I'm new here

[Captain Valve]

Hi to everyone,

My name is Aleks, and I'm heavily into valve based amplifiers and analogue gear in general. I have my own workshop and build a lot of my gear designing it from scratch. Lately i've been buying cheap chinese valve amps and using them as project platforms. I recently gutted a pair of Doge 9 monoblocks and implemented my own design using tango outputs and my own driver circuitry. They also have selectable feedback, with none at all or a small amount. Power is modest at 50 watts and the VT4Cs are biased for class A operation.

I've also been going down the Technics 1210 mod route. I currently have fitted SME V with 2M black, time step bearing, funk platter and home brew power supply. I want to get a SR3 or 5 at some point. I love this deck and we have been together 26 years now.

My speakers are currently B&W 683s and I like them a lot. Until I can afford something better they will do. Toying with the idea of building a pair of ATCs from wilmslow. Must go and listen in their demo room.

I like conrad johnson pre-amps and have a PV-9 and PV-10. The PV-9 just does it for me. I know it's not the most neutral of pre-amps but it works very well with the technics 1210 and I'm very happy with it. I modified it when I got it and ditched the 6FQ7s for telefunken 6463s. This improved the dynamics and I think this is down to the 6463 having a higher gm than the 6FQ7s.

My CD source is 100% diy. I have an audionote kits DAC3.1 which I'm over the moon with. My transport is a shigaclone MKII which was a pain to make but ultimately very rewarding once it worked. It's all surface mount and requires a lot of attention to detail to solder.

I've attached a few pictures of some of my gear and projects. The 300B amp is now 20 years old and was the first valve amp I ever built and still sounds great. The monoblocks are the stripped Doge 9s and they are my everyday amplifiers.


1410414105141061410714108

My music tastes are eclectic and I listen to most genres appart from jazz. I'm also into motorbikes and air cooled Porsches. I also have a lot of friends in bands and support them technically with decent home brew mics.

I hope i get to meet some of you for real in the future and listen to other peoples systems and gear.

Aleks

[Firebottle]

Hello Aleks welcome to AoS>

Great name Captain Valve and wonderful looking workshop :thumbsup:

:cool: Alan

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Aleks.

Wow there can't be many people who have built their own CDP! (In fact I think we have only had one other member who was an enthusiastic audio DIY'er and who had built his own CDP amongs other items). You are fortunate in possessing such high quality test gear: Rhode & Shwartz signal generator and HP scopes and spectrum analyser. :)

You are also in good company here with your modified Technics 1210, SME V arm and Ortofon 2M Black. :)

Would be interested to learn a little more about your "decent homebrew mics".

Enjoy the Forum

Regards
Barry

[trio leo]

Hi Aleks,
Welcome to the AoS from me, wow you really are into diy electrics aren't you, I don't know an ohm from a watt.

Whatever does it for you, respect, plenty of like minded folk on this friendly forum.

Enjoy your music :)

cheers Al

[struth]

Nice stuff Aleks. Love those golden glowing valves.

[Captain Valve]

Thanks for the warm words of welcome.

Barry, I'm a member of Group Diy and we try and reproduce the classic mics for a fraction of the price of the genuine article. Using the group as a development platform members continually improve and try different flavours of DIY mics. Some members do the PCB design work and most of us evaluate and aid the circuit design. There are a smal group of people who provide mic capsules that try and be as true to the original counterparts. Mic bodies are often obtained by buying a cheap chinese donor mic and gutting it before putting in the new design.

I built a modern take on the Neuman u47 using parts from a variety of sources. I got a cheap donor mic for less than £100 and then built a power supply in an old ammo box. I've put some pictures below. When you think a U47 sells for around £7000 to £10000 a diy one can be had for £500. We are not pretending that that the repro is exactly the same as the original but it's pretty damn close.

141211412214123

Aleks

[Barry]

Thanks for the warm words of welcome.

Barry, I'm a member of Group Diy and we try and reproduce the classic mics for a fraction of the price of the genuine article. Using the group as a development platform members continually improve and try different flavours of DIY mics. Some members do the PCB design work and most of us evaluate and aid the circuit design. There are a smal group of people who provide mic capsules that try and be as true to the original counterparts. Mic bodies are often obtained by buying a cheap chinese donor mic and gutting it before putting in the new design.

I built a modern take on the Neuman U47 using parts from a variety of sources. I got a cheap donor mic for less than £100 and then built a power supply in an old ammo box. I've put some pictures below. When you think a U47 sells for around £7000 to £10000 a diy one can be had for £500. We are not pretending that that the repro is exactly the same as the original but it's pretty damn close.

141211412214123

Aleks

That's very interesting Aleks.

What would you recommend for use with a Nagra portable tape machine? The Nagra has a +48V phantom power supply for condenser mics. I was thinking of something like a Schoeps or Sennheiser.

[Firebottle]

That looks the biz Aleks, I know someone who would be very interested in this>
Are you willing to share the details?

:) Alan

[Captain Valve]

Alan,

I'm 100% happy to share. The various U47 projects at group diy are all open source. The power supply PCB is available in the white market section as is the main mic pcb and transformer from I/O audio. I used a Beezneez K7 capsule www.beesneezmicrophones.com.au. They are not the only makers of capsules. Thiersch do some awesome capsules as do a few others. The donor mic was a T-Bone SCT-700 which i got from Thomann. My whole build cost as follows, £100 donor mic which inlcudes carry case, lead, shock mount, Beezneez K7 capsule £240, mic PCB kit and transformer £220, psu including ammo box, pcb, transformer around £100.

I've also built several Neuman u87s, these cost around £350 to £450. The cost is largely based on the price of a capsule and the donor mic. The pcb and components cost less than £50.

14124

There is tonnes of info on lots of diy mics at group diy and to suit all budgets. If you can solder and are handy with a drill and files, it's fairly easy to make good looking PSU cases for tube mics. Failing that there are people selling vintage looking bare PSU chassis for around £50. My ammo box was £8 off ebay.

Aleks

[Captain Valve]

Barry,

I've heard good things about the Schoeps mics but haven't ever used one myself. Sennheiser get variable reports on their gear, some really like it others don't.

I really like the Nagra portables, the engineering that goes into them is something special. What sort of things were you hoping to record?

Aleks

[Floyddroid]

Amazing system you have there. welcome.

[Eagle owl]

Hello and welcome Aleks.

Geoff. :wave: