GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Melquiades Amplifier
In the Thread: Planning my DSET

Post Subject: How did you do it?Posted by Romy the Cat on: 8/13/2015

anthony wrote:
I am not sure how large to make the filter caps for the DHT channel. At this stage I think I will start at 3000uF and perhaps try altering it a little up or down once the system is stable.

Hm, it is depends how stupid you are. The 3000uF is an average level of stupidity. In my amp I went for 36000 I believe that was accessibly stupid. In some amp DIYers make SETs with 8uF that is unsufficiently stupid. It is about how much you wiling your transformers, chokes and the rest PS and filter to be impactful to sound. Some folks make vintage tube rectification, use super-duper components in filtration and use very small last cap of a special type, let say paper in oil… Then the sound of the amp is 50% of the sound of PS. I do not say that it is bad and with proper tweaking all of it you can get fine result. I do not like this approach and I prefer to use large electrolytic to cancel out any sonic PS contribution. In my amp it is not about the contributive sound of passive elements but rather about unadulterated sound of active elements. Use the filtration to drive ripples to let say 1-3mMv and it would be good start.

anthony wrote:
On another point, I got to Sydney a couple of weeks ago and listened to Tax's 'Koshka' Melquiades running a heavily modified AG horn system. I did enjoy my visit and am now quite confident that the Melquiades will suit my objectives. Of course this is a few hours listening in a new room but I heard a lot of things that I like.

It is nice to hear BUT: if you heard the Tax's installation then how you concluded that sound you heard was result of “good Melquiades” but not the result of Tax’s heavily modified AG horn system? What I am asking is how you in the sound that you heard you were able to attribute what you liked to the amps but not to numerous other aspects?

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