A couple of years ago my venerable Hafler DH-200 lost a channel and I thought to myself "I have a soldering iron and a multi-meter, I wonder if I can learn enough to fix it," which led me through the wandering paths of YouTube and many other forums to end up here, at DIYAudio, discovering that not only was it possible to repair the Hafler, but that someone (Bob Cordell) had taken the chassis, power supply and output MOSFETS and built an entirely different amp in between.
The implications were mind blowing. "Wait. There are people who design their own amplifiers? Who build them? There are kits? There are tools for simulating circuits? For laying out and getting PCBs printed yourself? Nelson Pass is actively involved? Oh. Oh, my."
And so I learned to solder a lot better, then re-flow my soldering failures, measure volts and amps and burn up resistors and blow output MOSFETs and ask for (and receive) help over the next year or so and wound up with a variac, isolation transformer, dim bulb tester, even an oscilloscope and got that Cordell DH-200C working andthen crashing and then debugging and repairing and it was glorious. And then I ventured into the PASS forum area.
This place is addictive as hell.
I received the F6 boards for Christmas this time last year, and by way of the build guides and the store and Mouser and Digikey and FirstWatt manuals and other information sources on YouTube, I was able to build it, first amp from the ground up. Did I know how the circuit really worked? Nope, not entirely. Have I since learned? It's becoming more clear. It does take years, but I've got patience.
F6 led to F4 led to B1-Korg and then Randy Thatcher hung out a thread about the classic Aleph 30/60 fit for the DIYAudio chassis mounts. An Aleph was always something I wanted, since I first read about them in Stereophile circa 1990. And here I was, building them, listening to them. I built that!
Next stop? M2X. I originally thought the F6 was what the M2 turned out to be, an amp that used a transformer as a gain stage, but I'd learned enough during the year that I understood the difference. I'm, uh, listening to an M2X now in my office.
And I've got the forthcoming Iron Pre to build. And most of the bits for an F5Turbo-V2 ready, and a moving coil phono stage and then a tube radio I picked up from an antique shop to refurbish and then...
I didn't overdo it, did I?
This is a strange way to say thank you all for having this community. To borrow from Sy's paper about his MC phono stage, it's so much more fun to be a builder than an appliance operator.
The implications were mind blowing. "Wait. There are people who design their own amplifiers? Who build them? There are kits? There are tools for simulating circuits? For laying out and getting PCBs printed yourself? Nelson Pass is actively involved? Oh. Oh, my."
And so I learned to solder a lot better, then re-flow my soldering failures, measure volts and amps and burn up resistors and blow output MOSFETs and ask for (and receive) help over the next year or so and wound up with a variac, isolation transformer, dim bulb tester, even an oscilloscope and got that Cordell DH-200C working andthen crashing and then debugging and repairing and it was glorious. And then I ventured into the PASS forum area.
This place is addictive as hell.
I received the F6 boards for Christmas this time last year, and by way of the build guides and the store and Mouser and Digikey and FirstWatt manuals and other information sources on YouTube, I was able to build it, first amp from the ground up. Did I know how the circuit really worked? Nope, not entirely. Have I since learned? It's becoming more clear. It does take years, but I've got patience.
F6 led to F4 led to B1-Korg and then Randy Thatcher hung out a thread about the classic Aleph 30/60 fit for the DIYAudio chassis mounts. An Aleph was always something I wanted, since I first read about them in Stereophile circa 1990. And here I was, building them, listening to them. I built that!
Next stop? M2X. I originally thought the F6 was what the M2 turned out to be, an amp that used a transformer as a gain stage, but I'd learned enough during the year that I understood the difference. I'm, uh, listening to an M2X now in my office.
And I've got the forthcoming Iron Pre to build. And most of the bits for an F5Turbo-V2 ready, and a moving coil phono stage and then a tube radio I picked up from an antique shop to refurbish and then...
I didn't overdo it, did I?
This is a strange way to say thank you all for having this community. To borrow from Sy's paper about his MC phono stage, it's so much more fun to be a builder than an appliance operator.
why can't you be as all normal guys, watching 'ball and drinking beer and beating da wife and having some coke occasionally?
all of that much less addictive
all of that much less addictive
Coke? Is that some sort of flux?why can't you be as all normal guys, watching 'ball and drinking beer and beating da wife and having some coke occasionally?
all of that much less addictive
Theres is, in my view, no such thing as overdoing it. If you have money, space and time, and remember to wash your nuts every now and then, eat and keep your (potential) family and animals happy, I see no issues. Uh, forgot one thing: don’t forget to enjoy your labours: be an appliance operator too
Wonderful work! 🙂
Baby V
Agreed. If I didn’t have at least one project moving along at all times, I’d be panicked. It’s good for the brain.
Toadroller, that's a pretty decent pace for one year. But lest you worry you may have too many amps, consider this piece of sage advice from the Mighty Zen Mod:
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/official-m2-schematic.281520/page-88#post-4969758
Happy building!
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/official-m2-schematic.281520/page-88#post-4969758
Happy building!
You bet! Mario Kart has never sounded so good!Uh, forgot one thing: don’t forget to enjoy your labours: be an appliance operator too
I've loved stereos since, oh, 1980ish when my dad brought home a Yamaha Receiver and some Boston Acoustics speakers. Toys and music.
The Aleph 60s have really opened up the music to how the band is playing, how the singers are singing, and how the music was recorded and mixed. endless fun.
No end of projects here. I fixed my brother's fancy Marantz SACD player yesterday. Just mechanic's work: broken plastic on the loading tray. Superglue to the rescue. I picked up a Philco tube radio at an antique store and will refurb its capacitors. Some plate amps from subwoofers that have gone bad. And so on and so forth.
I redid a Haffler DH-200. Not by modifying it etc but just a stock recap and replacement of transistors on the driver boards. It sounds alright. I thought it was broken at one point because the Firstwatt DIY amps sound so much cleanre/better... Lol.
Nice work on your progress! Keep up the pace. It will be hard to run out of projects. Also, one power supply will satisfy a lot of amp designs so you can experiment inexpensively. I like to have two amps so I can A/B for fun.
Feel free to share your listening impressions and what you like about each if you would like to. I built a little aleph mini and have the parts floating around for a 35-watt variant. That will be after building a couple of other amps first. I thought of doing an Aleph X but my heatsinks, although capable of dissapating enough watts, don't allow an arangement for outputs in intervals of 4. I can do 6 devices per channel though.
The F6 is a great amp. I would recommend IRFP150's if you haven't tried that. Arrow has a good deal on those particular mosfets.
Nice work on your progress! Keep up the pace. It will be hard to run out of projects. Also, one power supply will satisfy a lot of amp designs so you can experiment inexpensively. I like to have two amps so I can A/B for fun.
Feel free to share your listening impressions and what you like about each if you would like to. I built a little aleph mini and have the parts floating around for a 35-watt variant. That will be after building a couple of other amps first. I thought of doing an Aleph X but my heatsinks, although capable of dissapating enough watts, don't allow an arangement for outputs in intervals of 4. I can do 6 devices per channel though.
The F6 is a great amp. I would recommend IRFP150's if you haven't tried that. Arrow has a good deal on those particular mosfets.
If you did, then I am one sick puppy! I know there are people here with even more sickness.
If you saw the boxes of amp parts and preamp parts still unbuilt you would throw a net over me. I am currently running 4 systems with Diy Pass power, and could set up more, but would be ridiculous and require more rooms!
Russellc