High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY

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hallcon83

Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #100 on: 26 Mar 2012, 11:13 pm »
Hi Paul - I'm a diy newbie , I have one of the older Buffalo 32S dacs that I am starting to build ..... I dion't know if you are familiar with it.... It is mostly all built into the one board, not alot of modules or options . Have you built power supplys for it before ???  - I bought 1ea - ICPDS, and 2ea - ICBPS for it ...  (w- thier three power transformers )  - I bought all this  before they offered thier shunt supplys .... AND sadly before I knew you were offering power supplies for Buffalo Dacs .  ---- What would I need to get from you to maximize it's perfomance ? ........ Also I'm wondering, would this dac , and dacs in general benifit from an Isolation transformer before the power supply transformer ???  - Thank you, Kind Regards, dean

Paul Hynes

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Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #101 on: 27 Mar 2012, 03:08 pm »
Sorry Dean, I have no experience with the 32S, however it is up-gradable and the following link has some photos and a list of regulators used.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=80012.0

If you have any questions once you have seen the photos I will try to help but this may be difficult without a 32S board to analyse.

Regards
Paul

Rosewind

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Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #102 on: 8 May 2012, 08:35 am »
Hi Paul.

(1) How long are your lead times these days?

(2) What would I need from you in order to make a 240 volt-based stereo version of the Buffalo DAC with the Legato 3.1 output stage? I will want to replace the psus and regulators with your kits.

(3) As I understand it, the Legato 3.1 can be run with 1-3 psus. Is that correct and will 3 psus be overkill?

I ave also sent you an email, but you may just as well answer here.

Best wishes,
Peter
Denmark

Paul Hynes

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Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #103 on: 8 May 2012, 06:21 pm »
Hi Peter,

The lead times for Buffalo regs is approx 30 to 40 working days now. Sorry the queue is getting longer.

The regulator kit for Buff III is :-

3 off Z7803v3
1 off Z7803v3HP
1 off S1701v2LN
1 off PR3-05v4
Total cost £192 after the 25% discount

The basic regulator kit for Legato is :-

1 off PR3-15
1 off NR3-15
Total cost £150 after the 25% discount
multiply these as required if separating the Legato power supplies.

Insured carriage and packing to Europe is now £18 and if using paypal add 3.4% for Paypal fee.

I do not have a Legato but from experience separating power supplies to each signal processing stage results in improvements in sound quality. This is backed up by comments on the forums.

If I can be of further help let me know.

Regards
Paul



Bill Lamb

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Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #104 on: 9 May 2012, 12:11 pm »
Hi Paul,

I apologize for interrupting this thread, but I have sent 3 emails to you over the last two weeks and have received no reply.  At this point, I'm not sure what the trouble is: spam filters, email servers dropping emails, you're too busy to reply, you've taken ill? 

I'm especially concerned at the moment because I have a prepaid order for an Altmann DAC modification and I cannot send a valuable piece of kit to the other side of the world without a clear line of communication about what's going on.

It would be enormously helpful if you could help me diagnose the problem by telling me if you received the emails, and if so, whether or not you replied to them.  If the problem is with filters or email servers, I have other email addresses I can use.

Thanks

Paul Hynes

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Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #105 on: 9 May 2012, 02:08 pm »
Hi Bill,

Sorry for the tardy reply. I am getting hundreds of e-mails every week at present and I just do not have enough time to answer them in real time. My office lass filters the mail to make it easier for me to deal with, but she cannot answer most of the enquiries as they often require technical knowledge. I just get through what I can during breaks in the work schedule.

I have just searched your e-mails and can confirm that your order is in the build schedule and I should be ready for the Altmann by 28th May.

The transformer you are after is from CPC and the link to order it is :-

http://cpc.farnell.com/multicomp/mcta060-12/60va-toroidal-2x12v/dp/FF01552?Ntt=ta060/12

Regards
Paul

Bogotronix

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Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #106 on: 17 Nov 2013, 02:33 pm »
Hello! I have a complete Buffalo III + Legato regulator kit. I am not 100% positive on how to connect it all together, though, and would really appreciate it if you could answer my four questions below.

My Canterbury Windings transformer has 4x 0-18v secondaries that I plan to use as follows:
red-yellow  => NR3-15
black-white => NR3-15
green-violet => PR3-15
orange-pink => PR3-15

For the PR3-15, it is straightforward - two secondaries go naturally in the 4-pole terminal block.

Question 1) For the NR3-15, the "CT"/center tap connection in the provided info sheet is a bit vague, and I don't want to destroy anything. Is the following correct?




Question 2) Also the small regulators are not so clearly marked. Is the following correct?


Question 3) The small trim potmeter on the 1,2V S1701v2LN is for adjusting the output voltage, is that correct?

Question 4) The small trim potmeter on each of PR3-05v4, PR3-15 and NR3-15 are also for adjusting output voltage?

Paul Hynes

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Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #107 on: 18 Nov 2013, 04:01 pm »
Hello Bogotronix,

1)   your drawing is correct
2)   you have identified the modules correctly
3)   and 4) the trimmer potentiometers do adjust the output voltage over a limited range to allow accurate voltage setting. Be careful not to do this adjustment on the 1v2 reg while in situ on the Buffalo Board as it would be possible to over-voltage the dac core if you turn the pot screw too quickly.

Regards
Paul

Bogotronix

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Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #108 on: 18 Nov 2013, 04:14 pm »
Thanks for the quick reply! Having used the Buffalo II as my main DAC for quite some time, with the latest TP Placid and Trident regs and including some mods to reduce ripple for the Placids, I am slightly impatient to try your products and gauge the improvement, if any. Up until now, improvements on the PSU side have shown themselves to be absolutely essential.

