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Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/16/2022 in all areas

  1. We’re launching a new company – Eksonic – along with our new amplifier called Aeras. Launching an audio company is something I’ve had in the back of my head for many years and I’m proud to be able to bring a passion to market. I've been building my own version of the DIY T2 for quite some time now and have long hoped to capture the spirit of the beast in a smaller single chassis design that's more accessible to many. We think we've accomplished that with the Aeras. Aeras is the result of endless hours of circuit design and analysis, brainstorming and many iterations of prototyping and testing. Our initial users have had great things to say about this new amp. We’re going to be launching the company formally at the NYC CanJam later this month. We’ll bring our DIY T2 along with the Aeras so people can hear them side by side. I hope to see some of you at the launch
    29 points
  2. 4 points
  3. Upgrades have begun. New 100amp panel being installed and I get all the interior runs Monday when I get back from California. Saw Stop conversion ordered Band Saw converted
    4 points
  4. Managed to manhandle the shop fox off of the two pallets and onto the massively shitty shopfox stand they recommended. Going to have to order something better for the rolling cart but the saw seems okay for the low price.
    4 points
  5. Grateful Dead 6-part series on Amazon: A Long Strange Trip. All of what one might imagine. I think it is well made and provides telling insights into how the broader group evolved into what they became. Jerry was something… HS
    3 points
  6. Well its not like the stax mafia aren't busy and we certainly are not going to do an output stage with 8ma of current, and therefore no reason for a 4 stage amp, and since tube inputs seem to be the big thing lately, well might as well take the kgsshv-carbon design and replace the input fet with an input triode. bonus, no low voltage supplies. not a bonus, ksa1156 and ksc5026 run at close to 1 watt each. I should have a real t8000 end of june, but this should keep some of you busy. I expect joamat to have one built in less than 24 hours. no, no circuit board yet about 70 volts on the plate of the tube, same as t2. optical servo from kgsshv-carbon will work fine (but then you need the low voltage supplies) kgsshvcarbontubeinput.PDF
    1 point
  7. I've had my eye on these for the last year or so but waiting for a cheap set to come up. There are three versions they sell and I found the cheapest one for sale, brand new in the box with the transformer adapter. I'll take some pics of the system tomorrow (shortest day of the year here so... yeah not great for photos) but I've at least a pic of the headphones and the internals of the transformer box. Here they are and I quite like the looks and the build quality. They are using mini XLR's which is not ok but questionable connector choices are a theme here. The stock cable is beyond crap (more on that tomorrow) so I'm using a Stax PC-OCC off my RR-1's. They feel substantial but also light and fit my head snugly at the largest extension. Carbon Fiber headband and the leather is nice. On their site they claim the Minima is supposed to have pleather earpads but these are clearly genuine leather. These look very similar to earpads I've bought from China in the past and nothing wrong with the quality. I shone flashlight through the driver to you all could see the structure, very unusual drivers here. Now onto the adapter box... yeah this is not good. That's it... and yeah there are so many issues here. Let's start with this gem: It's hard to capture on "film" but the IEC input and the fuse holder are completely uninsulated and mere millimeters from the metal frame of the transformers. Thankfully the chassis is earthed but yeah, this is not to code and an instant CE violation there. In the first picture you can also see there is no protection for the transformers at all and we will get to why that is an issue. Now the active parts: The bias supply is driven directly off the mains, no isolation between you and the wall. Now this was commonplace in the 70's but now... I'm not sure this meets any modern standards. The bias supply is a simple voltage doubler and for 117V they just add another doubler on top. There is then a 600V zener clamp to make sure the bias doesn't rise above that threshold. None of this has the elegance of the Stax bias supplies and frankly this is just sad. For instance the LED for power indication is driven directly off the mains, through one tiny resistor. Now you might notice those 3 pin XLR's there and yup, they are the stock outputs for the Euridiche, the Stax output is just for convenience. One