Please refer to pages 34 & 35 of the build guide. This has all been dealt with there.
Am currently planning my build whilst my EFS3-4 boards are in transit.
Congratulations to all those involved in the project to-date. Some truly amazing builds and performance achieved thus far! Equally, the provided build documentation, BOMs, video's, etc. is also excellent.
Having made a first pass through all the documentation, current content, posts/comments, ..., to date, its now time for me to start making my build decision. However, before I do, I wanted to ask all proud Wolverine parents, with hind sight, what build/system decisions would you have made differently and why? It would also be great to hear from those who have had the opportunity to compare different Wolverine amplifier configurations (e.g. dual/mono/bridged, monsters, etc)?
Lastly, and very unexpectedly, I now also need to build/buy a preamplifier/source to pair with my Wolverine. Naturally I want to get the best pre/power amp combination - albeit in theory until its singing! Maybe a dedicated box+LPS with RJM Audio buffer boards, similar to @SRMcGee would be the best way forward? Anyway, suggestions would be really appreciated so that I can at least chalk of the 22k/10k input load impedance decision!
Oooohhh and, @stuartmp, please PM me with instructions on how I could source some of you Ground Lifter boards 🙂
Congratulations to all those involved in the project to-date. Some truly amazing builds and performance achieved thus far! Equally, the provided build documentation, BOMs, video's, etc. is also excellent.
Having made a first pass through all the documentation, current content, posts/comments, ..., to date, its now time for me to start making my build decision. However, before I do, I wanted to ask all proud Wolverine parents, with hind sight, what build/system decisions would you have made differently and why? It would also be great to hear from those who have had the opportunity to compare different Wolverine amplifier configurations (e.g. dual/mono/bridged, monsters, etc)?
Lastly, and very unexpectedly, I now also need to build/buy a preamplifier/source to pair with my Wolverine. Naturally I want to get the best pre/power amp combination - albeit in theory until its singing! Maybe a dedicated box+LPS with RJM Audio buffer boards, similar to @SRMcGee would be the best way forward? Anyway, suggestions would be really appreciated so that I can at least chalk of the 22k/10k input load impedance decision!
Oooohhh and, @stuartmp, please PM me with instructions on how I could source some of you Ground Lifter boards 🙂
Taylorised:
Do you need a preamplifier or will a buffer do? In my parents' case, the extra gain afforded by a preamplifier wasn't necessary. Of course, had more gain been needed for my parents' integrated amp I might have simply ordered a toroid with a higher secondary voltage and still gone with a buffer, but there certainly are options. One advantage of the buffer I used is its simplicity and small size; there wasn't a lot of extra room in the chassis. It also sounds pretty good. But if you're contemplating a separate chassis for the preamp, and if the additional gain might be useful, then I'd heartily recommend Wayne Colburn's BA2018 preamplifier (which is available in the diyAudio store). I transitioned from an Aleph P 1.7 clone to a BA2018 a couple of years ago in my main system and remain thrilled by its performance. If your intention is to build an integrated amp, if you need the gain and if you can jam it in, a BA2018 / Wolverine combination would likely be wonderful.
That's it: a stranger's advice. Worth all of $0.02.
Regards,
Scott
Do you need a preamplifier or will a buffer do? In my parents' case, the extra gain afforded by a preamplifier wasn't necessary. Of course, had more gain been needed for my parents' integrated amp I might have simply ordered a toroid with a higher secondary voltage and still gone with a buffer, but there certainly are options. One advantage of the buffer I used is its simplicity and small size; there wasn't a lot of extra room in the chassis. It also sounds pretty good. But if you're contemplating a separate chassis for the preamp, and if the additional gain might be useful, then I'd heartily recommend Wayne Colburn's BA2018 preamplifier (which is available in the diyAudio store). I transitioned from an Aleph P 1.7 clone to a BA2018 a couple of years ago in my main system and remain thrilled by its performance. If your intention is to build an integrated amp, if you need the gain and if you can jam it in, a BA2018 / Wolverine combination would likely be wonderful.
That's it: a stranger's advice. Worth all of $0.02.
Regards,
Scott
Please consider Nutube B1 preamp. I use it in combination with Wolverine and it sounds very good!
Gaetano.
Gaetano.
Wouldn’t the Korg B1 go against the thought process of building an amplifier with very low distortion?
Yes, your right, but it's a matter of taste, too. First of all ,you just know that your amp has one of the lowest distortions and this is a good thing. Then you could give your audio chain the character you like the more. You could also think to use more than one preamp to change the sound type when you feel to do it. In the meanwhile you still know that your amp is almost a wire with gain.
Gaetano.
Gaetano.
So some more info, and believe I wasn’t out to make the cobra look like the lesser unit. Your later posted measurement proves my measurement method is likely at fault. But I did have the 0V tied to ground, notice the hypex and the cobra both use the same DIN/Molex connector, so I LITERALLY just measured the hypex, unplugged it and plugged in the cobra, measured again.
