Aleph J illustrated build guide

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Joined 2011
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There are diyAudio members who report that their M2x "Ishikawa" input stage (using obsolete Toshiba JFETs) is outperformed sonically by one or more of the other daughter boards. Listeners report that the various boards sound different from one another, and the number one ranked + favorite board is not always Ishikawa.

I know that 6L6 loves his Tucson_604 M2x boards, but he'll be the first to admit, he hasn't yet done any long term serious listening with his Norwood boards. No final conclusion from him, yet.
 
I have built a number of Aleph J channels....using the latest diyaudio store boards...

Of the last pair that I built...one channel runs real hot and measuring the voltage across the gate stoppers of q5 q6 q7 and q8 I get .77 volts...

Every other channel I have built, the meaurement is around .55s volts, which is the correct voltage.

Everything else about this hot channel seems ok...

Any Thoughts anyone on where to look???
 
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Joined 2002
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That's 40% more current with the hot channel.

Referring to post #3 on the first page

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pass-labs/241729-aleph-illustrated-build-guide.html#post3615479

have you tried very gradually adjusting R27 while monitoring the
voltage across the source resistors to see if you can lower it? You'll
want to make very small changes and wait a bit after each change
for the bias to settle down.

You'll probably need to readjust R8 to null the DC offset.

Cheers,
Dennis
 
Got the Aleph J bug.

Of course, the hitch is sourcing the Grade B LSJ74's.

Only ones I can find are in the diyaudio store matched LSJ74/LSK170 pairs.
Could the LSJ74's out of two matched pairs be used in the Aleph J boards without further matching or other ado?

Expensive, and wasteful of the 170's (so far as I know) obviously, but this is the only option I see available to me, other than giving up on the AJ.
 
BDent has the Toshiba's:

Search

John LaGrue (ebay store PunkyDawgs) probably has them, but he appears to be on vacation till November.

My searches were fruitless, thank you for the lead.

Mouser Toshiba 2SJ74 data sheet shows BL suffix Idss of -6.0 to -12mA, so that makes the bdent Toshiba 2SJ74BL a grade B part, right?
Now on to educate myself as to how to determine what it takes ensure usability in the Aleph J circuit, matching requirements and how to accomplish them, etc, etc.

Thanks again for the tip, my Aleph J hopes are revived.

BTW: My amp building resume consists of being an electrician that can solder with two ACA's completed.
 
are 26.5v rails allright

Just finished two channels of Aleph J...Basically, have been replacing old Aleph 30 channels

On this Aleph J amp, rails are 26.5v. The circuits are correct, power supply is a little too high voltage.

Can I run the Aleph J at 26.5v rails, or should I work on the power supply to reduce voltage a bit...

Thanks