Krell KSA 50 PCB

Pink Mouse,
I know what you mean! This is my version 1.01 and I still should move the output semi's further up the sink for better efficiency accoding to another person in this thread. But sedign changes never hurt and we all learn form them. At this point with my dual 12 volt DC fans running at 5.5 volts the semis are a comfortable 50 deg c. and I am pretty happy with that. I also measured the temp of Q-107, 108 and they seem to free air idle at about 48 deg.c. which I am also comfortable with. I just thought it better to mount the drivers someplace so they run at a comfortable margin, they do get really, really hot other wise!

Mark
 
"Really hard to cut. The foil is thick "

Well that would be the extra thick traces I ordered to ensure the boards were high quality and could handle the current demands of class-A.

I've never heard anyone say a Krell was wimpy.. I've heard many other things, but not wimpy, cheap, or flimsy.

Well built was always an adjective used. :)
 
I've been listning to mine for almost two weeks now. Its not in a chassis as of yet... that part takes time:smash: !

How does it sound? Very similar to my old KSA-80. Great bottom end and overall slam, turns bad sounding cd's into really bad sounding cd's and good ones are pure magic. This amp does not bahave like a 50 watt amp, but then the KSA-80 didn't behave like an 80 watt amp either.....

This weekend I will convert it into dual mono with a second power transformer, bridge and caps. Then the fun'll really begin:D

I can keep my heat sink temp to 50 deg c more or less as I have an air tunnel arrangement set up with 2- 12 volt dc fans running at a bit under half speed.

Mark
 
An interesting thing I noticed after much listening to my KSA-50 was that after it was on more than three or four hours the top end tended to get a bit too laid back. In my case I believe that the drivers, and bias were just running way, way too hot. Since mounting them on the main heat sink this problem has vanished.... two sessions now with the amp on in excess of five hours per session and the top end no longer has this excessive laid back effect. It'll be interesting to see if anyone else notices this or experiences this same effect. Oddly, I had this same effect when I built a "stock" Aleph X. As a result I scrapped the X amp idea completely. Apparently I needed alot more sink real estate for the X as well.

P.S. This KSA-50 is fantasitc in my system!

Mark
 
The Power Supply I will use.
 

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"The Power Supply I will use."

Algar_emi,

I assume that this supply is for one channel? A 3.5 amp SB fuse definately will not hold for 2 channels. Its an impressive supply!! I have a box full of 6mh torodial chokes... would they work well in that supply?



"Hey mark,

What temp were your drivers running at after 4 hours???"

Almost 70 deg. c., now they are at sink temperature which is about 52 deg. c..... I thought that 70 deg was just a tad too hot for those little guys..... after many thermal cycles that means sooner failures and possible DC on the speakers! The amp seems to settle down quicker as far as bias and offset. Settles down in about 15 min now. With the drivers on that small HS that I had made it took quite a while for the output to settle down to near just a few mv. Bias also drifted around for quite a bit longer. NOw you can watch it change for about 15 min and then it just hangs at 420 mv and a few mv of dc on the output.


Mark
 
K-amps said:

Question:

What are D1/D2 for?


Presumably protecting the bridges from spikes generated by coils when power is switched off (although capacitors should absorb the spike).
I think you should still consider room for DC blocking capacitors (on transformer's primary side). Even the best transformers will be prone to buzz if saturated by DC from the mains.

Bratislav