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Pass DIY Addict
Joined 2000
Paid Member
Full disclosure, I was the lucky one that nabbed this Iron Pre SE from @banderson546. He did an excellent job building it.
Awesome construction - looks like we may need a bulk run of face plates for that one 😵
Nice, a Prasi CRC!
Cool build …
With Lt4320 active bridges - sweet.
@simon dart
Nice work! Enjoy your efforts with your speakers. Lots of voltage gain options out there.
They're progressing... 🙂 The back panel is pretty darn cool to, IMO.... looks like we may need a bulk run of face plates for that one 😵
Sometimes you gotta know when to just cut bait and let the fish be.
I had grand aspirations to experiment with my class A test bed and swap out my revered F5 boards with the ZM Boo OS boards I luckily got earlier in the year. Fun for an afternoon, surely.
All but one of the holes I drilled in one fresh 3U300 heatsink were completely wrong.
Made a big mess. Broke a drill bit. Just before devising some elaborate scheme to cut out little sections of fins in the sink with a jig saw, I made the executive decision to call it a day, have some Ranch Water, and mosey into the living room to relax with the main system.
I’ll keep this target practice heatsink for future testing, order another one, and get some heat spreader plates so I don’t this again.
Don’t stress. When you oOk up, stop before you do something dumb. Enjoy the music.
I had grand aspirations to experiment with my class A test bed and swap out my revered F5 boards with the ZM Boo OS boards I luckily got earlier in the year. Fun for an afternoon, surely.
All but one of the holes I drilled in one fresh 3U300 heatsink were completely wrong.

Made a big mess. Broke a drill bit. Just before devising some elaborate scheme to cut out little sections of fins in the sink with a jig saw, I made the executive decision to call it a day, have some Ranch Water, and mosey into the living room to relax with the main system.
I’ll keep this target practice heatsink for future testing, order another one, and get some heat spreader plates so I don’t this again.

Don’t stress. When you oOk up, stop before you do something dumb. Enjoy the music.

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I like the term “target practice” heatsink. Heavens knows, we all have slabs of target practice heatsinks lying around.
Try drilling and tapping some solid copper Dell CPU coolers some day. Excellent heat conduction but I broke at least 2 tap bits off in it. Just grind them down flush with a grinder.
Try drilling and tapping some solid copper Dell CPU coolers some day. Excellent heat conduction but I broke at least 2 tap bits off in it. Just grind them down flush with a grinder.
I'm worried about all the current created by the electrical potential of two dissimilar metals... that can't be good for the sound 🙂
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My F4 is...erm finished. I'm not used to using that word 😁 even screwed the lid on! Very pleased, thank you Pass people!
Very clean! What are you driving it with? I've always been fascinated by the F4. I'll build one of those down the road...
@xrk971 @pardon I've not got a proper preamp sorted yet. The plan is to try various things, which was the thing that attracted me to the F4. I have Pass FE and ImPasse to build, maybe even biamp from a valve amp... then see which direction to head. The box next to the amp is one of Meldanos Muses attenuators.
Nice build Simon, the F4 amp is so neutral sounding it is timeless just change your preamp if you want a different sound. I have driven mine with Impass, Pumpkin, in balanced ( I have a pair of these) and XRK,s ASKA Lender single ended. All sounded great but different . One nice thing Mr Pass mentioned the F4 paired well with single driver speakers, I run the F4 in my office with the ASKA Lender and a pair of frugal horns and the sound stage just blows me away.
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Wirewiggler,
That's a nice take on the chassis - quite different from the black on black or black on silver that most of us go for. 🙂
Have any pics of the inside?
The FH3 are capable of creating a nice 3D soundstage when paired with a good amp and good source material; that is an Alpair 7.3 driver in your speaker? Given the reputation the Pass F4 has, I can imagine that you are enjoying the sound reproduction. 🙂
That's a nice take on the chassis - quite different from the black on black or black on silver that most of us go for. 🙂
Have any pics of the inside?
The FH3 are capable of creating a nice 3D soundstage when paired with a good amp and good source material; that is an Alpair 7.3 driver in your speaker? Given the reputation the Pass F4 has, I can imagine that you are enjoying the sound reproduction. 🙂
zman, Alpair 7, can’t find picture of amp guts. It was quite compact, I used Peter Danials power supply and f4 boards with 6 output devices it does run hot but sounds outstanding. I think the pairing of the ASKA Lender, and the F4, with the Frugal horns just works well.
Bill
Bill
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