The Menace

[fierce_freak]

Sweet, hope it goes well.

[n_maher]

So fing sweet...

The amp does not like having an ipod for a source but once attached to a proper CD player (dragged my Arcam down from upstairs) and sweet, sweet music with damn near silent background!!!

[grawk]

congrats

[fierce_freak]

Awesome stuff Nate...good job

[n_maher]

The only other thing worth adding is that Pete's a friggen genius. Last night we cooked up an alternate grounding scheme that included the addition of a ground loop breaker and fourth wire through the B+ umbilical. It worked wonders.

I'm speechless.

[Fitz]

So when are you gonna let reks borrow it to give us his impressions?

[n_maher]

So when are you gonna let reks borrow it to give us his impressions?

I'm nervous as hell about shipping this to CanJam tomorrow so odds are when it returns home after that I won't be letting it out of my sight for a good long time.

And FWIW, I don't believe in the Reks curse.

[Smeggy]

I'm looking forward to some extensive listening impressions.

[n_maher]

I'm looking forward to some extensive listening impressions.

Just spent a solid hour with it, 60% w/ my HD650s and 40% w/ the Woody HF-1s. My previous Wheatfield HA-2 (cousin of the Menace) couldn't drive the HF-1s very well at all. The Menace, different story altogether. I like, I like a lot. But that's like asking a parent if their kid is cute or good at sports, so let's see what comes out of CanJam for impressions and go from there.

so you're sending it to me?

Jacob,

Round trip shipping would likely exceed $300, I'm sure you don't want to foot that bill and even if you did I finally finished a project for me. I think I'll let myself enjoy it for a while. Now, as to whether or not I'll just sell my beta22 parts, that remains to be seen.

[n_maher]

it's that heavy? ouch. i was joking anyway, you can keep your filthy headphone amp.

The power supply is probably 50 to 60lbs (we'll find out tomorrow) and the amp another 15 or so. They'll require separate packaging in custom boxes and the tubes that come with it aren't exactly cheapo's either.

And thanks, I'll keep my filthy headphone amp thankyouverymuch.

[boomana]

Congrats, Nate! I think your table is near mine at CanJam, so I hope to get in some good listening.

[Dusty Chalk]

Cats can't be repaired.

[grawk]

Cats can't be repaired.

but they can be fixed

[boomana]

Nope. I'll just leave him with some work to do while I'm away. I'm sure he'll find some cables lying around while I'm gone. Oh, and about recabling your speakers, he's almost ready for that level of work, but I'd need to have them in house for a few months to make sure the jobs done right. Feel free to ship them to me any time.

Cats can't be repaired.

Sure they can. It's called neutering. It repaired all his flaws.

EDIT: grawk beat me to it.

[Voltron]

The big sleep is the only way to fix a cat.

Nice to hear some actual listening is going on over there Nate. The amp is going to be a big hit at the 'Jam and we're all looking forward to hearing it. Now pack it up extra careful-like and get ready for the trip!

[boomana]

i'd better send my amp, too, in case you can't drive them.

Excellent idea!

[Salt Peanuts]

Congrats, Nate! Good to see the amp is working great and you've finally finished your own project!

[swt61]

Nate it must be a great feeling to give birth to a healthy amp with the correct number of tubes and traffos! (Hands Nate cigar) But I bet the trip through the birth canal was a doosy! That's a big boy!

Congrats on a job well done and a great amp!

[n_maher]

one point off for the gluing of the 2 caps to the chassis in the power supply...

I wanted to revisit this point as it was actually something that bothered me while I was wiring the ps/amp but I was at a loss as to how to do it differently. So I'm all ears guys, when you've got larger caps that are not going to be directly mounted to the chassis how do you go about supporting them so they're not just hung from the wires? I tried to review some of what I thought were the better examples of PTP wiring before starting to wire this amp and I didn't see much that gave me any bright ideas for smaller, but still too large to air wire, caps.

[kevin gilmore]

sideways capacitor clamps. Basically a loop of steel, usually with insulation and

a mounting tab you secure to the chassis.

[aerius]

So I'm all ears guys, when you've got larger caps that are not going to be directly mounted to the chassis how do you go about supporting them so they're not just hung from the wires?

Duct tape. You wrap the caps with a couple layers of duct tape, then duct tape it to the chassis.

One of the neater solutions I've seen so far use plastic battery holders. The caps just happened to fit nicely in a AA or C size battery holder, so the guy just glued the caps into the holder and screwed it into the chassis.

[n_maher]

sideways capacitor clamps. Basically a loop of steel, usually with insulation and

a mounting tab you secure to the chassis.

Thanks Kevin, I'll have to get busy googling. I haven't seen those at the usual suspects like Antique Electronics, Percy or Parts Connexion.

Duct tape. You wrap the caps with a couple layers of duct tape, then duct tape it to the chassis.

I'm sorry, but in my mind duct tape is a far worse solution than hot glue. I'm sure it's fine for insulation between the caps but as a permanent or even semi permanent mount no way. If I'm going to do something other than hot glue I want a solid mechanical connection, not adhesive.

[luvdunhill]

Thanks Kevin, I'll have to get busy googling

what about some heatshrink and a common hose-clamp?

[kevin gilmore]

here you go

http://www.go2marine.com/category.do?no=13120

you can use the cable tie anchor mounts, or the plastic cable straps

or what i was thinking was the line support clips.

What i was originally referring to is called line support clips here...

[n_maher]

Thanks Kevin, I'll have to swing by my local West Marine and see if they've got anything similar in stock. I'd greatly prefer to use something like that rather the glue technique.