Thanks Mark. I have used my own BOM.
What do you think of changing C72/C22 and C77/C27 for something like Mundorf Mcap? OK, C72 / C22 is a bit complicated due to the size.
On the one hand I really want to do some research but at the same time I think that you have developed your amplifier with these components. This is something bittersweet
What do you think of changing C72/C22 and C77/C27 for something like Mundorf Mcap? OK, C72 / C22 is a bit complicated due to the size.
On the one hand I really want to do some research but at the same time I think that you have developed your amplifier with these components. This is something bittersweet
Sure, play around if you feel like it. Maybe listen to the stock Mouser BOM version for a week, it's pretty darn good right out of the box. Then you'll have a "before" memory for before-and-after experiments.
I myself am too cheap to replace a $1.00 WIMA capacitor with anything that costs more than $10 or so. But the "vacuum tube rollers" routinely spend ten times that on every experiment they try, and they seem to feel it's worth the money. So: whatever you like!
I myself am too cheap to replace a $1.00 WIMA capacitor with anything that costs more than $10 or so. But the "vacuum tube rollers" routinely spend ten times that on every experiment they try, and they seem to feel it's worth the money. So: whatever you like!
Nuts...more gear?
And here I thought my trusty but old HP34401As would do the trick.
Are these similar to the Atlas transistor checkers?
or is it like a few instruments in one?
No comment... it begs he question...is it really "cheap" or is it "Frugal".
Then again I seem to recall you splurging on some of those Blue in the plastic
Box Metal Film Capacitors....I mean that was a whole $1.47 each unless we buy
in some quantity....
As for me? Guilty as defined...and probably for you too MJ. Frugal it is for me.
You have a knack for finding quality stuff, with great specs and pretty good prices.
I just wonder is that you finding all this stuff on your own?
Or are you using your students as research assistants?
There is nothing about cheap that I like. What was it they say about cheap?
The regret, or something like it, long after the cost savings are gone when the
part that was build got to hell in a hand basket. (paraphrased here of course).
I like quality at a good price.
Everyman, keep up the good work it really enjoyable to read about all this stuff
and not have time to do most of it. Of course, I do have a large back log of projects
to work on--imagine that.
As an aside, this is one thing I really like about MJ is his encouragement to just use what you've
got and go from there. From time to time I suffer the same issue and wondering, heck...I don't have
this or that, and I have to wait x amount of time to get the "proper" stuff. I'm learning that
just go with what you have to get it done, then tweak it down the road at a later time if
needed at all.
The ladies in my avatar, told me that too, don't be scared of the two of us just
lie down and drink your beer watching the international surf competition while
we massage your aching back muscles.
Cheers,
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$$ Sent, thanks Mark.
Looking forward to comparing this one with TimS' / XRK's Simple HPA Class A that I built.
I thought the newness would wear off like so many other amps..but this morning as I listen with my T1's...its blowing me away good still!
I have 10+ amps here and have gone back thru several of them but none exhibit the clarity and openess that this amp does, its simply one of the best matches with the T1's I have heard.
With the "crappy" cheap WIMA caps!!
There is a wonderful three dimensional presentation, a real depth to the soundstage...its IMO as good as it gets with headphones.
I would think with other really well made cans it might even be better!
Thinking!!
$$$
Alex
I have 10+ amps here and have gone back thru several of them but none exhibit the clarity and openess that this amp does, its simply one of the best matches with the T1's I have heard.
With the "crappy" cheap WIMA caps!!
There is a wonderful three dimensional presentation, a real depth to the soundstage...its IMO as good as it gets with headphones.
I would think with other really well made cans it might even be better!
Thinking!!
$$$
Alex
A diyAudio member just bought my last set of PCBoards for the T2 headphone amp, I'm now sold out. The people who bought were spread all over the globe, which I think is absolutely wonderful:
It will be easier to convince the Store folks that T2 would be a good addition to their product mix, if numerous T2's are built to completion, and are discussed here by the builders, and reviewed honestly. Please, if you've built one of these first twelve T2s and you think other members would enjoy it too, please speak up here. (twelve == ten buyers plus two Beta Testers).
Please be honest. Nobody benefits if we put terrible sounding dreck in the Store. Certainly I do not; my "royalty" on the sale of T2 boards is zero point zero zero percent.
Thanks and best regards,
Mark Johnson
- Australia
- Hong Kong
- South Africa
- Spain - Canary Islands
- Sweden
- USA Arizona
- USA California (2x)
- USA Hawaii
- USA North Carolina
- USA Texas
It will be easier to convince the Store folks that T2 would be a good addition to their product mix, if numerous T2's are built to completion, and are discussed here by the builders, and reviewed honestly. Please, if you've built one of these first twelve T2s and you think other members would enjoy it too, please speak up here. (twelve == ten buyers plus two Beta Testers).
