The Aleph-X is so 400,000 views a go...
The F4 is the new AX.... 😉
(just kidding... was wondering though if any update will require a new thread?)
The F4 is the new AX.... 😉
(just kidding... was wondering though if any update will require a new thread?)
Finished reading the whole thread, eyes burning, head glowing.
Time to go through my notes and think a bit about it.
Just to give this thread again more juice and make people (err I mean myself) begging and creeping:
from
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1171251#post1171251
A heartily thank you to Grey Rollins and Nelson Pass for their generous support of the DIY people!
Cheers, Hannes
PS: darn, still 2 months to go
Time to go through my notes and think a bit about it.
Just to give this thread again more juice and make people (err I mean myself) begging and creeping:
Nelson Pass said:
Nelson Pass said:
from
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1171251#post1171251
Nelson Pass said:
A heartily thank you to Grey Rollins and Nelson Pass for their generous support of the DIY people!
Cheers, Hannes
PS: darn, still 2 months to go
There are times when I get testy--usually when I'm getting by on diminished sleep--but I try to stay involved. In part because of the pay forward concept. There's not a lot I can do to pay back those who helped me, so the next best thing is to attempt to help others. Sometimes I succeed. Sometimes I fail. Sometimes it's difficult to tell which way the scales tipped.
For what it's worth I've got two amp circuits in the works at the moment. One is fairly conventional. One involves the LU1014D and is a bit more unusual. The power JFET circuit has not received the attention it deserves, but I hope to get some PCB artwork done soon, which will allow me to move the more conventional circuit off the bench, which will allow me to move the JFET gizmo back onto the bench, which will allow me to prod at that concept a little more.
I see no reason for me to do an updated Aleph-X at this time. Once Nelson does his new one, mine would quickly get relegated to the rubbish heap.
So I'll do something different. It's good exercise for my brain cells. Don't want them getting flabby.
Hup! Two! Three! Four!...Come on brains cells, work that flab! Get your butt down in the Lab! Tell those JFETs to earn their keep! Make their mothers so proud they weep! Hup! Two! Three! Four!
Grey
For what it's worth I've got two amp circuits in the works at the moment. One is fairly conventional. One involves the LU1014D and is a bit more unusual. The power JFET circuit has not received the attention it deserves, but I hope to get some PCB artwork done soon, which will allow me to move the more conventional circuit off the bench, which will allow me to move the JFET gizmo back onto the bench, which will allow me to prod at that concept a little more.
I see no reason for me to do an updated Aleph-X at this time. Once Nelson does his new one, mine would quickly get relegated to the rubbish heap.
So I'll do something different. It's good exercise for my brain cells. Don't want them getting flabby.
Hup! Two! Three! Four!...Come on brains cells, work that flab! Get your butt down in the Lab! Tell those JFETs to earn their keep! Make their mothers so proud they weep! Hup! Two! Three! Four!
Grey
Hey Grey,
How 'bout a LU1014D Aleph X? Maybe used in a cascode arrangement, but, then again, maybe not........ that jfet sounds so good, I'm looking for ways to use it in every amp I've fabricated.
🙂
How 'bout a LU1014D Aleph X? Maybe used in a cascode arrangement, but, then again, maybe not........ that jfet sounds so good, I'm looking for ways to use it in every amp I've fabricated.
🙂
Well Grey, I don't doubt your ability to do the job. Perhaps in
honor of your starting this highly successful thread, I should
hold off and you should do it. If it would help, I would be happy
to steal, err...review your work in advance so that you
would have no fear of obsolescence.
😎
honor of your starting this highly successful thread, I should
hold off and you should do it. If it would help, I would be happy
to steal, err...review your work in advance so that you
would have no fear of obsolescence.
😎
I don't understand your worries, Grey.
I cannot imagine that your original Aleph-X design will be buried! On the contrary!
Maybe I'm missing something, but nobody (besides Nelson of course) knows what he is planning to release.
Even if it's something bigger I consider the change standing on the shoulders of a giant - and right here on DIYAudio this giant is exactly your Aleph-X.
It's not about burying the Aleph-X, no, it's all about the ambition to stand up to the challenge to give his own best to refine details, not the whole picture.
Without the excellent work and insights you and Nelson gave us this would be never possible!
