Finally plugged it in last night. No preamp or speakers wires were connected. It is dead quite and voltage, at the power86 wire clamping screws, measured exactly 24V. I'm waiting for a new soldering iron to make new IC cables. Would leaving it powered have any break-in value?
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The only amplifiers that need break-in are tube amplifiers. The operating point of the JJ 300Bs in my DG300B took a couple of hours to settle. Once settled, the operating point has remained constant for years.
Break-in of semiconductor-based audio equipment is a myth propagated by snake oil salesmen. Some components will drift a few ppm as they age. If an amplifier is so dependent on the values of individual components that a few ppm of aging matters, the designer should go back to the drawing board. Sorry to burst your bubble, but there's just no science behind it.
If it makes you feel better, you can certainly leave the amp on until you're ready to use it. Doing so will have as much burn-in value as leaving the amp off. The amp burns about 5-6 W per channel at idle so it's not too wasteful.
It's good to hear that everything powered up correctly and that the magic smoke is still contained in the components.
Tom
Break-in of semiconductor-based audio equipment is a myth propagated by snake oil salesmen. Some components will drift a few ppm as they age. If an amplifier is so dependent on the values of individual components that a few ppm of aging matters, the designer should go back to the drawing board. Sorry to burst your bubble, but there's just no science behind it.
If it makes you feel better, you can certainly leave the amp on until you're ready to use it. Doing so will have as much burn-in value as leaving the amp off. The amp burns about 5-6 W per channel at idle so it's not too wasteful.
It's good to hear that everything powered up correctly and that the magic smoke is still contained in the components.
Tom
Where do you get spring steel clips
Using them would require another tapped hole about 3/8" above the tapped hole, I already made in the heatsink, for the using the hole in the lm3886. Where did you find the clips mentioned in your first sentence?
Thanks,
henry
I've spent hours looking and the Avid spring clips, I found, are longer than the lm3886.
Using them would require another tapped hole about 3/8" above the tapped hole, I already made in the heatsink, for the using the hole in the lm3886. Where did you find the clips mentioned in your first sentence?
Thanks,
henry
Just replaced the old 1984 Kidde fire extinguisher on our small sailboat (it has a 4 horsepower outboard). The gage was reading a little low.You know... I really recommend the Pyrochem brand of fire extinguishers. They just sound so much better. The Kidde brand that you have is OK, but I find it lacking in the highs and the midrange is tinny and whimsical.
Tom
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Yes. That's how they're supposed to work. The clamp attaches to the heat sink above the device and the device slides up under the clamp. I provided the Mouser P/N when I mentioned the clamp. You should be able to find it by going back a couple of pages.
I thought you already had the amp assembled. Why add clamps now?
Mouser.
Tom
I'm with Tom...I don't think SS amps need break in. However I was amazed at the break in info I copied from the Rowland site.
"A new Continuum 250 integrated amplifier reaches its full performance potential after an extended break-in period that may continue for over 1200 hours of playing time."
"During early break in, for at least the first 250 hours, the sonic character of the Continuum 250 may fluctuate in often unexpected ways."
WOW!
"A new Continuum 250 integrated amplifier reaches its full performance potential after an extended break-in period that may continue for over 1200 hours of playing time."
"During early break in, for at least the first 250 hours, the sonic character of the Continuum 250 may fluctuate in often unexpected ways."
WOW!
I wouldn't. I'd just write some sappy marketing verbiage about how nanocrystaline structure of the muffler bearings needed careful realignment after shipment to the customer and how this alignment could only be accomplished by following a prescribed PATENT PENDING!!! burn-in program.
Following that, I would tell the customer what they should expect to hear after the burn-in. If this was the late 1980ies, I'd tell them about the number of veils that would be lifted. In today's HiFi world, I should probably use words like "tempo", "musical", and other similarly ambiguous terms. I'd let the customer's psyche do the rest.
Why spend money implementing a feature that degrades performance for the first hour you use the equipment?
I'm much in line with Douglas Self on this. If your semiconductor amp needs warm-up or burn-in, you're doing something wrong.
Tom
1200 hours is 24/7 operation for over a month!
I see at least two angles here. One is marketing. "Our amplifier is so special that it changes character as it breaks in. You should take out a second mortgage to buy our amplifier because it is just that special."
The other is buyer's remorse. So you do take out that second mortgage. You get the amp. You get the amp home and it sounds alright but you're not sure it's really that much different from what you had. So you start checking the paperwork for the money back guarantee and return policy. You come across the above line and think, "maybe I should let it break in before I decide to return it". The amp grows on you and you decide to keep it.
