The Multi Amp aka Dynalo Mk2

[UFN]

2 hours ago, mwl168 said:

After listening to the combination, he told me he is now saving to buy a HD800 to make the best use of the amp.   

Some friend you are

//UFN

[HemiSam]

9 hours ago, mwl168 said:

Thanks guys! John's and Kerry's builds put mine to shame. But putting an amp in a real chassis once in a while does give one a sense of accomplishment 

 

Similar experience here. I have a new found respect for my HD650 after listening to it through the SS Dynalo. I built this one for a friend to drive his HD650. After listening to the combination, he told me he is now saving to buy a HD800 to make the best use of the amp.   

Lucky friend!

I would be curious about the HD800, but I don't think so much on my Dynalo+.  I found the TH900's easier to listen to on the Woo WA7 than the Dynalo+...just a bit too hot up top for me.  I've found as I get older I'm more sensitive about peaky treble and I fear the HD800 would be way too much for me.  The HD650's, on the other hand, are very nice out of the Dynalo+.  I enjoyed them for a good while as my primaries until I started down the e-stat path.  For my dynamic rig I finally settled on the TH900's out of the Woo and shelved the 650's.  I found that if I listened to only the the HD650's, they were great.  The brain burn would happen after a couple of days and I wasn't at all bothered by the veil or whatever one would like to refer to as that slightly less than transparent sound...like everything has had the edges smoothed off a bit too much.  This amp helps that IMO, and I find that the 650's are tough to beat on the value for money scale.  

HS

[mwl168]

On 5/21/2016 at 11:09 AM, HemiSam said:

Lucky friend!

I would be curious about the HD800, but I don't think so much on my Dynalo+.  I found the TH900's easier to listen to on the Woo WA7 than the Dynalo+...just a bit too hot up top for me.  I've found as I get older I'm more sensitive about peaky treble and I fear the HD800 would be way too much for me.  The HD650's, on the other hand, are very nice out of the Dynalo+.  I enjoyed them for a good while as my primaries until I started down the e-stat path.  For my dynamic rig I finally settled on the TH900's out of the Woo and shelved the 650's.  I found that if I listened to only the the HD650's, they were great.  The brain burn would happen after a couple of days and I wasn't at all bothered by the veil or whatever one would like to refer to as that slightly less than transparent sound...like everything has had the edges smoothed off a bit too much.  This amp helps that IMO, and I find that the 650's are tough to beat on the value for money scale.  

HS

Listening to the SS Dynalo and HD650 combo for the past few weeks, I certainly would not associate the term "veil" with the HD650. The friend that I built the SS Dynalo for texted me this morning and independently arrived at the same impression. 

What impresses me about the SS Dynalo is that it somehow manages to sound more revealing and warmer at the same time (compared to the already great original Dynalo). It also gives the HD650 bass extension I previously did not know was possible. I wonder how much can be attributed to Kevin's wonderful GoldenReference PS.

Never heard the TH900. Only listened to the HD800 very briefly in an uncontrolled environment (2011 Annual DIY event at SF), its bright treble left me a scar that has not quite healed. 

Listened to Nelson Pass's "The Beast" driving his DIY Lowther at the same event. That's something very special!  

[HemiSam]

There's a lot of debate re the 650's and the "veil" term and I appreciate where you're coming from.  If all I listen to are the 650s, there's no issue to speak of for me.  If I switch to something more transparent like my e-stat rig in the same session then it jumps out of me.  Don't know if it's a brain burn-in issue or what, but it does underscore the differences between the setups and the 650's are far less neutral to my ears.  I'd hear the same thing on other sets of cans I've owned over the last few years, but that's just me.  Never ceases to amaze me how we hear things so differently in the community...probably a good thing.  Just makes comparisons posted on the interwebs more challenging...

I listen to a lot of guitar music.  Larry Carlton and Robben Ford "Unplugged" I can't seem to get enough of.  Grant Green and Hubert Laws playing Creature...wow.  

