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powertoold

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About powertoold

  • Birthday September 27

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  1. I don't have a means to test the IXYS transistors I got from Mouser. The Jan 2021 ones I got from Mouser are lot TS1811 S23728. If y'all got a 500V with IXYS and offset voltage problems, perhaps you have these problematic transistors as well. The amp works and all. It just doesn't sound or measure like what it's supposed to. Edit: on closer inspection, it seems the parts I bought in June 2020 and Jan 2021 are the same lot number.
  2. Hopefully this helps someone in the future. My 500V offboard KGSSHV (running at ~10mA, 100R for the current adjusting resistors) developed some grainy distortion on the left channel (only with some low bass reverb frequencies). After replacing all sorts of parts, I found that the distortion was due to the IXYS transistors. I had bought 2x IXTP01N100D from Mouser in June 2020 and 4x in Jan 2021. It turns out both of these sets were "bad" parts, symptoms below: 1) Offset voltage on left channel started at around +35V and drift upwards to around +70V 2) There was no way to lower the offset voltage, as the trimpot was maxed out 3) The sound was a bit metallic from the left channel 4) The volume was a bit lower than normal Fortunately, spritzer sold me some of his old stock IXTP01N100D, and after replacing the new IXYSes with spritzer's old stock IXYS, all of the symptoms went away, and the amp sounded "normal" again. With the old stock IXYS: 1) My offset voltage started around -35V and then drifted towards 0V 2) Amp seemed cooler to the touch BTW, I think the 500V KGSSHV offboard at 10mA is the best pairing for the 007 mk1.
  3. Just in case anyone needs this for future reference, I've posted the tracings of the 0.4 and 0.5 offboards. The difference is shown near the purple dot. The front side of the boards are identical to me. Also, there's no need to cross the diodes or the 50K resistors on the 0.5. This means there's no need to flip the 0+ and O- as well.
  4. I see, thanks! I'm not very knowledgeable with circuits, so I'm just making sure my thoughts are correct before something blows 😅
  5. My 500V offboard kgsshv currently has two rev 0.4 amp boards and a rev 0.6 power board. I am looking to swap one of the rev 0.4 amp boards to a rev 0.5 board. When I change from a rev 0.4 to a rev 0.5 amp board, I will need to: 1) Not cross the 50K resistors 2) Not cross the 1n914 diodes 3) Not flip the O+ and O- bias outputs Is this correct and also is there anything else I need to do when going from rev 0.4 to rev 0.5 boards? Thanks y'all!
  6. Just to update anyone who happens on my issue in the future: I wasn't satisfied with the new C4686s from eBay (sound seemed a little more "metallic" and the transistors have questionable authenticity), so I took a risk and switched back to the old C4686s, and the initial distortion problem is now gone. So I'm not exactly sure what was the cause. The only new part on the board is the Offset Trim Pot. Now, the sound is back to its former glory, and I'm very happy.
  7. Thanks. Yes, what I ended up doing was mix and match older looking C4686s with "real" looking Dalbani C4686s, lol. The reason I think the IXYSes were the culprit was that I tried old C4686s + old pot + new IXYSs and wasn't able to get the offset bias below 60V. Only after using the old IXYS was I able to, regardless of old or new C4686s.
  8. I took a picture of it here. You can see the contact isn't that great either.
  9. Just wanted to update everyone on the amp. About 2 weeks ago, I started trying to replace the MOSFETs and c4686 transistors on the left channel. I also bought a new 1K pot and 2 ixys chips from mouser. When I initially removed the amp board from the case and looked at the existing c4686 transistors, it seems like the heat conducting material (looks like Arctic silver) was lightly applied to the back of the transistors and was therefore not dissipating the heat well. This led me to speculate that overheated c4686 transistors were the culprit for my left channel distortion. I also bought some new c4686 transistors off dalbani on eBay. I don't know the authenticity of these transistors. When I received the transistors, they had different fonts on some of the transistors, so I wasn't very confident. When I started replacing the parts on the left channel, I replaced both the MOSFETs and all of the c4686 transistors along with the 1K pot. Unfortunately, after doing this, the left channel offset bias couldn't get under 70 or 80 volts no matter how much I adjusted the 1K pot. This led me to believe that maybe the transistors I got off of eBay were fakes. Long story short, I made all manner of component replacements and configurations in order to troubleshoot this issue. After about seven or eight attempts at replacing various components with new versus old parts, I finally found that the IXYS MOSFETs I got from mooser were the culprit for the bias offset voltage problem. This was very bad luck because I hadn't expected that I would be getting a bad part from mouser. I was lucky in that I was about to give up on the amplifier because having to solder and desolder off-board transistors is a PITA. Tldr: mouser sent me some bad ixys MOSFETs, leading me to try all sorts of component replacements in order to resolve the problem. The irony is that I actually liked the semi-distorted sound more than the clean sound I have now.
