I did also do all these mods although I am still using the 6N1P-EV the amp absolutely sounds lovely with the gold Lions on my Micro Utopia Bes.
I follow the advise for the RCAs, I hope this will give some more body for funk type music. The Sovtek EL84M I used before had more body, but the sound was not very detailed. Those tubes needed three weeks break-in, so don't give up too soon.
I don't mind the unipolar power switch. Most of my equipment doesn't even have power switches. The added fuse is a must though...
I forgot to share my experience with installing the Genalex Gold Lion EL84s. These really take the Suppo Golden Voice to another level of performance. They do take some time to break-in, but the reward is a rich midrange and holographic presentation with tight bass and crystal clear highs. The RCA clear top 6FQ7s also made an improvement as I noted earlier, but the Gold Lions are the stuff.
Hanzwilliem, what fuse value did you end up using? I'm using a 3A/250V slow-blow fuse right now.
Hanzwilliem, what fuse value did you end up using? I'm using a 3A/250V slow-blow fuse right now.
I think I put in a 1A/250V slow. It didn't break until now (I would guess 30 power cycles). Of course primary is @230V here.
I need to order a volume pot for another project and thought I would get one for this little guy as well.
Wise choice?
Alps Potentiometer, Blue Velvet 100K Stereo, RK27112
Wise choice?
Alps Potentiometer, Blue Velvet 100K Stereo, RK27112
That surprises me to hear; I had always heard/understood Angela Electronics to be a very reputable dealer and I can't imagine them selling fake stuff.
What makes you say fake?
Well, I was way too curious and have discovered that I obviously bought 2 fake alps.
The right picture shows the fake potentiometer..
Bild: alps-fakei2wg.jpg - abload.de
The right picture shows the fake potentiometer..
Bild: alps-fakei2wg.jpg - abload.de
Well I just spent a very enjoyable evening with my little Suppo driving my Omega 3's and I must say, I had a great time. Now it might be because I'm hopped up on cold medicine while I try to muddle through a brutal head cold, but I'm going to say its just because this is a pretty good combo (stock volume pot and all!).
I started out with everything bone stock but after a few songs was a little disappointed so I swapped in a pair of old RCA blackplate 6CG7's to see how they sounded. In a word, great! I got a lot of 12 of these for 12 bucks on ebay and it was money well spent. I'm not a big believer in the idea of spending more on tubes than you have on your amp, but for a couple of bucks this was a great upgrade. I landed some of the clear top RCA's that everyone's talking about for about 6 bucks and they should be here soon. We'll see if they best their cheaper counterparts. After that, no changes, I just listened.
My wife and 2 year old are gone for the evening so I could actually set everything up and have no one bug me or break anything for a solid 12 hrs; those kinds of chances don't come often! Pretty much everything I throw at this little guy sounded great but it really excelled on vocals, strings, and small acoustic numbers (think some kind of smokey club). Like I've mentioned before, the bass falls off fast below about 55 Hz and now the question will be, is it my amp or my speakers that are running out of steam first on the low end. Once I get my Simple SE into its chassis (I've been sanding that thing for hours!) I should be able to test them side by side. The Simple SE has the big Edcor transformers that are supposed to be good "all the way to the bottom" so we'll see how things stack up.
I have decided that the build quality on the Suppo is starting to bug me a little. Sitting there staring at it for 3 hrs straight told me that most of the tubes are a little crooked and the bands in the chassis are starting to drive me crazy. I'm thinking that when I free up some more time I'll probably take out all the guts and put it in a real chassis. We'll see, I might just hold out and build Tubelab's new Simple P-P instead.
A great night of tunes here; now if I can just shake this stupid cold!
Oh, one more stupid question; how can I test which binding posts are 4 ohm taps and which are 8 ohm taps? I tried my multimeter (and who's use I am a total idiot) but got the same reading of 3.2 no matter which set I tested. What am I doing wrong?
I started out with everything bone stock but after a few songs was a little disappointed so I swapped in a pair of old RCA blackplate 6CG7's to see how they sounded. In a word, great! I got a lot of 12 of these for 12 bucks on ebay and it was money well spent. I'm not a big believer in the idea of spending more on tubes than you have on your amp, but for a couple of bucks this was a great upgrade. I landed some of the clear top RCA's that everyone's talking about for about 6 bucks and they should be here soon. We'll see if they best their cheaper counterparts. After that, no changes, I just listened.
My wife and 2 year old are gone for the evening so I could actually set everything up and have no one bug me or break anything for a solid 12 hrs; those kinds of chances don't come often! Pretty much everything I throw at this little guy sounded great but it really excelled on vocals, strings, and small acoustic numbers (think some kind of smokey club). Like I've mentioned before, the bass falls off fast below about 55 Hz and now the question will be, is it my amp or my speakers that are running out of steam first on the low end. Once I get my Simple SE into its chassis (I've been sanding that thing for hours!) I should be able to test them side by side. The Simple SE has the big Edcor transformers that are supposed to be good "all the way to the bottom" so we'll see how things stack up.
I have decided that the build quality on the Suppo is starting to bug me a little. Sitting there staring at it for 3 hrs straight told me that most of the tubes are a little crooked and the bands in the chassis are starting to drive me crazy. I'm thinking that when I free up some more time I'll probably take out all the guts and put it in a real chassis. We'll see, I might just hold out and build Tubelab's new Simple P-P instead.
A great night of tunes here; now if I can just shake this stupid cold!
