livewire

That thought crossed my mind but I dont have any extra oxide insulators and I wont use plastic screws. Craig Sawyers had a good idea using extra long flanged insulator washers along with stainless screws coupled with the oxide insulator "tombstones". I bought those(oxide plates and long shoulder washers)the last time around to re-do the small kludged (raised) heatsinks that KG didn't approve of. I should have bought extras, but did not. So I am going to reorder again and do it the right way. It's not expensive, so I dont care. Hey Doc, if yer reading this please update the BOM. Thanks!

I guess that I could use the TO220 sand with my raised heatsink kludge. But KG said "please dont do it that way" so I'm not gonna this time. Gee, I'm a patient guy.

Welp, I promised a progress report, but so far there is no progress. The first time I had originally ordered parts for the kgsshv, there was no BOM. I went off of the board silk drawing. This time I used the latest BOM. I found a mistake after receiving the parts for the repair this time around. The part listed on the BOM as FQP8N80C should read FQPF8N80C. So the regular TO220 with the exposed metal tab were shipped, they should be the all plastic jobbies. Hello Mouser! (again)

Indeed

Ah yes. Spirited Away. One of the greats.

One of those jobs that floats when you drop it in the toilet? <j/k>

Heh, there's a reason the cloth costs more. It's MOAR better! (I cant speak about sonic attributes, I never noted a diff there)

I believe the foam they use now is UV stabilized, meaning that it wont crumble in time like the stuff they used back in the 1960's - 1980's. I agree that the cloth has a much better, more natural feel. I dont even know it's there, unlike the foam which tickles my ears. Wont be using that again...

Where did you get that? (I want one) Amazon isnt releasing that CD for two more weeks.

Luv that Stax sound! EJ - "Love Lies Bleeding / Funeral For A Friend"

Mouser repair parts order just arrived. Will this kgsshv psu ever work right again? Stay tuned, progress report manana.

Nice grinder! I want one, but not at the full price. Gonna check online....

Then again, it is just a pic. Could be a room full of plastic movie props. What gets me salivating though is the Barrett M82 50cal sniper rifle up top along with the 50 cal Browning M2 Bar belt fed on the far right. Coupled with some depleted uranium tracer ammo, that is some ultimate personal firepower.

No, those aren't BB guns. I dont know the guy, but I am a weapons expert and also a fanatic in that regard. That looks to be a real armory. Just like the O2's in the pic look to be real Stax cans.

Hey Monkey, I just saw your post, Havent been to this thread lately until Wes posted about the price increase today. As far as any new sonic revelations, no. I think I've already gushed about the D100 enough. What I said intially still stands, it's a keeper. I tend to like things a little brighter up top, but this dac performs at 110% in all other aspects. And I cannot stand etchy op-amp induced highs, so again this DAC delivers cleanly in this aspect. (no op-amps) I'm not a boomy bass guy, I like the pronounced, punchy lows the D100 delivers. Not too up front in that department either, but that is how I like things. I was able to find one real flaw in the build department. I move my equipment around a lot, hooking and unhooking. Packing for travel and unpacking. (as in at meets at friend's places) Everytime I picked up the D100, it felt and sounded like there was a couple marbles rolling around insde of the case. O-o! So I opened it up. I found two ferrite rings bound to the ouput wires leading to the XLR connectors. These rings were loose, not fastened or glued in place. They would bob all over the place when the unit was moved. Not good. Sooner or later this could strain the output wires or worse, short something out. Anywho, I glued the ferrites to the floor of the case before any damage was done. Problem solved. One other thing. This is in the nit-picking category but, on the right side of the case there is a large, tacky looking product label. It dont look too pretty while sitting on my audio rack. I dont want to remove it, but this label would be better off being placed on the bottom, underneath the case. (no room on the backside) That's all. I love my Neko. Thanks for askin Monkey.

I know nothing about designing these circuits, I do love the symmetry. That is a nice compact layout you are proposing there.

