So this seemed as good a place as any to post the final details of this. Might as well have all my insanity in one convenient location (for now).
Earlier in the year I sold the Menace. Sad day, for sure, but one that ultimately became more and more necessary as Lily started to take over more and more of the space that I formerly called audio-home. Let's face it, when push comes to shove she's small but deceptively powerful. Anyway, as I found myself now headphone ampless I started digging through drawers in my diy workshop looking to see if I had enough parts to build a power supply for my long out of service Millett Hybrid. What I found was that in typical Nate fashion I'd acquired an insane degree of spare parts for the Menace. So with a little help from Ari (nikongod) we tweaked an existing design that used the same tube compliment by had a transformer coupled output and created what I named the MenaceTC Lite. Why Lite? Well, two reasons, one it weighs less than the original Menace due largely to the fact that it uses a SS power supply and two, the real MenaceTC is still sitting in 4 more boxes and is my "keep me sane this winter" project. When I get a chance I'll try to finish up the Lite schematic and post it, it's a deceptively simple looking beast but is not without it's share of neat tricks. For one thing it's a choke filtered power supply rather than the typical throw a huge cap in there style, it uses LEDs to bias the input tube along with some other trickery that Ari will have to explain. But this is getting long, so without further adieu here she is in mostly finished garb.
External Shots
Power Supply Side
Amp Side
Low Front
Back
"Dusty's Detail" (custom black SS washers)
Upskirt Pron
Overview
Audio Bits
Ground Bar
Initial listening impressions are, well, worthless so far but I'm about to go remedy that. I have the filaments floating right now and eventually I'll do something similar to what I did on the original Menace and reference them to ground. The amp does have just a touch of hum, hardly worth noting, and I believe that once the filament work is done that'll be a thing of the past. For those in the greater NYC area I'll have the amp with me this weekend.