hirafu_boarder said:
Just a basic Alps unit. I really like Alps and it was a decent price on eBay with free air mail shipping.
N1ESE said:
I hope it was a reliable vendor, ebay is pretty famous for knock off alps pots. From what I read the performance is hit or miss.
n_maher said:
Yeah, this seller should be safe. He's been a member almost as long as I've been an eBay member (12 years) and has over 3700 feedback (99.6%).
n_maher said:
Yup, 100K - will see what I actually get though as it was only $8 with free shipping.
That is a good price, be curious to see how long the trans-global shipping takes though.N1ESE said:
n_maher said:
Sadly, based on what I am experiencing, I bet it will arrive from Japan long before my Edcor's arrive. No ETA from Edcor yet, just "they will ship when built". I ordered a bulk-pack of resistors once from Japan and they took 8 days. I suspect I will see the pot by the end of the week at the latest.
n_maher said:
Nate, the pot arrived this morning. Customs form is dated 11/4/08 so that's about 6 to 7 business days to arrive here in NH.
However, it is not quite the model I was expecting. This is marked with a model number of 811G. Not sure quite what this is and can't seem to find it in my Alps datasheets. It is, however, a dual 100K audio pot and housed in a "blue velvet" case with a 6mm shaft.
Looks like Edcor shipped my CXSE transformers today. Unfortunately, I am 5 days away from them via UPS Ground and will not see them til Friday the 21st.
The rest of the amp is pretty much wired and ready to go though. I just need to add a ground to my power switch and volume pot as I am showing 3.9-ohms resistance to ground on these. Should be less than 1-ohm.
The rest of the amp is pretty much wired and ready to go though. I just need to add a ground to my power switch and volume pot as I am showing 3.9-ohms resistance to ground on these. Should be less than 1-ohm.
Success, but I need some help guys. 
Edcors arrived today and I wasted no time wiring them up and smoke testing the amp. Everything is working just fine except I have very low volume. Much lower than I expected.
I am currently running EH KT88's in Triode mode with about 460V B+. I'm measuring B+ just before R24 and R14. Choke is wired into the circuit but the extra capacitor is not. Audio is being fed to the amp from my computer. Speakers are some cheap bookshelf 2-ways. I realize these speakers are terribly inefficient but I figured it'd be a little louder than it is. Line out from the computer is maxed and I have to turn the input pot all the way up. A little bit of distortion with it all the way up. However, if I turn it down a bit, the distortion goes away. Unfortunately, audio is way too low to enjoy as I can hear everything else going on in the room louder. Sound great though.
Any ideas? Many thanks.
Edcors arrived today and I wasted no time wiring them up and smoke testing the amp. Everything is working just fine except I have very low volume. Much lower than I expected.
I am currently running EH KT88's in Triode mode with about 460V B+. I'm measuring B+ just before R24 and R14. Choke is wired into the circuit but the extra capacitor is not. Audio is being fed to the amp from my computer. Speakers are some cheap bookshelf 2-ways. I realize these speakers are terribly inefficient but I figured it'd be a little louder than it is. Line out from the computer is maxed and I have to turn the input pot all the way up. A little bit of distortion with it all the way up. However, if I turn it down a bit, the distortion goes away. Unfortunately, audio is way too low to enjoy as I can hear everything else going on in the room louder. Sound great though.
Any ideas? Many thanks.
It could be as simple as your computer being a weak (sub 1V) output source. I would kind of be surprised to learn that but stranger things have happened. I'd certainly try it with a conventional CD player (which should be 2V or more) before being convinced that it's the amp.
Do you have an input source with a volume control? If you do I would check using that with no volume pot in the cct. Next check would be if you have wired the output transformers correctly. Best thing is to follow George's advice and wire it for plain triode mode output first. Try it on your bookshelf speakers first to make sure they don't blow, then maybe on your main speakers. Even if the bookshelf speakers are very ineficcient, you should not have to max everything out like you suggested, so I think you have probably mis-wired something.
Good luck and report back...
Chris
Good luck and report back...
Chris
n_maher said:
That's what I'm thinking.
Chris, it's already wired for triode mode. I'm going to remove the pot from the circuit and see what happens.
Ok, pot has been removed but the volume still seems a bit low to me. The sound quality is much improved without the pot wired into the circuit. However, I still don't have much volume.
I'm not sure how to describe the level of loudness coming out of the speakers. It's a good level if I wanted background music but it's not loud enough to take center stage while I am working on stuff here at the computer. I can still hold a conversation over the max. volume level. I generally listen a little louder than this. 😕
However, it sounds great. I don't think I have the outputs wired wrong. It's probably just the sound card in my PC. I wish I had a component CD player but I haven't owned a stereo system in years. I may have to scrounge around some yard sales I guess.
I'm not sure how to describe the level of loudness coming out of the speakers. It's a good level if I wanted background music but it's not loud enough to take center stage while I am working on stuff here at the computer. I can still hold a conversation over the max. volume level. I generally listen a little louder than this. 😕
However, it sounds great. I don't think I have the outputs wired wrong. It's probably just the sound card in my PC. I wish I had a component CD player but I haven't owned a stereo system in years. I may have to scrounge around some yard sales I guess.
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