Hi,
I am stuck and could use some advice.
Jaap (a friend of mine - a retired "genius with a soldering iron" - does the actual building for me) started on an Aleph P1.7 for me 4-5 years ago. We bought all the parts from a Dutch supplier (who supplied KK PCB boards). This was before I started reading this forum and realised Nelson frowns on suppliers offering kits.
We had very little information and had no idea what we were doing (we bought a kit, right?!). To cut a long story short, our supplier went out of business, Jaap cannot read English and I knew very little about electronics. So when we ran into trouble we just left it on the shelf to finish another day.
In the past year or so I have tried to read as much as I can and am starting to understand what we are building. So, the day has arrived!
We had not realised that the volume control and input selection supplied were Chinese parts. (It looks identical to this one: Préamplification - LITE V3310 4ch - Contrôleur de volume 4 voies ou 2 voies XLR )
When I found out that the volume and input control were Chinese parts (of unknown quality), I asked Jaap to take the Aleph parts out of the box and just leave the Chinese parts, because I wanted to hear what they sounded like. I tried it as a passive pre (instead of my old Yamaha CX-1000 preamp) in my study and am now glad I took it out of the Aleph P1.7 build! It does have good solid bass, but the highs scream out of the speakers. Nothing refined about it.
Back to the Aleph P1.7.
We tested the finished Aleph boards, and they work.
I have not really heard them yet, just confirmed that they work. I now need to make a decision about input selection and volume control. I was leaning towards using the Dantimax boards, but after reading about lightspeed (I gather consensus is that it gives a better sound than resistor based systems) I am not so sure. I sent a message to Uriah, asking him if the boards he sells can be used for an Aleph P1.7 (where a 1K attenuator is required). He answered that it could not.
So now I am stuck. I am open to all suggestions.
Thanks for listening.
Albert
PS Enclosed an old photo of the Aleph P1.7 build with all the Chinese stuff in the Chinese box.
I am stuck and could use some advice.
Jaap (a friend of mine - a retired "genius with a soldering iron" - does the actual building for me) started on an Aleph P1.7 for me 4-5 years ago. We bought all the parts from a Dutch supplier (who supplied KK PCB boards). This was before I started reading this forum and realised Nelson frowns on suppliers offering kits.
We had very little information and had no idea what we were doing (we bought a kit, right?!). To cut a long story short, our supplier went out of business, Jaap cannot read English and I knew very little about electronics. So when we ran into trouble we just left it on the shelf to finish another day.
In the past year or so I have tried to read as much as I can and am starting to understand what we are building. So, the day has arrived!
We had not realised that the volume control and input selection supplied were Chinese parts. (It looks identical to this one: Préamplification - LITE V3310 4ch - Contrôleur de volume 4 voies ou 2 voies XLR )
When I found out that the volume and input control were Chinese parts (of unknown quality), I asked Jaap to take the Aleph parts out of the box and just leave the Chinese parts, because I wanted to hear what they sounded like. I tried it as a passive pre (instead of my old Yamaha CX-1000 preamp) in my study and am now glad I took it out of the Aleph P1.7 build! It does have good solid bass, but the highs scream out of the speakers. Nothing refined about it.
Back to the Aleph P1.7.
We tested the finished Aleph boards, and they work.
I have not really heard them yet, just confirmed that they work. I now need to make a decision about input selection and volume control. I was leaning towards using the Dantimax boards, but after reading about lightspeed (I gather consensus is that it gives a better sound than resistor based systems) I am not so sure. I sent a message to Uriah, asking him if the boards he sells can be used for an Aleph P1.7 (where a 1K attenuator is required). He answered that it could not.
So now I am stuck. I am open to all suggestions.
Thanks for listening.
Albert
PS Enclosed an old photo of the Aleph P1.7 build with all the Chinese stuff in the Chinese box.
Attachments
I've been looking into the Lightspeed ???
If you read the article in the margins of this site about the poor mans litespeed it might change your mind.
The poor mans litespeed exhibits some 6% distortion - It just leaves you wondering if it all hype.
If you read the article in the margins of this site about the poor mans litespeed it might change your mind.
The poor mans litespeed exhibits some 6% distortion - It just leaves you wondering if it all hype.
I bought a stepped 100K attenuator, this is also giving me problems.
My best advice is to look at hificollective.com. They do some very nice standard potentiometers. You pay for what you get, I'm back to ALPS pots and they sound perfect to me.
I'm using a Pumpkin/Shuntky with an Aleph 4.
My best advice is to look at hificollective.com. They do some very nice standard potentiometers. You pay for what you get, I'm back to ALPS pots and they sound perfect to me.
I'm using a Pumpkin/Shuntky with an Aleph 4.
Papa knows his stuff.
I've been blown off my feet with my Aleph 4.
Iwouldn't mix digital volume controls with his circuitry though. Why feed fine wine through a dirty pipe.
I've been blown off my feet with my Aleph 4.
Iwouldn't mix digital volume controls with his circuitry though. Why feed fine wine through a dirty pipe.
