AKSA's Lender Preamp with 40Vpp Output

Fitero,

I am very surprised that you are still using another AKSA product.
OTOH, I am very happy you like the sound - perhaps I will ask in a year. It gives some consolation that it was only me and not the product that upset you. And if this time you have a problem of any type it will be up to you to fix it.

Normally I would not comment on a past customer, but the bruising with you was the worst I ever experienced in 20 years of trading and I am very surprised you are still using my product, although it is open sourced now, thanks to XRK and JPS.

I hope that you never have reason to cause trouble again.

HD
 
Regarding the chassis, I used the Analog Crossover Network case. I haven't got access to a drill press to accurately drill holes for the various sockets and such. The back of the front panel already has pilot holes so the volume and selector switches were guided by those.. Four £0.79 blanking plates took care of the XLR holes.

I have the volume control and connector cable and its socket free to anyone who wants them, for the price of the postage.
 

Attachments

  • 20190307_055837.jpg
    20190307_055837.jpg
    1 MB · Views: 388
  • 20190307_055749.jpg
    20190307_055749.jpg
    961.3 KB · Views: 375
Last edited:
Stunning work, Spiggs...... congratulations and welcome to the club!

Hugh

Thank you Hugh, so pleased to be a member. I hope I did your circuit justice. I posted some initial listening impressions in the HPA thread at xrk971's prompting and after listening to it some more really feel like I have something special. It sounds fantastic driving the ACA or my headphones. Just magic as the evening wanes and the music plays. Time to spin another record.
 
You know, Spiggs, given your professional background you have taken incredibly well to building electronics and casework! I think you should take a bow and remind yourself that you could have been skilled tradesman, and maybe more!

Yes, you did justify my circuit, thank you, as indeed has X. He is exceptional and builds things more quickly than I design them, we make a great team, not to mention the brilliant pcb design from Jean Paul.

I just googled Huntington Beach, which I'd remembered from the Reynolds Brothers wave motor which was installed off an industrial wharf in 1909. I marvelled at the population expansion between 1960-70, the Surf era! Ah, to remember the surfie chicks, the Beach Boys and Ford T-birds! It looks a lovely place to live.

HD
 
Last edited:
Ah well you should see my spreadsheets, now those are works of art :) Life choices.

That bit of history was very interesting, thanks for that. The wave motor seems a sound concept, perhaps its' day will come again with some of the efficiencies afforded by more modern design and manufacture. My parents were part of the population boom from 1960-70 having moved out here, I showed up around that time as well. Huntington Beach does have it's charm, car and surf culture abounds.

Spent another night listening to music through the new preamp, it functions beyond my expectations. Now maybe some new speaker cabinets, then that will be the last piece I am sure, except for maybe a phono pre, those look nice to and the computer in the office could use better quality audio as well....
 
Member
Joined 2014
Paid Member
Spent another night listening to music through the new preamp, it functions beyond my expectations. Now maybe some new speaker cabinets, then that will be the last piece I am sure...

Very nicely done Spiggs :)
The blending of wood and metal has always been pleasing to me.
Enjoy your new AKSA Lender, it’s a fantastic preamp!

Oh yeh, probably will not be your last piece!! HeeHee :D
 
Founder of XSA-Labs
Joined 2012
Paid Member
Oh yeh, probably will not be your last piece!!

Yes, we have the Yarra preamp to look forward to for that! PCBs should be here tomorrow, parts maybe Friday.

For those of you who are not familiar with the new Yarra preamp, it is a motherboard for the Melbourne preamp core daughterboard. The Melbourne is an Aksa Lender with DC-coupled output as an option (so dual rails). It can be used to drive 0dB gain power amps to 50wrms into 6.8ohms.
 
Hi all

In post 1 it refers you to the Errata post later in the thread. I come up with error 404 when clicking on the revised BOM. I am currently using the one with JPS64 28.11.2017 on the bottom as a reference.

Error 1 states R141 should be 10K, not 220R. In the BOM R141 and R142 are listed as 220R. Just want to double check that R142 is also 10k and I haven't lost my mind completely. To me they are on the schematic as R14 10k, one for each channel, hence the 1 and 2 after R14. The simpleton will now return to the back of the class, facing the corner with the dunces cap on... I ordered them both as 10k but a little voice is asking if I was sure

Second question: I have an old pre-amp chassis I wanted to re-purpose. It has an internal height of 63mm with the lid on (just shy of 2 1/2 inch). Will this be enough height?

Several items I ordered are on back order but this will give me the time to get set up again and re read and take notes from the thread.

Been a bit short of a year since I bought the boards from the ETSY shop. Reasonably serious health issues arose for my eldest son and I'm finally getting motivated enough to get back into this and an Aleph J.

Thanks