Please be honest. Nobody benefits if we put terrible sounding dreck in the Store. Certainly I do not; my "royalty" on the sale of T2 boards is zero point zero zero percent.
Thanks and best regards,
Mark Johnson
Mark,
Yes I have listened to your T2 amp and the Burson FUN.
They both are very nice amps, sound similar, minor differences in presentation.
The soundstage on the T2 seems a little wider that the Burson.
The bass (kettle drums etc) seem more controlled or tight on the Fun.
IMO, the T2 has a bit nicer open wider soundstage amd or presentation. Its like the is great in this aspect but like its sound FOV (Field of View) is narrower than the T2 and thats saying alot.
It makes the experience more life like.
Some might say the T2 sounds "thin" in compariosn to the FUN. Its more like the T2 is so clear it just sounds less clouded.
Either one is a pleasure to listen to.
When you look at the simplistic approach to the T2 and compare it to the Burson insides, its like "Wow! So many parts vs So few parts!" How can this be?
The one thing the Burson has going for it is the ability to swap out op amps to your hearts desire. Yes they sell these and there are many op amps to swap out and get lost in that game.
I used Bursons V6 Vivid op amps, my favorite in it, to do my listen session.
The neat thing is the T2 holds up to and some might think its better than the FUN.
To me the soundstage and overall clarity of your T2 is better than the FUN and that is a great compliment.
Alex
Note I was using BeyerDynamics T1 R2's
Yes I have listened to your T2 amp and the Burson FUN.
They both are very nice amps, sound similar, minor differences in presentation.
The soundstage on the T2 seems a little wider that the Burson.
The bass (kettle drums etc) seem more controlled or tight on the Fun.
IMO, the T2 has a bit nicer open wider soundstage amd or presentation. Its like the is great in this aspect but like its sound FOV (Field of View) is narrower than the T2 and thats saying alot.
It makes the experience more life like.
Some might say the T2 sounds "thin" in compariosn to the FUN. Its more like the T2 is so clear it just sounds less clouded.
Either one is a pleasure to listen to.
When you look at the simplistic approach to the T2 and compare it to the Burson insides, its like "Wow! So many parts vs So few parts!" How can this be?
The one thing the Burson has going for it is the ability to swap out op amps to your hearts desire. Yes they sell these and there are many op amps to swap out and get lost in that game.
I used Bursons V6 Vivid op amps, my favorite in it, to do my listen session.
The neat thing is the T2 holds up to and some might think its better than the FUN.
To me the soundstage and overall clarity of your T2 is better than the FUN and that is a great compliment.
Alex
Note I was using BeyerDynamics T1 R2's
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Thats a neat trick I have been using for years!! Now the secret is out!!
On another point, comparing this amp to others....
I mentioned in my last post about the soundstage and clarity...
I want to add the word "depth" of the recordning, you can really hear into a recording and when its mic'd well its an uncanny three dimensional or holographic experience.
A lot of this is of course within the recording, but the T2 makes this experience even nicer to me!
Alex
On another point, comparing this amp to others....
I mentioned in my last post about the soundstage and clarity...
I want to add the word "depth" of the recordning, you can really hear into a recording and when its mic'd well its an uncanny three dimensional or holographic experience.
A lot of this is of course within the recording, but the T2 makes this experience even nicer to me!
Alex
Mean Well Power Supplies
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but the Mean Well power supplies are much nicer than the Triads. For this project I will be using the Mean Well GST25U24-P1J. For only about one dollar more, you get a nicer round cord with a ferrite choke in-line, a power led on the housing and a full 1 amp output.
GST25U24-P1J MEAN WELL | Mouser
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but the Mean Well power supplies are much nicer than the Triads. For this project I will be using the Mean Well GST25U24-P1J. For only about one dollar more, you get a nicer round cord with a ferrite choke in-line, a power led on the housing and a full 1 amp output.
GST25U24-P1J MEAN WELL | Mouser
There is a wonderful, generous, and nice audio wizard who lives on the California coast and he tested a whole bunch of these various wallwarts, and found that blindly saying one brand was better than another isn’t accurate. For the voltage and current required, he found that the suggested Triad is a very good and quiet performer. 
That said, there are lots of choices available, some will work better than others, and of course you could build a linear PSU or have some neat array of batteries or something exotic and interesting. Try a bunch of different things and see what works best!
That said, there are lots of choices available, some will work better than others, and of course you could build a linear PSU or have some neat array of batteries or something exotic and interesting. Try a bunch of different things and see what works best!
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On the other hand, in the spirit of exploratory DIY fun, why on earth NOT monkey around with different wall warts in your T2? Wouldn't it be slick to discover that X really does sound better than Y? Or, perhaps more likely, wouldn't it be pragmatically useful to find out that X and Y sound exactly the same? Builders can now pick whichever one is more widely available in their area. If Y is on back order, no problem, just use X!
Item 1 in the list of T2 "Tweaks, Optimizations, and Silly Changes" involves modifying your wall wart. I suppose that swapping out your wall wart for another brand, is an extreme example of this tweak.
