Looks fine to me? I totally see the green now, and think it looks great with the smooth finish contrasted against the top plate color and texture.
Your "tastefully mismatched", looks classy as heck to me!
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L0rdGwyn's DIY Audio
- Thread starter L0rdGwyn
- Start date
Your "tastefully mismatched", looks classy as heck to me!
Thanks! Yeah it just doesn't show off the dark and reflective aspect of the finish, you can sort of see it on the side panel, but hey it's close enough. Yesterday I put I all the tubes in place as well as the anode cap leads for the HY69, really like how it's going to look when completely done, but I can't show that yet!! Going to do a little more work on it today.
I've got some other stuff to do though. The tube / DIY parts situation is getting a little out of hand at my small house lately, so I rented a small storage unit, gonna move some tubes and other gear there today. And ship the Aegis.
"And ship the Aegis."
I just got a lot more excited about CanJam Dallas reading this.
I am seriously planning on being the first one there and I am heading straight to the ZMF room and to the Aegis. I am bringing my VC's with my SE FAW Noir Hybrid cable so I have my familiar, and I can't wait to hear that amp!
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Most of the interior parts are now mounted, haven't done the interstage transformers yet as there will be wiring that needs to be done before they're put in place. Going to work on the AVC next.
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I finished up the AVC chassis this morning. Once again uses KLE Innovations connectors, and VH Audio Pulsar OCC coaxial wire, same stuff I used for the interconnects ($$$). The wire is high quality, but oh man what a pain it is to use! Planning to use it again for the connection between the RCAs and the D3a grids in the amplifier chassis.
All closed up. Vintage Japanese Alcoknob, same one going on the amplifier chassis for the impedance selector.
Giving it a test run with the 2A3 amp. Not necessarily the ideal situation, but definitely good enough for a comparison, just turn the volume on the 2A3 amp to max, it has a 50K input impedance.
I did some quick A-B testing of my PCM56 DAC straight into the 2A3 amp using the TKD volume pot vs into the AVC. There is an undenial and obvious benefit to using the AVC. It will take some time to discern all the benefits, but the most obvious is the music is simply more full bodied and weighty.
The general thought behind why an AVC sounds better is that it performs voltage to current conversion of the input signal, as opposed to a conventional resistor volume potentiometer where excess signal is simply lost in the pot as heat. You can read about it here: https://intactaudio.com/atten_FAQ.html
All closed up. Vintage Japanese Alcoknob, same one going on the amplifier chassis for the impedance selector.
Giving it a test run with the 2A3 amp. Not necessarily the ideal situation, but definitely good enough for a comparison, just turn the volume on the 2A3 amp to max, it has a 50K input impedance.
I did some quick A-B testing of my PCM56 DAC straight into the 2A3 amp using the TKD volume pot vs into the AVC. There is an undenial and obvious benefit to using the AVC. It will take some time to discern all the benefits, but the most obvious is the music is simply more full bodied and weighty.
The general thought behind why an AVC sounds better is that it performs voltage to current conversion of the input signal, as opposed to a conventional resistor volume potentiometer where excess signal is simply lost in the pot as heat. You can read about it here: https://intactaudio.com/atten_FAQ.html
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Made some significant progress today on the amplifier circuit. Got the mains transformers all wired up, set up the heater supply for the D3a, the filament supply for the HY69, and wired up the output transformers and impedance selector switch.
Here are those thoriated tungsten filaments all lit up. The current draw on the HY69 filaments is all over the place, so I'll probably have to set up the regulators for a specific set of tubes, then make adjustments if I change them.
Not a whole lot else to do to be honest, think I'll finish the amp on Wednesday or Thursday.
Here are those thoriated tungsten filaments all lit up. The current draw on the HY69 filaments is all over the place, so I'll probably have to set up the regulators for a specific set of tubes, then make adjustments if I change them.
Not a whole lot else to do to be honest, think I'll finish the amp on Wednesday or Thursday.
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Getting started on the HY69 amp work this morning, planning to finish it today! Very exciting but also a little nerve-wracking as I'm a little concerned about how much noise these mains transformers are going to generate, haven't used this company before so it's a bit of an unknown. Going to be surprised if I need to do some additional shielding, but hey there's only one way to find out 
What’s the purpose of this amp, feature and use case etc ? if you don’t mind me asking.Getting started on the HY69 amp work this morning, planning to finish it today! Very exciting but also a little nerve-wracking as I'm a little concerned about how much noise these mains transformers are going to generate, haven't used this company before so it's a bit of an unknown. Going to be surprised if I need to do some additional shielding, but hey there's only one way to find out
ArmchairPhilosopher
Headphoneus Supremus
To quote a certain under-appreciated movie…
Kirk: "I'm doing this because I enjoy it! Not to mention the most important reason for climbing a mountain…"
Spock, raises an eye brow: "…and that is?"
Kirk, smiles: "Because it's there."
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This is meant to be my personal end game amplifier, just a one off build using high end custom components and weird tubes. It uses an autoformer volume control, D3a input stage, 49% nickel core interstate transformers, and an HY69 directly heated pentode cathode follower output stage with 49% nickel core output transformers with 300ohm, 75ohm, and 16ohm taps. So in terms of features it's very bare bones, it is completely designed to just sound good!
Awesome !! Hope to see it’s completion soon and maybe some impressions.
Well, the HY69 amp is done.
Closed up.
Top without tubes.
And the finished amplifier chassis, and next to the AVC chassis.
Set up on the desk.
Only had around a half our or so with it, but it sounds amazing. However, as I expected, there is a low level hum audible on the higher impedance settings. I'll have to decide if and how far I'd like to pursue improving it, it's possible it may not be able to be gotten rid of entirely, a consequence of mixing directly heated tubes (high noise circuitry) with interstage transformer coupling (high sensitivity). I might just let it be great but flawed, as anything to lower the noise would require significantly altering the aesthetics of the amp (i.e., shielding the transformers).
Regardless, I'm very happy with the sound and the aesthetics. Off to do some yoga, then more listening tonight!
Closed up.
Top without tubes.
And the finished amplifier chassis, and next to the AVC chassis.
Set up on the desk.
Only had around a half our or so with it, but it sounds amazing. However, as I expected, there is a low level hum audible on the higher impedance settings. I'll have to decide if and how far I'd like to pursue improving it, it's possible it may not be able to be gotten rid of entirely, a consequence of mixing directly heated tubes (high noise circuitry) with interstage transformer coupling (high sensitivity). I might just let it be great but flawed, as anything to lower the noise would require significantly altering the aesthetics of the amp (i.e., shielding the transformers).
Regardless, I'm very happy with the sound and the aesthetics. Off to do some yoga, then more listening tonight!
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Toonartist
Formerly known as dAndis67
Beautiful.... looks stunning!!
Holy moly it looks beautiful
Incredible! Those tubes glow big time and I love it.Well, the HY69 amp is done. Here's the circuit.
Closed up.
Top without tubes.
And the finished amplifier chassis, and next to the AVC chassis.
Set up on the desk.
Only had around a half our or so with it, but it sounds amazing. However, as I expected, there is a low level hum audible on the higher impedance settings. I'll have to decide if and how far I'd like to pursue improving it, it's possible it may not be able to be gotten rid of entirely, a consequence of mixing directly heated tubes (high noise circuitry) with interstage transformer coupling (high sensitivity). I might just let it be great but flawed, as anything to lower the noise would require significantly altering the aesthetics of the amp (i.e., shielding the transformers).
Regardless, I'm very happy with the sound and the aesthetics. Off to do some yoga, then more listening tonight!
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