Oh, one more stupid question; how can I test which binding posts are 4 ohm taps and which are 8 ohm taps? I tried my multimeter (and who's use I am a total idiot) but got the same reading of 3.2 no matter which set I tested. What am I doing wrong?
bigjppop,
I have a pair of DIY monitors using the 4.5 inch Fostex FX-120 drivers. I really like them, but similar to your Omegas the bass disappears below 55Hz. I have heard the Omega Super 3's also and like their sound; however, the bass response is a problem. The little Fostex fullrange drivers are very nice, but they just can't handle complex music like large orchestral music or even rock at decent volumes. You'll either have to get some fast subwoofers to extend the bass and relieve the Fostex drivers of trying to handle the full frequency spectrum, or go to other speakers.
Fortunately, I have a dedicated room for my system and don't need my wife's approval on the size and appearance of my speakers. I went out and bought a used pair of Klipsch Forte II speakers for $425 and these big speakers sound great and image as good as, or better than, my Fostex monitors. I also borrowed a pair of my friend's B&W DM603 floorstanders, and those sounded great with the Suppo amp too. If you have to stay with the monitors, I would think that some quick subwoofers would help a great deal to give you a richer, fuller sound. They'll also allow the 4.5 Fostex FE127 drivers in the Omegas to concentrate on the mids and highs which they are very good at. The problem then becomes having to route speaker output level connections from the amp to the subwoofer(s) and then to the Omegas. This kind of defeats the fun of crossover-less single driver speakers.
With your Simple SE using the Edcor OTs, you should hear an improvement in overall bass response, but nothing in the 35-50Hz range. Little drivers just don't have the displacement that larger drivers do to fill a room.
If you look on the Suppo Web site for the Golden Voice amp, they included a photo showing the inner taps are the 4 ohm taps and the outer taps are the 8 ohm taps. Of course, the innermost taps are the return taps.
I have a pair of DIY monitors using the 4.5 inch Fostex FX-120 drivers. I really like them, but similar to your Omegas the bass disappears below 55Hz. I have heard the Omega Super 3's also and like their sound; however, the bass response is a problem. The little Fostex fullrange drivers are very nice, but they just can't handle complex music like large orchestral music or even rock at decent volumes. You'll either have to get some fast subwoofers to extend the bass and relieve the Fostex drivers of trying to handle the full frequency spectrum, or go to other speakers.
Fortunately, I have a dedicated room for my system and don't need my wife's approval on the size and appearance of my speakers. I went out and bought a used pair of Klipsch Forte II speakers for $425 and these big speakers sound great and image as good as, or better than, my Fostex monitors. I also borrowed a pair of my friend's B&W DM603 floorstanders, and those sounded great with the Suppo amp too. If you have to stay with the monitors, I would think that some quick subwoofers would help a great deal to give you a richer, fuller sound. They'll also allow the 4.5 Fostex FE127 drivers in the Omegas to concentrate on the mids and highs which they are very good at. The problem then becomes having to route speaker output level connections from the amp to the subwoofer(s) and then to the Omegas. This kind of defeats the fun of crossover-less single driver speakers.
With your Simple SE using the Edcor OTs, you should hear an improvement in overall bass response, but nothing in the 35-50Hz range. Little drivers just don't have the displacement that larger drivers do to fill a room.
If you look on the Suppo Web site for the Golden Voice amp, they included a photo showing the inner taps are the 4 ohm taps and the outer taps are the 8 ohm taps. Of course, the innermost taps are the return taps.
The space between the volume pot and the PCB is pretty tight. You should make sure there's enough space for the Alps Blue pot body before you buy one. Even if you can fit it in, you might have to remove and re-solder that 22uF/400V electrolytic cap that sits right behind the volume pot on the PCB. The Panasonic EVJ pot and the eBay SMD stepped attenuator fit in the spot without any problems. You just have to widen the pot shaft opening on the front chassis plate. I used a reaming tool to keep the hole centered. If you have a drill press, that's even better.
I just put in one of these:
SMT Resistor Step Attenuator 50K Volume Control - eBay, Integrated Amplifiers, Amplifiers Tube Amps, Vintage Electronics, Electronics. (Eindtijd 12-feb-10 20:31:05 CET)
The solder pads are quite tiny, not very handy in soldering stiff silver/teflon wire. Can't say anything yet about durability. They are tiny though. And don't need bigger hole in the housing.
SMT Resistor Step Attenuator 50K Volume Control - eBay, Integrated Amplifiers, Amplifiers Tube Amps, Vintage Electronics, Electronics. (Eindtijd 12-feb-10 20:31:05 CET)
The solder pads are quite tiny, not very handy in soldering stiff silver/teflon wire. Can't say anything yet about durability. They are tiny though. And don't need bigger hole in the housing.
dmkbox,
That's rather odd and unfortunate that no one at Suppo Audio has responded to your questions.
A friend of mine recently placed an order for a Golden Voice GV-2, and he's now waiting for it to arrive into the U.S. He did have an issue with payment via PayPal, but I am not sure that it was any fault of Suppo Audio. He should receive it this week, so when he gets it and it's in fine operating condition, I'll ask him to post here and share his buying experience. It seems like everyone here has a different buying experience with Suppo Audio, and that doesn't bode well for them if they want to grow their business.
I've been trying to get in touch with somebody there for over a month now and haven't heard any response. I'm interested in their new EL34 based amp but I haven't heard a peep back from them.
Hopefully they haven't gone under already.
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