livewire

Thanks for your comments Frank. I do appreciate your input. I have not had a chance to open it up and poke around with my DMM yet. As far as the filter caps go, they are running right on the rated voltage.(450 VDC) I bought them from Digikey, I dont trust ebay imported crap. Yes, a lot of it is fake. When I previously shorted the psu output, I pulled the caps and tested them. They checked ok (static capacitance on a RCL meter & had stable DC output under load). The amp has been running fine since then for about the last month and a half. I have around 100 hours on it. 2) Will do. 3) Thanks for the tip! Antek it is, $54 for a beefy dual 475 volt secondary toroid. Excellent!

SWEET BABY JEBUS!!! So that explains why I am seeing bums carrying signs with May 21 eblazoned on them. I wonder if they at least get a bottle of Thunderbird out of it, for their trouble?

One of the most underrated musical geniuses, ever. He was the man who launched Pink Floyd to the top. http://youtu.be/Ah3sts1_zLQ

That and a bigger trafo? I dunno. The start-up surge on this thing is quite intense. A loud buzz/thump can be heard, while the livingroom lights go dim for a second. I mentioned this earlier during the build, another more experienced board member dismissed it saying that he wouldnt worry about it, or something to that effect. So I figured why bother and didnt implement a soft start. I will now. BTW, the trafo never ran really hot, it was just warm to the touch with the amp turned on for an extended period. I couldnt find any cheap Hammond trafos on ebay, usually they have them for about $50. New, they are $105 on up, so I'm not going that route for an older, noisier design. This fried SumR toroid only cost ~$100 with the core band insulation added. Craig Sawyers talked of some super-duper trafo that has every turn layer insulated which he sourced for his T2 build, I might look into that as well as a fully encapsulated unit. So it's back to SumR? Makes me cringe, although I will spec something a bit more substantial this time around. I have room for it in this chassis. EDIT: Another thing. I'm not actually blaming SumR here due to the fact that I had previously shorted the power supply twice in the past, possibly weakening the trafo insulation in the process. I am aware that they are getting a rep for "donut fail". Since I dont have a failure analysis lab at my disposal, nor want to pay to have that done, I can only guess.

Been kind of quiet around here. Anybody else finish their kgsshv yet? Welp, last night I was immersed in a four hour listening session with my kgsshv. Did I ever mention how good this thing sounds? Had the bass a-thumpin on the ESP-950's. Was listening to a lot of vintage Allen Parsons Project. Heavenly! This morning I turned on the kgsshv, and nothing. Blew a fuse. Put in another fuse and it fired right up.......with a faint buzzing coming from the transformer. Then the smell of magic smoke accompanied with substantial heat rising from the toroid. Seems like my SumR piece of shit has a short. Oh well, I have yet to tear into it and form a plan of action. I'll just fire up my itty-bitty Stax amp and experience bliss without the bass. FWIW, Previously I did order from SumR, the beefier (100ma?) trafo spec that Spritzer mentioned. I think that I may head to ebay and pick up a cheap Hammond dual 500 volt job and be done with it. I have a 15VDC Sola brick (ala the original kgss) that I will be using in addition for the low-v stuff.

Them marbles dont come cheap... Prices just jumped +30% on Amazon. WTF?

Thanks again sir. Trendsetter it is!

Thank you! No I have not contacted them. I will give it a try.

LSK389 Dual FET B-Grade, need two of them, cant find them anywhere except for factory quantity buy. If you have some new stock and would not mind parting with a few, name your price with shipping. Thanks.

I've never heard the KGSS, so Doctor G would have to answer that after listening to both. I've heard that the KGSS has plenty of power for driving electrostatic headphones, I would guess that the extra headroom afforded by the KGSSHV's higher voltage rating is a good thing to have for the harder to drive models. On paper, the KGSSHV is the higher power modernized version of the (12 year old?) KGSS design. 450 volt vs 350 volt rails, it also has a newly designed very low noise, current limited power supply. The design of the KGSSHV amp boards is very similar to the KGSS. Compared to the original design the KGSSHV has higher voltage withstanding output transistors and the option to use high voltage mosfets for the current source. The dual input fet (lsk389) is also a newer, very low drift design.

Black & Yellow, that looks like the real deal. It's been decades since I've savored a sweet Cubano...

Nice! Cant wait to see more positive progress.

That is the one! If you notice in the ebay pic, plastic part is recessed in front. KG was referring to machining the threaded chrome shell down until it is even with the plastic. This will insure that the Stax plug will enter completely.

Yeah? But can you drill or mill?

Interesting, the eye batch on the outside bull. Missing an eye? Or is it there to keep it from turning the wrong way on a circular track?

Hi charlo89, nice to see you are taking on KG's build, love your case design. The connectors I used are a discontinued 6 pin female mil-spec microphone connector made by Amphenol. The part number is 91-PC6F. The number when encountered, may be prefixed with "WPI" or "CNA". These are available through some electrical surplus resellers. Kevin Gilmore used this connector in his first prototype KGSS amplifier. You can see it on his HeadWize website which also has much useful information about the KGSS amp. Allied Electronics also carries a plastic version of this connector without the chrome outer shell. It is a WPI design now distributed by Cooper Interconnect. EDIT: Hmmmm, just did a search. It seems that Cooper still makes them. Newark or Element 14 part number: 38F1544 ~$26 each Come and get em! Only 11 pieces in stock. Surplus houses sell them cheaper. Just sayin. + 2 pieces on ebay @ $20 each plus shipping. Auction # 350113117987

In the queue: Krypteria - At The Gates Of Retribution

Krypteria - The Night All Angels Cry

Krypteria - For You I'll Bring The Devil Down

Krypteria - I Just Drowned In Your Eyes

Scorpions - Still Loving You

Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave You

Metallica - Nothing Else Matters