Some time ago I read a sentence in the preface of a lecture book that IMHO fits now nicely:
So in this sense I will happily try to make my own AlephX variant.*
And that Nelson Pass is willing to give away an improvement for your AlephX I consider as the highest contribution that one not being Grey Rollins could make.
Hannes
PS: I would be very much interested in your power JFET version! Is it in this thread?? How could I have missed it completely??
*Since my electronics knowledge is err limited, and I want to make a worthy variant, I collect bits and pieces Nelson dropped along his way in the forum...so to stand up against this challenge.
I cannot imagine that your original Aleph-X design will be buried! On the contrary!
Maybe I'm missing something, but nobody (besides Nelson of course) knows what he is planning to release.
Even if it's something bigger I consider the change standing on the shoulders of a giant - and right here on DIYAudio this giant is exactly your Aleph-X.
It's not about burying the Aleph-X, no, it's all about the ambition to stand up to the challenge to give his own best to refine details, not the whole picture.
Without the excellent work and insights you and Nelson gave us this would be never possible!
Some time ago I read a sentence in the preface of a lecture book that IMHO fits now nicely:
So in this sense I will happily try to make my own AlephX variant.*
And that Nelson Pass is willing to give away an improvement for your AlephX I consider as the highest contribution that one not being Grey Rollins could make.
Hannes
PS: I would be very much interested in your power JFET version! Is it in this thread?? How could I have missed it completely??
*Since my electronics knowledge is err limited, and I want to make a worthy variant, I collect bits and pieces Nelson dropped along his way in the forum...so to stand up against this challenge.
no need to hurry with the updates, I am still building the chasis. It will be a good two months or so before they're done.....
JJ
JJ
Nelson Pass said:
...Said the spider to the fly...
Oh, fudge!
As Nelson well knows, glaciers move faster than I do, given my insistance on real-world prototypes and my obligations to my young-uns. This is a clever move on his part to buy time, seeing as how the thread bounced to .5M hits somewhat more rapidly than anyone might have expected.
Hmmm...
(accompanied by me scratching my noggin)
I suppose I should point out that neither of the circuits I mentioned above are Aleph-Xs. In fact, they're not even balanced (though one can be converted easily enough). Nelson has seen part of one and can attest that it isn't breaking any new ground. Any thread I might start here using this circuit would likely include the keyword...uh, never mind...I'm going to keep that under my hat for the moment. Yes, I have ulterior motives.
The power JFET circuit could, I suppose, be transmogrified into an Aleph-Xish kind of thing. I'll have to think about it. The fly in the ointment is that there's a particular transformer (ahem) that I intended to use with the circuit, but the voltage/current ratio of this particular heroic hunk o' iron is ill-suited to a class A balanced amp, unless it be monoblock. However, I have only the one. With that in mind, I was going for stereo unbalanced. I'm going to have to rummage around in my collection of transformers to see what I can find.
Oh, bother, and lotsa heatsinks...
Yes, I have a few ideas about things I could/would change regarding the V1.0 circuit posted at the beginning of this thread. How many of them might be applicable to anything I've got underway at the moment (aside from the two circuits mentioned above, I've got several other circuits on back burners) remains to be seen.
I'll bend a thought or two in that direction and see what I can do.
Hup! Two! Three! Four! C'mon brain cells, fall out of bed! If you're not thinkin', you're better off dead!...
Grey
Well, wire and and silicon can wait -- young-uns can't. Especially the young-young-uns -- I think I read post somewhere that you have a three year old? It goes by soooo fast...
If I spent as much time working on amps as I do watching Thomas the tank engine, I would have more amps than Steenoe.
If the chasis are done long before any new inspiring circuit, I have a pile of J176's with whick I will happily tackle cascoding the Aleph X.
JJ
I have one 23 year-old and a 21 year-old. They're up and gone.
It's the four year-old daughter and six month-old twin sons that take up my time.
Grey
It's the four year-old daughter and six month-old twin sons that take up my time.
Grey
OK, unless you change your mind soon, I will plan on going
ahead. Likely as not it will be similar to what your thinking of
(whatever that might be).
ahead. Likely as not it will be similar to what your thinking of
(whatever that might be).
(...delivered in a bright, annoyingly chirpy tone of voice...)
Hi, this is Grey! I can't come to the phone right now, but if you'll leave a message I'll get back to you.
