Yes Greg I was thinking of dropping you a line and sending this other LT1361 and my pair of LT1028's. Could do with a seasoned pair of ears to evaluate them.
Since the LT1361 went in I forgot all about rolling for a bit, been listening to a lot of podcasts and films and voices sound very good indeed.
There is an incredible film called 'Son of Saul' on BBC iplayer now. Sweet Jesus what a film, one of the best I have seen for a very long time. The sound production is just superb through phones. I would urge people to try and watch it.
This might be the best orchestra piece ever played, check this out, one of my favourite pieces of music, lovely with the LT chip and AKG's...
YouTube
Hi!
Sure, it will be a pleasure to check these out!
I am a bit snowed under different projects (still messing around with the PS and screen for my Ess9018 Hifiduino, the SLHPA pcbs from EUVL are in and I could not resist grabbing CHP-70 fullranger from Scottmouse) but I will certainly make time for your opamps.
Sure, it will be a pleasure to check these out!
I am a bit snowed under different projects (still messing around with the PS and screen for my Ess9018 Hifiduino, the SLHPA pcbs from EUVL are in and I could not resist grabbing CHP-70 fullranger from Scottmouse) but I will certainly make time for your opamps.
I finally found time to swap out the OPA2604 in my WHAMMY with the Burson V6 Vivid. I've probably got about 10 hrs of listening in by now. I went the route of swapping out the 220uF/50V caps with the Rubycon 150uF/25V caps. Being conservative with $70 chips, R35/R36 47ohm resistors were pushed up to 100ohms. I thought the OPA2604 produced an extremely satisfying WHAMMY. I like WHAMMY with the Burson V6 Vivid even more. The difference is not earthshaking to my aging ears. The Vivid is, however, crisper, faster and more impactful, but most importantly, more lifelike. Vocals seem closer to being in the room, a plucked string has that same presence. I would have been very happy with my stock Whammy, but I'm glad I made the swap for the V6.
I think we're in the area of personal preference here. Vivid may be too Vivid for your ears. I should point out that the differences I note above may not be fully attributable to the V6 either. I am listening to a very different system than I primarily used with the OPA 2604 in place. I switched from Audeze LCD-Xs and, more recently, the new LCD-1s, to a 20 year-old pair of DIY desktop speakers based on a Madisound kit which employs Vifa drivers. It's also the first time the ACA has come into the system due to the need to drive speakers. The Whammy and ACA seem to produce quick responses and perfect control of the speakers. Maybe that's the V6 Vivid's impact. The biggest change I can hear is how well an old pair of nothing special speakers can portray an almost "you are there sound."
The whole chain was Tidal running to a RP4/Digi + Pro --> Schiit Modi MB --> Whammy (V6 Vivid)--> ACA --> Vifa DIY speakers. This has become my new workbench system and I'm quite happy with it. Not rolling anymore op amps...
Many thanks to @Wayne and @6L6 for providing many hours of fun and a very satisfying audio system.
I think we're in the area of personal preference here. Vivid may be too Vivid for your ears. I should point out that the differences I note above may not be fully attributable to the V6 either. I am listening to a very different system than I primarily used with the OPA 2604 in place. I switched from Audeze LCD-Xs and, more recently, the new LCD-1s, to a 20 year-old pair of DIY desktop speakers based on a Madisound kit which employs Vifa drivers. It's also the first time the ACA has come into the system due to the need to drive speakers. The Whammy and ACA seem to produce quick responses and perfect control of the speakers. Maybe that's the V6 Vivid's impact. The biggest change I can hear is how well an old pair of nothing special speakers can portray an almost "you are there sound."
The whole chain was Tidal running to a RP4/Digi + Pro --> Schiit Modi MB --> Whammy (V6 Vivid)--> ACA --> Vifa DIY speakers. This has become my new workbench system and I'm quite happy with it. Not rolling anymore op amps...
Many thanks to @Wayne and @6L6 for providing many hours of fun and a very satisfying audio system.
Wow, nice work!
I really like your chassis. Did you make it yourself or something you ordered?
I have been waiting for the DIYStore to release their chassis to go with the kit but I have lost faith. Looking for ideas to re-home my whammy from its makeshift temp home.
Here is a very nice chassis for the whammy.
1pcs 1907 Aluminum headphone amplfier Chassis DIY Audio Shell Box 311*190*70MM | eBay
Thanks, I will look at that one too when i get a chance.
I really like the bigger ones. The chassis, (i think Hammond) that the original builds use are just too cramped for my liking.
Ideally it is roomy inside but still sits well, (aesthetically) next to an ACA or two.
in both hight, widht and depth.
I've heard that the V6 requires at least 100 hours of burn in. Would be interested in hearing your impressions after that initial period. I haven't burned mine in for more than 50 hours yet so I have a long way to go. Burson insists that you need to burn it in for that long. I'm skeptical but also excited to see if there's a difference.
