The diyAudio Firstwatt F6

F6 making music..

Hi

I am building F6 and now I am temporarily tasting the sound. The strange chimney-like case is from my workplace. I happened to find these aluminum plates and thought this might make a heat sink. They are 1250 x 130 x 10 mm each.
I realized that they are good enough as heat sink. Top area temperature is 27.2 deg. C and the SIT case is less than 60 deg.C. I was thinking of a Noctua fan from underneath but this may not be needed.

I am planning to place the amplifier and supply boards into the case. The supply is 24V now. I am waiting for ZTX parts to try 32V supply rail per ZM's guide. Then I will have the bare aluminum plated to same color and make the amplifier look like a dark square stick..? This is my office and no WAF here.. 😀

I like the sound, the output is enough for me even for the Dyanudio bookshelf speaker that is insensitive. Not a club scale loudness, but enough for a orchestra piece in a normal listening level.

Please understand the bad behavior in wiring and connecting the speaker terminal, etc. I just wanted to check the assembly and listen to them in a short time...

This is my first time to upload pictures and I hope I am doing this right.🙂
 

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Thank you ZM, but you don't think this is fugly enough? 🙂

If I would build a tower like that I would mount the components inside for safety reason.🙂 if is possible
I think your wires way too long between the PC board and PS. 😱 If you plant to keep the tower you should mount the cap bank close to the PC boards and twist those wires together.
Just some idea.. Not sure if your plan to keep the tower or just a test setup..

😀😀😀
 
If I would build a tower like that I would mount the components inside for safety reason.🙂 if is possible
I think your wires way too long between the PC board and PS. 😱 If you plant to keep the tower you should mount the cap bank close to the PC boards and twist those wires together.
Just some idea.. Not sure if your plan to keep the tower or just a test setup..

😀😀😀

Hi gaborbela, yes I am going to use this tower as you said. The set up in the picture is not the final one.
In fact I prepared four small heat sinks (300x60x35mm) with thin fins to be placed inside the tower and quiet fan with speed controller to mount underneath.
The power supply PCB can be split into half and can be in the tower. But transformer is a question.
Thank you for the tips on wire length. I learned by experience the importance of power line with this current.🙂
But why do you twist the wire? That is DC between cap bank and the amp PCB... I know with tube amp AC wires are normally twisted... ?
 
Yet another DIY Audio F6 is born

Hi All,

Finally finished my build and fired it up today. Just started listening to it, no burn time yet, first impressions compared to Aleph J, it sounds warmer, solid base. One thing I learned from this build is that I hate metal work. Anetek Trafo, heat sink USA 12: heat sinks, 60,000 uF per rail, the rest is from scrap parts that I had laying around the garage. Many thanks to Nelson for his kind gift and to all of the excellent enablers on this thread.

PJN
 

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Hi gaborbela, yes I am going to use this tower as you said. The set up in the picture is not the final one.
In fact I prepared four small heat sinks (300x60x35mm) with thin fins to be placed inside the tower and quiet fan with speed controller to mount underneath.
The power supply PCB can be split into half and can be in the tower. But transformer is a question.
Thank you for the tips on wire length. I learned by experience the importance of power line with this current.🙂
But why do you twist the wire? That is DC between cap bank and the amp PCB... I know with tube amp AC wires are normally twisted... ?

1)Long wires can pick up noise like an antenna.
2)Not truly DC, you still have an ac ripple component on the dc output.

You could have the long wires then throw another 2 x 15000uF right near the power input of the amp pcb. The wires and capacirors then act like another crc
 
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1)Long wires can pick up noise like an antenna.
2)Not truly DC, you still have an ac ripple component on the dc output.

You could have the long wires then throw another 2 x 15000uF right near the power input of the amp pcb. The wires and capacirors then act like another crc

Now that makes sense and I see the point, thank you 2 picoDumbs.
And I thank Nelson Pass and everyone here! 🙂
 
Hi All,

Finally finished my build and fired it up today. Just started listening to it, no burn time yet, first impressions compared to Aleph J, it sounds warmer, solid base. One thing I learned from this build is that I hate metal work. Anetek Trafo, heat sink USA 12: heat sinks, 60,000 uF per rail, the rest is from scrap parts that I had laying around the garage. Many thanks to Nelson for his kind gift and to all of the excellent enablers on this thread.

PJN

Nice
 
I had the time to let things burn in for a while and have a good listen. I am very impressed with this amp, it sounds surperb. Very big soundstage, great base, great imaging, one of the best that I've heard. I think everyone should build one.