For the record, I think the wood looks great. It reminds me of the fine craftsmanship that used to go into tube radio sets in the 30s and 40s. Modern solid state stuff is usually all metal, and while that has a certain industrial-look appeal, it can feel sterile and inorganic sometimes...
Again, my compliments on a job well done!
Again, my compliments on a job well done!
Hehe, I believe you are right, we do! We love stilish objects, juxtaposition of colors and different materials in wild ways... if you have the chance take a look over Pathos or Galactron amplifiers, they take this concept to the extreme.😉Peter Daniel said:
But on the Blue SOZs I'm building there is no wood... they have an aggressive high-tech look... round aluminium bars, interiors in open view throught deep blue transparent plexiglass and internal lightning... a real challenge.
There wasn't enough space to put the filtered socket horizontally. It is squeezed between one of the transformers and the soft start board. In some ways I always put myself working in cramped spaces... and I still wonder why. 🙂
ciao,
Roberto
Roberto,
This is really terrific work!
To clarify: Did you paint the plexiglass itself, or did you paint the aluminum panel and leave the plexiglass clear? Or did you paint the aluminum panel AND the plexiglass?
This has given me an idea, though I'm not sure I'll be able to execute it properly. I'm thinking something along the lines of a McIntosh faceplate, perhaps with glass... though that is the part that is making me a little nervous. 🙂
Thanks for the inspirational photos!
Erik
This is really terrific work!
To clarify: Did you paint the plexiglass itself, or did you paint the aluminum panel and leave the plexiglass clear? Or did you paint the aluminum panel AND the plexiglass?
This has given me an idea, though I'm not sure I'll be able to execute it properly. I'm thinking something along the lines of a McIntosh faceplate, perhaps with glass... though that is the part that is making me a little nervous. 🙂
Thanks for the inspirational photos!
Erik
You paint the plexiglass. If you paint only the aluminium it's not even closely the same effect, becomes apparent that is just a transparent panel covering a surface... dust gets in between... t's a different matter completely. Truly, I painted the aluminium too, it gives bit more depth and safeguards in case of scratches, when you mount panels together... if either one scratches, it becomes totally invisible.eLarson said:
Glass has the advantage you can clean up everything if something goes wrong, with plexiglass you just throw it away. It's not a small advantage, but it's the only one. Plexiglass is workable easily "in house", you can cut perfect holes, it makes itself easy to work with... exactly the opposite I feared before giving it a try... now you could not take it away from me. Beautiful material. If you mean a McIntosh faceplate with transparent lettering and the such, it's a hell of a work. You have to lay the lettering so to preserve transparency and peel them off after painting... without letting the paint dry too much or you'll take away some curls of paint too. I tryed; it can get you crazy and waving wildly pretty quickly... If you are planning to let the lettering stay (maybe because of a contrasting color) that's much better and requires only patience and a clean working area. Just make sure the paint solvent does not dissolve the characters.
ciao,
Roberto
There are two very good points there. When painting a wall in my house with latex paint I can score along the edge of the tape to break the paint's membrane and leave a clean line between the colors when I peel it. With this sort of paint (not to mention the teensy little stick-on letters!) I think that would impossible.
Point #2? I hadn't considered the possibility of the paint itself dissolving the letters!
Thanks for the tips,
Erik
Robrto,
I wonder how to ground those 2 PS PCBs to avoid ground loop? Anyway, this is very nice.
Thank you.
ToB
I wonder how to ground those 2 PS PCBs to avoid ground loop? Anyway, this is very nice.
Thank you.
ToB
ToB said:Robrto,
I wonder how to ground those 2 PS PCBs to avoid ground loop? Anyway, this is very nice.
Thank you.
ToB
Nothing complicated, really. The zero point of both PS goes through a termistor (one for each PS) to mains earth, as in the original NP article. In the same time they go separately and join together only on the pre main board, where they also join the RCA (and XLR) ground of all inputs and outputs. Of course the RCAs ground are isolated from the metal box. The XLR are natively isolated. In other projects I put a 10ohm resistor between 0 and mains earth (to minimize ground loops), but here thermistors rules... Everything is dead quite.
ciao,
Roberto
Roberto,
That is truly work of art! How much do you spent for your BOSOZ? What's the most expensive parts? Your transformer comes with the shielding metal. Is it expensive, and where do you get it? I saw on Plitron website, they have what they called "LoNo" (low noise) transformer, which has shielding metal, but it's way too expensive.
