There isn’t my buzz/hum in the right channel, just a slight hiss right at the speaker. I will probably cut the metal sheet in half and put it on both sides just to appease my desire for symmetry, but I have checked, and the shield on the right side doesn’t seem to make any difference. I experimented a bit last night, and on the left side, the shield doesn’t need to cover the whole board, just the part closest to the transformer as you suggest. Rather than using a metal sheet, do you think a bag over the transformer made out this copper mesh would work? I tried a thin sheet of aluminum and it reduced the hum, but not as much as the brassy looking sheet in the photos from my previous post.
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Perfect! Is Austrian pine or White pine better?you can also try shielding with pine cones
Lucky Mighty bstrd. If only we all were as lucky as you!
Yes, Toroidy is very good, but I have a very hot and buzzing audio grade I wanna throw out the window.
Luckily, the world is small, and mighty’s friends are soft. There is supposedly 6 kilos of custom iron waiting for me in my shed
The Toroidy I have also runs too hot, and it buzzes...just a bit. It doesn't bother me, but for the price, it shouldn't be doing either... At least It is properly shielded.
I listened to the amp last night for several hours. It is quiet close to the speaker, with just a faint hiss and a tiny bit of hum with my ear next to the drivers. To get rid of the rest of the hum, which is definitely already acceptable, the additional LC is probably required. The amp is equally quiet with inputs shorted or with an iPhone plugged in. When I plug it into my system, which these days is mostly a PC streaming Tidal to a DAC, and then to am amplifier, there is much more hum and hiss through the speaker. The amp obviously doesn’t require a preamp, but a volume pot would be great so I can fiddle a bit with the gain structure. Seeing as how I have not committed to a front panel yet, what is the best way to add a volume control to an Aleph J? I have a few very nice Daven 100K stepped pots that I could include in the front panel, or in a separate volume control box. I think that it would help the noise level from the system if there was less signal going into the amp. On my computer’s volume control, anything above around 10 out of 100 is way too loud. My preference would be to lock the volume on full with the PC and use a pot to control what the amp gets.
100k pot will kill your dynamics. Choose a buffer, B1 or B1 mezmerize, or Iron pumpkin, or if in dire straits, a max 25k pot. But difficult to integrate without risking additional noise issues
Edit: check out Zen Mod’s INT solution too. Master man.
But you first need to solve your gain structure, which seems 10 times too high.
Tbh the J is best for a bit less sensitive speakers. The Iron Pumpkin let’d you jumper to minus 6db I think, that’ll get you closer. Do not do that on you computer. You will never hear the potential of the J if going that route.
When gain is solved, worry about that extra hum, with such a gain structure you might be hearing Johnny Cash humming from the dark side of the moon.
What is the output voltage of your DAC?
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with damn Klipsches......... no free lunch;
-do each gadget properly; with amp - take care of wiring, pcb positioniing , PSU ( in all areas still lacking?)
-you don't need additional gain in preamp, with said amp
-if you want attenuator, make it buffered ( it counts!!!! and you'll hear results with Damn Klipsches) and make it in own case; putting it in same box with amp means more sensitive wire routes in vicinity of big donut and you can't do that
- sources must be of pristine quality; Aleph J is sensitive Beastie, ( intentionally) and it will amplify any crap taken to its inputs
(btw. Iron Pumpkin is having settable gain, 0db, +2db, +4db, +6db, +8db; with Aleph J class of amps, 0db is best, so you can use as much of input signal is possible and needed, without unnecessary attenuation)
-do each gadget properly; with amp - take care of wiring, pcb positioniing , PSU ( in all areas still lacking?)
-you don't need additional gain in preamp, with said amp
-if you want attenuator, make it buffered ( it counts!!!! and you'll hear results with Damn Klipsches) and make it in own case; putting it in same box with amp means more sensitive wire routes in vicinity of big donut and you can't do that
- sources must be of pristine quality; Aleph J is sensitive Beastie, ( intentionally) and it will amplify any crap taken to its inputs
(btw. Iron Pumpkin is having settable gain, 0db, +2db, +4db, +6db, +8db; with Aleph J class of amps, 0db is best, so you can use as much of input signal is possible and needed, without unnecessary attenuation)
Yes, but it will also give him more excess signal.
But very good point. The J becomes way more CM noise repellant going balanced.
Otoh, on the point of dac directly into the J, I tried my lowish output impedance BDA-1 (50 ohms) into the J directly. Not as good as with a preamp.