I am sceptical about burn in time in electronics. Speakers, headphones - yes they might need some time. I think I listened to more recordings and music styles to form a better opinion. Or it is getting used to a change. I wasn't using Whammy a lot before. Now I do. So maybe it takes time to appreciate/ evaluate the change.
You may want to investigate FryBaby and FryCorder. These products help you "break in" audio cables, line stage preamps, power amps, power cables, and more.
FryBaby3 - Compact Burn-In Generator – Hagerman Audio Labs
FryCorder2 - Power Cord Burn-In Generator – Hagerman Audio Labs
FryBaby3 - Compact Burn-In Generator – Hagerman Audio Labs
FryCorder2 - Power Cord Burn-In Generator – Hagerman Audio Labs
Solid state devices do have characteristics that drift after some amount of use, as I have had matched transistors drift away from each other, but I am also skeptical about 'burning in' solid state components, but I guess it's possible.
Wow... Sucker born everyday
but I am not going to tell someone how to spend their money.
I fully agree with Mark Johnson! Wise words! 
But they shall buy their 10k - cables, cream them with snake oil so that the
electrons move faster and better. Also an electron neeeds some care....
What counts for me in cables: pF/meter and Ohm/meter
Perhaps a good pure copper?
NF-cables: good shielding, flexible
And I don't say that there are no differences in cables!
Greets
Dirk
But they shall buy their 10k - cables, cream them with snake oil so that the
electrons move faster and better. Also an electron neeeds some care....
What counts for me in cables: pF/meter and Ohm/meter
Perhaps a good pure copper?
NF-cables: good shielding, flexible
And I don't say that there are no differences in cables!
Greets
Dirk
I am obsessed by good connectors when it comes to cables.
I have 1.5m speaker cables (bi-wire) and 2 x 75 cm interconnects so relative insensitive to cables.
The interconnects that comes with a CD or wherever is just fine if it just had some good connectors…...but they have not.....
The cable itself goes linear to several MHz...….
I have 1.5m speaker cables (bi-wire) and 2 x 75 cm interconnects so relative insensitive to cables.
The interconnects that comes with a CD or wherever is just fine if it just had some good connectors…...but they have not.....
The cable itself goes linear to several MHz...….
Found a nice looking stepped attenuator here, might get one at the end of the month to try -
24 position stepped attenuator
Also thinking of trying a hi/lo gain switch or a rotary pot for gain adjustment, maybe a 10K dual gang for both channels, anyone tried this before on a project?
24 position stepped attenuator
Also thinking of trying a hi/lo gain switch or a rotary pot for gain adjustment, maybe a 10K dual gang for both channels, anyone tried this before on a project?
Yes, that must be very cheap for those people.
I could certainly build ACA for that money (maybe with accompanying B1) with my cheap skate's taste in enclosures.
I've designed this alternate version of WHAMMY PCB that does not have the power supply / regulator section on the board.
Board size is 160*80mm single sided PCB.
If there is interest and Wayne is ok with it I can upload the Gerbers too. Or if anyone has some ideas for small tweaks then those could be considered too.
I have soldered up one unit and it's been working fine for last 2 weeks or so and instead of Headamp it's been doing a job of a pre-buffer stage for Purifi class-D amp modules.
Board size is 160*80mm single sided PCB.
If there is interest and Wayne is ok with it I can upload the Gerbers too. Or if anyone has some ideas for small tweaks then those could be considered too.
I have soldered up one unit and it's been working fine for last 2 weeks or so and instead of Headamp it's been doing a job of a pre-buffer stage for Purifi class-D amp modules.
Attachments
I made a small tweak in my Whammy. I changed R4/R8 from 4k75 to 2k21 to have less voltage gain. It works much better in my setup when used as preamp for M2X and also for my headphones. Noise will also be less. Sometimes "less is more" and I have considered the B1 buffer. But first I will build 2018 linestage where I also have made a "tweak" by reducing the gain so it will be a x2 preamp. Then it would be fine for MoFo also…..
Ergo that is a nice layout, very flexible. Did you use a source with volume control, and is that a sexy Didden silent switcher powering the board? Wondered if xrk71's / Juma's SMD cap multi boards would be good with such a layout. I'm sending you a pair to try
I'm still trying different things, got a 10K chinese DACT stepped attenuator from ebay, unfortunately it has a fault, one channel drops out occasionally but comes back when the pot is rotated fully down and back again. When it works it is surprisingly good. For this I went back to 4.7K for R4/R8. Bias raised to 100mA with 5R resistors.
Also really impressed with LT1361 op amp, those LT chips are good. Some anecdotal reviews suggest LT1364 is better so will try one soon.
Got a spare LT1361 spare if anyone is keen to try it. It seems hard to find an op amp that does not work well with this circuit, a testament to it's stability?
I'm still trying different things, got a 10K chinese DACT stepped attenuator from ebay, unfortunately it has a fault, one channel drops out occasionally but comes back when the pot is rotated fully down and back again. When it works it is surprisingly good. For this I went back to 4.7K for R4/R8. Bias raised to 100mA with 5R resistors.
Also really impressed with LT1361 op amp, those LT chips are good. Some anecdotal reviews suggest LT1364 is better so will try one soon.
Got a spare LT1361 spare if anyone is keen to try it. It seems hard to find an op amp that does not work well with this circuit, a testament to it's stability?
