Then I've already covered the gamut of sensible upgrades with what I have now Just didn't know if there were any other worthwhile changes that could be done without going overboard, so I was wondering out loud as it were.

Well, its just common sense that you have to replace every resistor with a tantalum resistor. Not worth listening to otherwise.

I'm going with a black top. I do think piano black is nice, but dust and fingerprints become very obvious with it but even so, now that you mention piano black it is tempting. I was personally thinking more along the lines of a satin finish for the top plate or brushed finish in the case of anodized black.

Good point... I hate that about that SOHA I the piano black thing to.

How about stainless steel instead? Raw stock is pretty reasonably priced...even on ebay

( example: 304 STAINLESS STEEL 18GA. .048 SHEET 9''X12''* - eBay (item 300453682180 end time Sep-06-10 06:46:32 PDT) )

It would look pretty nice with the stain you used on the wood but I dunno about the rest of parts mounted on the panel.

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forgive the tape still havent had time to get wood glue yet >< but the amp is fully functional and sounds great. slight hiss only with the volume all the way up on the thinkpad. with the rca receiver and my pcdp dead dead quiet. before i put the speedball kit in, i took out the sprague caps and put in the stock ones. should have listened to colin =/ amp sounds waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better. was starting to think about selling it but all such thoughts have been banished. hell i dont even want to sell the 701s now midrange is quite good.

pictures courtesy of one of the cooler office mates ive had in a while. he has one of those fancy canon eos cameras.

Very nice!

It sounds great already, should be interesting to hear how it changes with the speedball.

^interesting mix of "ancient" (tubes) and "modern" (touch)

Whoa there Nebby!

You know there are laws in this country about the size of knob you can use with a given deck plate! It might be a good idea to have "Fish and Game" make a little visit to your listening room.

Just giving you a hard time Nebby. It looks great with the black on black.

Well I've always heard the bigger the knob, the better; I also have smaller knobs, but in the meantime the giant knob + tkd pot = great combo

size queen

nice to see the black on black. looks sexy. now try on the silver one and post pics

Speedball and the Erse caps were installed yesterday; the sound is quite enjoyable

I had an issue with the right channel disappearing on me with the 5998, but it came back after leaving the amp on overnight. Odd things, these tubes.

Which Erse caps did you use?

Have you tried those in any other gear?

Keep us posted on how they end up sounding *after 500 hours or so).

ERSE - 200.0μF 250v PulseX are what I used. I haven't tried them in any other gear, mostly went off of cetool's recommendation; is 500 the de facto burn-in time for caps?

ERSE - 200.0μF 250v PulseX are what I used. I haven't tried them in any other gear, mostly went off of cetool's recommendation; is 500 the de facto burn-in time for caps?

How in the hell did you shoehorn those into the case? I think you need to show us some upskirt shots......

I'm deciding on output caps now; here is a direct paste from what I just posted on Head-Fi. I was originally going to use 100

How in the hell did you shoehorn those into the case? I think you need to show us some upskirt shots......

Very carefully? I'll post a pic once the tubes and amp cool down.

I'm deciding on output caps now; here is a direct paste from what I just posted on Head-Fi. I was originally going to use 100

Don't Jensens have a tendency to go leaky? I would think that would be a bad thing for an output couping cap on a HV amp.

NFI. That's why I'm asking!

upskirt! upskirt! upskirt! upskirt!

The cap leads are going to be heat-shrinked as soon as I order some decent barrel connectors, the ones I'm using are from radio shack and will break loose and run if you even look at them wrong.

"If it don't stink, don't stir it!"

In other words, listen to the stock caps for a while, then, if you want to change something about the sound, try exchanging the stock ones for some film caps. The stock electrolytics sound remarkably good and several folks who've upgraded to Solen/Axon have reported very little difference.

After (if) you upgrade the caps to film and you find the mids-highs are somehow lacking, you can try bypassing the main caps with 1-10% (uF same voltage rating) caps. Which caps you like is entirely up to your tastes and associated gear (and wallet). Be advised that the effect that bypass caps have depends a good deal on the cap you're bypassing and the circuit. Some caps don't work very well together and some circuits just don't lend themselves to using bypass caps at all.

In both cases, you may find that a musical line will have the sonic characteristics of one cap, then when it moves across the "crossover" frequencies, the sound will suddenly change to the characteristic sound signature of the other cap (in other words, a loss of continuity).

Always try and get the sonics you want without bypassing. There's always some phase shift when sending the signal through two different paths. It can be very small but all phase shift within a signal is smearing.

Nebby, 500 hours isn't the defacto burn in for most caps but for some like Mundorfs, some ollers and most teflon caps it takes at least that much time for them to settle in. I gave 500 hours as the time that whatever caps and other upgrades you do, everything should be fairly well settled in.

Oh, side mounting makes sense, even if not particularly elegant. i think I will stick with the Axon that can still mount to the bottom plate.

I gave 500 hours as the time that whatever caps and other upgrades you do, everything should be fairly well settled in.

I see, sounds reasonable enough

Beefy: I would've preferred them mounted to the plate as well, but that's just not possible with their size.

"If it don't stink, don't stir it!"

In other words, listen to the stock caps for a while, then, if you want to change something about the sound, try exchanging the stock ones for some film caps.

Yeah, see, I'm not the sort of person who wants to screws around with something like this. I would much rather have a good/safe option go in first time round, then sit and enjoy the amp while I decide what to build next.

I see your point Beefy.

That's just me imposing my neurosis on other folks,.. sorry.

I guess I'm at the opposite end of scale. I have one amp that I'm sure I've made over 50 changes to in the last year and a half. But, I'm still learning so I do lots of trial and error.

gamma 2 dac and western electric 421As are here. one 421A is in the amp. fuck me. the sound is simply glorious. never heard soundstage this wide with the other 6080s that i tried. however, lots of noise past the 12o clock mark on the volume pot. using the gamma 2 right now. noise wasnt there with the 6080. will try the other 421A to see if the noise persists. instruments are more detailed but the sound is a little dry overall (i think). too many things have changed however - dac, tube, cables etc. so dont know what is the culprit. very nice sounding amp nonetheless.

a little remark on attenuation with the tube as well. hair trigger over the lowest volume gets it to regular volume. a tad more gets it comfortably loud.