I have a 25K metal film eBay ladder pot, a 25K eBay dact type smd pot and some other cheap carbon pots to compare with. It's not really a good comparison because of the different values and he fact that the Tocos are mono pots and the others are stereo.
The Tocos seems to excel at depth and atmosphere though. Since I am using mono pots in my Korg build I would prefer not to use stepped attenuators because I can't control the balance between channels well enough. I like having two mono pots better, it helps when listening to vinyl because the "center" can be different album to album.
I am still liking the lm317 reg over meanwell switcher. Next step is coupling caps and a real chassis.
The Tocos seems to excel at depth and atmosphere though. Since I am using mono pots in my Korg build I would prefer not to use stepped attenuators because I can't control the balance between channels well enough. I like having two mono pots better, it helps when listening to vinyl because the "center" can be different album to album.
I am still liking the lm317 reg over meanwell switcher. Next step is coupling caps and a real chassis.
How does the ladder attenuator compare to the Tocos (a link would also be helpful)? One would assume that if the ladder is cheap enough, just buy two stereo ladders and use one channel of each (or order attenuators with twice the needed impedance and parallel both sides of each attenuator, which may actually increase performance).
I have not compared them directly. The ladder is in my solid state preamp. The ladder pots are available in mono as well, all over eBay. I use the SMD Dact pot in my headphone amp...I prefer the feel of the DACT pots.
The only in-circuit comparison I made was Tocos vs. cheap Alpha pot.
Here is the link to the tocos:
TOCOS America
Mine is a 50K Rv30. I bought a pair of monos on eBay. They may be fake, who knows. Extremely cheap...they were less than $15USD for a pair.
Quick update:
Replaced the 32v switcher with lm317 set at 24v to a fully linear supply with lm317.
Not much difference if any noted. Can’t do an a/b test obviously but I don’t feel there is a big improvement if any. Lm317 is not exactly a hi end solution but those of you with switch mode supplies shouldn’t worry about it too much. In fact just the switch mode supply set at 24v with no reg sounds fine I think.
The tocos cosmos pots excel at soundstage but sound a bit lightweight. Bass is not their strength...in both quantity and depth. But the soundstage is amazing.
Replaced the 32v switcher with lm317 set at 24v to a fully linear supply with lm317.
Not much difference if any noted. Can’t do an a/b test obviously but I don’t feel there is a big improvement if any. Lm317 is not exactly a hi end solution but those of you with switch mode supplies shouldn’t worry about it too much. In fact just the switch mode supply set at 24v with no reg sounds fine I think.
The tocos cosmos pots excel at soundstage but sound a bit lightweight. Bass is not their strength...in both quantity and depth. But the soundstage is amazing.
Here is mine, making wonderful music.
It is 6" square, 8" tall. I am waiting on a piece of glass for the front, which I plan to drill a couple 40mm holes for the knobs, and 3 6mm holes for some button head screws. I have some stick on letters I plan on using to mask the glass and 'armour etch' the glass, leaving the name clear (and similarly on the F6 below). Waiting on another slow boat knob, was going to use a toggle for inputs, but added the Elma rotary. The steel I washed with muriatic acid, and applied some vinegar and hydrogen peroxide to get it to rust, but I should have used a good degreaser, as it is not too uniform. I spray a coat of clear sealer over it.
The back half houses a linear ps, and the power entry, with a piece of 16g between. The Sola Silverline (SLS-24-024T) I found new on Ebay, seems to be a nice quiet ps. It was right on 24v. All the test points were very good.
It is tuned to approx 9.4v at the moment, haven't got to experimenting.
In some casual listening, (desktop, Amazon HD and Youtube Music Premium to Khadas Tone Board to B1K, F6), various country, blues, jazz - it just sounds terrific - vocals and acoustic instruments in particular, close your eyes and Chris Stapleton or Emmylou Harris are 10 feet away. Bass is excellent.
I had a strong ringing at first, then realized I had the preamp sitting right in front of a woofer - has been fine sitting on the F6.
Michael
It is 6" square, 8" tall. I am waiting on a piece of glass for the front, which I plan to drill a couple 40mm holes for the knobs, and 3 6mm holes for some button head screws. I have some stick on letters I plan on using to mask the glass and 'armour etch' the glass, leaving the name clear (and similarly on the F6 below). Waiting on another slow boat knob, was going to use a toggle for inputs, but added the Elma rotary. The steel I washed with muriatic acid, and applied some vinegar and hydrogen peroxide to get it to rust, but I should have used a good degreaser, as it is not too uniform. I spray a coat of clear sealer over it.