HS

[sorenb]

13 minutes ago, HemiSam said:

There's a lot of debate re the 650's and the "veil" term and I appreciate where you're coming from.  If all I listen to are the 650s, there's no issue to speak of for me.  If I switch to something more transparent like my e-stat rig in the same session then it jumps out of me.  Don't know if it's a brain burn-in issue or what, but it does underscore the differences between the setups and the 650's are far less neutral to my ears.  I'd hear the same thing on other sets of cans I've owned over the last few years, but that's just me.  Never ceases to amaze me how we hear things so differently in the community...probably a good thing.  Just makes comparisons posted on the interwebs more challenging...

I listen to a lot of guitar music.  Larry Carlton and Robben Ford "Unplugged" I can't seem to get enough of.  Grant Green and Hubert Laws playing Creature...wow.  

HS

you might enjoy "No Substitution" with the same gentlemen, or "Last Nite" although 'only' Larry and his 335

Edited May 22, 2016 by sorenb

[HemiSam]

13 minutes ago, sorenb said:

you might enjoy "No Substitution" with the same gentlemen, or "Last Nite" although 'only' Larry and his 335

Thanks, Soren.  Hope all is well with you.

Larry is an amazing guitar player.   

If you like bluesy stuff, check out Bozz Scaggs and Duane Allman playing Loan Me a Dime...good stuff.

HS

[sorenb]

1 minute ago, HemiSam said:

Thanks, Soren.  Hope all is well with you.

Larry is an amazing guitar player.   

If you like bluesy stuff, check out Bozz Scaggs and Duane Allman playing Loan Me a Dime...good stuff.

HS

sorry ....not Robbin Ford but rather Steve Lukather at No Substitutions ... but Larry holds, also the old Crusader album, Those Southern Knights ....another Larry than the one who bend over during the "Four Play" albums ;o)

[HemiSam]

55 minutes ago, sorenb said:

sorry ....not Robbin Ford but rather Steve Lukather at No Substitutions ... but Larry holds, also the old Crusader album, Those Southern Knights ....another Larry than the one who bend over during the "Four Play" albums ;o)

I got it, buddy.  I looked it up earlier on youtube and immediately popped up a Larry and Steve live jam....great stuff!  Thanks for sharing.

Hope the builds are going well for you.

HS

[mwl168]

1 hour ago, HemiSam said:

There's a lot of debate re the 650's and the "veil" term and I appreciate where you're coming from.  If all I listen to are the 650s, there's no issue to speak of for me.  If I switch to something more transparent like my e-stat rig in the same session then it jumps out of me.  Don't know if it's a brain burn-in issue or what, but it does underscore the differences between the setups and the 650's are far less neutral to my ears.  I'd hear the same thing on other sets of cans I've owned over the last few years, but that's just me.  Never ceases to amaze me how we hear things so differently in the community...probably a good thing.  Just makes comparisons posted on the interwebs more challenging...

I listen to a lot of guitar music.  Larry Carlton and Robben Ford "Unplugged" I can't seem to get enough of.  Grant Green and Hubert Laws playing Creature...wow.  

HS

Oh, I guess I should have been more specific. I subconsciously separate my ES phones (007 and 009) from the dynamic phones in two different camps and don't compare them side by side.  In absolute terms, my 009 and 007 setup is hands down better in every way. No comparison in my personal opinion.

Edited May 22, 2016 by mwl168

[sbelyo]

does anyone have a pair of the through hole boards?

[sbelyo]

Now that I've re-read the thread and want to build this amp.  Is this correct ?

For alps quad rk27
8/7/2015  6:02 PM        34599 alpsquad3.zip

Current Dynalo SS board with through hole for everything except for pzta56 and pzta06
2/6/2016  9:25 AM       325771 kgdynalobal9.zip

Current working and tested Golden Reference board used with Dynalo
6/7/2015  1:30 PM       339289 goldenreference.zip

[gepardcv]

I think goldenreference6.zip (single board) and the goldenreference7plus.zip and goldenreference7minus.zip pair (split board) are the latest available GRLV versions. They use different parts from the original goldenreference.zip (in particular, the MJW21193 should either be attached to a heatsink, or for a compact Dynalo, use the chassis as a heatsink; you may need to use an aluminum oxide pad and shoulder washers if the tab is not insulated). Disclaimer: I haven't gotten around to building any of the above yet.