Elsewhere on this site I've seen a headphone amp powered by a much more convoluted arrangement: AC mains --> wall wart giving X volts DC output --> DC to DC converter giving X+10 volts DC output --> capacitance multiplier / linear voltage regulator X volts DC output --> headphone amp. Really? Yes, really.
(6L6 is talking about a guy who lives 100 miles north of me. Wicked smart and extremely generous dude.)
Item 1 in the list of T2 "Tweaks, Optimizations, and Silly Changes" involves modifying your wall wart. I suppose that swapping out your wall wart for another brand, is an extreme example of this tweak.
Elsewhere on this site I've seen a headphone amp powered by a much more convoluted arrangement: AC mains --> wall wart giving X volts DC output --> DC to DC converter giving X+10 volts DC output --> capacitance multiplier / linear voltage regulator X volts DC output --> headphone amp. Really? Yes, really.
(6L6 is talking about a guy who lives 100 miles north of me. Wicked smart and extremely generous dude.)
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There is a wonderful, generous, and nice audio wizard who lives on the California coast and he tested a whole bunch of these various wallwarts, and found that blindly saying one brand was better than another isn’t accurate. For the voltage and current required, he found that the suggested Triad is a very good and quiet performer.
That said, there are lots of choices available, some will work better than others, and of course you could build a linear PSU or have some neat array of batteries or something exotic and interesting. Try a bunch of different things and see what works best!
Yes, Papa is a smart and practical man. I did say "nicer", not better. I have some Triads and yes, they are very quiet performers but look and feel cheap. Maybe Triad puts it all into the electronic components but I find the thin zip cord and ultra-light thin plastic power shell off-putting. This circuit is going into a beautiful Italian diyAudio store chassis and although most folks will never look at the wall wart or its cord after plugging it in, the fit and finish of the Mean Well adds to my pleasure of building diyAudio.
6L6, you did make me a convert in one area. I always did all of my internal jack-to-PCB signal wiring as audio coax with a properly heat shrunk shield and dressed out with an additional overall piece of shrink tubing on the end. I built Papa's Xmas B1 Korg that way but when I built a diyAudio store version for a friend, I followed your build guide example of using stranded twisted pair cable harvested from Category cable for the wiring into the input selector switch and and the input side of the VC potentiometer, but still using coax for the output of the VC. Absolutely just as quiet as the all coax wired version and much easier to build.
avdesignguru, good on ya. If you prefer MeanWell for aesthetic reasons, by all means get it and use it.
If you decide to experiment with wall-wart "rolling" you might want to remove the chassis top lid, so you can double-check the bias for each different wart. If one of the warts-under-test outputs (1% higher than 24.0VDC), but another outputs (1% lower than 24.0VDC), this will affect the class A bias a little bit. Ultra-perfectionists will naturally insist upon re-biasing for 5.100 volts on the bias setting procedure, for each wall wart. Non-perfectionists with an "Ach, pfui, just enjoy the music" attitude: not so much.
*put the lid back on before listening, to complete the faraday cage. You can probably get away with temporarily holding it in place just using 2 pieces of masking tape, instead of realigning and retightening the lid screws. If you're a non-perfectionist
post #52 touches upon this sort of stuff
If you decide to experiment with wall-wart "rolling" you might want to remove the chassis top lid, so you can double-check the bias for each different wart. If one of the warts-under-test outputs (1% higher than 24.0VDC), but another outputs (1% lower than 24.0VDC), this will affect the class A bias a little bit. Ultra-perfectionists will naturally insist upon re-biasing for 5.100 volts on the bias setting procedure, for each wall wart. Non-perfectionists with an "Ach, pfui, just enjoy the music" attitude: not so much.
*put the lid back on before listening, to complete the faraday cage. You can probably get away with temporarily holding it in place just using 2 pieces of masking tape, instead of realigning and retightening the lid screws. If you're a non-perfectionist
post #52 touches upon this sort of stuff
You just missed it (June 16 , post #109).
I'm working with the diyAudio Store folks to see about putting T2 PCB sets in the Store. If they give the green light, you will be able to buy there, conveniently. The more T2 builders who discuss their experience here, both building a T2 and listening to it, the better.
Maybe if that takes an unusually long time, I might launch an interim Group Buy, just so builders don't have to wait and wait. I did that with the M2x power amplifier PCB set and, looking back, it seems to have been reasonable helpful.
_
I'm working with the diyAudio Store folks to see about putting T2 PCB sets in the Store. If they give the green light, you will be able to buy there, conveniently. The more T2 builders who discuss their experience here, both building a T2 and listening to it, the better.
Maybe if that takes an unusually long time, I might launch an interim Group Buy, just so builders don't have to wait and wait. I did that with the M2x power amplifier PCB set and, looking back, it seems to have been reasonable helpful.
_
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