System #454 (Summit, Stage Vista, Abbys)

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however.... a couple of months of prototyping and experimenting:

That room looks like it will end in tears.

Are you for real? You are sending 240v mains through unmounted power supplies and valves!!

Seriously mate (and all) - safety first.
 
That room looks like it will end in tears.

Are you for real? You are sending 240v mains through unmounted power supplies and valves!!

Seriously mate (and all) - safety first.

Amey,
I'm not saying the DIY hobby is for everone!!!!

Working with electronics DOES require working with potential dangerous voltage!

I do not mean to encourage people without knowledge nor experience to get engage in this type of projects.

It's prototype........prototype!!!!!

Define unmounted???
 
Amey,
I'm not saying the DIY hobby is for everone!!!!


DIY is certainly not for those who can't do it safely.

Working with electronics DOES require working with potential dangerous voltage!


There's a difference between "working with dangerous voltage" and leaving it all over your lounge room floor!!

Define unmounted???

Maybe a valve with [God knows] how much voltage going through it lying on carpet (of all things)! (your last picture)

And a piece of loose paper providing "insulation" between a HV board and signal cables? Which is in turn lying on a kids' playmat?!?!?!?!?! You mean you have babies crawling around that house? Wow, just wow.

Sorry - I don't mean to rain on your parade. I enjoyed looking at what you have done and reading about it. But "safety first" is important!

As I said - this is waiting to end in tears. And noone wants that.
 
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Amey,

"And a piece of loose paper providing "insulation" between a HV board and signal cables?"

It looks like you have a lot to say about things you little know of.

Up to a point you even started making your own stories about kids crawling around.:D (no offense - it was actually funny :ROFL:)

You have to understand that making it permanent(looking pretty and putting in nice GROUNDED enclosure) before testing/prototyping and making sure it works fine makes no sense at all.

Do you see the open box in mid left part of first pic with two transformers? it was my first oppo PSU mod done year ago.
After testing it and being happy with result it ended up "with PSU mounted" properly in nice and GROUNDED(safety first :) aluminum enclosure.


P.S. Making judgements is easy.....

properly "mounted PSUs":
_DSC7747.jpg
 
I never doubted your ability to make a finished product.

But this (below) can't be good......

Because??????

You can't just make a statement like this and not give explanation. We are grownups and it feels like I'm having conversation with my 2.5 years old niece: "I don't like it", "Why"? "Because....I don't"!!!

"This can't be"....what is "this"? Don't you like my soldering? It's quite decent job. Don't you like point to point soldering? well... most of tube gear is done like this. Is there something technically wrong with hooking up various elements? What is "no good"? Sure, if you deliberately stick your finger in it you'll feel it.

I'm pretty sure we could learn from each other, but if you are unable to come up with CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM than I'm afraid writing and replying to each other is a total waste of time.


P.S I see you have Musical Fidelity tube buffer. This piece can greatly benefit from very simple modifications (safe mods).
 
Musical Fidelity Tube Buffer

X-10v3

This unit is really useful right after my Musical Fidelity Phono X-LPS.

When I got it I run some listening sessions with/without and I could definitely tell the difference. However wasn't too sure if the difference is for better or worse. It was clouding up the sound but at the same time giving extra "meet on the bones" and greater 3d stage, which I liked a lot.
Removing input cap (no longer needed because of changes in upstream gear) and changing output caps to Multicap RTX made all the difference. Upgrading psu caps and providing good filtered power from separate transformer and the unit is definitely a keeper now.
Also tubes replaced to NOS and transistors replaced with proper heat sink.

All in all I like it very much. It's basically impedance matching device and I noticed it doesn't work equally well throughout the system.


_DSC0892.jpg_DSC0899.jpg
 
Musical Fidelity X-LPSV8 mod

All of Musical Fidelity X series comes with el cheapo wall wart adapter. Than it goes through filtering stage and finally generic regulators. Cheap solution and very negatively impacting sound.
First reasonable step was to get good +/- 15v supplied to the unit. I completed quite a lot of projects from www.amb.org and I like his Sigma power supplies a lot. It really is hi-end stuff. And so it sounds...

Power filtering caps visible on the pic are no longer used.
Nasty Jamicon electrolitics removed from output stage since i can control DC offset on Burson discrete opamps.
Input cas are teflon Sonicap Platinum.

Different beast now....all terms and aspect of audiophile poetry (I'm not audiophile poet) and vocabulary has been improved :D

_DSC7853.jpg_DSC7849.jpg_DSC7836.jpg
 
I'm pretty sure we could learn from each other, but if you are unable to come up with CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM than I'm afraid writing and replying to each other is a total waste of time.


P.S I see you have Musical Fidelity tube buffer. This piece can greatly benefit from very simple modifications (safe mods).

Don't get me wrong. I never doubted your ability to mod, or perform safe mods for that matter.

My comments were not in relation to your modding or the way you performed soldering.

I was purely commenting on what I saw in those photos - powered up valves sitting on carpet, etc.

You can't learn anything from me because I know nothing about modding, safe or otherwise. But when I see high voltage all over someone's living room floor, separated by loose paper; then I have a inkling that's dangerous.
 
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