Skip to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

www.Head-Case.org

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

Megatron Electrostatic Headphone Amplifier

Featured Replies

  • Author

6V filaments are AC

 

the 300V comes from the 450V thru a resistor.

no need for extra power supply

  • 3 weeks later...
  • Replies 1.2k
  • Views 386.9k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Most Popular Posts

  • 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

I have a few PCB sets available for this amp, US $75 plus shipping.  The boards were made by PCBnet in the US, 0.093" thick with 4 Oz copper.  The set is three PCBs (Megatron amp board, KGSSHV PSU board and one Stax jack PCB).  To be clear, this is not the latest Megatron that Kevin posted on Oct 22nd.  These were made two weeks before. 

Hi,

 

Do you still have the board sets? If you do can you please check on postage to Wellington, NEW ZEALAND and advise? I would like to purchase one set.

 

Cheers!

 

Ravi

  • 2 weeks later...

I bought a board set from jdineshk ; the power supply board is labeled version 1.1, and the amp board is labeled version .21

 

Is there a BOM that I can use with these?  A schematic that matched would be good, too.....  I've looked through this thread (albeit not exhaustively) and can't find anything I'm confident is a match.

 

Thanks.

I've purchased the megatron board and the power supply board from Joachim. It appears the parts that the 2SA1968 is hard to find. Can someone please suggest a source for these? Also, are there any other hard to find items for this build. Any guidance would be appreciated.

 

Don

AliExpress seems to have these with the marking 2SA1968, TO220. Are these equivalent?

Not a chance in hell that those are real.  Bdent has the real deal but they are not cheap. 

 

On the new boards these will be swapped out for STN9360's. 

/

Edited by JoaMat

Not a chance in hell that those are real.

Depends I bought mine from Aliexpress from a seller selling a whole bunch of jfets and rare transistors including the 1968. Purchased 10 for cheap and passed them onto a friend who has a diy BH based off headwize but needed a few because he shorted them by accident, tested the 1968's fine and has been rocking solid since with no fireworks and abnormal behaviour in the amp.

no point in making that kind of bet imo, especially when you only need 4 and the cost of all the amplification devices in the megatron is already ridiculous

9vMRqB7.jpg

 

Tried soldering up the adapters, quick and painless. Also tested a few ksa1156 Vbr on dy294. Out of the 6 I tried, only one tested under 600V. YMMV

/

Edited by JoaMat

I think Kevin explored some options and originally settled on the 1968 due to its stability at .5 ma

The 2SA1486 is perfect for this role and so is the STN9360.  If you have a KSA1156 that measures well above 600V then it will work too.  Just remember the pinout difference. 

Thanks my passwords. Just bought some of those adapter boards for the STN9360s.

Well that substitute came at a good time, I just checked bdent and they only have 20 pieces of 1968 in stock

 

at $16 a pop

That is crazy. They were about $8.00 a year ago or so.

BTW, I am just finishing my design for the amplifier case and expect to send it to FrontPanel this week.

Very time consuming but keep triple checking everything afraid of making a 700.00 mistake :(

Well that substitute came at a good time, I just checked bdent and they only have 20 pieces of 1968 in stock

 

at $16 a pop

 

Well we've been using them in the KGSSHV for a few years now and the 2SA1486 would always work as a replacement too. 

Well we've been using them in the KGSSHV for a few years now and the 2SA1486 would always work as a replacement too. 

 

That's really nice to know. 

Only up to 600V though.  Don't try them in the BH...  :)

One funny thing I've noticed about the Megatron in office use- it picks some signals from my cell phone. Verified by disabling/enabling airplane mode.

 

Hasn't happened on anything else I've built to date

Well, finally got around finishing the design for the amplifier case and sent it to FrontPanel today.

 

post-2299-0-23849600-1422080387_thumb.jp

post-2299-0-45864300-1422080400_thumb.jp

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in

Sign In Now

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.

Account

Navigation

Search

Search

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.