Very long story... smoked twice... blew the woofer in one of my AN-K... I think we'll go the SET route.
Don't know what we're gonna do with it.
Sad because it was a great sounding amp and a lot of effort and money has gone into it.
Don't know what we're gonna do with it.
Sad because it was a great sounding amp and a lot of effort and money has gone into it.
Oh s**t, an Audio Note woofer gone 🦤.
I’m interested in the cause of the failure, any idea?
I’ve been clipping heavily to get more confidence in the robustness. Sofar no issue.
I’m interested in the cause of the failure, any idea?
I’ve been clipping heavily to get more confidence in the robustness. Sofar no issue.
Are you running the SIT version?
No clue. It was the right channel both times. First time it was something about the 5V vs 8V diodes... a lot of parts got changed, heat sinks enlarged, custom top and bottom plates made by Gianluca with gobs of cooling... I verified temps did not go over 54C...
I was very careful on the second go around... paranoia... the amp just didn't seem loud... and then it happened again... right channel stopped working, I didn't see any smoke that time. But I shut her down... went through the motions of letting things cool down, powered up again... nope, amp didn't come back to life.
(Note, if you do this, put in some cheap speakers JUST in case... don't use your good speakers for this...).
So, the amp is right now with the builder and we're trying to figure out what to do with it. I guess we just don't know and we're both pretty busy with life. Worst case, we'll go the SET route. That seems to be safe.
Audio Notes... woofers.... it's worse than just ONE woofer... the factory made a running change... I had to change the woofers in both speakers and the crossover had to be changed.
It gets worse... it's something that has to be done OEM all the way. So, I had shipping charges, almost three months and a pretty penny ( dollar? )...
You can't just hack an Audio Note speaker..
Oh well, they sound fantastic with the F4 ( driven by a Conrad Johnson ET3SE ) or the Sissy SIT.... We'll see..
Thing with the Macho SIT, mine just had no "feeling of loudness"... it just never got loud. First go around it flat out smoked, second go around the same channel just... stopped. After than, I put in the F4 and something just didn't sound right. The soundstage felt like it was out of balance. I swapped in the Acoustic Energy AE1s and things got right... hmm... I put the AN-K back and listened close up... if I pushed the woofer in, it came back to life...
All I can think is that some DC got in there, but I can't prove it.
Anyhow, right now I'm working on the bridged F4s... after that we'll see what happens with Macho SIT. It's a great sounding amp, mind you, but...
Maybe SITs are meant to be 10 wpc.... like Sissy...
BTW, the only upshot, so far, is that the upgraded AN-Ks sound fantastic. The new woofers are a different paper material than the old ones. As they break in the soundstage is fantastic... but the CJ ET3SE with F4 combo has always been fantastic....
Oh well. It's good I came out of retirement.
ZM owes me a beer.
I wonder what the bridged F4s with BA3 and Iron Pre Balanced will sound like. I got to wait two months for things to shape up...
Hopefully the Macho SIT will resolve itself... might go SET, who knows? But then I'll be sitting on four pairs of THF-51S... right now I got three spares...
Maybe a DIY SIT-4?
BTW, I got the parts, finally, to use the Sissy to drive an F4. I got the power resistors and the heat sinks to set it up... BUT I have no time... work really sucks. I mean, work is good, but it sucks my time.
No clue. It was the right channel both times. First time it was something about the 5V vs 8V diodes... a lot of parts got changed, heat sinks enlarged, custom top and bottom plates made by Gianluca with gobs of cooling... I verified temps did not go over 54C...
I was very careful on the second go around... paranoia... the amp just didn't seem loud... and then it happened again... right channel stopped working, I didn't see any smoke that time. But I shut her down... went through the motions of letting things cool down, powered up again... nope, amp didn't come back to life.
(Note, if you do this, put in some cheap speakers JUST in case... don't use your good speakers for this...).
So, the amp is right now with the builder and we're trying to figure out what to do with it. I guess we just don't know and we're both pretty busy with life. Worst case, we'll go the SET route. That seems to be safe.
Audio Notes... woofers.... it's worse than just ONE woofer... the factory made a running change... I had to change the woofers in both speakers and the crossover had to be changed.
It gets worse... it's something that has to be done OEM all the way. So, I had shipping charges, almost three months and a pretty penny ( dollar? )...
You can't just hack an Audio Note speaker..
Oh well, they sound fantastic with the F4 ( driven by a Conrad Johnson ET3SE ) or the Sissy SIT.... We'll see..
Thing with the Macho SIT, mine just had no "feeling of loudness"... it just never got loud. First go around it flat out smoked, second go around the same channel just... stopped. After than, I put in the F4 and something just didn't sound right. The soundstage felt like it was out of balance. I swapped in the Acoustic Energy AE1s and things got right... hmm... I put the AN-K back and listened close up... if I pushed the woofer in, it came back to life...
All I can think is that some DC got in there, but I can't prove it.
Anyhow, right now I'm working on the bridged F4s... after that we'll see what happens with Macho SIT. It's a great sounding amp, mind you, but...
Maybe SITs are meant to be 10 wpc.... like Sissy...
BTW, the only upshot, so far, is that the upgraded AN-Ks sound fantastic. The new woofers are a different paper material than the old ones. As they break in the soundstage is fantastic... but the CJ ET3SE with F4 combo has always been fantastic....
