PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - dv187736's PF C7 Preamp

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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby jopet » Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:04 pm

:clap: :clap: :clap:

rene,

if you have aikido preamp, let me know, am interested .... ;)

thanks

joel
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby pigdog » Sat Jun 13, 2009 6:04 am

i am using a GOMES which was a predecessor to the aikido and am also familair with the aikido as SNZ is using one himself
i like this preamp as it has plenty of dynamics. and for the money it is well worth it. you can buy the kit from DIY Hongkong and Rene can put it together for you,
my aikido-gomes was slightly modded to take 6sn7 on the output as i have a considerable stash of 6sn7s

you cant go wrong with this!
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby jopet » Sat Jun 13, 2009 6:10 am

pigdog wrote:i am using a GOMES which was a predecessor to the aikido and am also familair with the aikido as SNZ is using one himself
i like this preamp as it has plenty of dynamics. and for the money it is well worth it. you can buy the kit from DIY Hongkong and Rene can put it together for you,
my aikido-gomes was slightly modded to take 6sn7 on the output as i have a considerable stash of 6sn7s

you cant go wrong with this!


hi chester,

can you pm me the HK price of the kit? ;)
rene, sorry for the OT

thanks

joel
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby pigdog » Sat Jun 13, 2009 6:23 am

jopet go to DIY HIFI hong kong or do a search in google and look for Simon or Brian Cherry i am scheduled to arrive in manila late in june
hence you got a chance to have delivered by me! for the phono stage, you have to pM SNZ as he bought the kit elsewhere but the quality and the make is very good. also note the obligato caps these are best value for money and i liked this caps and these can easily compete with mundorfs anytime
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby jopet » Sat Jun 13, 2009 6:52 am

thanks a lot ches, i'll get in touch with you once i got a reply from DIY HIFI , hope to see you end of the month ..... :clap: :clap: :clap:
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby Squirrelnutzipper » Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:23 am

jopet wrote::clap: :clap: :clap:

rene,

if you have aikido preamp, let me know, am interested .... ;)

thanks

joel


Jopet,

As Chester has said, I have been using an Aikido linestage for some time now. The tube combination is 6cg7 input and 5687 for the drivers. I am very happy with it and it has done a lot to add to the dynamics of my system. I bought it assembled from DIYHIF as a scratch and dent unit for a reasonable price. I upgraded some caps in the power supply to Blackgates and the interstage and coupling caps to Obligattos. As Chester says, the Obligattos are high value, and compare well with the Mundorf's and fare well against V-Caps, all of which I use on other components. This particular iteration has remote volume and input switching, which is not available anymore.

The Aikido circuit is worth consideration, as it is very neutral and inherently quiet. It does not require a particularly complex power suply, due to its interesting way of handling power supply noise. This is what drove me to try the phono stage. By the way, Rene can build you an Aikido phono stage at a very reasonable price, depending on the choice of passive components you select.

If you are interested in an Aikido linestage, my advice would be to have Rene build you one. There is a wide range of tube choices and combinations, including octal, noval and even loktal that you could use. Some of these tubes are as cheap as chips and identical to the expensive and more common equivalents, like one tenth the price! The gain is adjustable through choice of the input tube, the gain being roughly half of the mu of the input tube. Rene is also building an Aikido linestage for me using some intersting 6sn7 variants. If I were you and with all deference to my pigdog buddy, I would forego the DIYHIFI route and have Rene build a point to point unit for you. You could choose better parts quality, choose the gain you need for your system and the cost will be considerably less than bringing in the DIYHIFI kit. Besides, the overall build quality will be far better and you will be able to have Rene stand behind his work, which is IMHO top notch.

