Recent Posts

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Tubes / Re: Valves. The best sounding varieties of all time, vintage and new production
« Last post by stevenvalve on April 11, 2018, 02:10:29 AM »
These are supposed to be the end game in valves, and certainly the most expensive. Yes its the world famous Western Electric 300B engraved base made in the 1930s. Not the later variants. These two are new and mint in the box. What do they sell for. I have seen these on eBay for as much as US$26000 a pair. I am going to sell them, but not for that idiot money. Any takers. Why do people pay such silly money even if they are incredible, who knows
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Amplification (Pre/Power) / Re: Stax DA50 mono amplifiers
« Last post by brenden on April 01, 2018, 09:18:35 AM »
My opinion of electrolytics has changed over the years . The silmic 2 alpha super gold are a step up  from the basic silmic 2  . By themselves they cant achieve the standards that  you and i desire ,but when combined with a top class film  bypass cap of the correct value  my experience indicates that  they can easily compete with a top quality film cap .
    A top electrolytic is very good for bass and lower mids but doesnt have the beauty in the upper ranges . When combined with the auricap  .01  the result is seamless .top quality sound from   top to bottom .
     There  is no doubt there are  other excellent film caps apart from auricaps that could work great . The Jupiter is another one that works really good .
  If you use a second rate electrolytic with an average film cap you wiĺl get a   second rate result  .
            Maybe one day soon i can demonstrate what can be done with a solid state amp  whith the right treatment .
        So far  the Staxes are  allowing the beauty of my 94 mk2  to shine  .
      The sound is refined ,  dynamic  , and with a beauty  rarely heard in commercial equipment .   Gone is the bloat ,and  smearing  that i heard before the mods .
   None  of this comes cheap mind you .
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Amplification (Pre/Power) / Re: Stax DA50 mono amplifiers
« Last post by stevenvalve on March 31, 2018, 08:22:41 PM »
I have tried the Silmics 2s and they are nice but in general i prefer not to use any electrolytic capacitors, but we have to fit caps in constricted space so we use them. Auricaps are good and great value for money and obviously work well as a bypass cap. 
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Amplification (Pre/Power) / Re: Stax DA50 mono amplifiers
« Last post by brenden on March 31, 2018, 02:05:12 PM »
More parts going in .
    Hitachi  Copper foil polystyrenes  and   Elna Silmic 2   Super Gold  capacitors
     Nothing but the best 😊
  The two Silmics here are replacing the decoupling caps in the discrete  super shunt regulators  , which  were  10 uf .  It seems to be fairly  common industry  practise is to use these lower values after regulators   , but after many  experiments over the years , I have found that a minimum of 25uf  to 100uf  is needed to develop deeper bass and control of the deeper  bass . Bypassinfg with a .01uf  Auricap is essential  for the highs and mids  . The Elnas and Auricaps  blend perfectly .
     
        So , deeper and more controlled bass is exactly what i got as well as every other parameter improved also .
    The copper foil polystyrenes replace the stendard aluminium foil polystyrenes  . 
     
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Amplification (Pre/Power) / Re: Stax DA50 mono amplifiers
« Last post by brenden on March 26, 2018, 10:13:23 PM »
Work is progressing on the DA50 monos .
   2 electrolytics  in the super shunt regulators replaced with Elna Silmic 2 alpha  super golds . All the small blue caps  0.1uf  replaced with 0.01 uf  Auricaps . The .01 size  is so much more  natural  its not funny . I have proven  this many times  over. Curiously the big brother , Stax DA100  used all .01 uf caps  and apart from the output  transistors  the circuit  is identical  to  the  DA50.
     So how is it sounding ?       Stunning. !
           
        .
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Reel to Reel / Re: Re Lapping Tape Heads
« Last post by zenelectro on March 25, 2018, 12:47:29 PM »
Quote from: stevenvalve on March 22, 2018, 06:07:28 PM
WoW, I need the heads relaped on my Studer A80, Now i no where to send them.

No Problems Steve.

T
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Reel to Reel / Re: Re Lapping Tape Heads
« Last post by stevenvalve on March 22, 2018, 06:07:28 PM »
WoW, I need the heads relaped on my Studer A80, Now i no where to send them.
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Reel to Reel / Re: Re Lapped Heads
« Last post by zenelectro on March 22, 2018, 03:02:29 PM »
Otari before re lapping, you can see quite asymmetrical wear pattern.
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Reel to Reel / Re: Re Lapped Heads
« Last post by zenelectro on March 22, 2018, 02:56:05 PM »
Next is Otari 1" 16 track. Almost done.

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Reel to Reel / Re Lapping Tape Heads
« Last post by zenelectro on March 22, 2018, 02:52:32 PM »
Last few days I've been busy doing head re lapping.

1st was my own 3M M79 2" 16 track machines.
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