spritzer Posted September 15, 2008 Report Share Posted September 15, 2008 Sounds like the usual Mikhail BS to me. He could have wired it up so the primary is setup for 230v and the secondary for 12.6v which cancel out each other for a 6.3v output but the windings can only handle so much current. Somebody should really teach Mikhail the old saying, "when in a hole, stop digging!!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penger Posted September 15, 2008 Report Share Posted September 15, 2008 Thanks for the cynicism... now I have to think up a response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin gilmore Posted September 15, 2008 Report Share Posted September 15, 2008 Its more than BS, it is flat out wrong. Each secondary is wound with a specific wire size. The wire size dictates what the maximum current that particular winding is good for. So even if you take the two windings and put them in series, and then put the two 110 windings in series and tie to 110 volts, the maximum current you would get out of the thing is 4 amps. The fact is that using the most power hungry output tube you can find, all you are going to need is 10.6 amperes total. Unless of course its a balanced unit and then you need 21.2. At this point it is much more reasonable to wire multiple tubes in series to get the current down, same as craig does on the zana deux. The more current in a wire, the larger the magnetic field it generates. Which is one of the main reasons that filament wiring is usually heavily twisted pair, or DC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spritzer Posted September 15, 2008 Report Share Posted September 15, 2008 The truth may be that there is a 6A winding on the main transformer so together they give 14A. Perfectly logical way to do things but since Mikhail seems to be incapable of telling the truth he spews some BS instead. As for a response, why don't you ask him if you amp has in fact 6 channels... it has 3 double triodes after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penger Posted September 15, 2008 Report Share Posted September 15, 2008 But the external PS itself was supposed to be 14A if I read all my emails correctly. This is when I wish I had an EE background. Nice reference to the balanced topology fiasco btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spritzer Posted September 15, 2008 Report Share Posted September 15, 2008 I don't doubt that Mikhail said it was going to be a 14A supply but he just didn't do what he said he would... as usual. I'm not an EE (I can make some great bread though) but simply put there is no way in hell that the transformer in that PSU can output 14A unless Mikhail can manipulate the laws of physics. Considering how he specs the resistors in his amps, he may think so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riceboy Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 But the external PS itself was supposed to be 14A if I read all my emails correctly. This is when I wish I had an EE background. Nice reference to the balanced topology fiasco btw. Hey Penger. I'm sure he meant that it was supposed to be a 14A unit as the price he charged you seems like the price he was asking of me for a Extreme with a external PS which is 14A. He let me know that the PS would drive my 6528 tubes as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBLoudG20 Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 I'm not an EE (I can make some great bread though) Group buy now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elephas Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 I also have a TREMENDOUS amount of respect for the small manufacturers like Ray, Mikhail, Justin, Jack Woo, Craig Uthus, Tyll, and others. To put up with design, implementation, parts, supplies, orders, shipping, repairs, and simple customer service (to just cover the basics) takes an amazing amount of work, dedication, talent, skill, and experience...something that many armchair quarterbacks such as myself will never be able to appreciate. Do Ray, Justin, Jack Woo, Craig Uthus, Tyll and others also lie, make excuses, delay and otherwise jerk their customers around like Mikhail? Yeah, I am sure that most audiophile customers want the product to look awesome, sound awesome, cost cheap, be 100% reliable, and be available RIGHT NOW! And they will bitch if all of the above is not true. Is this supposed to be a defense of Singlepower? So customers frustrated with SP are assholes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopstretch Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 I think you're misreading. That post came at the end of an exchange about amp designers who are actually worthy of admiration. Mikhail wasn't on it and no one was defending his ludicrous business practices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffreyj900 Posted September 18, 2008 Report Share Posted September 18, 2008 Do Ray, Justin, Jack Woo, Craig Uthus, Tyll and others also lie, make excuses, delay and otherwise jerk their customers around like Mikhail? I never had a problem with Craig or Ray. I sent Craig a bunch of e-mails, and he answered promptly every time. I also had him send me another eddie current badge for my ZD. He sent it quickly and without question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penger Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 I emailed Mikahil about not getting the 14A external PS issue, and he replied that he would send me some sort of replacement. I will update when he gives me more info about it. Only thing he told me was that it was a dual transformer external unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob N Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 I wonder what construction standards my new amp will have when (if) it arrives Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin gilmore Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 I wonder what construction standards my new amp will have when (if) it arrives You can be sure the construction techniques will be unique and highly proprietary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
