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"The Wiener" TPA3118 amplifier card

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gmarsh

gmarsh

Member
Joined 2004
paugie said:
uh, another question. that square piece of foam which came with the bolts, what does it do? do I just stick it to the bottom of the board? or there's a special way of placing it.
Click to expand...
It's a thermally conductive pad, used to pull heat out of the PCB and into a metal enclosure. Not necessary in the majority of applications but if you're driving high RMS power and you've got a tight/sealed case that doesn't facilitate airflow, it's handy.

Peel the white backing off and stick it to the PCB, there's a rectangle drawn on the bottom PCB silkscreen indicating where to put it.

Here's how the hardware stacks for chassis mounting:

nut
lock washer
flat washer
Wiener PCB
aluminum spacer
flat washer
chassis
flat washer
lock washer
screw head
 
R

reo

Member
Joined 2008
Does on the -stby connector yields the same effective result as connecting to either the 4 mounting holes on the board ?

Just saying cause i have several tube preamps and Dac boards that i want to try out and are not all connected in the same manner, they need to be connected differently according to different setups to avoid grounding issues.

reo
 
P

paugie

Member
Joined 2015
Listening to the Wiener for the last 2 days.
It's very quiet after I connected the neg inputs to the mounting holes.
First impression was that it was "clinical". My comparison amps are an old Technics SU-V9, 2 China mono 3116s, a YJ blue. What I mean is not really ambient, as against "surround" like. And somewhat less bass than the others.
But, after a while, it started getting all those qualities I felt were lacking.
Should I believe in "break-in"?
I am really pleased. Now to properly enclose.
 
rhing

rhing

Member
Joined 2007
Wiener Making Beautiful Music with Altec Model 19's

Went to a buddy's home and brought my Wiener amp to try out in his system:

  • Empire 208 Turntable with RS Labs Tonearm
  • DIY D3A Tube Phono Stage
  • Emotive Audio Erato Tube Line Stage
  • Tube Audio Lab 6B4G Triode P-P Tube Amp
  • Altec Model 19 Studio Monitors

His system is very musical and engaging. If you've never heard Altec Model 19 monitors, they are a special speaker, and served as a studio standard in the 1970's.

I connected my Wiener amp to the Emotive Audio line stage and to the Model 19's. Wow! The Wiener amp held its own producing a huge soundstage with excellent separation, great tone and superb dynamics. We played a range of music including large orchestral symphonic, jazz and classic rock. My friends at the gathering were impressed.

For reference, the Tube Audio Lab 6B4G triode P-P amp is an incredible amplifier built with Lundahl interstage coupling transformers and Hashimoto output transformers. My buddy had the amp built by Min of Tube Audio Lab in Davis, CA to drive his pair of Quad ESL57 electrostatics and Altec Model 19 monitors.

image.jpg
 
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impuls60

Member
Joined 2011
I too have started to belive in break-in^^. I read that the manufactures apply voltage gradually to form the oxide layer inside electrolytic caps. It isn't that far fetched that the oxide layer becomes more complete/stable over time and this reduces that excessive leakage that irribeo mentioned? I read it in a guide for replacing old caps in vintage gear btw.
 
rhing

rhing

Member
Joined 2007
zman01 said:
Rich,

Beautiful set of speakers... and do I spy some good food too? :)

Cogitech,

Good comment on the TVs being secondary, but this is a sight that is becoming increasingly rare. (I hope I am wrong :))
Click to expand...

Yes, whenever my friends and I get together at each other's homes, there is always good food, wine and beer to go with the victuals. We're a multicultural bunch here in the San Francisco Bay Area, so there's always something different and interesting. The best thing about these gatherings are that we are tasting different music too. I can't tell you how many albums I buy after these meetings as I get exposed to new music.

Funny thing is that none of my friends are into home theater. We're all 2-channel folks, and we love analog audio formats.

I really have to hand it to gmarsh for making his TPA3118 design available to us. With the CineMag input transformers, this amp is a very impressive piece of audio hardware.
 
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Saturnus

Saturnus

Member
Joined 2005
paugie said:
I still think the Weiner has less bass than the other amps.
Click to expand...

That's absolutely possible. The reason is funny enough that it's because it's better. When all else are equal the output inductors in the Wiener compared to other TPA3116/8 amps have lower DC resistance and are absolutely free of saturation (when used in the recommend voltage and load impedance range). That means the total resistance in series is lower and therefore the dampening factor is higher while at the same time the effective Qes of the speaker is higher. This means that the Wiener has less ringing and if this is not taken into account it will appear to have less bass. You can probably get the bass back to the previous level by inserting a 10-22mOhm series resistor or use longer/thinner speaker cables.
 
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