Torpedo

Well, my first post as an official ortho club member I got the T30s from Faust3D and while I could appreciate many good qualities in them, they weren't sounding really astonishing or like a wonderful dynamic-electrostatic hybrid as I was expecting. At that moment I was using the Gilmore Reference. There was punchy, fast and quite clear bass, but excessive. There was organic midrange, with good timbre, and also fast clear treble, but recessed, not extended and kind of too fast decaying. I could anticipate there was speed and resolution somewhere, but overall they behaved like warm non fatiguing cans, though quite upfront and with no stage depth to speak of. At that point I started to do some trials with other pads and putting the CD3000's over them improved comfort -one of the weakest points of these cans- and made the presentation more airy, with deeper stage. The most noticeable and favorable effect was getting more treble and making the presentation more balanced. However using the CD3000's pads over them was quite impractical since there's no way to keep them in place unless I glued them. Then the Beta 22 arrived. Looks like a lot of power had the bass improved, being cleaner, clearer, faster, though still excessive. So I decided to work on the stock pads to see if I could get some of the benefits I noticed when using the CD3000's ones. I placed foam rings beneath the pads and the driver, and glued bovine leather rings over those 70's vinyl pads, so the contact on the ears skin is way more agreeable and managed to get the drivers slightly further from them. Nice improvement but not quite the same as using the thicker bigger pads. I suppose I'd need to find adequate pads to get where I'd like to be, but it's not an easy task. Fortunately I've spotted a shop where they have the 9cm of diameter ones which could fit. I would get them along this week. This afternoon we went to a shop where the only deal with felt of all imaginable thicknesses, densities, colors... I got pieces of medium density in different thickness, and also high density one, but they had just 3 or 8mm thick, so just got the 3mm one. As for now I've replaced the old stock fiber damping piece with 6mm medium density felt. Finally I've got the bass at a more sensible level, still a bit excessive, but not obscuring the midrange and allowing the treble to show off a little more. Since I don't completely trust my own ears when trying tweaks and "improvements" I've asked my wife to listen to the cans. She just had listened them when I made the pads more comfy and thicker, and she didn't like them, too much bass and too dark sound for her taste. When listening after placing the felt, her face looked more like this then like this Looks like we're going in the right direction. I don't know how many of you are familiar with the T30 enclosure. Its shape allows little space for damping, unless you want to compress the wire. I'm considering to change the single 6mm medium density disc for two 3mm discs, one of medium density felt and the other of high density. I'd be thankful if any of you could suggest what would be better to get a bit less bass and helping the treble to "develop" so the whole thing is more balanced. Would you use the higher density felt closer to the driver or would you use the mid density one in that place? Would you use some reflecting material (like aluminum foil) between them? I know I can try it myself and then reporting, but these cans are 30 years old and I don't think the old plastic frame will stand many unscrewing-screwing cycles on the two points the driver is hold to it, so I'd rather try first the things that should work better to get the results I'd like. Advanced thanks for your hints

- Coaxial connectors and wire to make the umbilical from the little Pinkie V2 to the X-Cans V2 which a friend who had them on loan lost. - Felt of 3mm, 6mm, 8mm and 3mm high density to start damping the T30 and see what happens. - A pair of shoes for the wife. She saw them in a shop window and looked so amazed that I couldn't help buying them

Ahmad Jamal - It's magic [2008]

I don't think that much. If the GS1000 are selling for about 1000-1200 euros (975 at an online shop in Spain), I guess the PS1000 will be at 1600-1800 euros, possibly less once the novelty calms down. Are they available for purchase and prompt delivery yet in the US?

Very Happy Birthday mate!!!! I wish you a great one indeed

LOL I would

Interesting new things... I wonder how Zanth has been able to determine how the soundwave gets nice resonances from the wood and then expands freely for the metal... If driver

Which were the others? just in case

Applied some mods to the T30 pads, then went to in-laws for lunch, spent the afternoon there... nice meal indeed my mom in law is a good cook. Gonna see if the mods improve long term comfort and make any changes in sound.

Yep, just for your information, when using the T30 I'm better served using the B22 in the no attenuated mode and I don't listen loud. Those things eat power like Apogees.

Start hunting Deepak. I only have the T30s orthos. They sound quite good from the Gilmore Ref, but the B22 really drives them, stopped thinking about damping them. If I could only get the right pads for these things...

Have a great one mate!!!!

You're going to make me feel a lucky guilty bitch Of course it's clear I was joking, this puppy doesn't suck at all. Probably the best headphone amp has visited this place so far. If overkill has a paradigm, a B22 definitely is.

