Show me your ****(embly), and let me get in your guts baby!

lanchile

EndersShadow wrote: »

Harman Kardon Citation 11 pre-amp:

Total interior:



Front Panel:







Rear Panel from Power connector to aux power connections

Wow, I love how they used to build gears like this one. a lot of shielding for sure!!!. it is a shame that many companies do not want to spend in "extra" metal or quality parts and have pride to show the inside of their gears. Most the time you will find a very nice amp, receiver etc, etc that look very nice from the outside, but as soon as you open it, you will find it's low quality build. Business, business, business...:rolleyes:

SCompRacer

One Class A Krell KSA-250. 140 pounds, 4.5kVA transformer, 250WPC @ 8 Ohms, stable to 0.5 ohm at 4,000WPC.

There were three revisons of this amp. First build had vertical binding posts, second version sported horizontal binding posts and different soft start board with no separate low voltage power supply to activate the relays. This is the third revision with higher bias and some board changes.

Once upon a time Krell would mod these into mono blocks.:eek: I know a fellow here that has a pair of these converted to mono blocks. I bow to him.:cheesygrin:

SCompRacer

Swiss made heavy platter Lenco L75 idler drive turntable, shown in typical stock hollow plinth and in modded heavy plinth form. Do this right and you get a table that can mount any arm and cartridge made. The plinth can be as wild as your imagination and budget for exotic woods. This one sports an automotive clear coat finish over layered Baltic birch with linear tracking air bearing arm. Some folks cut the OEM top plate, others leave it full size. Some leave the table stock and use the OEM arm.

Aftermarket parts are available such as stainless bearings, stainless platters, stainless top plates (full and minimal) and custom idler wheels. The top plates decouple the motor from main bearing plate. Using plates allows for increased surface area of plinth as there is less cutting to clear the OEM stamped steel top pan. You can achieve belt drive quiet with direct drive speed stability. Highly dynamic and detailed sounding.

Pics 2, 3, 4 and 11 are borrowed. 12 could be my next project.

Face

Very nice!

zingo

zingo

drumminman

SCompRacer wrote: »

One Class A Krell KSA-250. 140 pounds, 4.5kVA transformer, 250WPC @ 8 Ohms, stable to 0.5 ohm at 4,000WPC.

There were three revisons of this amp. First build had vertical binding posts, second version sported horizontal binding posts and different soft start board with no separate low voltage power supply to activate the relays. This is the third revision with higher bias and some board changes.

Once upon a time Krell would mod these into mono blocks.:eek: I know a fellow here that has a pair of these converted to mono blocks. I bow to him.:cheesygrin:

Seriously bad **** looking amp - the heat sinks look like all business. 140 lbs requires a foot in the middle of the bottom panel! :cool:

I'd love to hear one of those.

bondslex

SLP is nice.

ZLTFUL

One of the local shops got a Mark Levinson pre/pro and amp in on trade today. They had the amp open for cleaning and I snapped a quick blurry phone pic...

Attachment not found.

Thing was huge.

zingo

Musical Fidelity Trivista 300 integrated amp with internal RCA cables

mhardy6647

2215 innards by mhardy6647, on Flickr

mhardy6647

Nicer than your average CDP (or CD-recorder, for that matter)! ;-)

mhardy6647

more topless than open guts ;-) but I re-animated the Bottlehead Paramours last week in preparation to loan 'em out to someone and snapped a photo whilst they were warmin' up...


paramours 112413 by mhardy6647, on Flickr

... just another opportunity to suck someone in to the high-sensitivity loudspeaker/single-ended, direct heated triode amplifier sickness... The first hit is free. Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahhaaaa...

blushtraveler

pjdami wrote: »

here's the back:

Pretty cool. This must have a powerful sound. I guess it would be perfect for multichannel home theater project.

Zitro

Gaara wrote: »

Recent purchase -> PeachTree Audio Decco65

Attachment not found.

How are you liking this amp? Looking to get one to replace my NAD and run my Sonos connect into the Peachtree DAC.

PreCd

Simple in design but big on sound. My preamp build............Bottlehead Quickie battery powered pre.