I think it's mostly the first. "Our amp is special". You find the same break-in verbiage on speaker drivers (see Mark Audio's break-in recommendations for example). I like the MA drivers, but I honestly didn't notice any break-in (neither in objective or subjective tests) on my Alpair 6P drivers.
Tom
I can comprehend a driver (especially those of larger diameter or excursion) breaking in as the mechanical and elastic properties of suspension change with some cycling.
If you read on the Hypex forum a fair number of individuals claim their amp sound best after it has been on for a few days straight (laughable to me, but if it floats their boat, more power to 'em!)
(edit: Or possibly more power on their monthly electric bill??)
Lastly, Henry quit perusing conductive epoxy spec sheets, plug that thing in and and play some music!!
If you read on the Hypex forum a fair number of individuals claim their amp sound best after it has been on for a few days straight (laughable to me, but if it floats their boat, more power to 'em!)
(edit: Or possibly more power on their monthly electric bill??)
Lastly, Henry quit perusing conductive epoxy spec sheets, plug that thing in and and play some music!!
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Henry,
Why don't you buy some spring steel, machine it, bend it, drill it etc and then just heat treat it and viola! you have your own genuine henrylrjr spring clips - spring steel is readily available in a wide variety of widths, spring rates, colour, finish, etc
You might be able to get tension washers (to accurately control the pressure applied to the device under load) from Mouser or Digikey - maybe another name like DTI, 'one shot', etc and Google's your friend ...
Why don't you buy some spring steel, machine it, bend it, drill it etc and then just heat treat it and viola! you have your own genuine henrylrjr spring clips - spring steel is readily available in a wide variety of widths, spring rates, colour, finish, etc
You might be able to get tension washers (to accurately control the pressure applied to the device under load) from Mouser or Digikey - maybe another name like DTI, 'one shot', etc and Google's your friend ...
spring clips
I found the mouser parts and they would require another tapped hole in the heatsink. I probably mis-read one of your earlier posts were I thought you mentioned you got some that mounted in the existing lm3886 hole. That is what I was hoping to get. As you said, everything is assembled so I don't want to tap more holes. If shorter clips were available, that would mount in the existing hole, no dis-assembly is required.
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I've never seen a clamp that uses the hole in the package of the semiconductor. Think about it from a production standpoint: If you're driving a screw through the hole in the semiconductor package anyway, why not just set the torque on your power screwdriver and ensure that each package is torqued correctly? That'll save the cost and assembly time involved with attaching a clamp. In mass production, fractions of cents and seconds count.
Tom
Tom
I've got some Ti scrap that will be perfect for making clips the will mount via the package mounting hole. As I mentioned earlier, I like the idea of something pushing on the main body to counteract the potential of any heat related bending away, of the chip, from the heatsink. I think I mentioned that I like a belt and suspenders.
Ya know I'm remembering the pic of the Mod86 with a lug used for clamping the lm3886 to the heatsink. Maybe the guy didn't have any right sized washers, but I'm thinking he was either lucky or had a good reason.
When I think back to the pic, the lug, attached via the lm3886 mounting hole also had a portion pushing against the edge of the main body of the chip. That would essentially be downward pressure helping to keep the chip against the heatsink.
When I think back to the pic, the lug, attached via the lm3886 mounting hole also had a portion pushing against the edge of the main body of the chip. That would essentially be downward pressure helping to keep the chip against the heatsink.
I'm not sure you've mentioned it directly, but I deduced that pretty early on.
Just be careful that you don't shoot yourself in the foot while putting on your belt and suspenders.
Tom
Henry, if "potential of any heat related bending away" was a possibility, many millions of TO-220 (and similar) devices would have gone up in smoke by now. You seem to have a knack for extrapolating to 8-sigma cases that even NASA or the military don't worry about. Just relax and enjoy the amp!
It does seem like a small solidly made device. I wonder why Aavid-Thermalloy make so many variations of clips designed to apply clamping force on the main body of semi-conductor packages. Are they also into snake oil salesmanship?
I've observed that my Adcom and Mccormack get barley warm to the touch, while my Aragon 8008BB could probably qualify as a small room heater.
I'm going to use the Mod86 see where it falls in relation those amps. If it is like the Adcom or Mccormack I won't make any clips.
I've observed that my Adcom and Mccormack get barley warm to the touch, while my Aragon 8008BB could probably qualify as a small room heater.
I'm going to use the Mod86 see where it falls in relation those amps. If it is like the Adcom or Mccormack I won't make any clips.