philodox

Yeah, it still needs some work, but it sounds great. It was actually cheaper than that, but when you factor in the parts I bought and such it comes out to somewhere in that area. It will likely cost more like $1500 when all is said and done as I am already thinking about upgrading it. A 4 channel singlepower stepped attenuator and some better ouptut caps would be yummy. PS. I would appreciate if we keep that price here, as it was a special deal Peter gave me due to the custom nature of the project and my patience. It will likely be quite a bit more expensive if it ever goes to production.

Yeah, I think I sent Pete the link on Head-Fi a while back if memory serves.

LOL, wouldn't surprise me.

Output stage after output stage? The zapfilter replaces the output stage. And as for the DAC itself, the CS dac that you can get with it is the same one that is in the CD-E5, and I think it has a decent clock in it. All that aside, I have heard a zapfilter modded zhaolu and it sounded great.

zapfilter the zhaolu man, you won't regret it

I'm going to see if I can get a set of the Raytheon 6CG7's when I take the amp back to Peter's for the final touches. I also found out that though 6GU7 is the tube he plans on using in the end, there are actually 6CG7s in there right now... I guess I could have figured that out myself by reading the writing on the tubes.

6GU7... I figured that based on your description of the two they would be the perfect test to see if she tuberolls well. I'd also like to try those Raytheon 6CG7's at some point as everyone seems to be going crazy over them. I got a good deal on the tubes I think... two matched quads of 6GU7's plus shipping for $40.

fuck sony? fuck microsoft!

ps3 - newer, bluray, I tend to like their games better

Well, I've got a quad of matched Sylvania's and a quad of matched RCA's on their way to me. We'll see how she tuberolls.

Yeah, that is curious. [about the grados and the senns] As for the K81DJ, I hear it differently. Maybe it is a volume level thing. Its burning in nicely... I'm still in the 'enjoying my new toy' phase though, so I don't have any insightfull observations yet.

I still need to get more info on that. I think the 4 6GU7's are the input tubes and the 4 6H30's are the output tubes, with the 4 27GB5 Pentodes used in the CCS' and the other Pentode [forget which he used] as a regulator, but I am not 100% on that. I also know that there is no feedback being used and that he employs negative PSU's for some or all of the stages. There are 8 power supplies in total I believe.

I doubt Peter would lie to me. Is there an easy way to measure it? EDIT: Just re-read your post and I think I took it the wrong way [and missed tkams post]. You just meant that you doubt 40 ohms output impedance would be a problem with Grados?

That output impedance is nice and low... This is also a good thing for high impedance headphones as well. I think my amp has an output impedance of 40 ohms or so.

Nothin' wrong with beastie boys or the propellerheads...

Man, that was so sarcastic it hurt. ...must be the italics.

I just figured out what happened here. The K340's were being driven balanced and the Grados were not. Sort of makes sense when you look at it that way.

Something strange has happened... all of a sudden I like classical music.

So three stages? Cool, can't wait to see it. Is it a PPX variant, or MPX, or something new entirely? That just about describes my amp as well, though the jury is still out on Grados.

You must be joking... they are bass monsters!

Yeah, Kevin already PM'ed me about that. I guess Peter decided to not go with dual pentodes.

6H30's and 6CG7's The PSU was relatively simple I think, but that is the beauty of the Aikido.

The Darkvoice too? I thought it sounded nice with the K501's... the volume switch broke on it before I could hear it with my K340's. Then again, I listen a lot louder than you and channel imbalances are less bothersome to me because of that. I noticed the volume thing as well, weird. You think that is because they were current starved? The Grado's sounded pretty good, but I think they were missing a bit of bass and had an even bigger bass extension issue. Probably not enough output capacitance I guess.

Thanks guys, I love it. Well, in the end, I think it will be replaced with a wood faceplate... but I do prefer silver to gold. As for black, it would be as simple as not putting a faceplate on... not sure how he would do the lettering though. Perhaps letraset with some clearcoat overtop?

Was he evil? I thought I was the evil one...