PreCd

My GFA-545.

mhardy6647

PreCd wrote: »

Simple in design but big on sound. My preamp build............Bottlehead Quickie battery powered pre.

Thanks for posting that!

Funny you should mention the Quickie ;-) I had my first aural Quickie experience a couple of weeks ago - one of the local tube guys brought one over. We listened to it through my SE 2A3 amp (JE/Angela "Simple 2A3" variant) and the Duplexes... and it sounded really dandy to me. Quiet and silky smooth. It looks like a toy in every respect, and of course it is cheap... but it acquitted itself very nicely.

The only real drawback (if any) -- besides, of course, the complete lack of 'snob appeal' ;-) -- is that it offers rather low gain (6 dB, if memory serves). If that's enough for one, it's an excellent gateway drug kind of little preamp, I'd opine!

Indeed, even its owner was impressed by its "synergy" (probably impedance related) with the SE 2A3 amp. He's used it with a solid state amp, and he found it microphonic and touchy in that setting.

It was really dandy on my hifi.

EDIT: What ancillary equipment are you using your Quickie with?

PreCd

Mhardy:

Toy? Why I would put this thing up against any Fisher Price contraption that is made in China? ;-)

I have the Quickie feeding a Adcom GFA-545. To cure the microphonics that is inherent in the Q I went through a few tube brands. Finally settled on a RCA version. Almost cured the microphonics. The little preamp does a good job if you can control it. I have been tweaking the tubes with home made dampers to try and get them to a euphoric state. At this time I have it sitting on a 2 inch concrete cap block out in front of the amplifier on the floor. This weekend I am thinking of wall mounting behind and above my gear. I am getting good battery life from the preamp, better than I expected. With my listening habits I should spend about $60 per year on them.

Interesting to hear that your friend experienced a less microphonic environment with your tube amp than with the SS gear. I am headed in the tube direction. As you mentioned if you are not a tube guy this is a way to get your pavlov experience started!

mhardy6647

The Quickie was impeccably behaved with a CDP as the source and driving the JE/Angela Simple 2A3 variant. I rapped on the preamp's panel and it didn't whimper. The tubes in it were (AFAIK) those supplied with it.

....I've asked my wife for a Quickie for Christmas. ;-)

PreCd

I firmly believe that any wife out there worth her weight can provide their husband with a Quickie. ;-)

I feed the Q with a CDP. My interest is still peaked concerning the Quickie's response especially when you tapped on the case. The supplied tubes that I received were the devil! Not knocking Bottlehead as I am happy to have a preamp that performs so well for $99. But they were highly microphonic even when enveloped with heater hose which is a home remedy I was taught. Great to hear that it performed so well with your 2A3 amp. It seems I need to study up on what the causes of microphonics are SS vs. tube. It sounds that there is a difference between the two.

mhardy6647

Hmm... we should probably start a Quickie thread... ;-)

The tubes used in the Quickie are notorious for microphonics; it's "just" an old battery radio tube (3S4); not exactly designed for hifi. Presumably the only - possible - salient difference in interfacing the preamp with different flavors of power amp would be match of the the output impedance of the preamp and the the load presented by the power amp.

EndersShadow

^So what your saying is....

Keep in mind, "Its just a quickie" :biggrin:

Face

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Hmm... we should probably start a Quickie thread... ;-)

The tubes used in the Quickie are notorious for microphonics;

That's disheartening. Why did they choose them, low power requirements or cost?

mhardy6647

all of the above.

Glen B

Acurus A250, recently acquired. The insides need some cleaning. Upon removing the top, I was surprised at how physically imposing the power transformer looked, rated at 1KVA. Upgrades planned including re-cap, adding bypass caps to the DC rails, and adding output relays/DC protection. One of the output posts is missing its plastic cap. I have a set of new WBT Midline posts on hand, and will use them to replace the stock posts.

Mikey081057

Guts of Marantz 2385

zingo

Recently picked this up for $90:

mhardy6647

a semi-nude I thought that some might appreciate...



EDIT: is is probably the best sounding $30 amplifier I've yet heard. PP 6AQ5 is essentially identical to PP 6V6; probably about 10 wpc.

Glen B

Appreciated. It looks like one of my early 1970s DIY 6BQ5 efforts.