Here is a stupid need of DIY audio level. As many of you know am big lover of Nichicon electrolytic capacitors, even their lowers grade sounds right to me and never made to think about anything better. Still the Nichicon never stopped to surprise me.

In Super Milq I have a first caps in the B+ of the first stage supply. It is 100uF, nothing special. I use usually regular LK line, which is base commercial grade. However, I make a stupid mistake and instead of 450V put there 250V/100uF cap. The voltage after the bridge is 440V with 115V on primary. Now I have much high voltage in mains that make on secondary 475V… and it is all loaded after a choke with 73 DCR to a …250V capacitor? So, what do you think happed when I connected it? Well, it is not only nothing happened but…. I realized that it was running like this for a week!!!! Wow!!! The heat off to the Nichicon Corporation and their capacitors!

I am kind of at lost, as what is doing on with my playback is surprising to me. With a pair of new 6-ch Milqs, more or less acceptably calibrated (but not perfectly), the system begin to throw some very astonishing effects, so astonishing that I am very convinced that had I never heard Sound like this nether from my playback nor from any other playbacks . The “new Sound” is not “goo electricity” related as I know what comes from electricity – what I am getting now is not that.  The new 12 channels of dedicated amps, direct driving Macondo’s channels made some extremely profound “strategic” advancements within Second Level of listening perception:

 http://www.GoodSoundClub.com/TreeItem.aspx?PostID=59 

I do not know what responsible for it – lowering of intermodulation distortions or anything else but the fact of recent huge positive changes is undeniable. I will post in future some thoughts about some specifies of that “new sound” but for now I would like to chew upon what I am getting from the playback.

Something had changed very positively with multi-amping. I am not quite sure if it is because the full multi-amping of the specific of the implementation but it is what it is. The entire dynamic relationship between volume of a given tone and the tone’s vibrant properties become much more remarkable. There are many other inversing observations about the new Milq sound, and they relay keep me in unexpectedly-delighted state, but at this point I would like to accent this one: Melquiades got smarter.

If you read the few comments below (let try my new search engine):

http://www.romythecat.com/GetPost.aspx?PostID=4247

http://www.romythecat.com/GetPost.aspx?PostID=3207

http://www.romythecat.com/GetPost.aspx?PostID=6048

http://www.romythecat.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?postID=672

http://www.romythecat.com/GetPost.aspx?PostID=2091

http://www.romythecat.com/GetPost.aspx?PostID=1816

..and many other comments from the period when I was discovering Milq’s sound then you remember that one of the most remarkable and distinctive characteristic of the Melquiades amplifier I consider something the I called Milq’s “Dynamic Viscosity” and the “Volume Intelligence”. It means that Melquiades has own intellect that knows how to react to soft and to loud passages differently. It is all comes from the bias of 6E5P/6E6P but the technicalities are not subject of this post. So, Milq’s driver stage kind of self-adjusts itself and reacts differently to loud and soft moments of music and the driver stage somehow implements the velocity of changes of loudness VERY differently than any other amplifier I am familiar.

I have to make a comment here. I certainly can say any BS about Melquiades. Very few people ever heard driving properly loaded and practically no one build Milq out there. So, I can go away with any of my drooling, even foolish, about actual or imaginary advances of Melquiades Sound. Well, whatever it is. The Milq is publicly available, feel free to accuse me in laying. However, do not approach Milq from the position of senseless stupid engendering of from a position of DIYAudio counselor – I will send you to fuck yourself and it will be the only activities you will be qualify to do in audio. Many of you have been doing it for years, despite of “30 year of experience” and own sense of audio pretentiousness…

So, the “Dynamic Viscosity” and the “Volume Intelligence” is the very kinky keys of the Melquiades sound but what have happened with it in the 6-Chennal Melquiades DSET?

Well, the amplitude of the Milq’s Viscose Intelligence got wider and the Volume Intelligence have increased it’s range. Before Milq was able to cared loud passages with force and aggressiveness if the music called upon the aggressiveness but at the same time Milq was able to be very gentle and very considering when music called for placidness and softness. Now, with 6-Chennal Milq DSET the forcefulness of the higher dynamic range got multiplied by a very large number. That is itself is a phenomenal think but along with advances in vigor at upper dynamic range the amp go absolutely stunning sense of effortless of getting there. The musical crashes got cleaner, less confusing but at the same time much more intense and more passionate. Perhaps it relates to loosing intermediations via multi-amping of perhaps it is because the way “cleaner” sound from upper channels… I do not know. It is kind of interesting, the upper channels during loud passages sound almost “thin” but as soon I inject more second harmonic into them I realized that it is not “thinness” but a very new level of cleanness. Balancing that new “clean” MF/HF sound with proper lower MF and Fundamentals super I got so slick sound at orchestral crashes that I make me audio-ecstatic…