This is one of those absence of proof is not proof of absence things. Even though I didn't get back to this thread last night, that doesn't mean that it wasn't in my thoughts. I snagged a couple of semi-clean sheets of scrap paper and scratched out a half-dozen ideas during my supper break...including a potential solution to a problem that has been vexing me for some time now. (If this works, I'm likely to be unbearably smug for at least an hour or two.)
Not being the sort of fellow who thinks lightning will strike twice (more likely the classic Gary Larsen cartoon depicting God with his finger poised over the SMITE button), I find it highly unlikely that anything I come up with will parallel Nelson's thinking. As I noted at the beginning of the thread, it was just a conceptual schematic that I sent Nelson, not yet even a bench prototype, that caused this mess. Trust me, I was very surprised indeed to hear that it was within even a couple of light-years of a real circuit.
That's not likely to happen again.
Nonetheless, it might make an interesting project. Whenever possible, I like to begin a new circuit armed with as many alternate approaches as I can generate. I've got a few now, so it's time to move on to Phase Two, in which I argue with myself, trying to pick holes in the ideas. (This is where I tossed the resistors-to-the-CCS idea that Ian picked up on later...more power to him.) I'll try to get to the Bench Phase as soon as possible. We'll see what happens.
Grey
Hi, this is Grey! I can't come to the phone right now, but if you'll leave a message I'll get back to you.
This is one of those absence of proof is not proof of absence things. Even though I didn't get back to this thread last night, that doesn't mean that it wasn't in my thoughts. I snagged a couple of semi-clean sheets of scrap paper and scratched out a half-dozen ideas during my supper break...including a potential solution to a problem that has been vexing me for some time now. (If this works, I'm likely to be unbearably smug for at least an hour or two.)
Not being the sort of fellow who thinks lightning will strike twice (more likely the classic Gary Larsen cartoon depicting God with his finger poised over the SMITE button), I find it highly unlikely that anything I come up with will parallel Nelson's thinking. As I noted at the beginning of the thread, it was just a conceptual schematic that I sent Nelson, not yet even a bench prototype, that caused this mess. Trust me, I was very surprised indeed to hear that it was within even a couple of light-years of a real circuit.
That's not likely to happen again.
Nonetheless, it might make an interesting project. Whenever possible, I like to begin a new circuit armed with as many alternate approaches as I can generate. I've got a few now, so it's time to move on to Phase Two, in which I argue with myself, trying to pick holes in the ideas. (This is where I tossed the resistors-to-the-CCS idea that Ian picked up on later...more power to him.) I'll try to get to the Bench Phase as soon as possible. We'll see what happens.
Grey
If the Sanken devices were more widely available, I would consider them.
I would also consider repairing the one-dead-channel Kinergetics amp sitting down in the Dungeon.
Unfortunately, they, like so many other parts, are unobtanium, so they're pretty much non-starters.
As I've said before, I will attempt to use devices that most people can get their hands on; hopefully parts that will remain available for at least five years or so. Sorry, I can't promise world-wide availability. I'm not sure that anything is available to everyone, but some parts are more widely available than others.
As far as the circuit goes, I've had a few more ideas (this is good), but my daughter has developed a fever (this is bad), so I had very little time to devote to electronics this weekend (this is normal). I'm going to try to scribble a few notes during supper tonight so I don't forget an idea that came to me this afternoon. I've got two or three things I want to try ASAP, just in a "throw it against the wall and see if it sticks" kind of way. If it does...great!...if it doesn't, then I can rule out an entire class of ideas that I'm sitting on. On one hand, that would be unfortunate, but on the other hand it would allow me to concentrate on things that stand a better chance of working.
This is pretty much a question of how fast I can accelerate from a stopped position to 60MPH, as I haven't really devoted much thought to the Aleph-X for a while. A few ideas have crossed my mind from time to time, but I haven't done anything with them and they won't be applicable for the direction I'd like to take the circuit at this time. However, I'm holding them in reserve in case all my current batch of ideas bomb.
Grey
I would also consider repairing the one-dead-channel Kinergetics amp sitting down in the Dungeon.
Unfortunately, they, like so many other parts, are unobtanium, so they're pretty much non-starters.
