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Resurrecting an old chum
Nothing biblical here chaps ....
Clearing some space in the loft last week and came across a box of old crap I though I'd skipped ages ago ... turns out I'm a worse hoarder than I thought :rolleyes:
Most of it was stuff I'd moved indoors after a garage clear-out some years back and clearly didn't have the heart to consign to the great scrapyard in the sky.
Among the odds and sods was this fine specimen of spaghetti bodging I put together over 40 years ago. At it's core is a bunch of off-the-peg bits and bobs from ILP ... a Kent based company that is apparently still in operation and selling the same HY60 'potted' amp modules on eBay.
Now looking very much the worse for wear, I used this as power amp until it was replaced by a Quad 303 in the mid 90s; initially with the ILP companion preamp and latterly a Quad 33:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...23b3a236_b.jpg
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My initial thoughts were to do what I should have done back then and take it to the tip with the next consignment of electrical scrap.
Unfortunately I'm too soft for that and instead opted to give the poor wee thing one last fling.
I took it out to the garage, wired in a pair of speaks and an RPi ... and switched it on (fire extinguisher in arms reach..)
Surprisingly (considering it's battered condition) it actually sounded quite good and pretty much as I remembered it. Nice punchy bass and plenty of sweet details elsewhere ..... soooo.
Time for a rebuild to bring this little gem back to it's former glory :) :)
As I mentioned, the amp is basically a couple of 'potted' amp modules. These are powered by a toroidal (something of a novelty when I first built it) fed through a simply bridge to supply 25v balanced.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...753031a7_c.jpg
... and these are the specs claimed by ILP:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a3bc36ea_o.jpg
...... to be continued ;)
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Nice project, one of these looks like worth implementing to replace the ageing capacitors and rectifiers
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Finished...MAAOSwGIBZugAq
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Nice little project Mike. I like old Quad stuff having owned and used a fair bit for the last 30 years. I will check in to this post as you work your way through.:)
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I'm sitting in my comfy chair waiting for the updates. Good luck.
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Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions chaps :)
I spent some time with a pencil and fag packet and came up with necessary dimensions for a new and slightly more logical/spacious layout.
A shiny new box is now on order from our friends in the far east and should arrive in time for Xmas :lol:
Shiny box link
Yesterday I began dismantling (and de-griming) the components from the decidedly shagged perspex housing - unsurprisingly one of the two caps looked like this:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c8d80a89_o.jpg
A clutch of Vishay replacements is on order from CPC and I have also booked a new set of diodes (just in case) ... although the board and connectors look OK despite the ancient crud from the dead cap.
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I remember ILP. I had one but not the HY60. Probably one of the first chip amps.... sort of anyway.
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Old case now stripped of bits and heading for bin .... all components cleaned up, boxed and awaiting new casing ... (some will not return)
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...baa6c590_z.jpg
In the meantime I am playing with possible layouts (using Photoshop)
... this is today's preferred model:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...76f43410_c.jpg
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New caps delivered ...
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4d8688fb_z.jpg
... and fitted
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...235db24d_z.jpg
Also removed the old diodes, reflowed the trafo connections and added a new extension to the ground post.
Hopefully more deliveries later :)
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