It's a possibility but so far the best soundind diodes for lm3886 are the MUR series, according to who wrote about it on this forum.
Apart that there are no much power schottky around.
Thats good. I bought mine from partsconnexion so i guess they are genuine 860's.
I have a 200va 22v dual secondary torroidal trafo and my speakers are the Triangle Heliade ES which have a minimum impendance of 4 ohms.
http://www.vmax-services.com/brand/file/TriangleHeliadeInfopdf.pdf
Is that trafo ok or should i buy another with lower voltage (18v)? I know that lm3886 doesnt like 4 ohm loads with high(ish) voltages
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18-0-18 or 20-0-20 will be easier on the LM3886. Apart from that, distortion is lower and audible sonics (except maybe bass slam) are better with 8 ohm drivers.
C4 and C7 are typically needed for HF stability as well as Class-AB conduction-crossover sonics. That's why the quality matters a lot.
I am happy that the MyRef is getting close to satisfactory. The power supply is so vitally important.
I think we should first agree on what it means 'soft-recovery'..
I've often read that soft-recovery diodes have a Trr <= 35.
If you look at the datasheet mur820 have trr=35 while mur860 trr is 60. 😉
I've often read that soft-recovery diodes have a Trr <= 35.
If you look at the datasheet mur820 have trr=35 while mur860 trr is 60. 😉
Hi Folks,
With much delight, I installed Siva’s (linuxguru) LF01 replacement for the LM318N on the MyRefs. I can say it is a clear “visual success”. That is describing the first and lasting perception of clarity of the mental/auditory image produced by this addition. I often close my eyes to eliminate the visual distractions to get a cleaner impression of what I’m hearing. With the LF01 that is much less necessary.
I use a piece of deep pile carpet to cover a 32” TV that sits between the speakers to eliminate unwanted reflections. It was immediately clear that instruments and voices were appearing both in front of and behind that plane. As my speakers are open back for the two mid drivers, I didn’t get as much of a widening of the stage as that of the depth. However, the overall coherence of the entire presentation adds to the sense of realism on everything I’ve heard so far.
A little more specific – the spectrum from the middle of the mids up to just below the bells, triangle and those super high violin register notes sound “cleaned up”, warm and more separated. With the often reported slight MyRef edginess removed, sounds like fingers moving on strings and sticks hitting a cymbal are more easily heard.
I have a favorite Big Band piece where there are full chord shots separated by a second or two. I heard studio echoes during the silences that I never heard before. Don’t know if Siva gets all the credit, but I’m giving it to him anyway 🙂 He heard exactly the same thing that was nagging at me and developed a very satisfying solution. I don’t know if either warmth or realism best describes what I hear – it’s probably both.
I’ll report more as I listen, but I feel the LF01 is solidly in that group of “major improvements” to the MyRef family.
For you race fans – it’s like sitting in the stands and deciding to clean your glasses – Oh, there they are! 😀
Thanks for your top notch work Siva !
With much delight, I installed Siva’s (linuxguru) LF01 replacement for the LM318N on the MyRefs. I can say it is a clear “visual success”. That is describing the first and lasting perception of clarity of the mental/auditory image produced by this addition. I often close my eyes to eliminate the visual distractions to get a cleaner impression of what I’m hearing. With the LF01 that is much less necessary.
I use a piece of deep pile carpet to cover a 32” TV that sits between the speakers to eliminate unwanted reflections. It was immediately clear that instruments and voices were appearing both in front of and behind that plane. As my speakers are open back for the two mid drivers, I didn’t get as much of a widening of the stage as that of the depth. However, the overall coherence of the entire presentation adds to the sense of realism on everything I’ve heard so far.
A little more specific – the spectrum from the middle of the mids up to just below the bells, triangle and those super high violin register notes sound “cleaned up”, warm and more separated. With the often reported slight MyRef edginess removed, sounds like fingers moving on strings and sticks hitting a cymbal are more easily heard.
I have a favorite Big Band piece where there are full chord shots separated by a second or two. I heard studio echoes during the silences that I never heard before. Don’t know if Siva gets all the credit, but I’m giving it to him anyway 🙂 He heard exactly the same thing that was nagging at me and developed a very satisfying solution. I don’t know if either warmth or realism best describes what I hear – it’s probably both.
I’ll report more as I listen, but I feel the LF01 is solidly in that group of “major improvements” to the MyRef family.
For you race fans – it’s like sitting in the stands and deciding to clean your glasses – Oh, there they are! 😀
Thanks for your top notch work Siva !
Heh, you know what I have been experiencing prior to MyRef. Hopefully I can get it there without going through exotic measures.
When Feed-forward compensation is used it's better to decouple that way, see:
Bypass or decouple your way to power supply noise reduction (Part 2)
http://www.designers-guide.org/Design/bypassing.pdf
This was the point missed by many when they were suggesting different bypass techniques....
🙂You're right then
Bob - thanks for your kind words of praise! My audible impressions of the LF01 are much the same w.r.t. to the cleaner upper-mids, more airiness in the highs, etc. My setup is not yet quite as refined as yours to be able to discern the depth of sound-stage and the improved micro-detail, but that is also consistent with Class-A sonics. Maybe I'll be able to hear it after upgrades to C3, C8, C13, etc.
There is more warmth, i.e. even-harmonics, predicted by the simulations (and generally expected from Class-A operation), for sure. I also got a sense of smoothness and lower hearing fatigue.
The technique is used more on the mains filter to reduce difference mode coupling. But it also makes sense here if the high frequency swing is going to be large, but thus value will generally effect frequency in the 100KHz and above.
Dario - thanks for the references, it clears up some issues in a simple way!
Your welcome Siva,
I actually had thought about including a comment about "less hearing fatigue" in my post. I built some sound absorbing side wall panels to dampen early reflection distortion, but the LF01 achieves about the same result electronically.
I actually had thought about including a comment about "less hearing fatigue" in my post. I built some sound absorbing side wall panels to dampen early reflection distortion, but the LF01 achieves about the same result electronically.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
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Hi, sorry to drop in a side-liner but you have a pm, siva.
would love to get my hands on your finalized boards soon. 🙂
I can say with certainty that my findings on siva's earlier LF01 boards coincides with Bob's impressions on them. Imaging was already to die for on my setup so my attention was mainly diverted to harmonics and tonality and yes, it does sounds uncannily like a finest class-a amp imaginable. It's a game changer for sure.
Which's the reason why I decided to put my tubelabs project on the back burner and chase after the ultimate myrefc build doggedly. (russian teflon 22uf caps, blackgate everywhere else, 10nf mundorf silver/gold, 1uf silver/oil what have you 🙂 )
would love to get my hands on your finalized boards soon. 🙂
I can say with certainty that my findings on siva's earlier LF01 boards coincides with Bob's impressions on them. Imaging was already to die for on my setup so my attention was mainly diverted to harmonics and tonality and yes, it does sounds uncannily like a finest class-a amp imaginable. It's a game changer for sure.
Which's the reason why I decided to put my tubelabs project on the back burner and chase after the ultimate myrefc build doggedly. (russian teflon 22uf caps, blackgate everywhere else, 10nf mundorf silver/gold, 1uf silver/oil what have you 🙂 )
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