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There is always "for and against" external PSU. I have yet to measure how "clean" the original Whammy is. With integrated PSU it is nice with short power line paths if just transformer and rectifier diodes does not introduce too much hum/noise. Did you build the original and found it too "noisy"?
Now when you have decided to make your own PCB with external PSU then why not make a dual mono version where single opamps are used? ….with possibility to also make dual mono PSUs?
As for above proto - yes the power regulator is the Linear Audio Silent Switcher from Jan. I've used several of those from powering mic preamps and DAC to preamps and find them very good indeed. We've just made a deal with passive420 for a pair of SuperTeddyRegs, so then I will be able to compare to those too.
In our case me and my friend both bought a evaluation kit of Purifi power amp and that allows either using the opamp buffer stage with gain or bypass it and feed the power modules directly. Experimenting with that soon revealed that other than stock buffers can be better but such buffer needs a very beefy current capability as the power amp input seems to shine when the prior stage has lots of drive capability. We first tried with the Burson Soloist head-amp (that I also tweaked by replacing the power supply with SilentSwitcher). It was better but WHAMMY proto outdoes it.
Also we are just starting to experiment with different opamps - for now the OPA2134 I used gave a very nice balance as is, but some other candidates mentioned here are on the way as well as Burson ones.
Tomorrow will hopefully give some time to actually try this one out with headphones to see what it can do with my old but still good AKG 701-s
In our case me and my friend both bought a evaluation kit of Purifi power amp and that allows either using the opamp buffer stage with gain or bypass it and feed the power modules directly. Experimenting with that soon revealed that other than stock buffers can be better but such buffer needs a very beefy current capability as the power amp input seems to shine when the prior stage has lots of drive capability. We first tried with the Burson Soloist head-amp (that I also tweaked by replacing the power supply with SilentSwitcher). It was better but WHAMMY proto outdoes it.
Also we are just starting to experiment with different opamps - for now the OPA2134 I used gave a very nice balance as is, but some other candidates mentioned here are on the way as well as Burson ones.
Tomorrow will hopefully give some time to actually try this one out with headphones to see what it can do with my old but still good AKG 701-s
Here's my contribution to this awesome thread. Been listening for about half a day. High-res Tidal.
WOW. What an amp! Totally addicted. Stock opamp sounds great to me. Can't wait to mess around with them at some point. Made some mods from the kit mostly about space and power switch on the front for convenient desk use. Shorty caps near the opamp for access.
Gonna A/B this with Wayne's 2018 Pre—See which Wayne I prefer for phones!
Mine is dead quiet—really happy about that. I did use shielded cable per the build guide. Loudest part is the pot wires which I decoupled from the board—probably to be avoided if possible. I could tune the amp dead silent with careful routing. And I did have to ground the pot body to star. Pretty good hum without it. Had to do that with Wayne's Pre too. Wood fronts?
Thanks Wayne for this awesomeness! There are some REALLY nice builds up here.
WOW. What an amp! Totally addicted. Stock opamp sounds great to me. Can't wait to mess around with them at some point. Made some mods from the kit mostly about space and power switch on the front for convenient desk use. Shorty caps near the opamp for access.
Gonna A/B this with Wayne's 2018 Pre—See which Wayne I prefer for phones!
Mine is dead quiet—really happy about that. I did use shielded cable per the build guide. Loudest part is the pot wires which I decoupled from the board—probably to be avoided if possible. I could tune the amp dead silent with careful routing. And I did have to ground the pot body to star. Pretty good hum without it. Had to do that with Wayne's Pre too. Wood fronts?
Thanks Wayne for this awesomeness! There are some REALLY nice builds up here.
Attachments
A thing I am concerned about is the contact pressure in the DIL8 socket after a lot of opamp rolling use this kind of socket:
W30508TRC | Winslow IC DIL fatning, 2.54mm Afstand, 7.62mm raekkeafstand, 8-Polet, Hulmontering, Drejet ben, 5A, Vertikal, Ukapslet | RS Components
The contact pressure seems less and less. Especially when a Burson opamp has been inserted as these uses larger round pins….like inserting a socket into a socket. So I think after Burson opamp has been in......socket is not good for normal opamps. I wonder if other kind of sockets gives a more constant contact pressure over time. I will leave my Burson V6 Classic in.....also because I like the sound
W30508TRC | Winslow IC DIL fatning, 2.54mm Afstand, 7.62mm raekkeafstand, 8-Polet, Hulmontering, Drejet ben, 5A, Vertikal, Ukapslet | RS Components
The contact pressure seems less and less. Especially when a Burson opamp has been inserted as these uses larger round pins….like inserting a socket into a socket. So I think after Burson opamp has been in......socket is not good for normal opamps. I wonder if other kind of sockets gives a more constant contact pressure over time. I will leave my Burson V6 Classic in.....also because I like the sound
The contact pressure seems less and less. Especially when a Burson opamp has been inserted as these uses larger round pins….like inserting a socket into a socket. So I think after Burson opamp has been in......socket is not good for normal opamps. I wonder if other kind of sockets gives a more constant contact pressure over time. I will leave my Burson V6 Classic in.....also because I like the sound
I am not sure, I am worried. My Burson stays in as well. Though a few posts above Passive got me curious about the LT chips