kevin gilmore

So here are the measured powers amplifier 500 volt line 45ma 22 watts 250 volt line 45ma 11 watts -260 volt line 42ma 10 watts -500 volt line 45ma 22 watts -560 volt line 80 ma 5 watts 6 amps @ 6.3 vac output tubes 37 watts 1.8 amps @ 6.3 vac input tubes 11 watts about 120 watts of PURE class A HEAT. 42 of which go into the heatsinks. power supply 500 volt supply about 9 watts -500 volt supply about 9 watts 250 volt supply about 5 watts -260 volt supply about 5 watts -560 volt supply about 3 watts So about 31 watts into the heatsinks plus the loss in the transformers. So something like 165 watts total power draw. +/-15 volt power supplys less than 1 watt total.

In the usa, 220/240v is balanced with optional neutral and mandatory ground. Air Conditioners,electric dryers, ovens and electronic cooktops are wired this way. I forgot that in the UK the equivalent is actually 480v which is no longer delivered to residential areas. I have a couple of old time pieces of British equipment that require 480v. I don't like to mess with them, as we have to use booster transformers.

That is a 2kw high isolation transformer. Only way to get rid of ground noise is to fully isolate every single part of the system. This is due to American stupidity where on 110 vac power, neutral and ground are similar but not the same. Except they start out the same where they enter the house. Sure would be a lot easier if everything in the usa was wired for 220/240v

Fans only on the original BH chassis... It was 3 shelves down due to other stuff there and needed some ventilation. No fans on the BHSE. The dogs are not allowed in the media room. Ever.

after a bit of morning cleanup... electrostatic porn http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/statpron1.jpg http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/statpron2.jpg

Don't have any of those. Yet... But twice the capacitance... But twice the current... I know where this is going... A KGSSHV is in the works anyway... Runs on +/- 425... with the T2 supply with 3 of the supplies unpopulated...

I think i've died and gone to heaven. After 8 hours of listening... While cooking up a batch of chicken soup for the matzoh balls and brisket tomorrow... In one room all at the same time... My original all triode ac coupled tube amp. My original KGSS My original KGBH An assembled by me Aristaeus from a complete set of parts from justin An original KGBHSE prototype half assembled by justin and half by me (my half sounds better ) My T2 with REAL NOS Mullards (yep i'm that sure its 100% solid) A built by me exstata (solid state) with a modified KGBH power supply Omega headphones Omega2 headphones Lambda pro's SR003 koss esp950 sennheiser he60 The T2 is just more fun to listen to than the rest of them. The presentation is more different from the BHSE than i had thought after listening for quite a while, its hard to put into words. I have to listen some more... Unlike the original, This T2 has absolutely NO noise, and NO humm. Especially NO humm. If i did not know better i would never know this is a tube amp. (Actually NONE of my tube amps humm at all...) After about 4 hours, the heatsinks stabilize at about 120F for the amp and about 105 for the power supply. (unfortunately, NOT hot enough to cook eggs according to birgir) One interesting thing the sr-003 sound very different across the range of amplifiers. Not sure why. The exstata needs work. Sounds thin and sterile. Note to people that want to build the exstata, get the output transistors NOW because farichild just put them on final lifetime buy. After that you can use 2sc3675's which i'm going to try in a day or two. I expect that it will sound better with them instead. But the heatsinks will be electrically hot or you have to use insulators. Humor mode on! I have a lot of respect for alex, but after all he is a physics professor, and they are almost as bad as structural biology professors at designing audio gear. You want it right, stick with a chemistry professor, we work at the micro level, not the macro level. BOM updated again, this time the screws are right for sure

updated schematics with amphenol plugs suggested pin wiring and wire colors http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/t2schem.pdf http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/t2schempower.pdf

two quickpics... http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/pszener.jpg there are 8 glass diodes, all are 30 volt zeners. the crossed resistors in the servo http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/resistorcross.jpg

Well if you worked for oxford, you will surely recognize this. http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/birdbath2.jpg From a round bottom 300mhz magnet. Oxford even sent me one of their machined name plates saying Oxford Instruments Avian Aquatic Interface serial No. 1 and with the added stairs for the small animals http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/birdbath4.jpg In a couple more years i'm going to trash a 600mhz round bottom magnet... Perfect for the middle of the back yard. Not sure how i'm going to get it home..

We have a helium liquifier here. Its a pain to keep running. Soon we will have a liquid nitrogen generator. Just hook it to power and it makes about 200 liters of N2 a day. Its probably also going to be a pain in the neck. Fluroinert has too much capacitance for high voltage audio amplifiers... Besides which if you do manage to set it on fire, bad things happen. That chassis pictured above is now mine Its 11 x 12 x 3.5 inches inside... Was thinking of putting a single opamp in it and taking it to CJ as the heaviest CMOY ever built. But really something nice should go in there. Any ideas??

