Wow, that so beautiful work! Incredible attention to detail and very neat.
Good luck with playing music soon!
Good luck with playing music soon!
X, thank you very much for your words!
A good design, like this preamp, deserves no less.
Thanks to all who have helped me in the construction!😉
Greeting
A good design, like this preamp, deserves no less.
Thanks to all who have helped me in the construction!😉
Greeting
Congrats Karucho! Awesome work👍
Do you have a part number for those elongated heatsinks on the Hakuin boards? They will work very well. I’m using the smaller ones and they get a little too hot for my liking.
Hopefully you can enjoy some music soon.
Do you have a part number for those elongated heatsinks on the Hakuin boards? They will work very well. I’m using the smaller ones and they get a little too hot for my liking.
Hopefully you can enjoy some music soon.
Thank you Vunce!
Your construction has been my patron and your advice my allies👍
I bought the cooler on AliExpress, as well as all the hardware store...there is an incredible assortment! This is the link for the radiator (there are several sizes) https://m.es.aliexpress.com/i/4000051938902.html
Greeting
Your construction has been my patron and your advice my allies👍
I bought the cooler on AliExpress, as well as all the hardware store...there is an incredible assortment! This is the link for the radiator (there are several sizes) https://m.es.aliexpress.com/i/4000051938902.html
Greeting
Don’t forget to connect the chassis metal (floor plate) to the earth ground wire. Sand away the black anodization and attach a crimp loop connector with screw to floor panel and connect at the screw on the
main board as you have now.
main board as you have now.
Yes X, thanks for the note. The only point to the chassis that I have connected is the spacer of the screw in the photo. I have sanded the black paint off the base and tightened the hex spacer so that it is "nailed" directly into the aluminum base of the case. I have also checked it with the continuity tester. I think this is what you were referring to.
Greetings
Greetings
That is the only point I have earth ground chassis connection also. My Yarra main board connects to chassis ground via a single wire connected to the ground tab of the IEC metal housing. I prefered this rather than using a metal standoff connecting the MB to chassis.
Ok - good you have connection. I think for safety, electrical code in some regions require a dedicated wire from IEC ground tab to a lug or screw on chassis ground as screw or stand-off alone is not as reliable if it ever became loose.
Yes X, I think what you explain is correct according to regulations. But since the aluminum creaked, when the hex standoff dug in, I don't think we need to worry about that connection failing. It is true that if I had to do it again, I would surely include it in the initial construction approach (according to regulations) 
I can see that perhaps my questions were a bit too simple. I went through the entire thread, and I have more or less found the answers to my original questions. I'm still not quite sure if I'm able to take into account the adaptation of some of the components for each individual setup. I'll have to try and figure those out as I go. I might end up building several DB's, but I was intrigued by the description of the Hakuin, particularly regarding the soundstage and imaging. The Melbourne was recommended for 0dB amps but I'm thinking ~15db of gain should suffice.
I still have a few questions:
- Somewhere in the thread there was a mention that there is a 12V outlet to power auxiliary stuff, did I understand correctly?
- Is there a possibility to provide 5V DC as well (USB-C)?
- The availability of those voltages would be huge as it would open up an avenue to integrate the Yarra with a DAC and a Bluetooth receiver on the input side, and a MiniDSP unit on the output side. It would be a very capable unit indeed. Simply put, I would love to get rid of all the individual devices and especially all the interconnecting cabling and power supplies. Do you see any problem preventing a concept like this from working?
The new Mk I PSU board has a AC/DC that makes 12v for auxiliary stuff.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/859965...-bridge-and-ldo?ref=shop_home_active_12&sca=1
https://www.etsy.com/listing/859965...-bridge-and-ldo?ref=shop_home_active_12&sca=1
Thanks @xrk971! If I understand correctly the Yarra preamp still comes with the PSU board? Would it perhaps make more sense to build an Aksa Lender then with the Mk1 PSU, so that I don't end up with an extra PSU board? Not the end of the world really, but it would seem like an unnecessary waste of a perfectly good board.
The original Yarra still comes with a PSU board. But that board doesn’t have the 12v auxilary PSU (a small AC/DC Meanwell SMPS brick) that the MK I has.
Thanks for the clarification. So in that case should I buy the Yarra and the MK I PSU I would have one extra PSU board.
Actually, would the original Yarra PSU be suitable for a FW F4?
Hello,
This paragraph is taken from the F4 manual
"1) You can drive it directly with a line source such as a preamp.
Using this amplifier presupposes that you have a preamplifier or other source with adequate voltage and/or loudspeakers sufficiently sensitive to be able to work with the voltage and gain you have.
You would think offhand that this might be a real problem, but it is my experience that this is often not the case.