The other Gerbers in your post look like the right versions. You may also want to ask Birgir for XLR jack mount PCBs.

[jdhore]

I'm curious and i'm no expert on amp design by any means...

 

Will a 4-pin male XLR Balanced -> 1/4" female TRS jack adapter work with a balanced Dynalo Mk2?

 

I know a bunch of balanced amps get very unhappy when you "convert" their output to single-ended and i'm wondering if Dynalo Mk2 has that issue as well. I want to have one amp that can drive both my headphones I have balanced cables for and the headphones that I don't or can only be single-ended.

 

Thanks!

[kevin gilmore]

4 pin, ABSOLUTELY NOT

you put a 5 pin on the amplifier output. and then a 5 pin to 4 pin tail for balanced, and a 5 pin to 3 pin for se.

 

[nopants]

5 pin lemo

[kevin gilmore]

that gets expensive, but sure.

[spritzer]

You could use a 4 pin with a grounding tale and connect it to something like the RCA shield on the back. 

But yeah, 4 pin is just stupid but somehow the standard.

[luvdunhill]

Team 5 Pin!

[sbelyo]

If you're not going to use se out is 4 pin ok then?

[UFN]

Yes. There's just no way to have the ground.connection on a 4-pin. Kevin's 5-pin suggestion just allows you to wire both BAL and SE out of the amp and then decide via pigtail adapters which connection you want to use

/U.

[ang728]

On 2016/5/28 at 2:26 AM, jdhore said:

I'm curious and i'm no expert on amp design by any means...

 

Will a 4-pin male XLR Balanced -> 1/4" female TRS jack adapter work with a balanced Dynalo Mk2?

 

I know a bunch of balanced amps get very unhappy when you "convert" their output to single-ended and i'm wondering if Dynalo Mk2 has that issue as well. I want to have one amp that can drive both my headphones I have balanced cables for and the headphones that I don't or can only be single-ended.

 

Thanks!

why don't try combo XLR Jacks ? they can do both 3pin XLR and Single-ended TRS,but sure 5 pin XLR with converting cable is a good choice also

Edited May 29, 2016 by ang728

[kevin gilmore]

because then you still need 2 of them and then a dual xlr to single 4 pin adapter

Mikhail did this stupid shit on that monster I have.

 

[mtoc]

On 2015/6/6 at 10:29 PM, kevin gilmore said:

so there were problems with the golden reference board, plus I added another stage

to bring the noise down to 1.2 nanovolts peak to peak. (the 120hz is now at the rest of the noise....)

wow!!! psu with 1.2 nanovolts noise, this is king!!!! a guy named rob watts declares the noise from his psu is 0.22 uv, but our gr is 1.2 nanovolts!

http://www.head-fi.org/t/766517/chord-electronics-dave/2940#post_12580084

[Kerry]

I've been meaning to get to this for the last year or so.  I was motivated to see if I could get this down in size

The current board is 4.8" x 6.8" and is an all in one.  Everything from power inlet to outputs. 

I still have a few things I'd like to get to, including having an option for the regulators to be off-board as well.  I'm using some Mean Well switchers at 24V for the +/- rails then using the TPS7A4700 / TPS7A33 for a second stage regulation down to +/- 20V.  These regulators have 4uV / 16uV noise respectively (not bad).

There's a switch in front that allows you to change between SE and Balanced inputs via some relays.

Here are some pics of where it stands so far...

 

[palchiu]

3 minutes ago, Kerry said:

I've been meaning to get to this for the last year or so.  I was motivated to see if I could get this down in size

The current board is 4.8" x 6.8" and is an all in one.  Everything from power inlet to outputs. 

I still have a few things I'd like to get to, including having an option for the regulators to be off-board as well.  I'm using some Mean Well switchers at 24V for the +/- rails then using the TPS7A4700 / TPS7A33 for a second stage regulation down to +/- 20V.  These regulators have 4uV / 16uV noise respectively (not bad).

There's a switch in front that allows you to change between SE and Balanced inputs via some relays.

Here are some pics of where it stands so far...

 

It's awesome!!!