Marc, Thanks for adding that! I always listen to the voice of experience. Makes sense from a standpoint of the thermal mass of the heatsink. Ima gonna file that in my "tips & tricks" memory bank.

Point well taken, that was part of the problem with the sand in front. The rear-most sand is occluded by the heatsinks. Looks like it is down inside of a chimney stack. I imagine one could manuever a replacement part and screw down inside of there with some forceps or tweezers.

Yup, itiz.

Ha! How did that smilie get there for step #8?

Yeah, I used to have some of those clip probes with my scope which I sold off years ago. I'll be picking some up in the near future, the needle probes are less time consuming as long as one doesn't make a mistake and slip as I did. Speaking of time drains, getting those large heatsinks off of the psu pcb is a lot of work. Due to the tight fit of the soldered-in pins to the plated thru-holes in the pcb, no amount of solder sucking or wicking is gonna get them loose. (it is possible with two large soldering irons and two people, one to pull on the heatsink while heated) I only had to remove the two large sinks in the front and left the two in *back in place.(*along the pcb edge) This was necessary to get access to the fried pass fets and their related hardware. So for those unfortunate souls who may be heading down this slippery slope in the future, this is what I did: 1) First, remove as much solder as possible from the pins/pads of the heatsinks and affected fets. (on the underside of the pcb) 2) Then, with a dremel tool grind the pins flush with the solder pad/pcb surface.(pcb underside) 3) Clean the grinding dust off of both sides of the pcb with compressed air or spray contact cleaner. 4) Use a centerpunch to mark the center of the pin. (prep for drilling) 5) Drill the pin out to a depth of ~.062 (the thickness of the pcb) Use a drill that is the same diameter of the pins. This can be verified by checking drill sizing in the pin channel holes at the top of the heatsinks. 6) Repeat step three. 7) Pull (wiggle) the heatsinks and transistors off of the pcb. Use a small drift punch (or drill bit if no punch is handy) to tap the remainder of the pins out of the heatsink body. 9) The holes in the heatsink where the pins used to be can now be tapped with a 4-40 tap. No additional drilling is needed, as the existing holes are the correct diameter to accept the tap. 10) Inspect the pcb surfaces thoroughly for grinding / drilling debris that may cause a short circuit. A magnifying glass is helpful to look for metal chips that may be stuck under parts or between terminals and traces. 11) Use 4-40 screws to re-attach the old heatsinks to the pcb, or buy new heatsinks and solder - - providing that the solder pads on the underside of the pcb are still intact after drilling.

I'm such a jerk. Yesterday, I soldered the new sand into the psu. This morning I was testing it under power, comparing the two rails because of a new voltage imbalance. Long story short, I slipped with the test probe and shorted the series pass regulator on the (what was the sill good) +450VDC rail. Snap-crackle-pop, I zotched em bad. In my own defence, I normally dont pull this kind of stuff. Have been doing electronics for forty years now. Maybe it's because I am getting old and this parkinsons disease has something to do with it....<<joking>> So it's back to Mouser, I'll update in a week or so.

You da man! Glad to hear it's back on track.<<two thumbs-way up>>

Thanks guys. That makes it all clear now.

Hopefully this weekend I will have the power supply functioning again. Havent had any time to work on it lately due to my job and family stuff. This coming Monday I plan on biasing the amp boards. The only info that I have found about this is on the HeadWize site. I am assuming that the biasing method is the same as that which is listed for the original KGSS since the circuits are similar. Before doing this I assume that there should not be any input signal applied to the amps nor anything connected to the outputs other than my voltmeter. My question is does it matter if the volume attenuator is connected while the zero volt bias(es) are performed? If so, should the volume pot be set at zero gain while adjusting the output biases? Secondly, there are two pots involved with the amp board biases, RV1 (in the current source 3rd? stage) and RV2 (in the 15 volt stage). Which of the above on board pots is adjusted for the +/- output 0V bias and which is adjusted for the + output to ground 0V bias? None of the above is very clear at HeadWize. I just want to be sure before I tweak this monster.