Jimmy’s Junkyard » Collectible Stuff

Telefunken RGN 1054 Rectifier

Posted on Thursday, 9th July 2009 by Jimmy Auw

After several weeks of waiting, today I receive my most awaited rectifier, the Telefunken RGN 1054. This rectifier rated at 75mA and 300Volt. More than enough to drive my Aikido. I love the mesh plate rectifier

Also, this is my first post with new layout of my blog (only a matter of the width). From maximum 600 pixels width, now expanded to 835 pixels width. More beautiful picture here!!!

For your reference only, the age of this tube probably over 60-70 years old!

rgn1054

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Tags: rectifier, RGN
Posted in Collectible Stuff | Comments (3)

Capacitors Break-In Session

Posted on Saturday, 4th July 2009 by Jimmy Auw

Still remember the extreme capacitors battle? Well, we need to break-in those capacitors first for a fair judgement. So here it is. I don’t have much time to break-in those capacitors. Around 2-3 hours/night for next 2-3 weeks. I think this should be fine

All those capacitors stacked together:

Duelund CAST 1uF/630V
VCap 0.47uF/600V
Jensen Copper Foil 0.47uF/630V
Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube 0.47uF/630V
Mundorf Silver/Gold/Oil 0.47uF/1200V
Mundorf Silver/Gold/Oil 1uF/1200V

All soldered together with WBT Silver Solder, connected to my Aikido via Silver Teflon interconnect. I use white cable heat shrink to cover all the leads (and for safety reason). This leads carry half of B+ or around 130VDC. Enough to shock you if touched.

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Tags: Aikido, Break-In, Duelund, jensen, mundorf, VCap
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio | Comments (14)

Aikido PreAmp + RGN Rectifier + Duelund = Poison!

Posted on Sunday, 28th June 2009 by Jimmy Auw

Just returned from a tired yet “deadly poisonous” DIY Gathering. We held an extra session with RGN 1054 Mesh Plate Rectifier and Duelund Capacitor installed on Aikido Pre-Amplifier (6N1P and 6N6P tubes). Before, the Aikido used Obbligato Capacitor bypassed with K72 Russian Teflon and 5U4G-B Sovtek Rectifier.

The result of this “simple” modification? A deadly Aikido Pre-Amplifier, even dare to compare with DHT Pre-Amplifier. Sweet, liquid, transparent, tight bass, and excellent speed. If before you have to choose between speed/dynamic (Aikido) and sweet vocal (most DHT), now you can get both on this!!!

Absolutely amazing. The test system supported with Audio Aero Capitole CD Player and 17W Class A MOSFET DIY Amplifier.

Tags: Aikido, Duelund, RGN Rectifier
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio | Comments (3)

Some More “Deadly” Collections

Posted on Sunday, 21st June 2009 by Jimmy Auw

After some “crazy” capacitors here, I keep adding some more items on my collections. I call it, rest of my life collections.

First, some N and NX series Black Gate. Best located at tube Cathode/Feedback position, since it’s only rated at 6.3V. Nasty and lazy 200 hours break-in time is killing me

Ah my new long awaited collection, the Duelund Carbon/Silver Resistor. Best used at speaker crossover. Unique design and quite expensive. Before I prefer Mills on crossover, but we’ll see how this will perform against Mills.

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Tags: Components, Hammond, jensen, mundorf, Solen
Posted in Collectible Stuff | Comments (10)

Passive Preamp with DACT Stepped Attenuator

Posted on Sunday, 21st June 2009 by Jimmy Auw

I plan to separate my system volume control with dedicated passive preamp. Before, I planned to take one attenuator from Goldpoint but due to some reason, I changed my mind and took one from DACT.

A stepped attenuator has advantage over typical potentiometer, especially for sound quality and attenuation precision. But do mind that most attenuator is expensive.

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Tags: DACT, Kimber Kable, Stepped Attenuator, WBT
Posted in Collectible Stuff | Comments (0)

TentLabs XO2 @ 27 MHz

Posted on Sunday, 14th June 2009 by Jimmy Auw

I need some touch for my old Toshiba SD-2960 DVD Player. So here is the TentLabs XO2 @ 27 MHz, a perfect yet affordable reclock solution for my wallet.

This is actually a simple PCB. Not all parts used, since this PCB actually “upgradeable”. I bought the XO2 version (Clock Upgrade + Low Noise PSU). If in the future, I wish to upgrade to XO3 (XO2 + S/PDIF reclock), I just contact Guido Tent @ TentLabs to put more components on this PCB.