Yep, I don't know if it's because it's good enough to make previous owners to wish getting a balanced one with "moar blackgates", or because it sucks and everybody gets rid of the poor thing

Recently I purchased a B22 from Spritzer. The unit was built by Nate, so it's a nice Nugget Audio 3 boards + 1 Sigma 22, single ended, 8x gain unit, made to work on 230VAC. Apart from exquisite care to avoid hum and lower the noise floor, it features a dual input to select from two sources from a rear switch. Spritzer had changed this feature to a loop, so the switch was disabled and while one of the inputs is used, the other one works as an output. I point this because that switch resulted a handy addition. The amp works very well and sounds great with all of my cans, but as time living with it passed, I started to feel annoyed for the fact that being my source 3V output and the gain 8x, it was very difficult to get a comfortable listening SPL when using phones with more than 97dB/mW sensitivity, so almost everything in my stash but the Fostex T30. The volume pot is a nice Noble which Spritzer used to replace the original Alps that Nate mounted, which had become noisy according to Spritzer. This Noble is a 10KOhm pot, quite well matched in all of its range but very low level when high attenuation is used. So my problem was that to get a comfortable SPL I had to get it working at a point a bit above the minimum, passing the point where the right channel sounded louder than the left one. But that was a very narrow spot, a bit above that, or when listening to recent recordings (the ones being very compressed and produced at almost 0dB all the time) sound became to be too loud for me. To be more descriptive, I'd say that my usable range with most cans was between 6:30 and 7:15, and with the T30 from 6:30 to 9:00 depending on the recordings. Otherwise I was listening too loud and after a couple of discs, tinnitus appeared I'm no DIYer and have little electronics knowledge, so I contacted n_maher and Spritzer to advise me about which of these choices would be preferable: - Lowering the whole unit's gain to 4x or 2x - Changing the volume control for a stepped attenuator which customized, provided more attenuation than usual in the 5-10 first steps of its range. - Adding extra attenuation at the input. The first choice, lowering the gain is a lot of work. You need to change 4 caps and 2 resistors on both channel boards, and then adjust a trim resistor to get 0 DC offset on each board. It's doable, but still could be not enough and would leave the unit less practical for speakers use or if using very insensitive cans like K1000. Not one of my plans but who knows. The second choice was quite interesting, but a custom attenuator would be rather expensive. So it seemed the third option was the easiest and more affordable. While thinking about it, Spritzer suggested me to contact Ti at AMB Labs so maybe he could advise other alternatives or how implementing them. Ti replied really fast and very helpfully that an interesting work around would be implementing a switchable attenuator, so in one position I would leave the signal untouched and the gain set at 8x, while at the other position, the signal would undergo attenuation provided by one in series resistor and other paralleled resistor. Their values should be calculated depending on the volume control's impedance and desired level of attenuation. The scheme is this: The explanation was posted by Ti at Headwize some time ago. I told all this to my friend Juan Ramon (Hitoridekimasu here) then he came to my place with some parts, his own diagram on how to implement it, and his multimeter which is way better than mine, to match the resistors and check everything was right. By applying this formula: . Rb At= -------------------------- *(see foot) . ( Rb

Yep, I can receive the boards and parts for the Spanish team and deliver them to Hitoridekimasu and Picaudio, or maybe it's more sensible Picaudio receives them (since he's building my boards) and just sends to Hitori his share. No worries, we'll try to make things easier for you Also if you are sourcing parts from Europe which we are using too, we could order and get them, then sending the US part to you, perhaps that saves you shipping costs or custom duties. Even if we weren't using any of them, if some of you needs parts from this side of the pond and we can be of any help, just let us know.

Very good option. I'll wait for Picaudio's comments since he'll be building my amp. Maybe the spanish group sums to it.

Sure, I took some pics of the works. When I upload them I'd open a thread at the DIY forum. It may take a few days though.

Thanks for the comment j4cbo. If the controller board compares that favorably price wise and includes the resistors for the volume control, it makes sense. However dealing with smd soldering can be a problem for some. Maybe leaving that optional if possible might be interesting.

Hitoridekimasu came to my place and we implemented on the B22 a switched attenuator which allows to choose to leave its 8x gain untouched or drop it down to 1.5x (more or less). Fantastic results now I can listen to the PS-1 and other sensitive cans at comfortable levels having the volume pot away from its unbalanced lowest range (right channel louder than left one) and where it allows very fine loudness adjustments. Surprisingly, perhaps for the pot working in a range where it's more lineal or has better channel balance, it sounds a tad bit more open. Thanks to Nate and Birgir who suggested the solution, and to Ti who provided the circuit diagram. Hitori calculated the resistor values to have the gain at the desired level. This B22 sounds damn good

How much raises cost having the controller board for monitoring temperature, selecting source and controlling the volume stepped attenuator compared to mounting a good volume pot and analogue selector switch? Not very worried about the raw cost, but for the noise and additional circuitry and complication it means.

^ Funny

Definitely, if it weren't for my friendship with PICaudio (Rodrigo) I could only participate in the non-Diyer version which just required soldering a few connectors and screwing boards in place. But I think this was the original idea, that people not being skilled DIYers themselves could get the tough work done by someone else, while the pure DIYers could get every single bit and piece apart to build the whole thing by themselves.

Very Happy Bday

It's not very much what I can comment or help since my boards would be built by PICaudio and somehow my participation is linked to his willing to stick into the project. I believe the built amp would be worth those 1300-1500 bucks, probably more considering the prices commercial products carry. Still a lot of money and we'd have to clear up a few things yet. Maybe we'd need to know how many of us are still in it, and if most people want to build their boards and PS or having them built by someone else but mounting them into a chassis, or even if some prefer having the whole thing built by other person. Also if we'd have the same enclosure for all to make cost lower (which maybe wouldn't be that interesting for the ones of us living outside the US), hence if everyone wants a single chassis amp or prefer a two chassis one. It also would be good knowing if everyone will use S22 power supplies or someone is willing to build the original PS Kevin designed for the Dynafet. Once we know all this and have a recount of all variables we'd see if it's still feasible.