  10. I'm not really comfortable working with a live circuit right now, as I don't have any experience building amps 😅 I have the tools necessary to replace parts, so I'm trying to go that route first. I'm fairly certain that my issue is related to a failed or overheated component, as the amp was working fine until a month ago. Also, my right channel has no issues. As for R26, are you implying that it's necessary to make changes or check on R26 when changing R5/R6? I've searched this thread about changing R5/R6, and other than your post, I didn't see anyone else talking about R26.
  11. Perhaps there is some misunderstanding here. With 100R on R5/R6, I am able to adjust my balance and offset close to 0V. However, if I do so, there is some distortion in the 20-200hz low frequency region (only in the left channel, right channel is perfect). Also, the amp sounded great for 2 years with 100R and only started developing this distortion in the last month. To reduce this distortion, I would have to adjust the offset voltage to around +70V on the left channel.
  12. With 100R, the lowest offset voltage I can adjust to is +70V. At this voltage, the distortion is barely audible. With 180R, I can set the offset and balance as close to zero as possible, and there’s no audible distortion. Using a trimpot adjustment tool, I’ve adjusted the offset voltage while music is playing and didn’t hear any static while adjusting the pot, so it doesn’t seem like the distortion originates from a noisy pot? The distortion is also reduced when I adjust the balance voltage (although I forget if more positive or negative). I’m willing to replace whatever parts would be likely causing this problem. I hope to narrow it down, so I don’t have to replace everything on the amp board 😅
  13. Hi everyone, I originally posted about this issue in the Carbon thread, but it's more appropriate here. After 2 years, my 500V off-board kgsshv started developing left-channel distortion (sounds like sand in a cardboard box) with certain frequencies (only audible when music is playing and more audible with higher volume). I believe this is a result of increased current (100R in R5/R6) and overheating (for a short time, I had kgsshv sideways with the left channel board on top). The distortion is reduced with any of the following steps: 1) Increase left-channel offset bias voltage to ~70V or higher 2) Change R5/R6 back to 180R The distortion is present immediately at power on (cold), and doesn't get much worse with warm amp. My issue now is that the higher current sounds much better (microdynamics and "thickness") to me (100R at R5/R6), so I'd like to figure out how to fix the distortion by replacing components. I can't live with the stock current, and this kgsshv has sentimental value to me and some others on this forum My question is 1) What are the most likely components causing the distortion? I was thinking the resistors or the IXYS mosfets. 2) When the amp is warmed up, I notice that the heatsinks near the right channel are warmer (2x by feel) than the left channel. Is it possible that the thermal interface between the left-channel mosfets and heatsink is compromised? Thanks all!
  14. This is regarding the KGSSHV (non-Carbon) issue above: I think I resolved the static / distortion issue. I had essentially doubled the current to ~10mA by adding a parallel 200R resistor to the 180R. I removed the parallel resistor, so the amp is now "stock." After I removed the parallel resistor, static / distortion isn't audible (yet). Thanks all.
  15. I've used 2 different DACs and also played from several different source files. The static increases with higher volumes and is only audible during "difficult" resonant frequencies (such as reverb from guitar strings). As far as I know, the resistors are installed on the board's surface. This KGSSHV (non-Carbon) was made by Horio / TMoney I believe. Everything seems well-built, and the heatsink is massive. It'd be great if there was something I could try that doesn't involve replacing components (to troubleshoot or eliminate the static).
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