Ayre is absolutely magnificent stuff and Charles Hanson is actually a really nice guy that tries to help people. It uses the on-semiconductor 5 wire thermal track output devices. Its not actually vacuum sealed, there is no gasket. The input connectors and output connectors are definitely not hermetic. It would be kind of hard to do a hermetic system with tube sticking out. See... I'm not the only one that is completely nuts... For the pair of units, the amplifier bottom would be the cover, and the power supply top would be the cover. When you put them on top of each other it would look like 2 slabs of stuff with no visible screws from the front, sides or top. Just like the Blowtorch. Except with heatsink fins and 3 times bigger and 5 times heavier.

Special head with a 1 inch carbide mill bit. Can do 4 inches max. That is why the corners are that round. I only need 2.95 less the .25 for the bottom. Should not be a problem. Estimate of 20 hours of machine time including the heatsinks.

yep, lot of mess from that one. Luckily its now all automatic... air hose blasts the pieces away while machining, box is completely closed and monster industrial vacuum stuck into a 55 gallon drum sucks away the mess. Then the scrap gets recycled.

So seeing this reminds me how much i want a single piece machined T2 chassis. http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/singlepiece.jpg I'm scheduling it for early next year. The 18 inch x 18 inch x 3.5 inch blocks are about $900 in material each. Vertical heatsink fins will be directly machined out of the block, as will the insides. Sort of like the CTC blowtorch, but about 3 times bigger.

I love 8020. Erector sets for BIG kids. All of my Salamander cabinets use 8020 as the vertical members, i'm making internal supports for my soon to be showing up 82 inch lcd panel. Which is suprisingly heavy.

Speaking of milling around http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/t2parts1.jpg http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/t2parts2.jpg

I have real sources and you know it. Easier to move the amplifier downstairs than to move the source upstairs. Besides which the rest of the stuff is already in the media room.

After about 4 hours i figure it to be about 110F. Not quite as hot as my krell can get. What a wonderful thing for a cold winter night. As it is, it has raised the room temp about 5F.

OK, for those of you going to CJ and wanting specific music, do this Download Music Collector, the CD cataloging software from Collectorz.com download the trial version of music collector. Then download my two databases. http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/sacdmaster.muc http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/cdmaster.muc If you see something you definitely want to listen to, let me know.

When i shoot with the lens wide open then other people complain about the lousy depth of field. When i shoot with the lens at maxium depth of field for that lens, people complain about color et all. No matter what i do, everyone is a critic. I have a number of tripods. including the one from the rca tk706. (my favorite 3 TUBE ntsc studio camera) (sadly toast) (and useless anyway) If people think they can do a better job taking pictures at CJ, then they are welcome to borrow my camera. (after they sign over everything they own) There is also a big difference between doing something handheld in the dark, and setting up the tripod and using the remote trigger. I'M LAZY OK... I decided to skip dinner and listen to new music instead. Listening to 11:11 (rodrigo y gabriela) just came in today, wow... The amplifier has stablilized temperature wise, to a very friendly warm. The power supply runs much cooler. I left the infrared temperature meter at work will make sure to put it in my pocket first thing tomorrow. Still, its nowhere near as hot as the original. It is going to be a tight squeeze in my corvette for CJ010 T2 amplifier and power supply sony sacd player cables and power strip stack of music Camera with 2 lenses, tripod, regular and tripple ring flash 35+ bottles of booze clothes for 3 days If i have to, i'll give up the extra clothes And yes i have 4 yorkies. They are yappy. Isolde passed away. Giovanni has cataracts and is mostly blind. carmen is the barker. Insert massive pile of rampant burnin bullshit here. The punch and dynamics of this thing blows me away. That 1900 VPPSS really does wonders for the transients.

I only have the 5 pin stax jacks at the moment.... http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/t2burnin.jpg its my new home office system... So it turns out that the servo has a wiring error. Which is REAL simple to fix... Remove and cross R81 and R82... The schematic is right, and the board is wrong... Which is why i was hearing some pumping last night. All gone now... Going to add troubleshooting voltages to the schematic in a few minutes. Got to find some decent tubes (well something reasonably priced before i put $600 of real mullards in there) The dynamics of this amplifier really shines.

I listened for no more than 15 minutes, then kind of crashed. then the dogs started making noise... etc... I'm going to do serious listening over the weekend after cleaning up some of the mess. I have a KGSS, Aristaeus, KGBH, KGBHSE prototype and the T2 to listen to. And omega's, omega2's,sr-003, sr-404 headphones and the koss esp950. And some low bias stax phones which at the moment can't be used because i never planned on that. Although its a trivial fix thats on the list.

I can get it to $30k real easy. Its already designed for an additional power supply for dual mono power supplies. And its designed for a quad fully regulated filament supply. In addtion in the same size box i'm pretty sure i can replace the standard power supply board with a shunt regulator board. So 4 chassis seriously maxed out amplifier. Not sure where you would put the black gates, there are no output or coupling caps anywhere, and the 450 volt black gates are way to big for the box unless you cut holes in the top. Will look to see if any of the V-caps would be suitable for power supply use. But you could always use them as brilliant stones and sprinkle them around the listening area.

updated bom with at least the screws and nuts correct http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/t2parts3.xls if you use all stainless steel for the screws, there would be absolutely NO magnetic parts in the amplifier or power supply except for the transformers. It does not look good for me getting any sleep tonight.