The phono and linestage should be finished soon and you are more than welcome to borrow it to audition in your system to see what you think. I suspect you won't be disappointed!
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby pigdog » Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:30 am

good point about having a preamp made by hypertriode and you can have more options to choose better componenets. point to point is definitely a big yes for me!
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby jopet » Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:55 am

Squirrelnutzipper wrote:
jopet wrote::clap: :clap: :clap:

rene,

if you have aikido preamp, let me know, am interested .... ;)

thanks

joel


Jopet,

If you are interested in an Aikido linestage, my advice would be to have Rene build you one. There is a wide range of tube choices and combinations, including octal, noval and even loktal that you could use. Some of these tubes are as cheap as chips and identical to the expensive and more common equivalents, like one tenth the price! The gain is adjustable through choice of the input tube, the gain being roughly half of the mu of the input tube. Rene is also building an Aikido linestage for me using some intersting 6sn7 variants. If I were you and with all deference to my pigdog buddy, I would forego the DIYHIFI route and have Rene build a point to point unit for you. You could choose better parts quality, choose the gain you need for your system and the cost will be considerably less than bringing in the DIYHIFI kit. Besides, the overall build quality will be far better and you will be able to have Rene stand behind his work, which is IMHO top notch.

The phono and linestage should be finished soon and you are more than welcome to borrow it to audition in your system to see what you think. I suspect you won't be disappointed!


hi SNZ,

I had a chance to hear an aikido preamp when a friend brought a unit during our session to try, I was so surprised the detail and dynamics came out from my simple system, that's the reason why am very much interested on aikido line stage. Already discussed the project to rene and the master promised me to build a point to point unit using octal and a driver of his choice.
Thank you for the offer of lending your unit to me and i appreciate it very much

joel
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby Squirrelnutzipper » Sat Jun 13, 2009 9:15 am

Hi Joel,
No problem. Glad to help out. I cannot speak from actual experience, but the use of octals in the Aikido circuit is supposed to be a bit fatter and fuller sounding than using novals, which are supposed to be more detailed. That is why I am experimenting with the two different versions. You could also use octals for input and novals for output, such as 5687 tubes. The biggest impact on SQ is from the input tubes, so that is the area you should probably concentrate on when deciding the configuration for the Aikido linestage. Just my 2 cents worth!
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby hypertriode » Sat Jun 13, 2009 1:31 pm

joey, dream no more. let's make it come true! ;)

joel, the octal line stage comes next. i'll call you when it's ready for audition.

SNZ, thanks for pushing me to do this. i'm excited as you are with the results! ;)

The front and rear panels:


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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby arnoldc » Sun Jun 14, 2009 11:21 am

Dana, you're asking Rene to do something taboo... C'mon, PCB? Just kidding... :lol:

While I still confess that point-to-point is still for the big boys ('di ba Rene ;) ) there are situations when PCB is the way to go. Specially in terms of noise.
pigdog wrote:good point about having a preamp made by hypertriode and you can have more options to choose better componenets. point to point is definitely a big yes for me!


I don't really care if it's P2P or PCB as long as it get's the job done.
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby Squirrelnutzipper » Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:44 pm

arnoldc wrote:Dana, you're asking Rene to do something taboo... C'mon, PCB? Just kidding... :lol:

While I still confess that point-to-point is still for the big boys ('di ba Rene ;) ) there are situations when PCB is the way to go. Specially in terms of noise.
pigdog wrote:good point about having a preamp made by hypertriode and you can have more options to choose better componenets. point to point is definitely a big yes for me!


I don't really care if it's P2P or PCB as long as it get's the job done.

Arnold, sometimes you just have to push the envelope. I was surprised that Rene actually wanted to do this project, with a pcb, but for sure it is the way to go with so much stuff to hook together. He will still point to point the Aikido linestages, but they are so much simpler than this phono stage. For mere mortals, or sub-humans like me, I appreciate the goof proof nature of pcbs. I can leave the complex p to ps to Rene!
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby hypertriode » Tue Jun 16, 2009 1:08 pm

arnoldc wrote:I don't really care if it's P2P or PCB as long as it get's the job done.


totally agree, arnold!

although i prefer P2P over PCB, seeing that the Aikido boards were well made - thick, double-sided, feed-through, well laid out and very sturdy, it was well worth doing! and seeing that SNZ has become an inveterate tube-roller :rofl: , i further reinforced the board with six stand-offs distributed evenly on the board (dampened by tiny o-rings in each post) to ensure no board flexing with constant tube insertion/removal.

arnoldc wrote:While I still confess that point-to-point is still for the big boys ('di ba Rene ;) ) there are situations when PCB is the way to go. Specially in terms of noise.


agree again! considering that we're working with phono levels here, going PCB would be an advantage where noise issues are concerned (though i have successfully made several quiet phono stages, mostly MC, using P2P wiring).

