kevin gilmore

No way i want to work on that thing. If i would work on it, i would own it for the rest of all time. The fact that you can't even open it up shows how fucked up the thing really is. Its a wonder how he even got the thing together, unless the top unsolders with only a couple of wires. Are you sure that only tube sockets and no components are on the top panel? Better pictures any way possible would help me come up with some way to proceed. How many neutrik connectors are there on the back panel? At least with the ES1 units, i know what to do and how to proceed. Got to think about this mess a while. No idea yet what the 4 large caps bolted to the top do...

Completely different kind of thing. If the amp was drawing too much current then the gas tubes would never have enough voltage to light up ever.

here is something that shoud autostart the gas tubes http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/sdsgaspsautostart.jpg

This is mikhail, and anything is possible. But note the big power diodes on the side board. Wonder what they are for since the diode bridge is already mounted to the ES1heater board. I still think that 40ma to run 2 x WCF is pretty minimal, and in any case with the 0d3's is already over spec. Also the fact that the one channel is consistently popping tubes as soon as you put them in, points to much more current than normal. What i was thinking of for the auto-ignite is my stacked high voltage multiplier used to make the bias voltage for electrostatics. The doubled voltage would end up about 800 volts, and is perfect for starting 3 tubes in series. You add a large value resistor in series with a .1uf cap and a diode and it will definitely popstart the gas tubes.

schematic updated

Item 1 is the filament transformer for the amplifier, used with item 3. Which is a diode bridge, 2 large capacitors and a resistor. Exactly the same as shown in the ES1 schematics i published. Runs the 6 tubes at about 2.5 amps total. The amp has a warmup/run switch which is why this extra transformer is necessary??? Otherwise the other filament windings in items 2 would suffice. Items 2 are the power transformers as shown in my schematic above. One for each channel. 800 volts center taped plus a 5 volt winding for the 5u4. Plus an extra 6.3 volt winding that is likely unused. Item 4 is where all the action is going to be. Too many parts on there and some are probably hidden (the fets). Another poorly made, impossible to repair mikhail hunk of crap. Its no wonder he never published pictures of any of his power supplies. It would be easy to just have the power supply fixed without having the amp chassis. The gas tubes have a starting current of 75ma, but a max of 30ma run current, no way that can drive a pair of WCF's. So unless mikhail is driving the crap out of the tubes (certainly possible) there has to be some kind of pass element. I did come up with a circuit to guarantee that the tubes light, but adding it to that fucking mess could be quite a bit of trouble.

Whats funny is that 2 of those vcaps are in series which is a really bad thing. Especially when the caps are already rated for the required 600 volts.

tomorrow came quick http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/sdsgasps.jpg 2 of these in the box. Has to be. Or something extremely close probably with more capacitors in a RCRCRC type thing....

From information just supplied from voltron, (no pictures yet) A knob on front selects 1,2 or 3 gas tubes per channel. But the gas tubes can only run at about 10ma. So there has to be some kind of pass element. And knowing mikhail its a big FET. What has happened is that the FET is shorted putting full supply current into the gas tubes thus making them go pop. Inside pictures will definitely confirm. Partial likely schematic tomorrow.

ES1, ES2, ES3 .... all the same stuff. Exactly the same stuff. At least from the pictures i have seen. Now the voltmeter option, the fancy front panel option, the digital attenuator option...are all additions to the same exact schematic. Optional wallwarts both internal or external to the power supply not shown. Don't have internal pictures yet of the Tube regulated neon glow power supply.

I did the schematics in an attempt to help all the people out there trying to get their shit fixed. So yes they are public. Someone needs to help these people, i'm doing the best i can short of actually fixing the stuff myself which i just don't want to do. The schematics were generated in part from the pictures above, and a bunch of other pictures that are not public. There is just so much fail all over the place...

this is the right way to do this Wilson Audio: Audio Excellence, High-quality Audio Components, Luxury Speakers 30 watts will blow the windows out... Or build one yourself.

chip amp for sure. Notice that the power input is AC. Therefore the things on the heatsinks have to be regulator chips, 2 for each channel. 5th one is likely a 5 volt regulator to control the switching.

Yep hdmi seriously sucks. I've built small metal brackets, custom for each device. Attaches to a nearby screw, and holds the cable perfectly level about 3 inches away from the connector. No problem so far. For the long runs of which i have 2, i'm using hdmi to dual 100T ethernet converters. Works great with cat6 cable even at 1080p.

I have every one of the sacd's on that list, plus the concord jazz stuff most of which is not listed. Great music.

nope, not really. But in larger sizes both the lcd and plasma's end up pretty close in weight, and pretty close in power too. 65 inch displays average about 600 watts. All of a sudden one of those 1kw xenon bulb projectors does not sound unreasonable

Well i can't say i actually paid for this, but its mine, all mine. 125 watts CW at 2450 mhz http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/microtherm.jpg UL approved in 1957. And therefore medically safe Works great. Only 300 hours on the magnetron.

So i contacted my friend at sony about this... His answer was completely not what i was expecting. The dsd1796 and the "cheap" opamps are used for one thing and one thing only. wait for it... wait for it... this is a headphone forum afterall yepper, the built in headphone jack. What a waste of extra parts... I've ordered the schematics to verify this. Sony is coming out with a new $3k beast the very beginning of next year. Also a hats balanced digital preamp, also about $3k.

There really are only 2 good analog pots in the entire world. RK50 and P&G. Both seem way to big for a portable. Digital attenuators are going to be the only way to assure accurate volume tracking over a wide range. Justin has decided to use a mono analog pot and a microcontroller to digitally emulate a stereo pot. With perfect tracking and very wide range. Should he want to, it would be easy to replace the knob with an apple style touch slider. Ray has decided to use the 3 position alps switch and no micro to do the same thing. Some people are not going to like the up/down button version. Ray blew it, because for a few cents more he could have integrated balance into that switch. But i really don't need to give ray ideas.

Its a 4mv with 64 meg of ram and internal 20 meg hard drive for fonts. As such it is way fast. I got it cheap directly from the HP salesman 13 years ago. I would actually like something smaller and get back some of the desk.

Not mean at all. As long as ray continues to paint his chips and lie to people about what is inside, i'm going to do my best to spread the truth. Ray is using a 7 year old chip. Why? because the word firmware does not seem to have entered his vocabulary yet. How about the fact that ray still does not understand how to safely charge lithium-ion batteries. And yes, many of ray's fanboys are fools.

Bingo x 5.. Many thanks... As usual its the keywords that are all important in the search. My master machinist knows where to get the spring loaded handles...

You have no idea what qualifies as a TA these days. I'm not looking for cheap. I'm looking for something pretty.

I know they are a standard issue thing, but hours of searching have found nothing. If you have a catalog name/part number that would be great. 1.5 inch ID. I did find the drumset clamps. If i can't find what i want, those are definitely the next in line.

For what is to become the ultimate headphone stand... http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/headstand1.jpg http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/headstand2.jpg I'm looking for more of the 2 piece tube clamps pictured. 1.5 inch diameter. These have to be a stock item somewhere, i just can't find out where.