Posted on Tuesday, 6th October 2009 by Auw Jimmy

I do love the improvement after I finish the VCap TFTF Capacitor Mods on my Aikido Power Supply. The staging is awesome. I could “see” not only a center point, but also a little bit left/right, even more left/right, left/right (on the speaker), and far away left/right. But sometime, I feel the Pre-Amp is too dynamic (to speedy). For instrument music, it’s ok. But for mostly vocal dominated music, I think I need to slow it down – a little bit – without losing the awesome staging off course.

Since we know the “problem” is caused by the VCap TFTF, so we have to start the solution from this point also (it’s just because I have “predicted” that I have no option to improve on the other section).

Ok, what should we do?

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Tags: jensen, power supply, VCap
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Posted on Saturday, 26th September 2009 by Auw Jimmy

It’s a weekend holiday and it’s time to scratch my laziness and doing some audio DIY mods. This time, I will try a capacitor from Jensen, the 4-Pole Electrolytic.

What makes it different from standard electrolytic? Well, it has 4 poles instead of 2 of standard electrolytic (that’s why they call it Jensen 4-Pole capacitor – I wonder why 4-Pole instead of 4-Poles?) But that’s simply out of our discussion here.

Again another question, why it has 4 Poles instead of 2? Keep reading.

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Tags: Aikido, Choke, jensen, power supply
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Posted on Wednesday, 23rd September 2009 by Auw Jimmy

If before I picked Obbligato as last Power Supply (High Voltage) bypass capacitor, now I’m experimenting with Jensen Pure Copper Foil Paper Tube in this position.

The result? Well, not as significant as VCap on the first capacitor (after first Choke), but compared to Obbligato, I feel “oh so natural” sound with this Jensen. Now the Jensen is side by side with the Duelund

Tags: Duelund, jensen, power supply
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Posted on Sunday, 6th September 2009 by Auw Jimmy

Yes, you might call me crazy! A Teflon VCap TFTF on Power Supply section?

If I need to make myself clear, this 0.47uF/600VDC VCap TFTF Teflon capacitor will cost you around US$ 150 each (depends on quantity). So we will spend near US$ 300 only for two VCap TFTF here!!!

And eventually, you will ask why do I put those caps there? Actually this is an “accident”. I bought those VCap few months ago, but it just didn’t match right with my current system (it prefers Duelund CAST PIO) – check the article here, here, and here. So what should I do with them?

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Tags: Aikido, power supply, preamp, VCap
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Posted on Sunday, 5th July 2009 by Auw Jimmy

After over 2 month of laziness, finally I finish the tiring job, soldering 60 pcs of Black Gate F Series for my Gainclone Power Supply.

Well, practically, this is not only for Gainclone. The design will be quite modular, as described below:

• Dual rail design, for positive and negative
• Each filtered with 30 pcs Black Gate F Series 680uF/65V (around 20.400uF total capacitance each rail)
• Choke Input Design
• Main rectifier is 4xMUR860 (600V, 8A)
• Snubberized Design with Mills Resistor and Russian PIO/Teflon Capacitor

With 65V working voltage of the capacitor, this modular power supply could be use for many purpose. Let’s say, a MOSFET project?

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Tags: Black Gate, power supply
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Posted on Sunday, 19th April 2009 by Auw Jimmy

Being a perfectionist is not easy (and not cheap). Still remember my ambitious project before? I want to make it perfect, so let’s start the 1st phase, testing the capacitor (I mean, the Black Gate)

I will use 60 Black Gate capacitors on the power supply. First 30 pcs for positive rail, and another 30 pcs for negative rail. I want both rails have similar capacitance (or as similar as possible). So first capacitor on positive rail will have similar capacitance value on first capacitor on negative rail. Too perfectionist?

I need to know exactly the capacitance of each Black Gate. You know that every capacitor has around 10% tolerance. So when it’s written 680uF, it may vary between 680-68 or 680+68. Who knows? The meter knows.

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Tags: Black Gate, power supply
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Posted on Sunday, 15th February 2009 by Auw Jimmy

I’m thinking of… a full Black Gate Power Supply

Well, it’s not a dream since I have enough Black Gate F Series stock on hand. One value only, 680uF/65V. I need to use at least 10 pcs each (symmetrical power supply, remember? We are not talking tube, this is chip-amp project!). So total is at least 20 pcs. The troops are ready!

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Tags: Audio, Black Gate, Capacitor, chipamp, gainclone, power supply
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (24)

Posted on Monday, 29th December 2008 by Auw Jimmy

From my previous Aikido project, I’m still thinking of improvement of my B+ PSU. Well, I still hear a small hum. There are several possibilities to be tried, but I’m thinking of improving my B+ PSU first. If it fails, then I will think another way

From the LC-LC filter used before, I’m moving into a more filtering. Well, I’m talking about another stage of LC, creating LC-LC-LC filter. Previously, I used two Samhwa 220uF/500VDC capacitors. It’s a nice price/performance capacitor – I have to admit that. But, I need to change into a higher level (to see how much the improvement).