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Tags: DVD, PSU, Reclock, TentLabs, XO2
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio | Comments (2)

Be Prepared for Extreme Capacitors Battle

Posted on Saturday, 13th June 2009 by Jimmy Auw

Most of the time, money could buy anything – except time (and sometime, love ). Like this Duelund CAST-PIO capacitor. You have the money, but you have to wait around 6-8 weeks (not including shipping time), before you could get it on your hand (even if you could pay more, it won’t arrive faster). Well, it happens on me. After a long time waiting for this, finally it arrives today – the current most praised and perhaps most expensive capacitor (I’m not saying it’s the best sound one – not yet), Duelund CAST-PIO Copper (Cu) capacitor. I bought the copper foil version. The most expensive (and not reasonable from my point of view) is the silver foil, but that one should be completely out of my imagination (and budget).

Handmade in Denmark? Some say you can’t rush the Danes and yes you can’t. Just wait 6-8 weeks before they will finish your order. This Duelund VSFCu-PIO/CAST is rated at 630VDC or 300VAC.

Suffix CAST means this is the highest grade compared to VSF version only (without CAST). According to Duelund, as below:

The Duelund CAST Capacitor is our no holds barred flagship capacitor.

The construction builds on the foundation of our Virtual Stack Foil design but does so with the addition of a proprietary WPIO dielectricum which necessitates several days of impregnation under high pressure.

Hope they are right, otherwise I shall regret for the rest of my life for buying this capacitors

I plan to run some benchmarking from these capacitors below, to get the “King of Capacitor” title of my version. Please be noted that the best for my ears doesn’t have to be the best for your ears to. YMMV!

The contenders:

Duelund VSFCu-PIO/CAST - 1uF/630VDC/300VAC
Mundorf Silver/Gold/Oil – 1uF/1200VDC/800VAC
Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube - 0.47uF/630VDC
VCap TFTF – 0.47uF/600VDC
Jensen Copper Foil - 0.47uF/630VDC

I remove Audio Note Capacitor from my list, since I hate its leakage issue. Good capacitor but less durable is simply out of the league (well, at least for me). I hear the new Oil Filled Mylar from Audio Note is better and safer. Will try if I have chance later.

It’s also interesting to see the battle between Jensen Copper Foil (old one) vs Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube (latest generation). Just like Audio Note with its new Mylar Filled Oil, Jensen also update their premium capacitor line-up with its Paper Tube version. This Jensen Paper Tube version priced around 2.5 times more expensive compared to the standard Copper Foil.

Now, it’s break-in time!!!

Tags: Capacitor, Duelund, jensen, mundorf, v-cap
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio | Comments (10)

Nippon Chemi-con RWE 820uF/550VDC

Posted on Friday, 1st May 2009 by Jimmy Auw

I digged my old boxes and found this old vintage capacitor, Nippon Chemicon RWE 820uF/550VDC. Very big in size (a little bit bigger than my ASC 40uF/440VAC and surely a giant compared to AA battery). This electrolytic capacitor is a legend one, made for inverter application. Equipped with screw type terminal, this capacitor is really ready to rumble.

Tags: ASC, Audio, Capacitor, DIY-Audio, nippon chemicon
Posted in Collectible Stuff | Comments (5)

Beautiful Glowing Tubes This Week

Posted on Sunday, 19th April 2009 by Jimmy Auw

I dig my tube boxes and found this old tube. Not a really expensive or most wanted tube, yeah… just an old Western Electric 393A tube. It’s a Argon and Mercury Vapor filled Thyratron tube. According to the datasheet, the addition of Argon gas on the Mercury Vapor atmosphere allows the tube to start conducting at low temperature. Ok, forget those technical literature, just watch the tube in action.

I heat up the tube for a while. According to the manual, to maintain the life span, it’s recommended to heat it up first. I give around 3-4 minutes. You can see the filament is glowing inside the metal bracket on the center of the tube.

Time for action, activate the High Voltage… Voila, the sky of blue on the top of the tube. Very beautiful!!! You still can see the red filament glowing inside the blue Mercury atmosphere.

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Tags: glowing, Mercury, tube, tube tester
Posted in Collectible Stuff | Comments (8)

Beautiful Glowing Tubes

Posted on Sunday, 12th April 2009 by Jimmy Auw

One factor that makes me like tube is its glow. Well, it’s hard to explain, but some tubes have a beautiful color, especially in dark room. Here is some of them.

Below is the 0A3/VR75 tube. It has red/fire color. Very bright and aggresive.