Michelag

Yes, I've exactly these two addresses, but the smd board is not included in there.

Thank you Pars, I had a read of the thread, so, seems that the balanced/unbalanced board per se ends with the file diffinput3.zip; following ones, 5, 5a and 6 present only the diamond buffer though. Since in the drive repository I couldn't find the file I really need, http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/boards/diffinput3smtd.zip I'm asking here, in case someone could supply it. Another point that I couldn't clarify through reading, is buffer needed only when interconnect cables are very long? Or could I use directly the unbal/Bal between DAC and amp? Thanks, Mike

Bumping up the thread, having some difficulties to grasp how this bal/un is working... Shall I use it to get the unbal output of my DAC as an input, to go balanced to my KGSSHV? Referring to v5, the last version... I guess the diamond buffer is included in the schematic and board, but really can't understand what would be input and output in my particular case... Some kind words of encouragement? Thanks...

Wow, they've made replicas also for Stax... What a life's today's life!

All right, thought they were batteries... So perhaps it's not really "portable", to the office yes, but around mmmm

I was thinking, Kevin, are those bricks rechargeable? Does it need a battery management board?

And so, yesterday was the great day of final close in the enclosure, it played flawlessly for a couple of hours, I came back at it for some music after dinner and PAM! A resistor burnt down with sparks and a flame in the region of DN2540 in the B+ board. Me sad . Have to tear it down again to investigate about arcing or whatnot, a nice picture of the event, so that you can smell that burnt chicken flavour 😁 More importantly, forgot to say that that PAM took along my DAP, as if a 450V discharged to ground suddenly, and my Fiio player (5 yo thanks God) broke down, not to restart anymore. One more thing to repair. 😒 I've seen someone experienced something similar, but mainly in the amp board, never on the HV one. Possible cause?

Ok, so between 15/20 V, make it today Edit: done, works like a charm. Discovered also there's enough power to play with unbalanced inputs, later today will try it after my phono preamp. For the enclosure, I guess I'll need some bespoke heatsinks and cutting aluminum myself, the power transformer with its pot has a diameter of 130mm. Please don't suggest me Hifi2000, tough I'm Italian, they're the most expensive around 😅

Not yet, yesterday had the first working power up and wanted to listen to it a couple of hours 😁

And another one's singing. Friends, this is my first home experience with stax cans, now with a sr303 bought for a dime. And I guess it'll be a long, long journey... I'm in love with this cfa, its speed and clarity are a perfect match with speed and clarity of staxes, wow... It is refined, delicate and well behaved (apart the offset that needs a screwdriver sometimes... What's the tolerance for balance and offset? Trying to keep em spot on on zero, but slowly drifts away...) Thanks Kevin! 🙏

Hello Friends, a nice family shot with no load, no current limitation. Have to figure out why the bias doesn't kick in at 580V, otherwise quite happy. Edit, discovered it's the dmm impedance, bias is just right 👍

Kevin, not to urge you, has there been some development? I'd like to try a build of this, but that DC DC converters you linked are now nowhere tbf, or out of stock at least. There are always that cheap chinese smps flybacks, very small money, and a louzy ripple characteristic. Would be interesting to know how they did the V multiplier on their SRM D10. What is the current draw of the amp part? 🙏 Thanks!

Hello Friends, new member here. First I'd like to thank those who made my admission possible (Todd, Nate, Kevin). So, I entered this fantastic world by purchasing my first stax, a L303, at a bargain price, now I need to build an amp 😁 Well, I'm quite experienced (seasoned) in diy audio gear, both SS and tubes, tht and smd, so now I'm slowly gathering ideas, schematics, Gerbers for last working developments of the carbon, please, hints, suggestions, everything is welcome. A newbie wouldn't be a newbie without a request on his first post 😁, so, if somebody has some spare PCB for this project, and wants to send them (I'll pay postage of course), I'll be grateful. I'm based in central Europe . So, thank you, and keep going on!