kevin gilmore

high compared to what? stax amps are rated at .01% at 1khz. eddie current electra is between 1 and 2 % same thing with the wes if you really want .000000001% thd, you have to buy a LL

that is what the megatron is. All tubes. does keep the room warm in winter.

actually we should rename this thread KGITSOCH because this input section is virtually the kx-r with a few mods that make it even lower distortion, lower noise, and faster. No feedback of any kind. Should be doing a test run of boards very soon http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/ubaltobal2.jpg

the heatsinks on the regulator transistors limit the energy to about 2 watts each. So what they do is limit the pre-reg voltage, on my line voltage, its about 380v not a lot of headroom. this is one of the many differences between this thing built well, but on a limited parts budget, and the massive overkill we typically do.

I'm pretty sure the transformer I have says 230v primary, will look tonight.

latest version http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/kgsshvampv16mini.jpg

the pot says Taiwan on it and has a logo. I took a picture, but its fuzzy and I have to do it again. goes and looks up alps logo. yep its the alps logo

So my opinion of the sound of this thing is that it is very good indeed. Sounds a lot like a kgsshv due to the output transistors, but nowhere near as much voltage swing, and that limits the dynamics a bit. The pot is definitely very cheap, but does seem to work ok. You certainly could un-wire it, and put a decent pot directly on the front panel. I need to spend more time with this, but kind of busy till friday

that side of the cap is still ground. no way to do a thermal for pin 3 due to nearby wires

the original and my klone use all small pnp mps8599 all small npn mps8099

the Chinese krell copy while really good for the money is not exactly the same as the original. The power supply is only one set of regulators, not 2, there is a whole bunch less capacitance on the amp board, and they did change the servo slightly. Most people are not going to notice the difference.

the kgss is a single primary winding. It would need a different transformer. or maybe the company sells it with a 110v transformer

I wonder why the Chinese have not cloned the llmk2... maybe I will eventually publish the kx-r schematics.

by the way, its a real made by stax, stax jack. with the stax logo on the plastic on the inside. stax always refused to sell those jacks to us, we had to make our own. justin's jack are clearly superior... beats the hell out of a llmk1 or llmk2 for less than 17% of the price.

these Chinese guys are a riot. gotta love the packaging. I think this is the third thing I have gotten from china that was packed in a pampers box. Man they must be making lots of babies... http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/dsc_0560.jpg http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/dsc_0561.jpg http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/dsc_0562.jpg absolutely standard off the shelf case you can buy on ebay all transistors on the 8 big heatsinks and the 4 small ones are 2sc4686a Q9,10,Q25,Q26 are 2sa1156 Q12,Q13,Q28,Q29 are 2sc2705 Q3,Q4,Q19,Q20 are 2sa970 R7,R8,R49,R50 are 300k 1 watt power supply pass fets are irfbe30 power supply zener drivers are 2sa1831 100% a kgss with the kgsshv output transistors.

we generally just put up a first picture of a new board. The production version has lots of small errors fixed. up to the 5th version of the off board version with servo and dual current sources already. takes too much time to update the picture every rev.

and that guy had absolutely no clue. both the wes and the electra share the same problem. the output inductor/transformer is WAY undersized to get decent voltage swing and wide frequency response. think 4 times that size for decent performance. and likely 4 times the cost. and then there are the 6sn7's craig seems to have shoved firmly up his ass. not enough voltage gain, so a tricked out input and bias circuit that is unstable. resulting in clipping and other forms of distortion.

lots of errors in that schematic http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/kgsshvproductiondual.pdf the dual transistors are in parallel. you use one or the other, not both one is ebc the other is ecb hence the 4 pads updated schematic still have to add the mosfet drive option http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/kgsshvproductiondualmot.pdf next version of the off board http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/kgsshvampv15mini.jpg

you mean how come a commercial builder can't build an all tube electrostatic amp. Because they don't have a fucking clue, thats why. Craig got lucky with the Balancing Act, and everything after it has been a disaster. But hey, the balanced input is done right, or so he says. megatron is all tubes... and easy to build.

i may be getting old, but i don't think i ever did something for this. with the current parts you could run +/-400 but that is it. After that you have to replace the 1156 with a 1468. then the 1968 would limit maximum voltage to +/-450. Now how you are going to replace the transformer and still get it in the box is going to be tricky. Would also have to replace the power lytics with 450v parts. you may be thinking of our modification of a LLmk1 (or in fact a LLmk2) to de-liquify it and turn it back into the srm323 which is what it was based on in the first place.

amazing job kerry

you are supposed to bend all the parts in such a way as you can read what they are when they are soldered in. dale resistors, and zeners mainly.

check which zeners you have in the string. or possibly one of the zeners is dead

you mean +200 and -544. About 750 across the battery which is close to what mine runs.

always http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/kgsshvpsminifinal.zip