of my biggest gripes is with using XLR's as they are in no way rated for these voltages, especially the cheap, no-name, units they are using. Also check out the clerances on that PCB.. bias and high voltage signals less than 1mm apart. Then we have what scares me the most, see those traces which go right to the edge of the board and into pin 3 of the XLR's...? Yeah that is the bias so 600V is sitting there, pressed right up against the chassis with exposed solder connections. Sure this is after the ballast resistors (one 4m7 for the Stax and separate 10M units for each side of the XLR's) but still... They have a lot of faith in the powder coating on the chassis. Finally the Stax socket, 3D printed and fed directly off the XLR sockets. Almost no way to actually cram a Stax plug in there but you know, I almost had to use a hammer. 😉 Then we come to the final issue, on paper these appear to be Stax compatible despite the stupid XLR connectors and similar bias supply but nope... they are so inefficient that my usual test amp (Icepower 50 module with a preamp tacked onto it) was at max volume to get these to my normal listening level. I plugged in my test SR-207's as well and they were at half volume using this transformer box. As seen in the first pic, I've fitted them with a Stax plug but they make the Carbon CC work for its pay so yeah, you need a very powerful amp to drive them. Now finally, how do they sound... pretty damn nice actually. 🙂 This is off the Carbon CC prototype in my rig right now and they are very balanced sounding, slightly dark sounding but very mellow and open. They are not overly forward or bright, unless when called to be and I can listen for a few hours with nothing bad to say really. Bass is plentiful and deep, midrange has a nice presence to it and the soundstage is pretty good. Top end is a tad dark but it is very mild and they make for a relaxing and pleasant package. So TL;DR... great headphones that are let down by being too inefficient, frankly unsafe transformer box and stupid cable/connector choices. Change the cable to Stax and drive them off a powerful amp and the sound is great.
    1 point
  8. Just a couple of interesting diagrams for dialing in your brew. Brew: Web app to use it The Coffee Compass - Barista Hustle Pulled:
    1 point
  9. Very exciting and those amps look fantastic. Best of luck, Kerry! Sam
    1 point
  10. Congratulations and best wishes, Kerry. Lots of success in this new venture.
    1 point
  11. Congrat Kerry ( & Cousin). Wishing y'all the best in your new endeavor http://eksonic.com/
    1 point
  12. Congrats Kerry! Exciting news. Wishing you guys all the best in your new venture.
    1 point
  13. Congratulations Kerry! It’s about time! Wishing you a big success.
    1 point
  14. Many congrats and even more good luck! Your work is fantastic, both in looks and I'm sure sound!
    1 point
  15. Congratulations to your New Company and I wish you and your cousin a great success, Kerry.
    1 point
  16. Fantastic! You make us proud, Kerry.
    1 point
  17. Thanks guys! The "we" is my cousin in Greece. He's got a great manufacturing background, which is important since we're looking to do the primary manufacturing in Greece.
    1 point
  18. Congrats Kerry! The amp looks great, and hopefully we'll be able to see some good reviews from CJ, though knowing that crowd, wading thru the tripe will be umm, fun. BTW, you mention "we" in talking about Eksonic...
    1 point
  19. Where’s the love button? Seriously, I wish you nothing but success with this venture, Kerry. The amps look fantastic and I hope I get to hear one some day. I won’t be making the trek down to NYC, but look forward to the impressions even if it means wading through an endless thread somewhere else. 😁
    1 point
  20. Waking up this thread. I really enjoyed it so far.
    1 point
  21. +400 and -460 come from the dual golden reference board, +220V comes from the single golden reference board. look at the amp photo above the dual golden reference is the large square black pcb, the 220V golden reference is on the right hand side of that the blue long slim pcb. The high voltage transformer provides 3 windings, one for each of the high voltage outputs. One wire from each of the high voltage windings is switched by the long thin green delay board in the psu case. if you look at the right hand side transformer that is the high voltage transformer. the colour coding on the transformer wires was green for the 220VDC supply, yellow/orange for the 400V dc supply and red for the 460V supply. To set the outputs of a golden reference hv board you need to change 2 resistors for each output. check the golden reference hv thread for more details. (The 580V bias supply for the headphones is generated from the plus 400V supply.)