postjack Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 Is this supposed to be a defense of Singlepower? So customers frustrated with SP are assholes? Hell naw, folks dealing with Mikhail's nonsense need to get in his face about it and call him out. Seems to be the only thing that does any good. 4N6 was referring to a post of mine in which I said that customer service is probably the hardest part of being a one man amp building company. Having heard the nonsense certain non-Mikhail amp builders have to put up with, and taking into account my personal experience in general customer service, I declared that a lot of audiophiles were assholes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyll Hertsens Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 No one would consider Tyll normal by any stretch of the imagination. Not even me ... especially not me, I've got to live in here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spritzer Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 I wonder what construction standards my new amp will have when (if) it arrives I would definitely open it up after the transatlantic journey and see if every thing's ok. This goes for every amp though but with Mikhail's' "special" build quality I would never plug them in without looking them once over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penger Posted November 7, 2008 Report Share Posted November 7, 2008 So I sent my amp into Mikhail a while back after I posted pictures of the external PS not being to spec. I will hopefully be getting the amp back in a week or so and will post pictures of the internals. I'm interested to see what you guys think of any changes he might have made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n_maher Posted December 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2008 I post the following only because I would have expected that Tom would have gotten much better treatment given the amount of money he's spent with Mikhail. Well I opened my delivery last night. The added jacks on the back look bad. The tubes are not the same that went back to him. I shipped back Bendix 2c51s and got back tungsols (one broke and one cracked). The power supply is not even the same one that left. it looks like it was made by a four year old. its tin and copper and the sides can be pulled completely off. the transformer on top is used, beat up, and has a big dent in the top of it. At this point I figure I am out $6K. Or i guess if it works and sounds good i have very $$$ bedside headphone amp I will never use. I'm screwed either way. I hope every one else does better at recovering there product or money than I have. This sounds very bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naamanf Posted December 9, 2008 Report Share Posted December 9, 2008 I think maybe I should pull out my pitch fork and drive up there. Just when you don't think they could get any worse you hear something like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n_maher Posted December 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2008 I think maybe I should pull out my pitch fork and drive up there. Just when you don't think they could get any worse you hear something like this. Out of simply morbid curiosity I want to see the power supply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spritzer Posted December 9, 2008 Report Share Posted December 9, 2008 That is seriously fucked up. I other SP news, a little bird told me that there are at least 13 broken SP amps out there of all types in need of repair and they won't send them to Mikhail. It seems that somebody could make a nice living cleaning up Mikhail's crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torpedo Posted December 9, 2008 Report Share Posted December 9, 2008 That is seriously fucked up. I other SP news, a little bird told me that there are at least 13 broken SP amps out there of all types in need of repair and they won't send them to Mikhail. It seems that somebody could make a nice living cleaning up Mikhail's crap. After all the crap I've been reading about Mikhail I still don't understand how his deceived customers don't start a common well organized lawsuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarium Posted December 9, 2008 Report Share Posted December 9, 2008 I'm no lawyer or law expert, but I feel like its going to be pretty tough since his customers are global and even as expensive as these amps are its going to be tough to break even and that's if he has the money to reimburse. I just don't see anything coming out of a law suit except maybe some kind of time/money consuming moral victory... I dunno maybe this is a real course of action maybe someone will comment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voltron Posted December 9, 2008 Report Share Posted December 9, 2008 Did I post on HF that Tom should put up some pics or am I nuts? I just looked and the post isn't there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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