As I've said before, I will attempt to use devices that most people can get their hands on; hopefully parts that will remain available for at least five years or so. Sorry, I can't promise world-wide availability. I'm not sure that anything is available to everyone, but some parts are more widely available than others.
As far as the circuit goes, I've had a few more ideas (this is good), but my daughter has developed a fever (this is bad), so I had very little time to devote to electronics this weekend (this is normal). I'm going to try to scribble a few notes during supper tonight so I don't forget an idea that came to me this afternoon. I've got two or three things I want to try ASAP, just in a "throw it against the wall and see if it sticks" kind of way. If it does...great!...if it doesn't, then I can rule out an entire class of ideas that I'm sitting on. On one hand, that would be unfortunate, but on the other hand it would allow me to concentrate on things that stand a better chance of working.
This is pretty much a question of how fast I can accelerate from a stopped position to 60MPH, as I haven't really devoted much thought to the Aleph-X for a while. A few ideas have crossed my mind from time to time, but I haven't done anything with them and they won't be applicable for the direction I'd like to take the circuit at this time. However, I'm holding them in reserve in case all my current batch of ideas bomb.
Grey
Happy Birthday, Aleph-X...
Strange to think that this project is five years old. It doesn't feel like it, at least not to me.
Nelson suggested recently that I update the project. I scratched out a half-dozen possibilities on scraps of paper and began working through some of the math to see how feasible they might be. Some (mirabile dictu) looked like they might work, so I went down into the Dungeon and was beginning to make some progress at the bench when...
Nelson mentioned in another thread that the new .5 version of the XA has gone back to something more akin to the original Aleph 0 output stage.
Ooops! There went all my fiddling, because I was still using the Aleph current source. Although I'm sure a few people might be interested in a Ver. 2.0 with the Aleph current source, most will want to do "what Nelson's doing," so there's not much point in pursuing a circuit few will build.
This leaves begging the philosophical question: Just exactly what is an Aleph, anyway? Is it the Aleph current source? Is it the original 0 output stage? Is it an amplifier rendered in two stages?
The short answer is that an Aleph is whatever Nelson says it is. It's a series of preamps and amplifiers put out by Pass Labs that are somewhat arbitrarily grouped by operational topology. Yet even the topology is only an approximation, because the preamps don't really share the same topology as the amps, although they do tend towards a minimal number of gain stages.
So where does that leave me regarding a Ver. 2.0 Aleph-X? Well, I had foolishly thought that it might be fun to start the successor's thread today. It was going to be a bit of a push time-wise, but I thought I might be able to pull it off. Unfortunately, if the Aleph 0 output stage is the order of the day, I'll have to start over.
The glacier has lifted its skirts and backed up the valley. It will begin its journey again.
I'll get there. Eventually.
Grey
Strange to think that this project is five years old. It doesn't feel like it, at least not to me.
Nelson suggested recently that I update the project. I scratched out a half-dozen possibilities on scraps of paper and began working through some of the math to see how feasible they might be. Some (mirabile dictu) looked like they might work, so I went down into the Dungeon and was beginning to make some progress at the bench when...
Nelson mentioned in another thread that the new .5 version of the XA has gone back to something more akin to the original Aleph 0 output stage.
Ooops! There went all my fiddling, because I was still using the Aleph current source. Although I'm sure a few people might be interested in a Ver. 2.0 with the Aleph current source, most will want to do "what Nelson's doing," so there's not much point in pursuing a circuit few will build.
This leaves begging the philosophical question: Just exactly what is an Aleph, anyway? Is it the Aleph current source? Is it the original 0 output stage? Is it an amplifier rendered in two stages?
The short answer is that an Aleph is whatever Nelson says it is. It's a series of preamps and amplifiers put out by Pass Labs that are somewhat arbitrarily grouped by operational topology. Yet even the topology is only an approximation, because the preamps don't really share the same topology as the amps, although they do tend towards a minimal number of gain stages.
So where does that leave me regarding a Ver. 2.0 Aleph-X? Well, I had foolishly thought that it might be fun to start the successor's thread today. It was going to be a bit of a push time-wise, but I thought I might be able to pull it off. Unfortunately, if the Aleph 0 output stage is the order of the day, I'll have to start over.
The glacier has lifted its skirts and backed up the valley. It will begin its journey again.
I'll get there. Eventually.
Grey