First I remove two Samhwa capacitors. It was a tiring job to remove those two capacitors (phewww). Then, I change the first capacitor with Korean “Motor Run” Oil Capacitor (60uF/400VAC), second capacitor with Mundorf M-Lytic 560uF/400VDC, then finally with another Korean “Motor Run” Oil Capacitor (40uF/400VAC).

Well, don’t ask me why I use this Korean “Motor Run” Oil Capacitor. It’s simply because I have no budget. If you have enough bucks in your pocket, go with ASC Oil Capacitor then

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Tags: Aikido, Capacitor, HV, power supply, preamp, PSU, tube
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Posted on Monday, 14th July 2008 by Auw Jimmy

Usually, I never care about the theory behind all of my DIY project. Just plug it, hear it, like it, and finish it. But now, due to some reason (though somehow I also don’t know the exact reason why), I want to do it from scratch and want to be backed-up with some theory and calculation behind it.

My next project (again could be the last one) is a high end power supply for my Aikido pre-amplifier. I think I’ve mentioned about this project before.

This is the first part discussing about the theory behind my next DIY project (about the tube rectifier IFRM and capacitor/choke input). Next part will come soon.

Prologue:
I’m considering the usage of tube rectifier (I have Svetlana 5U3C or 5U4-GB on hand). So far, I only used to play with silicone rectifier where I don’t have to care about the size of filtering capacitor. Now, with tube rectifier, I have to learn the theory back again.

Tube rectifier, in this case my 5U3C or 5U4-GB, has only 1 Ampere of IFRM (Repetitive Peak Voltage Current) and 99 Ampere of IFSM (Peak Forward Surge Current). FYI, most silicone rectifier like IN4007 has both 99 Ampere of IFRM and IFSM. So any size of capacitor will be ok for this silicone rectifier (it won’t stress the rectifier, 99 Ampere is a huge number!).

The low capacity of IFRM of the tube rectifier makes the usage of big first capacitor is impossible. If you use big size of capacitor on the first stage after the rectifier, then this capacitor will stress the rectifier due to high load of current. Bigger capacitor will pull a lot of current. If this amount of current is bigger than the rectifier limitation (IFRM), then you probably could damage the rectifier. Please check the rectifier datasheet before you plug any big size capacitor (over 30uF) as your first filtering.

As you can see from the picture above (I use PSU Designer II from Duncan). With a too big first capacitor (errrr, 220uF is not that big, right?), you will put too much stress on the rectifier exceeding its IFRM. The big capacitor will need a big current to charge itself. If it exceeds your rectifier maximum IFRM value, then it may cause trouble. The result? I don’t think you want to know (or see) the effect

But I need a big capacitor to give smoother filtering… Then continue reading

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Tags: DIY-Audio, power supply, Pre Amplifier, theory
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Posted on Monday, 7th July 2008 by Auw Jimmy

After here and here, well seems not enough, I have ordered some more components for my next DIY project. Just arrive today. The target is clear. This could be my last so should be my best DIY project. So, I’m gonna be serious… gotta be…

A bunch of Elna Silmic, around 16.000+ uF each channel for heater power supply? Are you serious, Jimmy?

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Tags: Capacitor, DIY-Audio, power supply, resistor
Posted in Collectible Stuff | Comments (2)

Posted on Sunday, 29th June 2008 by Auw Jimmy

Due to parts shortage on some components, I can’t complete the assembly of my DIY project. So I just write down the idea on my scratch book. Here is the plan.

For the filament/heater supply, I plan to use LT1083 regulator. It is a good regulator for audio compared with the LM (78xx) or LM 3xx series. The first capacitor should be NOS Elna Silmic 2200uF (should be 4 or 5 in parallel). Then, a 1 Ohm/10W resistor should be place in series. Then another parallel filter with BlackGate F Series 680uF. At the end, LT1083 will do the final regulation to provide exact 6-6.3 VDC (depends on my divider resistor).

I use dual mono design for filament and also dual mono for high tension (B+). For each channel, I need around 1.6 Ampere filament power. I use custom power transformer rated at 7.5 VAC and 3 Ampere.

For high tension B+ voltage. I will have two versions.

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Tags: B+ supply, DIY-Audio, heater supply, power supply, regulator, transformer, tube
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (4)

Posted on Friday, 6th June 2008 by Auw Jimmy

I was involved in the discussion about “Good PC Power Supply“. Then, I suggested a small trick to wrap the power supply cable with aluminum foil (you can find it a local food store, usually to wrap food on the microwave).

After wrapping it with aluminum foil, I suggested to use heatshrink to wrap all the cable (and make it looked good and professional). One of my friend, Bang Rossi, tried this method on his PC. Below is the photo (hope you didn’t mind I put the photo here;). Thank you for the sharing, man!

A little bit messy (because he didn’t use heatshrink), but according to him, it worked good. Good dynamic and better sound stage. Wanna try yourself?

Tags: DIY Audio, PC, power supply
Posted in DIY Audio | Comments (2)