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Megatron Electrostatic Headphone Amplifier

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Thanks for the info spritzer, I will keep that in mind my wallet recovers enough to consider rolling these tubes. I went digging around for 6ca7's on ebay and happened upon this:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/171112790336

 

He gave me a bit of a discount for purchasing 8 so I figured the price delta over the various reissues was worth my curiosity. Leaving the link here for anyone else interested.

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Replies 1.2k
  • Views 386.8k
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  • Finally got around to finalize my Megatron, fitted into one chassis with GRHV.     

  • dingding123
    dingding123

    Built a Megatron. Seems to be the perfect amp to build during the seemingly unending shortage of 10m90s. I used up my final few pieces of 10m90s and C2M1000170D for this simple build, and it gave

  • kevin gilmore
    kevin gilmore

    IT FUCKING WORKS. makes music and everything. transformers stone cold after 1 hour.  

Posted Images

Well the rest of my parts and come in tomorrow, I should have something functional by the weekend...luckily I ordered the necessary parts before before an untimely car accident  8)

 

here's to hoping this thing doesn't explode

everything is from antek except for the hv transformer, which is the hammond 269GX- 450V + a single 6.3 filament which seemed like a natural fit for the psu and front-end.

 

25VA / 2x6.3 x 3

25VA / 2x15 x1, based on the kgsshv requirements for the LV secondaries

 

I should be able to stack these to save some space and mitigate hum issues based on past experience. I was envisioning a one box build where the amp board sits on top via standoffs,with some kind of cage around it. Sounds pretty dumb in my head, but I'm no less averse to casework than when I did the kgsshv...

nopants you're using two of those Hammonds?

Actually I might not even be able to roll two of those....they don't supply enough current compared to the custom transformer from sumr right?

 

2 x 420V (@125mA output ea) secondaries

 

addendum: I am a dumbass

Edited by nopants

Yep. And you need two windings at the minimum.

 

Trying to go all overkill on this one since the tubes draw so much more power... toroidy is having difficulty with shipment to where I am :(

I assume the KGSSHV PSU built for the Megatron should be at +-450V?

And use 2 instead of one? :)

Edited by eggil

400V or 450V will work and two PCB's?  No but you need to modify the one PSU to output more current. 

With the KGSSHV PSU able to be built for 500V output, is there any point or advantage in running the Megatron at 500V (assuming that it's capable)?  Any downsides?

Edited by chiguy

You can do that if you like smoke rising from the amp. 

I thought that feature came by default, I was going to cure my fish and meat with this

Now that would make Kevin truly furious...  :)  Did you ever see the inside pictures of that amp?  So he didn't want to spring for a +/-15V supply but the amp was filled with Z-foil resistors...  :palm:

Z foil resistors! Man, that would be more expensive than gold. Where the screws encrusted with diamonds?

A titanium knob, well I could see Kevin doing that :)

Edited by eggil

Well this was in 2003 and they were cheaper back then. 

 

The Ti knob has been done, it's on my T2.  :)

For anyone interested I got a quote from SumR for a 6 x 6.3Vac @ 2A / 76VA transformer, $98 each before shipping.

 

Encapsulated into container, leads out lower side for flush mount: Container  OD:  4 1/8”, HT: 2 1/8”.

Edited by nopants

  • Author

 

A titanium knob, well I could see Kevin doing that :)

 

Don't forget the titanium hammer with the 24k gold replaceable tapper

which was shown at CJ010.

 

I specialize in goofy.

@KG - When are you gonna machine some of them demon core hand warmers? :P

 

(a more compact version of the original pictured here)

 

demon-core_zps86442ed0.jpg

 

You can see he is warming his left hand with the device.

It had a fatal flaw though, he slipped with the screwdriver and the 14 pound plutonium orb that was inside went critical.

He was walking dead after that. The experiment was known as "tickling the tail of the dragon".

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core

Edited by livewire

For anyone interested I got a quote from SumR for a 6 x 6.3Vac @ 2A / 76VA transformer, $98 each before shipping.

 

Encapsulated into container, leads out lower side for flush mount: Container  OD:  4 1/8”, HT: 2 1/8”.

 

I'd be interested in the quote.  Thanks!

 

"tickling the tail of the dragon".

Ignorance is not always bliss.

  • 2 weeks later...

I did not realize base and collector are linked in the 1486 that sits alone.

After soldering, I thought I had created a bridge and removed the transistor.

Lesson: look at the schematic and a bare PCB if you have one to compare.

In the older PSU, they were connected by a trace. Now they are linked, and that makes it look like a solder bridge.

Waiting for parts

 

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Edited by eggil

Bought a Cannon macro lens, but I am not a very good photographer.

3 cold solder joints fixed.

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I'm mostly done with my stuff,waiting on the transformers. I haven't touched it in a while so I need to revisit it in detail for errors and such.

 

Also bought some mundorf supremes for coupling between input and output stages, any suggestions for other candidates I might use? Maybe I'll socket those spots...

Do not under any circumstance use those rectifier diodes!!!  Use the ones printed on the board.  The board always overrules any BOM. 

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