Paul Hynes

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Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #109 on: 18 Nov 2013, 04:30 pm »
The ES9018 is quite sensitive to the power supply quality. It will be interesting to know about your experience when you have the new regulation fitted but please do allow a few weeks of burn-in time before making an assessment.

While I am on this thread, the cost of the regulators used in the Buffalo Reg Kit has slowly crept up and my general operating overheads have also increased since I first gave the kit discount. It is with regret that I will be removing the 25% Reg Kit discount at the end of December as this is no longer economical for me to supply the kit at this price. The regulators will revert to the normal price from 1st January.

Bogotronix

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Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #110 on: 31 Dec 2013, 11:43 am »
The Hynes-regulated Buffalo III has been playing for several weeks now, and sounds amazing. The improvements over the old Buffalo II with the newest Placids (modified to lower ripple), newest Tridents BUT also the small stock transfomers are evident in many areas:

+ Complete transformation of the lower registers, in the direction of muscle and authority, but retaining fullness
+ Deeper and wider sound stage, positively cavernous in comparison and very stable. A "scene".
+ Cleaner sound with more resolution and separation, although not in a sterile way. All kinds of details and subtleties are there for the taking, but not to the detriment of a coherent whole, as is very often the case.

An interesting thing is that although I tune the system for listenability and to try to present any music and recording in welcoming fashion - which is rather the opposite of what a studio monitor is supposed to do - there is very much information available, although not in the form of aural pain. I had my friends with whom I've been playing and recording for many years over the other night, and with the resolution available now, we could hear lots of things that were not apparent on monitors - e.g. tracks deep in complex mixes that were clipping. At the same time, our many tracks never sounded better.

One thing that I initially found unsatisfactory, given my preferences, was that the sound seemed a bit hard and sharp in comparison with the old DAC, which I had modified and worked with over a long period of time, amongst other things replacing several bypass caps with Silmic II to attain more fullness and a less strident top end.

Since I did not want to mess around with the Hynes regulators, I made the experiment of changing the four (R1-R4) I/V resistors in the Legato output stage to 1W Takman Carbon Film. This turned out to be a lucky shot - not only did it solve the "hardness" in the upper mid range, it also improved the resolution and fullness of the sound. YMMV, but this was an amazing tweak. :)

Having listened to the result for some weeks now with all kinds of music (really), and of course realizing that my evaluation above is completely subjective and relevant in my system only, I can say that my system never sounded so good before, and is gaining on the ideal I set for it many years ago.

jbercovici

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Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #111 on: 2 Jan 2014, 06:21 pm »
Dear Paul,
I ordered 213£ full set of regulators for Buffalo IIISE on february 2013 !!!
And no news since, it should arrived in april.
I don't need them anymore and send you some emails with no response.
Please send me my money back.
I hope this just a mistake and not a scam

You can write me on my email adress in my profile

Paul Hynes

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Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #112 on: 6 Jan 2014, 01:16 pm »
Sent in reply to mail fromJulien on 3rd Jan whilst on vacation.

Hello Julien,

I am sorry there have been so many delays with orders over this last year due to circumstances beyond my control, and appreciate that it is very disappointing for customers. I have posted details about the various delays on my Audiocircle trade circle to keep people informed. I guess that only a percentage of people read my posts.

I finished the regulators you ordered as part of a batch of Buffalo regulator orders just before Christmas but was unable to ship the orders out due to power cuts and loss of communications during the heavy electrical storms just before the Christmas/New Year holiday began. Unusually there have been repetitive storm fronts hitting the island throughout December with wind speeds exceeding 100 mph causing widespread structural damage and repetitive power cuts as well as damage to the telephone network.

I am still on my Christmas/New Year holiday at present but will be back in the office on Monday. I will offer your regulator order to Audiocircle members and issue a refund as soon as the regulators are sold on to another customer. They should sell quickly as I have removed the 25% discount for Buffalo Dac regulator kits.

Regards
Paul

Julien

Obviously you do read the forum posts but perhaps not all of them. I don’t do scams although mistakes can happen. In the case of this last year I have l just lost so much time due to unforeseen circumstances that I am well behind with orders and the batch system I was using was not working as well as I had hoped as it left some orders behind along the way. This has all been compounded by the loss of my office girl’s services last July and I have also had to do all the administration work she used to do alongside my production work. Doing two jobs just takes twice as long. I have a large pile of e-mail to catch up with at present, so sorry about lack of reply to your enquiries.

Anyway I understand that you have no further need for your order and will, as stated in my e-mail to you above, offer your order to forum members so you can have a refund. So any one wanting a Buffalo regulator kit built and ready to go for the old discount price of £192 (with PR3-5v5)? Insured carriage and packing for the kit in the UK is £10, in Europe is £14 and the rest of the world is £17. Also any funds transfer fees will need to be added. Paypal is currently 4.1% on my trade account or bank transfer handling fees are £6. You can PM me for account details for payment.

Regards
Paul

flowerpot

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Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #113 on: 7 Jan 2014, 02:00 pm »
Hi Paul,

Seems like your email(paul@paulhynesdesign.com) does not work or its full. I got a delivery failure notice.

I place an order for 3 Terminal Regulator Replacements some time back last year. Was told it will be ready on Oct 13. Anyway i understand there is delay. But would appreciate an update as my diy project is currently on hold for some time. At least knowing when the stuff will arrive i can plan my project using other means to proceed rather than waiting blindly. My contact is z_lenk@yahoo.com.sg. Thanks

Alfred.

andrzej1968

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Re: High performance regulators for the Buffalo DAC and IVY
« Reply #114 on: 23 Mar 2014, 05:02 pm »
Helo Paul.
Do you have stiil this Bufflo reg kit ready to sell from the cancelled order of one of the forum members in old price with discount?
I so I would be interested.
regards
Andrzej