Beefy

Yeah, I'd be more worried about the sledgehammer in the stomach.

Thanks! It sure is nails. She had a cinder block smashed on her stomach while lying on it...... Pretty bloody hard getting good exposure though, considering the horrible, horrible lighting.

Pretty proud of this shot from the Busker's Festival......

The textbook answer would be lack of control in the bass. With something like orthos that have a really light diaphragm, a high damping factor helps keep it under control.

I always knew how rectifiers worked, but never bothered with investigating it any deeper beyond calculating required secondary voltages into a bridge rectifier. So I Just found a really useful reference for transformer voltage conversions and current outputs here. So Pete's 250VAC 130mA transformer into a capacitor loaded bridge rectifier results in 350VDC, but only 80.6mA DC current. The hack I put together from a 500VAC 81mA transformer into a capacitor loaded full-wave rectifier results in 355VDC, and holds the same 81mA current. Pretty snazzy, really. So much information to digest!

Oh, absolutely. Just seemed like something good to practice on until I collect a few more options for amp schematics. Still looking closely at the ECC99 SRPP for inspiration as well, because the power supply for this sims at 9mV ripple. The resistor-loaded 12AU7 seems like it would benefit from ripple being lower, or from a CCS of course......

HEH, fair call. I'm also seeing that Solen polypropylene caps are surprisingly inexpensive and compact. 39

Thankfully, I am more than happy to yield to the chief circular hole cutter. If this all goes ahead I will likely be lazy and go with one of the Hammond wood boxes with a FPE top plate.

HEH, I've already started investigating motor run caps. The trump card is that I can increase the first filter cap to 40

Alright, as a bit of an intellectual exercise I have started investigating tube rectified PSU's. I simmed up the Torpedo/Sausage in PSUD2 based on the BOM posted here, the stated 275V B+ and some of my best-guesses from internal photos. I figure 225VAC (I worked backwards to this), and I can't sim 1N5062 so I used a 1N4007 bridge rectifier. It looks like a CLCRC filter with 10

Yeah, I much prefer the other ones with the panel that just sits on top......

And someone at Head Case posted it as well...... http://www.head-case.org/forums/do-yourself/8622-new-hammond-case-lines.html Unfortunately, they seem pretty damn pricey. I don't think that one of the big 17" wide ones comes in under $110. [EDIT] Better prices at Angela though!

There is also an alternate output tube to the 6080 that has a lower output impedance...... the 5998 brings it down to 70R versus the 6080's 120R. Might be worth checking that out. Here is the thread I was looking at, probably the same one you found as well! http://www.bottlehead.com/smf/index.php/topic,789.0.html

Thanks, that is a very kind offer. I hope that you don't come to regret it! All options I have read about, some I understand, some not so much. But I'm certainly not above choosing moar tubez simply because they are pretty. I actually saw those already amongst many Google searches for parafeed and headphones. Hell of a lot cheaper than a pair of Sowters, so I'll definitely keep them in mind.

I think I am sold on the benefits of parafeed based on some of dsavitsk's stuff I have been reading, so that is certainly the direction I am heading..... I am trying to digest his L'espressivo projects right now, and think it might be worthwhile waiting for the DIY L'espressivo kit he and tomb are currently prototyping but building it P2P with better iron. And obviously Pete Millett's ECC99 SRPP that I mentioned earlier. But any other specific schematics you can point me to would be more than welcome! Certainly considered this, but Halifax is a small city. I have found one radio club that has one or two swap meets a year, but it certainly isn't what you would see in bigger US locations. I think that building it Bottlehead style with top plate from FPE and simple wood base will be the best way to go.

That is a great outlook to have. Best of luck!

...... fair call

See, what you guys are saying isn't exactly striking me as simple...... I grew up in the world of AMB's projects which are exquisitely documented with little to no modification necessary. I can read a schematic and work out how most things work, but I think my limited learning capacity is better spent on learning the logistics of implementing something from scratch rather than trying to dream up something new. With respect to Stax versus dynamics...... despite it's apparent shortcomings, I don't think I am ready to supplant the Exstata just yet, and there is plenty of the dynamic world I still haven't sampled. Not ever having heard any of the high end Sennheisers or Beyers is a big gap in my listening resume, and something I could definitely remedy with a tube amp for dynamics.

No, but it would certainly be a good place to go next. Thanks! I've had a bit of a look over Pete Millett's stuff since his was the first name that came to mind after Nate posted, and found this: ECC99 SRPP Headphone Amp. Perhaps on the high end of the first-build difficulty chart, but certainly heading in the right direction.....?

Wise words. This is partly why I was leaning towards the S.E.X., but even then I probably won't learn much beyond technique. I think you're probably right, but I'm just a little concerned that it will take up too much time. Or maybe that is just the excuse I'm using for being lazy and not pushing myself hard enough...... Well, it would certainly be something. I mean, I'm pretty sure I could build a B22 or Dynahi without any problems...... but why? It would just be more of the same, really.

HA! I remember building a cheap theremin as one of my first electronics projects about 18 years ago......

Yeah, you can go off some people really quickly...... I just figure the electronics themselves will only keep me busy for a day. The wood finishing and tube rolling will keep me busy for a bit I suppose. All most excellent suggestions. Speakers are a probably no-go because of apartment living, and I'm trying to stick to headphones because I would almost certainly have to abandon anything speaker related if/when I return to Australia. And I did build some kit speakers a couple of years ago, and I think I generally prefer the electronics. In terms of broad design decisions, I really think that P2P and 'proper' tubes is the one thing I have no experience with. Parafeed, OTL, whatever, wouldn't really matter provided the casework is within my limited resources. As I said, the Bottlehead kits look good to wet my feet...... Mapletree kits are also a possibility, but they don't seem to set my pants on fire quite as much as Bottlehead. Also looking at things like the Bijou and Hagerman Castanet as possibilities, though less keen on these as they are not P2P.

The awesome thing about peltier coolers is how completely bloody inefficient they are. You could use the heat generated to pre-warm two or three other amps.......

This is probably going to seem like a go-to-Head-Fi thread, but I'm in a bit of a DIY and audio equipment rut, and I really trust Head-Case a whole lot more to get me out of it...... I've built myself DACs for home (Buffalo) and office (y2). I've got an M3 at the office with Audio Technica ESW9's and AD900's, I have the Exstata with SR-Lambdas at home, and I've built and sold a couple of Millett Hybrids. I'm pretty chuffed with all of this equipment, but feel that I'm still a long distance from my audio end-game and really want to keep doing more DIY. So where do I go now? I'd really like to challenge myself with something new to further my electronics skills, and keep thinking that a P-P tube build would be a good idea. Unfortunately, I am severely limited in the tools and workspace required to prepare a chassis for tubes, and even with a workshop I just plain suck at anything mechanical. ironbut's thread about the Bottlehead Crack got me really interested in P-P tube kits, and it is cheap enough that I could buy one, do some basic upgrades and also grab some HD650's for a completely new flavour from my current phones and amps. But it is a fairly simple kit and I doubt it would kill the DIY bug for very long. The Bottlehead S.E.X. looks like it would be a more interesting and involved build, but the kit is considerably more expensive. And while my budget isn't really that tight, the upgrades I feel I would need to make the S.E.X a really great amp would start getting very expensive, and I doubt I could justify any new phones in there. So what do you think folks? What would you suggest to further my audio journey, and also satisfy my lust for solder fumes?

ECC? Really? In any case, the Corsair CM3X8GSDKIT1066 seems to match the Mushkin on specs, but cheaper. [EDIT] Oh, but not at Newegg.