First, you will find that the more sensitive drivers deliver good volume levels
at quite low wattage. My Lowther DX55’s (93 dB/watt) mounted in Alerion enclosures adequately fill my 11,000 cubic foot listening room with about 5 volts (the equivalent of a 4 watt amplifier). I can achieve good levels with headroom to spare with my phono stage or DAC feeding an X1 preamp, which has a maximum of 14 dB gain.
If I lived in an apartment, I could get complaints from my neighbors.
Thanks to the dutiful efforts of John Atkinson at Stereophile, I have been able
to examine the maximum gain and output voltage of the tube and solid state preamps he has measured over the last 20 years or so ( www.stereophile.com ).
Virtually all active line stages achieve adequate gain and voltage swing to drive the above combination. Basically you need a linestage with about 12+ dB gain and 10+ volt maximum output.
This includes tube products from VTL, Hovland, ARC, Cary, McIntosh, CJ, EAR, MF, BAT, Lamm, and Rogue. It includes solid state preamps from Pass Labs, Krell, McIntosh, Levinson, Halcro, Naim, Boulder, Ayre, Bryston, Threshold, McCormack, Linn, Sutherland, and on and on.
If your loudspeaker is less efficient, then you need more gain from your source and/or more gain and voltage swing from your linestage. As you go in sensitivity below 87 dB, you will want to consider 100 watt balanced mono-block use, with a preamp capable of swinging 14 volts per balanced output and having a gain of 20+ dB.
As your loudspeaker increases in sensitivity, you need less gain and voltage swing."
The Yarra/Melbourne, I think it would fit perfectly.
This paragraph is taken from the F4 manual
"1) You can drive it directly with a line source such as a preamp.
Using this amplifier presupposes that you have a preamplifier or other source with adequate voltage and/or loudspeakers sufficiently sensitive to be able to work with the voltage and gain you have.
You would think offhand that this might be a real problem, but it is my experience that this is often not the case.
First, you will find that the more sensitive drivers deliver good volume levels
at quite low wattage. My Lowther DX55’s (93 dB/watt) mounted in Alerion enclosures adequately fill my 11,000 cubic foot listening room with about 5 volts (the equivalent of a 4 watt amplifier). I can achieve good levels with headroom to spare with my phono stage or DAC feeding an X1 preamp, which has a maximum of 14 dB gain.
If I lived in an apartment, I could get complaints from my neighbors.
Thanks to the dutiful efforts of John Atkinson at Stereophile, I have been able
to examine the maximum gain and output voltage of the tube and solid state preamps he has measured over the last 20 years or so ( www.stereophile.com ).
Virtually all active line stages achieve adequate gain and voltage swing to drive the above combination. Basically you need a linestage with about 12+ dB gain and 10+ volt maximum output.
This includes tube products from VTL, Hovland, ARC, Cary, McIntosh, CJ, EAR, MF, BAT, Lamm, and Rogue. It includes solid state preamps from Pass Labs, Krell, McIntosh, Levinson, Halcro, Naim, Boulder, Ayre, Bryston, Threshold, McCormack, Linn, Sutherland, and on and on.
If your loudspeaker is less efficient, then you need more gain from your source and/or more gain and voltage swing from your linestage. As you go in sensitivity below 87 dB, you will want to consider 100 watt balanced mono-block use, with a preamp capable of swinging 14 volts per balanced output and having a gain of 20+ dB.
As your loudspeaker increases in sensitivity, you need less gain and voltage swing."
The Yarra/Melbourne, I think it would fit perfectly.
The Yarra Melbourne, or the Aksa Lender were both developed specifically to be able to drive the F4 cleanly to clip. That is 25wrms into 8ohms or 40Vpp.
It must be the Melbourne or Aksa Lender though as the other modules will not drive 40Vpp. The new Aksa Lender in M2X format and on-board DCDC PSU can drive 55Vpp for 50W amps.
It must be the Melbourne or Aksa Lender though as the other modules will not drive 40Vpp. The new Aksa Lender in M2X format and on-board DCDC PSU can drive 55Vpp for 50W amps.
Were you asking if the PSU board could be used as the power supply for the F4 amplifier?
Couldn't you just add a 12V meanwell brick in the Yarra enclosure to do the same thing and use the original PSU? That is what I would probably do, but then I would be using powercons instead of an IEC in a slightly deeper enclosure. I need the 12V power supply for a BTSB may also add a muses volume control which also needs power.
Yes, this is also a possibility. Just a matter of real estate in the end I suppose. Killing several birds with one stone would always be nice. How would you go about providing the 5V in this scenario? I could use something like DC3N-1205S for voltage step-down but I'm not sure how reliable solution that is long term.