This is not just another gainclone

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#2,281
Hi,

Peter,

Apparently this cable is thought to be cause of trouble by a few people:

GOERTZ.

Note also that highly capacitive LS cable can render quite a few solid state amps unstable, regardless of brandname of both cable and amp.

BTW, just out of curiosity, how much of the sonic results would you attribute to the choice of passive components, percentagewise?

Cheers,😉
 
#2,282
fdegrove said:

BTW, just out of curiosity, how much of the sonic results would you attribute to the choice of passive components, percentagewise?
Click to expand...

Between 30-40% . This amps can be made to sound terribly (although it's not easy to make) and they may also sound very impressive. You figure out how much percantage it is😉

We've been optimising the final configration through many experiments and we tried many different parts. It seems like some of them work much better than others. What Brian is selling in a kit now, is exactly the choice we figured works the best for this amps. It took us almost a year to reach this stage.

I'm still making it p2p in Amp-1, but future models will use PCBs. They are just too convenient to be ignored and if made properly, I don't see deterioration in performance. It took Brian and his idea of a kit, to change my mind about PCBs. I kinda like them now 😉
 
#2,286
25k for NI GC is good as suggested input impedance for that circuit is approx 22k. I've been using 50k pot with 22k shunt resistor across and it was OK too. I wouldn't really recommend 100k, but if you don't have other choice it will work as well. Just make shure that it's shunted and max input imp that the chip "see" between +IN and ground is approx 22k or so.
 
#2,288
No, it's not twitchy at all. You may even go for higher combined resistance, the only inconvenience is increasing DC offset at the output. So if you'll get too much of it, just reduce input impedance. That's all.

For instance, with 50K pot without shunt resistor, the offset was reaching as high as 350mV. Adding shunt resistor, decreases that value to more reasonable, 60mV, or so.
 
#2,294
Today I made an A/B test (from hearing place with relais) between my favourite JLH update and my GC. The parts used in the GC are of a very high quality (BG N, BG FK, Caddock), whereas the JLH uses only Slitfoil and Panasonic FC.

I listened to a lot of different CD´s.

I prefere the JLH in all aspects. More details, wider soundstage and more dynamic. All kinds of instruments and voices seems to be more authentic.

The GC sounds, if you regard the costs very, very good. For all, who don´t want to spend a lot iof money for heatsicks it is the ideal amp.

My amp-ranking is:

1. JLH update 2003
2. Hiraga with battery PS
3. Gainclone
4. X-SOZ
5. ZEN V1
6. ZEN V4
 
#2,296
Peter Daniel has compared them quite some time ago.
I had the chance as well recently.This is my opinion
1.AlephX
2.Battery powered gainclone w preamp or buffer driven in pseudo balanced mode
3.As above 2 but AC ps
4.Aleph5

I think gainclones tend to be sensitive to speaker matching and don't sound their best when driven hard.For me the advantages in adding a good buffer or preamp are obvious particularly if you can drive them in balanced mode.Battery power is a very significant step up in terms of harmonic purity , smoothness and depth.
I recently transformed my Aleph 5's to Aleph X and can say it is a huge improvement as you can see above.However the batt pwered gainclone is not that far behind at all and might sound better in some respects to people that want a very neutral sound.In some ways the Aleph X may seem to veer Towards a more punchy but liquid sound than absolute neutrality while the gainclone would tend to sound more correctly proportioned or flat depending on subjective viewpoint and accompanying equipment .
Since you 3/4 of the way ther I suggest you try the above options with your gc.
 
#2,297
Protos

Well, I was listening to a battery powered balanced wkg gain clone but I have now prefer a mains powered ( but choke regulated ) balanced working JLH simple class A.

So for you the aleph X is at the top of the pile

and for me my balanced JLH is at the top of the pile

This is the comparison that I am most interested to hear about

Is there anyone out there who has heard both

mike
 
#2,298
protos said:
Peter Daniel has compared them quite some time ago.
I had the chance as well recently.This is my opinion
1.AlephX
2.Battery powered gainclone w preamp or buffer driven in pseudo balanced mode
3.As above 2 but AC ps
4.Aleph5

I think gainclones tend to be sensitive to speaker matching and don't sound their best when driven hard.For me the advantages in adding a good buffer or preamp are obvious particularly if you can drive them in balanced mode.Battery power is a very significant step up in terms of harmonic purity , smoothness and depth.
I recently transformed my Aleph 5's to Aleph X and can say it is a huge improvement as you can see above.However the batt pwered gainclone is not that far behind at all and might sound better in some respects to people that want a very neutral sound.In some ways the Aleph X may seem to veer towards a more punchy but liquid sound than absolute neutrality while the gainclone would tend to sound more correctly proportioned or flat depending on subjective viewpoint and accompanying equipment .
Since you 3/4 of the way ther I suggest you try the above options with your gc.
Click to expand...


And how would a battery powered Aleph-X sound? 😉
 
#2,299
Ah you french! You like your excesses don't you?😉

Don't get me started on battery power for the Aleph X because I have been thinking about it.
In some ways simple since you could make it work from two 12v batteries but you would need some huge mothers for that.I guess a minimum of 25Ah in order to give 3hrs worth of operation.Plus another set for the other monoblock.
But that is for another thread.
 
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