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The ultimate DIY? A Stax SRM-T2!


spritzer

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I was told to use the xicon resistors. I was not told why. Or i was told why, but

did not understand.

The spec on the prp resistors says 500 volts across the resistor. It says nothing about

leakage from the resistor to ground or other parts of the circuit. They do leak about

150 nanoamps to ground at 500 volts. And probably moisture in the air makes a change

in that number. For most stuff even including the kgsshv, this is not an issue.

Properly adjusted, this amp is good for a 95 to 100db signal to noise ratio.

Input tubes make a huge difference.

Compared to the original which has oodles of hum from the unregulated power supplies

there is a night and day difference.

Its a tube amp, it is supposed to make some noise.

Thermal noise from the output tubes is just the way it is.

Kerrys solid state front end version should make less noise.

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"Allied Electronics used to do this all the time though they just sent my packages to Israel. I mean IL and IS are pretty much the same thing... right? "

Being part of the Stax Mafia, They should have sent it to Italy.....000-dancing.gif

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I just replaced R37, R38 which sit pretty close to some other PRP resistors and the noise is almost entirely gone now. I'm hearing some very slight static every minute or so at turn on and slightly more frequent as it warmed up. I'm going to replace R35, R36 next. These resistors are only seeing about 185V each so it is no where near the working voltage but replacing them had a big impact. I'm starting to think that leakage is looking better as a cause for the noise issue.

The noise floor (now that I can hear it :)) is very low. With SR-404's it is bearly perceptable. On the O2's I really can't hear anything in the way of hiss or noise.

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Well my resistors are now in Dhaka but I think it would be a good idea to replace all of the battery units.

All islands look alike to us Americans.

Sadly there is a lot ignorance when it comes to other regions. For instance a PM I got over there complaining about my bias boards having gone up in price with time. It's not like the USD has lost value or anything like that... facepalm.png

Edited by spritzer
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There is another fully functioning T2 in the world 000-dancing.gif

I had to spend some time replacing resistors and getting the second channel working again. I had shorted out the battery while I was testing a month or so ago. I replaced all the sand in the one battery, 4 2SK216's in all and the protection zeners (100V). Good news is that even though the zeners died, the 2SJ79's were all fine.

I adjusted the voltage across the 22K resistors in the batteries to 6.55V first with the 2K POTs centered. Then I ajusted each battery to 740V with the 10K POTs. I didn't need to further adjust the 2K POTs since it was really quite already. The servos are working nicely. The + to - differnce is mostly under 100mV and the outputs with respect to ground sit at about 4V for the left channel and 14V for the right. All good.

The really story is how great this amp sounds. I did some comparative listening with the Blue Hawaii and the T2. There is a striking difference and it is really remarkable. The highs sound more extended which really seems to open up the sound stage. The bass is very tight on the T2 and it has really great extension and slam. I was listening to some high def Dianna Krall (Quiet Nights). I was so in the music that I couldn't stop smiling. biggrin.png

I've got a few mechanical items I need to address (screw holes misaligned, etc), but I will have this baby polished off pretty quickly.

I'm excited to get the second channel of my Blue Hawaii / T2 combo amp working. The first sounds great, but you really can't tell until you've got stereo.

Edited by Kerry
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There is another fully functioning T2 in the world 000-dancing.gif

I had to spend some time replacing resistors and getting the second channel working again. I had shorted out the battery while I was testing a month or so ago. I replaced all the sand in the one battery, 4 2SK216's in all and the protection zeners (100V). Good news is that even though the zeners died, the 2SJ79's were all fine.

I adjusted the voltage across the 22K resistors in the batteries to 6.55V first with the 2K POTs centered. Then I ajusted each battery to 740V with the 10K POTs. I didn't need to further adjust the 2K POTs since it was really quite already. The servos are working nicely. The + to - differnce is mostly under 100mV and the outputs with respect to ground sit at about 4V for the left channel and 14V for the right. All good.

The really story is how great this amp sounds. I did some comparative listening with the Blue Hawaii and the T2. There is a striking difference and it is really remarkable. The highs sound more extended which really seems to open up the sound stage. The bass is very tight on the T2 and it has really great extension and slam. I was listening to some high def Dianna Krall (Quiet Nights). I was so in the music that I couldn't stop smiling. biggrin.png

I've got a few mechanical items I need to address (screw holes misaligned, etc), but I will have this baby polished off pretty quickly.

I'm excited to get the second channel of my Blue Hawaii / T2 combo amp working. The first sounds great, but you really can't tell until you've got stereo.

Congrats Kerry, really good to hear this :)

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