The diyAudio First Watt M2x

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Joined 2014
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I have my M2x completed with the Ishikawa input buffer. I hooked it up with a preamp from Doug Self (Elektor 2006) just to see if it was quiet and would make music. It was so compelling that I listened through a complete Daniel Hope album. It's a wonderful amp! Thanks to all who made this happen: Mr. Pass; Mark Johnson, and 6L6!

Now I just need to get my BA-3 preamp working. Right now it has a substantial hum, so back to the workshop. But the Self preamp is very nice.
 
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First test run today. After letting the amp run for a couple of hours on the workbench and set the offset I placed the amp in the living room. First thing I noticed was the hum..hmmm, not good. Sq is great but the hum was to loud. So back to the workbench again for more testing. I came to the conclusion the noisy 500va toriod is the biggest problem. It’s a relatively cheap one from Reichelt gmbh brand RKT type 500.18. I replaced the big toroid for two smaller 120va Amplimo toroids, one for the positive- and one for the negative voltage rail and the hum is now so marginal that it’s almost not hear able. My speakers are sensitive IMF TLS50’s

Not sure what to do now, keep it this way of go for a new better quality 300va toroid. Any advise?
 
That's awfully hot for a transformer, I wouldn't run one there. I'm new, so take it for what it's worth.



EDIT: Did some searches here and looks like maybe 60 max, so I guess you might not be all that bad. I know mine are all much cooler than that though.


JT
That’s why I was thinking about a higher rated toroid. These two 120va’s where laying around in the Radioshack.
 
With that transformer and the standard output devices in the CFP, you will probably see about 25.5V. Since this is a ripple reducer, and not a regulator, the output voltage will drop under load. There isn't much adjustment available with that trimmer resistor. This is a little over the recommended voltage for some of the IPS boards. Those are the limiting factor. The bias circuit in the output stage will maintain about 1.3 A quiescent current regardless of the rail voltage. It's nifty that way.
I definitely recommend adding some bulk capacitance on the outputs of your SLBs. From 10,000 uF to 24,000 uF will make a noticeable improvement in the amp's control over your speakers.