leads from smps to amp and indeed there is noise checked the power cord i used earlier made by GE as an appliance extension cord it is twisted and sheilded that is why no interference . put clamp meter over ext cord and no reading accross individual lead showed the expected current variation when amp is running . Experiment concluded and can say with reasonable certainity a good sheilded power cable can be used to connect remote power supply to amp with no sonic degradation .
Having re read the comment from.. nigelwright7557..
" have a test bed setup for class d amps with the power supply on 6 inch flying leads and this causes some of the amps to reset. This is even with decoupling on the pcb"
the operable term is " flying leads". hope this helps others ...Btw the more i use the amp the better (cleaner tighter) it sounds. my cases are these
Aluminum Project Box Enclousure Case Electronic DIY_Big | eBay
Aluminum Project Box Enclousure Case Electronic DIY_Mid | eBay
will post pics when cases arrive and components assembled

 

[whaleman]

More mods, I decided to bypass the 5.6 uF input capacitors with .47 uF electrolytic and then a .047 uF polyester film. The outcome is pretty nice. The electrolytic provides a bit of nice texture to the film caps in the upper frequency. At least to my ears. The bass is really good too.

Get a couple of Mundorf M Supreme caps and probably wouldn't need any of this, but cost about $50--these bypass caps were already in my stock.