• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

My Aikido!!

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I finished, finally, my Aikido with 4XE80CC here it is with separate tube power supply built into the lame audible illusion enclosure!

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The preamp with PETP caps everywere :D

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and the power supply without electrolic caps

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The back side

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It sings very very nice!!!

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I would do similar with my Precision Fidelity C7 pre, which does not have any line stage, nor, unfortunately any room for such mods or additions! (They are phono only and act as passive volume controls at line level.)

What caps have you used in the power supply?

Nice job. How does it sound compared to your memory of the original AI line stage?
 
The (lame) audible illusions was a simple ecc88 with a (lame) power supply (just 4 diodes and a couple of electrolitics); the main transformator, located into the eclosures, ronzava da cani (non so come si traduce) :D The main volume was just two (lame) pots (no alps). The main differences with the old (and lame) audible illusions is quite impressive. Simply another world! ;)

The caps are polipropilene here: http://www.upsgse.it/ ICAR WB40 (they costs few euros)

on the signal there are only PETP K73 capacitors (from ebay, they costs less of 50 cent of euro but are simply straordinary)

All the story about this Aikido here on italian forum: http://t-class.niceboard.net/diy-amplificatori-f57/realizzazione-del-pre-aikido-t3245.htm
 
Hi piero7.

Congrat´s with the cool Aikido :up: . It is made in the same manner as I am going to do. This means separate PSU without electrolytics and built-up as dual mono (Aikido monoboards).

Can you tell something about the connection between the PSU and the amp. How is your ground-connection made between the two chassis (I presume there is absolutely no hum ;) ).

Furthermore, which connectors have you been using for the cable between the PSU and the amp.

I think you have made a really fine job. Btw, which sizes of the russian caps have you been using?

Kind regards

Karsten
 
Karsten Sømand said:
Hi piero7.

Congrat´s with the cool Aikido :up: . It is made in the same manner as I am going to do. This means separate PSU without electrolytics and built-up as dual mono (Aikido monoboards).

Can you tell something about the connection between the PSU and the amp. How is your ground-connection made between the two chassis (I presume there is absolutely no hum ;) ).

Furthermore, which connectors have you been using for the cable between the PSU and the amp.

I think you have made a really fine job. Btw, which sizes of the russian caps have you been using?

Kind regards

Karsten

Hi Karsten ,
yes, no hum at all. ;) The connectors comes from ebay from russian supplier here: click me

About the grounding, both chassies are direct grounded to earth. That's all.

The PETP capacitors I used are in total 3uF. They comes from ebay too. Here the link: click here They are simply a-w-e-s-o-m-e!


Brit01 said:
very nice indeed.

very cool caps!!

Do you know how much they charge for shipping? (to UK or further)

Due you are in euro zone, I think not so much as a standard shipping. I payed about 8 euro. Anyway, leave them a mail. Those ICAR caps are really great! The biggest I used, 80uF, costs 8,52 euro plus 20% VAT
 
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Wow. I was just about to sell off my unfinished 6SN7 Aikido and nice expensive enclosure to buy a used Audible Illusion Modulus L1 Preamp that looked pretty rough...

You say the Audible Illusion was no good? These are not cheap preamps. You probably would have been better off selling the pre and buying a nice enclosure from HiFi2000 in your backyard (Italia), if the pre was working fine that is...

But I guess if you wanted the switching capability...

"Fai Bravo"
Giovanni
 
Free translation service:
"the main transformator, located into the eclosures, ronzava da cani"
roughly translates to:
The main transformer, located in the main chassis, purred like a dog!

I can relate to that...I slowly walk backwards and make no eye contact whenever a dog purrs at me!
Cheers!
 
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