But how would you ever decide whether it is false or true? I suppose you would need to burn in for 300 hours, monitoring every 50 hours, to see whether things kept getting better, or not.
Should be of interest to Greg here, but I stuck in a pair of XEN regulators from the SLHPA kit and they work a damned treat. In this case I haven't removed the LED or 220uF cap yet, no issues, both rails are at around 15.8V. Running moderately warm.
Went through the best op amps again before sending them out and I'm back with the LT1361, this is the one for sure. Excellent sound from this little chip, chunky crisp bass with clear and defined mids and highs. You get the sense of an inky dark background. Really suits the AKG712's.
100mA bias with improved regulation together with LT1361 and 10K DACT attenuator is the winning formula right now for me. Stunning to be fair...
Went through the best op amps again before sending them out and I'm back with the LT1361, this is the one for sure. Excellent sound from this little chip, chunky crisp bass with clear and defined mids and highs. You get the sense of an inky dark background. Really suits the AKG712's.
100mA bias with improved regulation together with LT1361 and 10K DACT attenuator is the winning formula right now for me. Stunning to be fair...
Attachments
Thanks!
Mark is correct—Galaxy 230x230—his link is to a 1U. I TRIED to make the Whammy in a 1U, but the transformer from the store kit is too tall, and there were several other issues. I built it in a 2U, which in the end is actually fine—even though I really like to make everything as compact as possible.
2U Link
The amp has some presence in the 2U. I like it. And yes the front is custom, spalted beech veneer I cooked up. Not a huge fan of all aluminum everything all the time... Did have to ground the pot as I mentioned earlier though.
Last night I tried some different opamps. WOW. Everyone needs to do this if they haven't!
For those in the US interested in op amp rolling, Sonic Craft has OPA627AU on closeout for $11.95/ea.
Gosh! That is pretty cool! Given my experiments with the es9018 dac I am more of the opinion that 80% of live like sound is in the PS! This just confirms it!
Smoking Whammy
Hi. When starting up the finished build of my Whammy the resistors R37 and R20 started smoking. Did the initial test during the build of the power supply and that when perfect. I have enclosed some pictures, I anyone see something that could cause the overheating please let mo know.
Thanks
Hi. When starting up the finished build of my Whammy the resistors R37 and R20 started smoking. Did the initial test during the build of the power supply and that when perfect. I have enclosed some pictures, I anyone see something that could cause the overheating please let mo know.
Thanks
Still tinkering here, idle hands, devils work and all that...
Removed all regulator stage components and managed to squeeze in a pair of SuperTeddyRegs that were begging for something to do, very good regs in the right application and they are working well here it seems.
The good thing is that the output can be dialled in perfectly on both rails, each running at a steady 15.5V. They do get warm but the T section aluminium they are mounted to is quite small and needs a bit more sinking to dissipate. Not sure how to do that right now. The whole assembly is simply fixed temporarily with blu tack to the board.
Now, I wouldn't say these are night and day better than the XEN regs but the music is very good indeed. Unfortunately I really need the XEN regs to go back into the SLHPA when I rebuild it (getting very sidetracked with this excellent Whammy sound.) So will maybe try and copy the XEN regs on perf board using TH parts.
Also tried some 10uF film caps decoupling op amps rails, not sure if this was a good idea, seemed to notice a slight difference in clarity and depth, think that low ESR 47uF electrolytics were better with 0.1uF ceramics or MKT's right on the op amp pins to ground. Will try some rare 47uF Sanyo oscons I have stashed.
Higher capacitance for C9/C28 up to 1000uF works for me too. Panasonic FM or Nichicon UPW are excellent here.
Removed all regulator stage components and managed to squeeze in a pair of SuperTeddyRegs that were begging for something to do, very good regs in the right application and they are working well here it seems.
The good thing is that the output can be dialled in perfectly on both rails, each running at a steady 15.5V. They do get warm but the T section aluminium they are mounted to is quite small and needs a bit more sinking to dissipate. Not sure how to do that right now. The whole assembly is simply fixed temporarily with blu tack to the board.
Now, I wouldn't say these are night and day better than the XEN regs but the music is very good indeed. Unfortunately I really need the XEN regs to go back into the SLHPA when I rebuild it (getting very sidetracked with this excellent Whammy sound.) So will maybe try and copy the XEN regs on perf board using TH parts.
Also tried some 10uF film caps decoupling op amps rails, not sure if this was a good idea, seemed to notice a slight difference in clarity and depth, think that low ESR 47uF electrolytics were better with 0.1uF ceramics or MKT's right on the op amp pins to ground. Will try some rare 47uF Sanyo oscons I have stashed.
Higher capacitance for C9/C28 up to 1000uF works for me too. Panasonic FM or Nichicon UPW are excellent here.
