spritzer

The quad ALPS layout we used on the Megatron works perfectly as a reference.

I've always been meaning to buy a pound or so of 925 sterling silver wire to make some cables. You know me... I buy in bulk!!! We so have to cryo some headphones one of these days. Take a SR-009 down to 4.2K and see if it changes anything. I do wonder how peek will behave after doing that... A specific thread about ripping shit apart and analyzing it would be fun. Cables are extra fun too as it is all BS. Virtual Dynamics was my favorite, garden hose filled with ferrite powder and bog standard inwall wiring (solid core).

The amps do need to be adjusted when swapping tubes but it's pretty easy to do. The adjustment pots are pretty much the hardest part as they are touchy and can break apart. On the last T1 I bought back to life both the offset pots split in two when I tried to adjust them.

The HD580/600 cables are a pain to work on so I'd use a 650 cable. I do like Ari's idea though.

At least they used an Amphenol plug for that cable... Speaking of connectors, I wouldn't use a RJ45 as the conductors are tiny. What about neutricon? http://eu.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Neutrik/OSC8M/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMsBYeZNO4kNBLFlOQUkTYt3

You have it rough my friend. I really should finish the KSA-5 one of these days but 3 complete sets of KGSSHVk boards need to be tested...

You could also just hack off the ends of a HD650 cable.

As Kevin said, while this may look easy enough the parts are a pain to work with. The traces lift off the PCB if you just look at them the wrong way and to make matters worse, the PSU caps aren't proper snap in units but have longer leads. These are bent into place and then flooded in solder so they can be a pain to replace with modern units.

Ain't it grand? There have been some issues here too and they have consumed a lot of my spare time. Simply getting replacement transformers from SumR out of customs was all but impossible and took a month. Ended up paying 150$ in tax for free replacements. Goes to show how stupid the HF lot is to think I do any of this for the money. If I'd ever sell an amp that I broke even on then I'd take it as the first sign of Ragnarök!!! That said, two more HV's under way. There is an output device in current production that might work at +/-450V so that needs to be tested. The Vbr fits but there is no better test than to build a channel or two. The HV's nature to go all arcy sparcy and issues with finding good sand is pushing me to try a +/-400V version. At that level it is no problem to source output devices in current production making things a whole lot easier. We can also increase the current which is always good....

Have a good one Dinny!!!

I must say I've been contemplating picking up one of those for my HE90...

If a project blows up then the first guess wouldn't be fake parts, especially for the noobs.

Can't go wrong with a Dynalo...

Yup, the TKD is just installed as it comes. Shouldn't need any extra resistors. Those on the Khozmos should be Caddocks but those look like Takman's which is an option they offer. Are you referring to the 400$+ monster metal stepped attenuators? If so then I've never tried them as they are stereo only and who needs that... The other simply have steps but are 100% pots based on a resistive track so you don't loose any resolution. Why people use those I truly don't get though...

There are known issues with Khozmo pots so I'd advice against installing another one. No way to fix the pot too as it's just a fucked design/build. I'd replace it with something else, Alps or TKD spring to mind. http://www.partsconnexion.com/controls_pot_tkd.html I think there is a 20% off deal going on now...

No idea who designed the Studio Six but they are right to not advertise it. Transformers wound with silver is a good way to waste money but I'm far more interested in the core shape, material and winding techniques. Now if all of those aspects are already taken care of then why not drop a few thousand on silver transformers. They did it in the Manhattan Project after all...

Looks good Adrian!! Some news on my end as this landed on Thursday: These are all the latest HV boards and hopefully this is the final version of both power supplies. No more issues with the stacked capacitors shorting to ground, about 4 times the ground plane clearance compared to the first version, better instructions on the board and the bias supply now has a fuse when used off the prereg feed. I also ordered some of my power boards which make wiring the multi voltage transformers easier, especially if using more than one transformer. Small problem as the holes intended for the CL60 are too small but they can go in the transformer mountings anyway.

Is it wrong to see so many problems with such simple amps? I really like the second from the top, thinking that adding Muse caps to the DC heater supply will make up for it being unregulated. "Heater supplies for people who like buying new tubes all the time...."

A switcher asked to deliver this amount of power and on the cheap is never going to be clean. Laptops are even worse as they need a lot of DC-DC converters to function.

The output transformers do the majority of the work in an amp like this so they should be the most expensive piece in the bloody thing. There is also another issue, when connecting many different headphones (with different impedance or even many of the same value) then the load on the transformer is fucked up. Any transformer coupled amp for headphones has to have an impedance selector and this one should have six different settings to fine tune the output to suit the headphones. Now this steaming pile of fail is done on the cheap so they would never do that. When ever Kevin and I can agree on what tubes to use and sit down and design a SET amp for dynamics a wide range of impedance selection is a crucial design point for us. Each one of those tubes has it's role to play. One tube rectifier for the B+ (high voltage line feeding the tubes), two regulator tubes for the power supply, then we have the solo input tube for the amplifier and the two output tubes. What's truly lacking in this amp (and should be there for the price) are custom transformers all around, DC heaters for everything except the rectifier tube, no electrolytic caps anywhere in the amp of HV psu (as in all film caps) and some impedance matching setup.

Even with a desktop unit the USB power supply is less than ideal to say the least. There is also a question of how much of the dac the computer is powering and how the two power systems are interfaced. I like the MSB way of simply letting the computer power the USB input and then send everything optically into the dac. Nothing shared at all... As for splitting the cables, I really can't see an upside to doing that. This is DC and low power at that plus the USB spec is very strict in terms of impedance which this is bound to mess with. While looking for the Studio Six review on 6moons I say they had some piece about this cable as well. A quick glance at what their IT experts say (and king fucknuts) say that HDD's and who makes them matters as well. Citing that Cat6 supersedes Cat5e as some sort of argument just goes to show how clueless these people are. The only bit inside the computer which might make any difference is the RAM as it's acting as the buffer. I doubt it though... For what it's worth I went from a slow as fuck computer to a nice i5 unit with a SSD and 16gb of ram and I didn't hear any difference. Same Belden USB cable though (the one MSB recommends) so that might be the problem...

We knew that was coming. I do wonder if any of those people have ever heard any good amps at all as this one is shit. Look at the pics here and tell me if it is worth it: http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/studiosix/1.html So the cheapest transformers on the market, nice enough parts that won't make up for the crappy amplifier design, being pushed by shills as nobody with any sense would ever buy it... yup that has to be ALO.

The stators are brass so they oxidize a bit but all the old units do that. No crazy/stupid enough to try and fix that... No S/N on the set but the original box has one, nr. 170.

There is no doubt in my mind that a properly designed circuit board is better to p2p wiring. Consistency being the nr.1 feature but the PCB also offers safety, parts can be placed in much closer proximity and with a full ground plane the PCB offers a lot shielding and thus better noise performance. The only snag is with AC filaments running on the PCB, twisted wires pushed right up to the chassis is a better way to do that. The problem though is that the wast majority of PCB's just aren't that great. The layout and execution is lacking so the end result is below par. Now I like to do p2p amps but now we have dirt cheap PCB's so it's just as easy to draw up a circuit board and have it made. I'm pretty cynical but it also always seems to me that manufacturers try to sell very simple circuits off as good when done p2p.

Now you need to shoot some arcs at them...