Thanks rayma and 6L6 for the advice. I'll go with "naked regulators" and not spend more money.
Hey, new member here, been following for awhile and it's getting close to starting my first Whammy but I have a couple questions. So I recently bought a Sparkos Quad PSU with a 15v toroidal transformer. My questions are: in order to properly use it for the Whammy, should I purchase one of their 24V transformers? Also, if I were to want to use the red power led at ~17v, would I still have to set the voltage regulators at 17v or would that also change based on the higher voltage transformer? If so, what would the new value be? Thanks in advance, I'm still working on understand everything else that needs to be changed when deciding to change certain parts.
I was honestly going to try to use it in place of the one that comes with the Whammy, similar to another member on this forum that has a dual mono PSU and whammy for sale. I suppose I could always use to for something else, as I originally bought it for a standalone PSU for a DAC I have (hence the 15v transformer) and might sound ridiculous since I'm asking these questions, but I know exactly what that DAC needs if that makes sense. . I just want sure if 15v was enough considering the one that comes with the Whammy (from what I understand) is 18v. Sorry if this doesn't really answer the question, like I said I'm very new to this and trying to figure things out.
^ FWIW, the power supply configuration for the WHAMMY is excellent. There are measurements for the PSU ripple in the build guide. If you're unsure, and if you've purchased the WHAMMY kit, I'd begin with building it exactly as described in the build guide. I'd never, ever say that you can't find something that may perform better as a PSU, but if you build it first as intended, then you'll definitely know if the Sparkos PSU was an 'upgrade'. This is particularly true, IMHO, if you're a newcomer to DIY and are not sure how to configure the Sparkos PSU to work well with the WHAMMY.
@02Honeydew do you have a link to the one for sale you mention? I’d like to see how it’s utilized.
Also, I couldn’t agree more with what @ItsAllInMyHead says about the stock PSU, he’s 110% correct.
If you want to easily use some Sparkos gear in Whammy, you could replace the 7815 and 7915 with the Sparkos equivalent, that would be straightforward to do and may make an improvement.
Also, I couldn’t agree more with what @ItsAllInMyHead says about the stock PSU, he’s 110% correct.
If you want to easily use some Sparkos gear in Whammy, you could replace the 7815 and 7915 with the Sparkos equivalent, that would be straightforward to do and may make an improvement.
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It’s a fantastic PSU, absolutely save it for something that will benefit, like a Miro AD1862 DAC.
Absolutely, it seems really nicely made so I'll just find something suitable that's more straightforward to use it in. Thanks for the input guys.
I finished building my Whammy a few days ago, and it was a fun and instructive project. Everything is stock except I'm using a MusgAudio discrete op amp. I'm running the "naked regulators" configuration and the amp is dead silent and runs cool. After four days of burn it in, it sounds fantastic - smooth, slightly warm, with excellent clarity and detail. It hasn't quite got the soundstage and presence my OTL tube amp does (no surprise), but it's very close. Thank you 6L6 and rayma for responding to my questions, and thanks especially to Wayne for this great amp.
I've ordered a Sparkos SS3602, and Sparkos recommends using Panasonic FR 100uf 50V capacitors with their opamp. The Whammy used to use 220uf 50V caps for C3 C4 C8 C9 C10 and C28, but now comes with 25V caps. Is it okay to use Panasonic 50V capacitors, or should I use Panasonic 25V caps?
For that matter, is there any actual benefit to going through the hassle of changing the stock caps to Panasonics?
For that matter, is there any actual benefit to going through the hassle of changing the stock caps to Panasonics?
I'm sorry - in my previous post where I said 25V I should have said 35V. I still wonder if I should use the Panasonic FR 100uf 50V capacitors recommended by Sparkos or not... Thanks!
I wouldn't change the capacitors, but I would buy an oscilloscope to check if it oscillates with one of those opamps and if it's properly compensated.
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I even made a mistake there when measuring with Sparkos opamp. There was a small signal and everything seemed fine with 68pF of compensation. However, when I later increased the signal, it turned out that it was not enough. In the end I left 350pF, everything was OK with that. Stable and without overshoot on a square signal. You can put a slightly smaller capacitor, say 220pF so that a small overshoot remains. When measuring Whammy, there was a 33ohm 10W wire resistor at the output.
As far as discrete opamps I may just stick to Muzgaudio and Staccato. They are JFET based, have very low DC offset out of the box, and have trim pots for easy adjustment. I'm a newbie and not ready to buy and learn to use oscillosope just for the Whammy.
Working with various devices over the years I have learned that replacing opamps is not that simple. I had some old analog 10MHz oscilloscope, quite unusable. I gave that away and bought a cheap USB digital oscilloscope with 4 channels at 250MHz and a function generator, I use it with my laptop occasionally.
The Whammy behaves differently with different opamps as I wrote before, so you could at least borrow a scope. And not just the Whammy, that more or less applies to every device with opamps.
If you're going to build something other than the Whammy, I recommend buying a small oscilloscope with at least two 50MHz channels, preferably with a function generator. It's a small investment and doesn't take up much space. And it lets you see what you've done. Using an oscilloscope is simple, if I learned it, then anyone can. 😁
Let's say the Whammy I made had IRF610/9610 transistors in the output instead of the original ones (2sj313/2sk2013). It is possible that it will not behave the same with original transistors, or say IRF510/9510 and some others.
The Whammy behaves differently with different opamps as I wrote before, so you could at least borrow a scope. And not just the Whammy, that more or less applies to every device with opamps.
If you're going to build something other than the Whammy, I recommend buying a small oscilloscope with at least two 50MHz channels, preferably with a function generator. It's a small investment and doesn't take up much space. And it lets you see what you've done. Using an oscilloscope is simple, if I learned it, then anyone can. 😁
Let's say the Whammy I made had IRF610/9610 transistors in the output instead of the original ones (2sj313/2sk2013). It is possible that it will not behave the same with original transistors, or say IRF510/9510 and some others.
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I've started assembling my copy of Whammy so I'm wondering about a few things.
Instead of C26/27 22uF 25V I will put a Nichicon MUSE 100uF 16V bipolar capacitors. For this I'm sure it's fine.
Can I use Nichicon MUSE 22uF 16V bipolar capacitors instead of C12/17/22/25 22uF 25V? Does this generally have any positive effect on the sound or not?
The supply voltage will be +-15V.
Instead of C26/27 22uF 25V I will put a Nichicon MUSE 100uF 16V bipolar capacitors. For this I'm sure it's fine.
Can I use Nichicon MUSE 22uF 16V bipolar capacitors instead of C12/17/22/25 22uF 25V? Does this generally have any positive effect on the sound or not?
The supply voltage will be +-15V.
I’d recommend sticking with the version you assembled for me.😀 The chosen components were tested for optimal performance. While Nichicon MUSE bipolar capacitors are high quality, they may slightly alter the sound’s characteristics, and it’s uncertain whether the change would be beneficial. If you’re looking for a specific tonal adjustment, it might be better to experiment with op-amps or a handmade attenuator with Dale resistors instead.
I’m currently using the Signetics NE5532AFE.