Oh well. It's good I came out of retirement.
ZM owes me a beer.
I wonder what the bridged F4s with BA3 and Iron Pre Balanced will sound like. I got to wait two months for things to shape up...
Hopefully the Macho SIT will resolve itself... might go SET, who knows? But then I'll be sitting on four pairs of THF-51S... right now I got three spares...
Maybe a DIY SIT-4?
BTW, I got the parts, finally, to use the Sissy to drive an F4. I got the power resistors and the heat sinks to set it up... BUT I have no time... work really sucks. I mean, work is good, but it sucks my time.
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As I got only 7” woofies and 86dB speakers, I need the full FET version.
Somewhere I’m happy that you have the issues with the SIT and not with FET version.
Don’t get me wrong, feel sorry for your troubles.
Somewhere I’m happy that you have the issues with the SIT and not with FET version.
Don’t get me wrong, feel sorry for your troubles.
I just got a hold of the technician who fixed the speakers:
"The driver in the first speaker you sent in had a damaged cone, damaged voice coil and a bad surround. The first two were caused by an amplifier seriously impacting the driver with DC voltage that the typical amplifier protection circuit often cannot catch in time."
So, it seems that the right channel of the amp failed first but the left channel was also having issues.
"The driver in the first speaker you sent in had a damaged cone, damaged voice coil and a bad surround. The first two were caused by an amplifier seriously impacting the driver with DC voltage that the typical amplifier protection circuit often cannot catch in time."
So, it seems that the right channel of the amp failed first but the left channel was also having issues.
Obviously none...
Whatever was spec'd in the schematics... I didn't build the amp, my skills to put together a 5U monster will guarantee a 4th of July... but the schematics/design were followed.
Whatever was spec'd in the schematics... I didn't build the amp, my skills to put together a 5U monster will guarantee a 4th of July... but the schematics/design were followed.
You mean one of the smoked resistors? It sounds familiar. For sure two resistors went and it took some other parts. I don't quite remember now, I'd have to go back to March/Feb or so...
If you recall there was a post smoke change to the 5V diodes for the SIT... to 8V. Perhaps my amp had other latent issues after the repair... stuff that had been damaged but was not obvious. We might rebuild is as SIT or most likely as SET.
If you recall there was a post smoke change to the 5V diodes for the SIT... to 8V. Perhaps my amp had other latent issues after the repair... stuff that had been damaged but was not obvious. We might rebuild is as SIT or most likely as SET.
Hello, I measure about 80mV of ripple when biased at 2A.
I'm planning to add a cap multiplier followed by another 2200µF of capacitance for Front End rails.
Anybody tried something similar?
I'm planning to add a cap multiplier followed by another 2200µF of capacitance for Front End rails.
Anybody tried something similar?
all roads are leading to Rome........some are bumpier, some not
just take care that wiring is neat and that's it
just take care that wiring is neat and that's it
My cap multiplier resulted in voltage sag when I turned up the volume. No idea why as I have used these circuits many times and my current in use M2OPS uses one per channel (as I had with XA252). It might have been something else, who knows but removing them got rid of the problem I was having..dB
Maybe on the next go around, try a DC protection circuit for the speakers. I know that is a capton obvious statement, especially after the fact but there are a few neat DC protection circuits on the forums which includes the one from the DIY store.
Yeah.... the Audio Note guy mentioned to run a tube amp with his speakers. I do have an refurbished Audio Research D70 Mk II .... with about 10 hours on it... but instead I reached for another DIY F4.... l love that sound... or rather the sound of the CJ's midrange.
It is.... I used to have TWO of them with close serial numbers.
In one of the big Tony Audio Tragedies Of All Time (TATOAT) I sold one of them.
Thing is, with Conrad Johnson preamps the ARC D70 becomes surreal in the midrange.... Like an Oloroso Sherry, sometimes with a hint of Palo Cortado, my favorite. But it can be too good. ( See Macho SIT below ).
I think of stuff like the Sissy SIT as a fine Amontillado.
The Macho SIT is a Bas Armagnac, five shots.... nothing subtle about it.
To give you an idea of where I'm going, I think of a Bose Acoustimass as a flat, warm, day old Miller Lite.
BTW, we're drinking a chilled Ribera del Duero tonight. Stereo is turned off. Sometimes you have to enjoy your pleasures separately.
In one of the big Tony Audio Tragedies Of All Time (TATOAT) I sold one of them.
Thing is, with Conrad Johnson preamps the ARC D70 becomes surreal in the midrange.... Like an Oloroso Sherry, sometimes with a hint of Palo Cortado, my favorite. But it can be too good. ( See Macho SIT below ).
I think of stuff like the Sissy SIT as a fine Amontillado.
The Macho SIT is a Bas Armagnac, five shots.... nothing subtle about it.
To give you an idea of where I'm going, I think of a Bose Acoustimass as a flat, warm, day old Miller Lite.
BTW, we're drinking a chilled Ribera del Duero tonight. Stereo is turned off. Sometimes you have to enjoy your pleasures separately.
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In the old days we would turn on some ARC amps, and run 🤣 The M100(?) and some others, weren't the stablest amps 😉
Just powered up the bridged F4s... with a BA-3 front end and the Iron Pre Balanced.
Yowza!
I figure sometime in the next six months I'll get the SET.
Yowza!
I figure sometime in the next six months I'll get the SET.
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