Dantimax stuff is good ;
besides - just control circuitry is digital - attenuator itself is analog - relay based
besides - just control circuitry is digital - attenuator itself is analog - relay based
I read somewhere that relays in the audio path are not good.
A 7 wiper ALPS pot is getting pretty good.
A 7 wiper ALPS pot is getting pretty good.
Most relays use a very small contact area, usually two semi-spheres touching each other.
For some reason or other relay specifications rarely define the contact area.
A rotary actuator would be a good device with a leaf type contact.
For some reason or other relay specifications rarely define the contact area.
A rotary actuator would be a good device with a leaf type contact.
I'm just thinking. Dangerously expensive I know.
How about utilising the Litespeed idea for switching audion ?
None of the matching problems as the devices would be used at their extremes (Fully illuminated) and (Fully dark)
How about utilising the Litespeed idea for switching audion ?
None of the matching problems as the devices would be used at their extremes (Fully illuminated) and (Fully dark)
the original aleph p use exactly the same.
so i guess you say that you do not like the original aleph p?
The very best passive preamp I've ever heard was an autoformer based one. It was remote controlled and used mercury wetted relays to switch between the attenuation taps on the autoformer. Completely transparent and maintained dynamics into the very low volume settings like I’ve never heard before.
I've got all the components to build an Aleph P1.7. Anyone got any ideas about the best PCB.
KK-PCB do one, its expensive. RSTAUDIO.DE did one but I can't find a supplier.
May have to reverse engineer the RSTAUDIO board. Mmmmm Lots of work I think.
KK-PCB do one, its expensive. RSTAUDIO.DE did one but I can't find a supplier.
May have to reverse engineer the RSTAUDIO board. Mmmmm Lots of work I think.
You can drop him a message and ask if he has boards left or would produce some more. Perhaps I'm also on the look for good boards in the near future.
Kind regards,
Matthias
Kind regards,
Matthias
the question is very interesting, the aleph p 1.7 is the next project that I intend to make once they have completed my speakers
Aleph P1.7 capacitors?
Hi,
I'm fresh on this pages, and registered in order to get some answers to my Aleph P1.7 and Aleph 5 construction.
I have a quite huge stock of Wima caps on the shelf, and want to know if there is a problem in using 1uF / 250V MKP10 blocks, instead of the stated 10uF Wima's on the original schema?
I think it will only have some infuence on the frequency response which will change from 0,5Hz to 5Hz in the lower regions...or not?
Can someone please help me on this?
Rgds,
John
Hi,
I'm fresh on this pages, and registered in order to get some answers to my Aleph P1.7 and Aleph 5 construction.
I have a quite huge stock of Wima caps on the shelf, and want to know if there is a problem in using 1uF / 250V MKP10 blocks, instead of the stated 10uF Wima's on the original schema?
I think it will only have some infuence on the frequency response which will change from 0,5Hz to 5Hz in the lower regions...or not?
Can someone please help me on this?
Rgds,
John
Power cable
I am slowly but surely getting this build organised. Based on good experiences from others and patience in explaining by Mikkel I have decided to use the Dantimax boards.
I will place the PSU's (1 for each channel + whatever is required for the Dantimax boards), Dantimax Control2 and FrontPanel boards + OLED Display in a separate enclosure. The main enclosure will contain the Aleph P1.7 boards, as well as Dantimax Input2 and RelVol3.
I was planning on using a 4 or 5 pin XLR to bring 2 x 60V DC + SgnGnd + ChsGnd from the PSU enclosure to the main enclosure, but have just seen that the Neutrik XLR's are officially rated at 7.5 or 10A (which is fine because the Aleph P1.7 draws little current), but at 50V AC.
How big of a problem is this?
I would love to hear what have others used to get 60V DC from one enclosure to the next?
Thanks,
Albert
Enclosed a pdf of my design of the rear panel of the main enclosure.
Edit: The engraving is missing from the PDF. Left lower are XLR for Aleph and RJ45 for Dantimax. Others are main out (XLR and RCA), Tape in/out and 5 x input.
I am slowly but surely getting this build organised. Based on good experiences from others and patience in explaining by Mikkel I have decided to use the Dantimax boards.
I will place the PSU's (1 for each channel + whatever is required for the Dantimax boards), Dantimax Control2 and FrontPanel boards + OLED Display in a separate enclosure. The main enclosure will contain the Aleph P1.7 boards, as well as Dantimax Input2 and RelVol3.
I was planning on using a 4 or 5 pin XLR to bring 2 x 60V DC + SgnGnd + ChsGnd from the PSU enclosure to the main enclosure, but have just seen that the Neutrik XLR's are officially rated at 7.5 or 10A (which is fine because the Aleph P1.7 draws little current), but at 50V AC.
How big of a problem is this?
I would love to hear what have others used to get 60V DC from one enclosure to the next?
Thanks,
Albert
Enclosed a pdf of my design of the rear panel of the main enclosure.
Edit: The engraving is missing from the PDF. Left lower are XLR for Aleph and RJ45 for Dantimax. Others are main out (XLR and RCA), Tape in/out and 5 x input.
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