Pars

Are batteries any cleaner than a sigma22 or one of Gilmore's PSUs? My guess would be no... IIRC in the original headwize article for the Gilmore Dynamic (dynalo), Kevin stated that the PSU was cleaner than batteries. Plus it requires +/- power input so you would have to use 2 batteries or a rail splitter.

I hadn't really intended on experimenting on the unit since it isn't mine, and the PCB appears to be a bit fragile in terms of trace and thru-hole plating lifting. I had simply told morphsci that I would take a look at it and see if I could get it working, which I did. He had mentioned that he doesn't have a power supply so in a PM I had somewhat offered to look into it if he wished and see what something suitable would cost. Initially I had thought that a pair of Treads or a sigma22 would be nice, or even a +/- 12V Elpac I have laying around. I would prefer to leave everything else stock, and not get involved with changing out the 3.5mm mini power jack, caps, etc.

I would think that would be fine, but had to go read the datasheet and look at the pictures (ok, graphs ) to see how regs behaved if they were fed too low of voltage for them to regulate. I haven't played around with vregs/PSUs enough to know that. It seems that as long as the input voltage is above a certain threshold (looked like ~2V for a LM340 5V reg.) that it just passed the input voltage thru until it was high enough (7.5V) to regulate.

Since I've never seen any of their power supplies, upgraded or not, what can you tell me about them? The input voltage must be higher than ~14.5V for the onboard regulators to function (if I'm reading National's datasheet correctly). I don't know how this might respond to a sigma22 configured for +/-12V... since I have one, I might try it .

Mainly addressed to hydro, but anyone else chime in. I'm working on morphsci's HPA1.0 now and I see that it has 2 sets of 12V regulators (7812 / 7912). Since it regulates the PSU input on board, it would seem that using something like a sigma22 on this would be wasted? I definitely think it needs current, but perhaps a raw dual DC supply capable of 1A on +/- might be better? I haven't traced it out to see why they are using 2 sets of regs however... (TO220s on right side of pic)

Happy birthday!

Happy Birthday Nenso!

I would disagree as well (as in agree with Voltron). He hasn't done anything besides discuss cables.

Happy Birthday!

It is my belief that if you hear major differences between power cords, your PSU(s) suck. Of course I just use a couple of Bob Crump asylum cords that I built back when I was trying to get sucked into the cable thing. Of course its your money... BTW, VD sure were a class act on HF... they would be the last people to get any of my money.

Correct, with the exception of the misleading customers part. Nowhere in his announcement of the double M3 or whatever he is calling it does he spell out that this is a proprietary version (or whatever) of the Mini^3 from Amb Laboratories. I agree that once Amb weighed in, that whatever Ken can sell the product for, etc. is his business. I wouldn't buy it, but I'm not his target market. Many people probably will buy it... good for him.

I see that Patrick82 has some stuff for sale on HF... I was too afraid to open the ads, so not sure if any of it involves power cables or not

I agree. I only started the topic because it looked like an end around WRT Amb. And ditto on MisterX and Rockhopper. Someone who likes airplane names should be worried...

Vinny replied to another posting right below this topic (at the time)... he wisely avoided getting in on this one

I didn't realize these guys are still around? Same band from the '70s.. ELP discovered/signed them?

BG std: 470u 12.5x25 100u 10x12.5 Maybe they are decreasing capacitance? Whatever. People will certainly buy it cuz its ALO.

< $2 for Panasonic FMs (very good caps, probably lower ESR than the BGs).

Well, lets add it up, shall we? Assuming they aren't actually adding caps to the circuit (or can we assume that?), the most these would cost is: series size price qty total N 16x24 $12.50 2 $25.00 (470u) FK 10x20 $6.25 2 $12.50 (100u) So there's $37.50 retail (soniccraft) for 4 BGs. I would doubt they are going more capacitance since they would only get larger physically... I'm not sure whether these would fit as it is, particularly given the case? As for upgraded resistors, not sure what he's using? Standard from MisterX, etc. would probably be Dale RN55s, which aren't exactly slouches...

It can be argued (successfully many times) that the PSU is in the signal path, so replacement of the 5 PSU electrolytics with BGs could be said to be in the signal path. Probable waste of time/money, but ya can't do maxxed bling without uttering BlackGates as part of the mantra... Not sure what he means by upgraded resistors and BGs in parallel, but I guess that just makes two of us...

Glad it was that easy...

Yeah, I know he's Redwine Audio... seems like a few years ago he used to post mods or participate in mod threads on AA. Kind of like Chris Ven Haus used to just post on AA; before he started a company/website doing cable/wires and then the teflon caps, etc.

He did. Two people have asked him how his is better than one from MisterX or Thrice at 1/2 the price... BTW, is Vinnie Rossi the same guy that used to have all kinds of mods on audioasylum (name seems familiar)?

A pair of these A little smaller (7uf)... that's about as much as I'll go for a cap.

Now they went and did it... Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio - View Single Post - ALO Double M3 amp correct answer: none?

Their mods don't look to be a very good value. * Replace 4 stock diode bridges with Esoteric handmade ultra fast RAM versions What is this? Replacing monolithic bridges with discrete UF or hexfred diodes? Handmade? They make their own diodes?? right * Replace over 60 stock electrolytic capacitors with ultra low impedance Rubycon ZL/ZLG caps. Hopefully they know that most v-regs (LM317s, etc.) don't like low ESR following the regulator... that is a lot of caps however. * Audiocom Superclock 4-S Master Clock Upgrade ($295 Installed)- I would use Tent, for far less money and probably better... I don't know what their hard on for Audiocom is. * Analog Output Stage Rebuild w/Audio Consulting Transformers Expensive transformers, then they stick with LM4562s for I/V duty... lame. If they are going to stick with an opamp, how about a THS4031/4032? For $1,200 I would expect discrete instead. So, $1800 for all of this. But wait! The $295 Audiocom doesn't include the power supply... at that price it should. For the PSU, you have to spend $595. Then they start talking about upgrading the transport clock, which is a total waste...