OK, from another side there are low-level soft signals… I have no idea why but the low level discrimination of details went way over the roof. Even at 16 bit if I go for -50-60dB signals they suddenly became to sound with unseen character and unseen temperament. It looks like Milq, even at the level where  16 bit begin to bare itself into nose grabs the information and pamper it with some kind of special attention. I found myself during the last few days to drive my high voltage output DAC to drive wide opened New Milq and playing music recorded at very low level (opening of Pathétique, opening of the Saint-Saëns last symphony, some Mahler, etc…). I was surprised again and again how Milq could dive into depth of dynamic range and search there for even of its attention…

However, the most stunning thing is HOW Milq moves across the dynamic range – it does it in a way how it wants and I love each second of it. It is hard to explain and it needs to be experienced. It does not do it too fast (typical for OTLs and another crap) or too slow (typical for DHT with overloaded driver stage). Milq does it with own pace, the pace that Milq chose for itself at given moment… according to the current musical volume and the dominating frequency range. Absolutely amassing feeling, particularly taking in account the Macondo/Milq tonal pyrotechnics…

Let me in the end give you an association about the Melquiades “Dynamic Viscosity” and “Volume Intelligence”. Pretended that you are at the bottom of a tall building and somebody throws a very fragile glass vase to you. The mass of the vase is 1Kg, you need to catch and your task is to ketch it at minimum distance from ground. If you catch it too high then the vase will be stopped to high ground and it you catch it too low than you will have too little space to apply the necessary contra-inertia movement and the vase will be cracking in your hands. You have eventually figure out how to catch the vases and how slow down their fall in order to keep them from cracking and in order to stop them as close to ground as possible. Now it is not just 1Kg vase is thrown but many different vases with different masses. This time you need to moderate dynamically the elevation where you catch the vases and the strength you need to apply in your hands in order to compensate the mass inertia, still keeping the slowing down of the vases with the acceptable G- acceleration             that the fragile glass would be able to survive. Now, If you got what I meant and understood all my misspellings, then you have a basic understanding how Melquiades “Dynamic Viscosity” and “Volume Intelligence” might sound.

Well, as I understood it the strategy from the beginning was to use a number of specialized/optimized "channels" working together as opposed to the usual single amp or two amps for FR, and from your descriptions above it seems like you're getting what you sought, along with some bonuses.  No doubt the specialization has factored large, but in looking at the schemos for both the amps themselves and their power supplies, they are pretty sophisticated, as well.  Nor did you stinge on transformers...

Not to rush your exposition, but how are LF and HF now, and how is channel/channels integration?

What are you using for pre-amp chores?

Have you tried phono sources yet?

BTW, Congratulations!

Best regards,
Paul S

Paul S wrote:

What are you using for pre-amp chores? Have you tried phono sources yet?

I do not use analog for now, since my preamp is being rebuilt, I hope I will have it back this week. Well, I was listening today the life MET’s broadcast of Die Walküre with Lorin Maazel conducting (it was very good BTW) but it was as much “analog” as I can afford now. The New Milq DSET is 5K load and very complex load, my phonostage can’t drive it. My 7788 phonostage is around 1K output impedance and the “End of the Live Phonostage” is about 300R. They are both capacitance-coupled with 2uF… My digital on the other hands can handle the New Milq. Bidat has 40R out impedance, Lavry is somewhere there as well, and the Pacific is 20R. Ether of them drives the bid Milq with no problems.

Romy the Cat wrote:

Here are the basics of the 6-Chennal Melquiades DSET Amplifier complete, without secondary features. http://www.RomyTheCat.com/PDF/6-Chennal_Melquiades_DSET_Amplifier.pdf

anthony wrote:

Romy, I appreciate that this is an old thread now and that you may not remember everything from your time developing these amplifiers, but I have a (hopefully) simple question about the upperbass crossover in the schematic above.  All other channels have crossovers that are rather straight forward: bass is a low pass RC filter; Fundamentals is a RCL bandpass filter; MF is RL high pass filter; HF is a third order T Section high pass filter; but the Upperbass Channel as I read it is a RC low pass filter only (bandpass is required) within the first stage bias.  Are you relying on the coupling cap (0.022uF) to act as your high pass filter for Upperbass?