The back half houses a linear ps, and the power entry, with a piece of 16g between. The Sola Silverline (SLS-24-024T) I found new on Ebay, seems to be a nice quiet ps. It was right on 24v. All the test points were very good.
It is tuned to approx 9.4v at the moment, haven't got to experimenting.
In some casual listening, (desktop, Amazon HD and Youtube Music Premium to Khadas Tone Board to B1K, F6), various country, blues, jazz - it just sounds terrific - vocals and acoustic instruments in particular, close your eyes and Chris Stapleton or Emmylou Harris are 10 feet away. Bass is excellent.
I had a strong ringing at first, then realized I had the preamp sitting right in front of a woofer - has been fine sitting on the F6.
Michael
Attachments
Idiot check required - would appreciate someone having a look at these as I posted previously I can't get my voltages down to below 10.5 on one side and 10.2 on the other. I have a new tube on order just in case i've gotten the original too hot soldering it and desoldering it to swap cables. As an ex welder you can assume my soldering is good but i had to work hard to workout where the resistors should go.
Hi Hikari,
Re PS options, well, read my posts a few months back on some extensive comparisons... told you so ;-)
Re Tocos, as posted a few months ago, in comparison with the purest possible solution (very short air wired high quality resistors soldered directly together with the Tocos adjusted exactly at their value)... the Tocos excelled. If any difference, it was very light and just a tiny bit less extreme bass energy (not depth).
That was really not much, so if you found the Tocos lacking really some bass, then perhaps it is because you compared it with a pot that had too much bass? Note though I had the stereo version...
Anyway, it would be nice to see how it compares to the TDK... that one is supposed to be excellent as well, but a tiny bit heavy on the extreme bass side at the cost of a tiny bit stage reduction, so somewhere the opposite "compromise"... but is in another price league. It would be nice having someone to confirm or infirm that, I believe someone here have both?
I hope this helps
Claude
Re PS options, well, read my posts a few months back on some extensive comparisons... told you so ;-)
Re Tocos, as posted a few months ago, in comparison with the purest possible solution (very short air wired high quality resistors soldered directly together with the Tocos adjusted exactly at their value)... the Tocos excelled. If any difference, it was very light and just a tiny bit less extreme bass energy (not depth).
That was really not much, so if you found the Tocos lacking really some bass, then perhaps it is because you compared it with a pot that had too much bass? Note though I had the stereo version...
Anyway, it would be nice to see how it compares to the TDK... that one is supposed to be excellent as well, but a tiny bit heavy on the extreme bass side at the cost of a tiny bit stage reduction, so somewhere the opposite "compromise"... but is in another price league. It would be nice having someone to confirm or infirm that, I believe someone here have both?
I hope this helps
Claude
Yep. Take care with "3322F" and "3323F".
332 is the value, last digit is how many zeroes - 3323 = 332,000 ohm or 332k.
Been looking over your pics and I could be wrong here, but the part number on the adjustment pots appears to be 3362 which is a 100k pot according to mouser, when it should be a 3386 10k pot.
Not relevant to fixing the problem, but once you've troubleshot and fixed the problem, consider using a flux removal cleaning to remove flux from the board. Will likely avoid future problems.
Those markings are not the resistance value. 3362 is one series / configuration of Bourns pot, and 3386 is another series / configuration. The resistance is noted on the side and not visible in the pictures. You can get either series in the correct value.
Hi Steve,
I was checking out your picture closely and it looks like some of the 3322 and 3323 resistors are incorrect. The attached picture has circles around the suspect ones. Give it a look over
Attachments
I will clean the board it looks messy now i've soldered and unsoldered a few things. Is it worth buying a multimeter capable of testing the transistors? Is it easy to fry those.
I have a pair of identical Autoranging unitec meters but they don't have the transistor tester on the front that some $10 meters have.
I have a pair of identical Autoranging unitec meters but they don't have the transistor tester on the front that some $10 meters have.
I have now thanks. I only found one pair that didn't match other build photos earlier in the threads. Have others go this wrong too?
There are 3323F and 3322F which ones are which?
For the full build kit colour coded and sorted resistors would be safer and less confusing.