The only difference I can see is that the cobra has 2 DCmain outputs vs the hypex 1, and to get my amps working with the hypex the pos and neg of both channels are tied together about an inch from the main DIN plug. I assumed the cobras sockets would just be paralleled? Ie no need to actually seperate each channel left and right?
Also, the frame/heatsinks both smps were connected to for testing were electrically isolated from the chassis.
Just finished putting this Excel workbook together to share with you all. You can use it to calculate the SPL at your listening position, then use that info on the clipping calculator sheet. The idea came along with questions about rail voltages, how much power do I need, dynamic range etc. Every piece of audio you play has a dynamic level, when you measure SPL with a basic SPL meter for example you are only measuring the RMS and not the peaks, so most say oh I only need X power for Y spl and I am good. Well no because of the dynamic range from RMS to peak, there is a lot of times those peaks are turning into nasty square waves as there are being slammed against the voltage rails.
This workbook gives a very good visual idea of that, and what actual levels SPL levels are good etc. There is a link to a great website with the dynamic range of a lot of songs that have been documented over the years, showing both the RMS level and the Peak level of the song in question. What you want to do is look up a song, and look at the RMS level, then look at the peak level, calculate the difference and put that in the DR cell of the clipping calculator, after you have set your baseline SPL / voltage / wattage requirements and see if those peaks are in fact inside the rail voltage limits.
Here is an example of an actual SPL recording I took in room, at my listening position. As you can see for the most part the RMS level of the song was around 88-89 dB, while the Peak level recorded hit 108.9 dB almost a full 20 dB!
Here is an example of my speakers, room, and rail voltages to give you an idea.
And as you can see, I am ok the peaks are along way off my rails, BUT now take that same example drop the speaker efficiency or increase your seating distance, and see how fast it goes up!!
I want to thank @stuartmp for his invaluable help finishing this off, proofing it, and getting the graph to work perfectly!
I also want to acknowledge the website where I got the original idea for the graph and some of the calculations https://geoffthegreygeek.com/amplifier-power-voltage-and-current-calculator/
Any questions, just ask, but hopefully I covered the basis.
This workbook gives a very good visual idea of that, and what actual levels SPL levels are good etc. There is a link to a great website with the dynamic range of a lot of songs that have been documented over the years, showing both the RMS level and the Peak level of the song in question. What you want to do is look up a song, and look at the RMS level, then look at the peak level, calculate the difference and put that in the DR cell of the clipping calculator, after you have set your baseline SPL / voltage / wattage requirements and see if those peaks are in fact inside the rail voltage limits.
Here is an example of an actual SPL recording I took in room, at my listening position. As you can see for the most part the RMS level of the song was around 88-89 dB, while the Peak level recorded hit 108.9 dB almost a full 20 dB!
Here is an example of my speakers, room, and rail voltages to give you an idea.
And as you can see, I am ok the peaks are along way off my rails, BUT now take that same example drop the speaker efficiency or increase your seating distance, and see how fast it goes up!!
I want to thank @stuartmp for his invaluable help finishing this off, proofing it, and getting the graph to work perfectly!
I also want to acknowledge the website where I got the original idea for the graph and some of the calculations https://geoffthegreygeek.com/amplifier-power-voltage-and-current-calculator/
Any questions, just ask, but hopefully I covered the basis.
Thanks for sharing that with us all @fireanimal. I've also added it to the Dropbox folder with all the other wolverine documentation.
An often neglected aspect of domestic music reproduction.
The ability to design power amplifiers with high rail voltage gives class AB an advantage over class A.
As music is often compressed during mastering, extra headroom opens the possibility to experiment with (partially) restoring the dynamics by expanding.
The ability to design power amplifiers with high rail voltage gives class AB an advantage over class A.
As music is often compressed during mastering, extra headroom opens the possibility to experiment with (partially) restoring the dynamics by expanding.
Just got my EF3-4 and IPS boards today. I must say I am impressed with the quality of the layout and PC fabrication. I have a couple of questions before I start.
1. Is the output board 1 oz or 2 oz copper?
2. If I want to populate only 2 output pairs to start, should I start at the right side? It seems likely, given what I can see of the layout.
3. What was the basis of the TPC vs. TMC compensation decision?
1. Is the output board 1 oz or 2 oz copper?
2. If I want to populate only 2 output pairs to start, should I start at the right side? It seems likely, given what I can see of the layout.
3. What was the basis of the TPC vs. TMC compensation decision?
1. 2oz copper
2. Use the locations closest to the output path.
3. TPC is supported but at this stage not tested. TPC may require some revised components but as I said it has not been tested to date.
2. Use the locations closest to the output path.
3. TPC is supported but at this stage not tested. TPC may require some revised components but as I said it has not been tested to date.