    1 point
  22. I somehow missed this reply completely. The issue with these is that they are in no way Stax compatible. Sure the bias supply might be 600V but for this driver design it should be far higher. Even with the Carbon CC (so more power than you can throw at any one set of headphones) it starts to compress and act up which are the tell tale signs of trying to compensate for a lower bias voltage with the drive voltages. It creates and odd effect so yeah... can't really recommend an amp for these. I need to do a follow up really as there is so much oddity here. I cracked open the supplied headphone cable and wow... it is so weird. Think Hifiman cable but worse... Then we have the energizer which I just rebuilt to my SRD-7 spec. It is just weird, channels swapped and the wiring made no sense at all. Nice transformers but the rest is just utter crap, also unsafe as only the back panel is actually earthed. All 6 panels which make up the chassis are tied to the corner posts, which are made out of plastic so non conductive.
    1 point
  23. Stain the Sea Inner Stream 2021 Overall okay:
    1 point
  24. Applied new numbers to a brand new sail! A bit tedious but turned out ok I think.
    1 point
  25. Speaking of big guys, anyone watching Peacemaker? It’s my smart-dumb, semi-guilty, middle of the night watch.
    1 point
  26. Just finished today with the raw version, case and final cables are left for later. Soekris PSU and buffer boards. The designed Amgis transformer was not on stock, so I had to replace it with a 2x6V Toroid. 'm using OPA1602 now, but will switch to OPA1612 when they arrive. Have not yet finished the controll board, although I'm not sure I will. The sound is very similar to the dac2541, definitely better than the RME ADI2FS or other similar quality DS based DACs. More spacious and detailed. I think it even bests the Qutest, although it was a while I listened to it the last time. Can only recommend!
    1 point
  27. Made a mezzanine adapter board for the TKD 4CP-25xx pot on the original DIY T2 board from Kevin. Precisely adjusted the hight of the pot to board prior soldering. Worked out perfectly.
    1 point
  28. I’m sorry, but - I will not compare my, in kitchen made, amplifier with the famous DIY T2. One way to compare… well, build one – it’s fun. Schematic above.
    1 point
  29. Have been listen to the new amplifier with EML 20B v4 tubes for a couple of days. Since 20B pinout and heater voltage differs from EL34 I use adapters. Maybe it’s about time to make a board dedicated for the Emission Labs tubes. The tubes looks amazing and have printing on the glass. In this early stage layout the printing and the front of the tubes are facing the listener. I found the big tube 3D model (300b) at grabcad.com, done by Andrew Whitham, United Kingdom.
    1 point
  30. Keep them coming. I'll buy a bigger house.
    1 point
  31. I run the heaters at about 6VAC which can increase the life of the valves. I have resistors on the 6922 heater transformer outputs because the transformers where outputting about 6.6VAC which is too much. (You need separate transformer windings for the 6.3VAC heaters on the el34s in each channel and separate from the 6922s heaters. The el34s have their heaters at about at about -400V.) The EL34s draw far more current and the voltages without any dropper resistors are about 6VAC for the transformers I purchased. On switch on all valves are provided with heater voltages simultaneously from the low voltage transformer and the opamp dc balance and dc offset servos are powered on from the +-15V golden reference lv or simple lv in the golden reference hv board. Only the high voltages are delayed in order to allow the valves cathodes to heat up and develop a space charge before the high voltages are activated. I use a one minute delay. All other voltages pass through the delay board without being switched or delayed. Here is a simplified block diagram for the wiring I used (there are other ways of doing this).
    0 points
  32. We aren’t doing great, either of us.
    0 points
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