Squirrelnutzipper wrote:Arnold, sometimes you just have to push the envelope. I was surprised that Rene actually wanted to do this project, with a pcb, but for sure it is the way to go with so much stuff to hook together. He will still point to point the Aikido linestages, but they are so much simpler than this phono stage. For mere mortals, or sub-humans like me, I appreciate the goof proof nature of pcbs. I can leave the complex p to ps to Rene!


SNZ, what could be more complex than the Hurricanes we P2P'ed?! ;)
john bronski's brainchild was all over the net getting rave reviews, we had to do it!
now i'm excited as you are for the results bro! :)
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby Squirrelnutzipper » Tue Jun 16, 2009 6:42 pm

SNZ, what could be more complex than the Hurricanes we P2P'ed?!
john bronski's brainchild was all over the net getting rave reviews, we had to do it!
now i'm excited as you are for the results bro!

Rene,
I guess you have a point about the Hurricanes being converted to point to point. There is indeed a ton of stuff in there to hook together, and the great results speak for themselves. The caps are almost fully broken in, except for the V-Caps in the interstage positions, and aside for the batch of 16 defective KT88s, they have been faultless. The soundstage is wide and SQ simply marvelous. Good to have 200 tube watts to give the bass some punch. As to tube rolling, the Ken Rad VT-231s for drivers gave bloated bass so I switched to Tung Sol round plates with better results. For gain, am using NU 6sn7s that seem ok. The dac output was 6cg7, but switching to an e88cc Tungsram helped with this and gave more detail. Still have some Sylvania chrome domes, NUs, other Sylvanias, Raytheon and assorted other VT-231s to try. Too many choices!

The Aikido linestage is definitely a winner and is point to point. That should make you happy, even though you did not build it! It will be interesting to try an octal linestage instead of the novals I have now. If the Aikido phono has the same characteristics as the line stage, it should be great. Speaking of PCBs, have you taken a look at the Tubelab SE board? Was thinking of doing a 45. The Power Drive circuit is intriguing! Thanks to the venerable Arnoldc for pointing this design out to me.
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO OCTAL

Postby hypertriode » Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:04 pm

Work-In-Progress: SNZ's Aikido octal line preamp.

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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby arnoldc » Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:22 pm

Looking good!
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby hypertriode » Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:25 am

arnoldc wrote:Looking good!


thanks buddy! haven't really heard an aikido yet; i'm sure they'd sound good! ;)
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby camotecue » Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:39 am

hypertriode wrote:
arnoldc wrote:Looking good!


thanks buddy! haven't really heard an aikido yet; i'm sure they'd sound good! ;)


superb workmanship from hypertriode! :clap: :clap: :clap:

i think jojod from the other forum made several aikido preamps. they swear the aikido circuit sounds good.
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby JoeyGS » Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:36 am

I Swear :rock: ... as I own one (line stage) :)

Good luck Hyper.....hope to have a listen soon.



camotecue wrote:
hypertriode wrote:
arnoldc wrote:Looking good!


thanks buddy! haven't really heard an aikido yet; i'm sure they'd sound good! ;)


superb workmanship from hypertriode! :clap: :clap: :clap:

i think jojod from the other forum made several aikido preamps. they swear the aikido circuit sounds good.
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Re: PHONO STAGE, HEAD AMP & SUT'S - WIP - SNZ's AIKIDO PHONO

Postby amandarae » Wed Jun 24, 2009 2:18 pm

Galing talaga ni Hyper!

DIY pa ba tawag diyan? Nakakahiyang tawagin na DIY yan! Bravo!

regards,

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