Right now, I am calculating how much should I save my money to create BOSOZ and SOZ pair (or maybe BOZ and ZenV4). I am facing a low WAF (wife acceptance factor) here...
Regards,
That is truly work of art! How much do you spent for your BOSOZ? What's the most expensive parts? Your transformer comes with the shielding metal. Is it expensive, and where do you get it? I saw on Plitron website, they have what they called "LoNo" (low noise) transformer, which has shielding metal, but it's way too expensive.
Right now, I am calculating how much should I save my money to create BOSOZ and SOZ pair (or maybe BOZ and ZenV4). I am facing a low WAF (wife acceptance factor) here...
Regards,
sianturi said:
Thanks. And Thanks also to all nice comments people made here.
I spent about euro/dollars 750. The transformers are resin embedded but they are not shielded. They sit (over semi-soft rubber feet) in a separate area, under the regulators circuit, with a 3mm aluminium panel between the two. I took them from RS-Components, they are made by "Nuvotem". RS code 223-8566, 30VA 2x0-25. I put the two secondaries in series to get 50V.
SOZ, on absolute terms, is more costly than BOSOZ. It has very few parts but each one is costly by itself... (Heatsinks, transformers, condensers, resistors...) and cost rise exponentially, function of output power...
WAF is a severe limiting factor for every (but not only) DIYers...
I have a laboratory completely separated from the main house where only HAF rules (Husband acceptance factor). WAF-HAF treaties are extremely detailed while not written... power balance between superpowers, THIS really is a work of Art!
Ciao,
Roberto
Hi Roberto,
Great job on the BOSOZ, you inspire us all !
I am at the planning stage for my BOSOZ and I was wondering what members think of putting much larger transformers on the BOSOZ e.g. 100 or 200VA. It seems the fashion in some hi-end circles to put huge power supplies in pre-amps. Or is it just a waste of money?
Great job on the BOSOZ, you inspire us all !
I am at the planning stage for my BOSOZ and I was wondering what members think of putting much larger transformers on the BOSOZ e.g. 100 or 200VA. It seems the fashion in some hi-end circles to put huge power supplies in pre-amps. Or is it just a waste of money?
protos said:
I believe (but not me only!) supply should deliver power quietly and be insensitive to load, no matter what. This is the ideal goal. What comes out of units, sound, is power modulated by active circuitry. "No matter what" has to be taken with more than a bit of common sense, but on preamps some of "overdoing" in terms of VA and cap banks is more achivable (read: less costly) than on power class A units. In this BOSOZ I used a total of 120VA divided in 4 transformers with 4 bridges and about 22.000uf. Total cost is 3-4 times that of a single power supply (one transformer, one bridge, etc.) but overall is in the range of tens of dollars/euros, not hundreds... so why not? Each transformer, bridge and cap has little to do in terms of electrical stress. They will live longer, and be less noisy. If I switch power off, the preamp will work flawlessy for 5, 6 seconds before slowly drowning. And is completely free of hum and buzz. If you go up to 200VA or more I don't think It will visibly improve, for 120VA is already way overkill.
ciao,
Roberto
Can't seem to find small readily available tarfos at 30-0-30 but only 25-0-25 here in Dublin. Of course I could order them but you seem to have chosen the 50V set up. Is this perfectly OK or do you sacrifice something ?
If you look at the figures in the original NP article, you lose something in terms of noise and distortion. Reducing gain improves both. I was not able to find the 30-0-30 trasformer (toroidal and resin embedded) either! So you adjust to the best you can, given the gain you need and the parts you get. Currently I'm using 16.5db of gain but I will probabily lower it... I'm just waiting to have SOZ finished and see "things on" what I really need. My (few) observations of the sound of this BOSOZ anyway reflect the current setup.protos said:
ciao,
Roberto
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