FR Drew
21-06-2015, 10:48
Howdy all, I'm Andrew from Canberra Australia.
While I've been playing around with HiFi since 1992, for much of that time my income has been restricted and other finance needs have come first. I've got a modest system, but in ways I would say it's quite advanced.
Speakers:
Audiosphere Model II's. These are a concrete ball with a single Coral Flat 5 fullrange unit reflex loaded. Not much output below 70Hz, power handling is limited, but around 92 or 93dB/w so I'm told. Blisteringly fast, quite flat response, but take no prisoners. If there are nasties, you will hear it.
My amp is a DIY affair which is the result of following a particular philosophy:
Better an amp that doesn't commit an errror in the first place than one that tries to correct it with feedback
As few stages as possible while still being usable
Avoid features that affect the time domain (like cathode bypass caps)
Run all stages in triode
Run all stages at the most linear place on the curve you can find
The result is quite a large amplifier for its power output, with 6CG7 triodes for input gain stage and concertina phase splitter (both biassed with LED's). PP output stage is EL84's in triode mode run with fixed bias. Zero local or loop feedback, no cathode bypass caps anywhere, coupling caps are Jantzen Superior Z film caps, one between the input stage and the phase splitter, and one for each arm of the phase splitter output to the EL84's. The result has about 6 watts of class A and instant recovery from overload. Volume control is with one of the now long discontinued ALPS Black switched attenuators.
Source:
Garrard 401 with upgraded main bearing on a Corian and Brushbox plinth, "The Wand" unipivot tonearm and an Ortofon Rondo Blue, feeding a Musical Fidelity VLPS/VPSU phono stage.
Cables:
Audio Magic XStream interconnect
Silicone insulated stranded copper generic for speaker cables (4m run)
My musical diet is pretty broad. A big chunk of 80's pop, old school Metal (Early Sabbath, Led Zep, ACDC, Deep Purple, the first 4 Metallica albums), Blues (Albert King), Female vocal (Joan Baez, Laurie Anderson, Michelle Shocked, Tracy Chapman, Sally Oldfield), World (Mike Olfield, Peter Gabriel, Inti Illumani, Deep Forest), Dance (Yello, Kraftwerk, The Orb), Jazz (Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Miles, Trane), Pink Floyd, ZZ Top As I said, broad...
Still on my journey to finish off the system. Speaker cabling needs sorting out and my feeling is that the phono stage is a weak link. Otherwise, I have to say I'm pretty happy. Just wish that I had more time to chill out and enjoy it.
While I've been playing around with HiFi since 1992, for much of that time my income has been restricted and other finance needs have come first. I've got a modest system, but in ways I would say it's quite advanced.
Speakers:
Audiosphere Model II's. These are a concrete ball with a single Coral Flat 5 fullrange unit reflex loaded. Not much output below 70Hz, power handling is limited, but around 92 or 93dB/w so I'm told. Blisteringly fast, quite flat response, but take no prisoners. If there are nasties, you will hear it.
My amp is a DIY affair which is the result of following a particular philosophy:
Better an amp that doesn't commit an errror in the first place than one that tries to correct it with feedback
As few stages as possible while still being usable
Avoid features that affect the time domain (like cathode bypass caps)
Run all stages in triode
Run all stages at the most linear place on the curve you can find
The result is quite a large amplifier for its power output, with 6CG7 triodes for input gain stage and concertina phase splitter (both biassed with LED's). PP output stage is EL84's in triode mode run with fixed bias. Zero local or loop feedback, no cathode bypass caps anywhere, coupling caps are Jantzen Superior Z film caps, one between the input stage and the phase splitter, and one for each arm of the phase splitter output to the EL84's. The result has about 6 watts of class A and instant recovery from overload. Volume control is with one of the now long discontinued ALPS Black switched attenuators.
Source:
Garrard 401 with upgraded main bearing on a Corian and Brushbox plinth, "The Wand" unipivot tonearm and an Ortofon Rondo Blue, feeding a Musical Fidelity VLPS/VPSU phono stage.
Cables:
Audio Magic XStream interconnect
Silicone insulated stranded copper generic for speaker cables (4m run)
My musical diet is pretty broad. A big chunk of 80's pop, old school Metal (Early Sabbath, Led Zep, ACDC, Deep Purple, the first 4 Metallica albums), Blues (Albert King), Female vocal (Joan Baez, Laurie Anderson, Michelle Shocked, Tracy Chapman, Sally Oldfield), World (Mike Olfield, Peter Gabriel, Inti Illumani, Deep Forest), Dance (Yello, Kraftwerk, The Orb), Jazz (Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Miles, Trane), Pink Floyd, ZZ Top As I said, broad...
Still on my journey to finish off the system. Speaker cabling needs sorting out and my feeling is that the phono stage is a weak link. Otherwise, I have to say I'm pretty happy. Just wish that I had more time to chill out and enjoy it.