[barbarous]

My little Virtue One is working again! I had a few hours of delight yesterday after I finished refoaming some giant Satterberg woofers, and hooked up those with some modded Minimus 7s, my little Virtue One, and a tiny iPod. I had thought the amp was dead to the world but it turns out had only blown a fuse. This ungainly collection of audio objects just sounded insanely good. I have a 16 year-old son who actually asked me to turn it down-- and I was playing music he liked. I don't usually listen loud but I couldn't help it yesterday.

I started with a Virtue One; sold it to finance a M451 and Piano (both still in use); missed the One and bought another on Audiogon, for a computer system. I was using an official battery supply, another Audiogon deal, the charger even had a Virtue logo on it. One day the One stopped working (a few years ago). At first I assumed the batteries were dead and bought new ones. When they arrived and I got around to hooking them up I realized it was the amp that wasn't working.

Anyway with the dozens of projects that were more pressing it took me until recently to investigate further. I was afraid I'd fried the switch and would need to ship it out for repair. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a fun but not really necessary second amp. I read pages 12 and 13 of the oldest topics here and settled on trying the fuse first.

Which worked, but leaves me some questions. Here is the closest I could find to the "right" fuse at Home Depot:

One: From an early post by Michael Mardis it seems the best to use for a battery-powered One is a 5A, slow-blow type; somebody asked about 7A which he said would work but give little less protection. I have a 6A fast blow type fuse (closest thing Home Depot had). Obviously, it works, though I'm using the standard supply. Before I dig up the battery supply, am I good to go with the 6A fuse? Or should I instead go to Ratshack and get a 5A "slow blow" fuse? If it makes little difference I'd rather stick with what I did, just to make life easier.

Two: I missed the boat on the shrink-wrapped free soft starts, but as I kept reading early posts it seems they didn't always work as intended. Then there were suggestions on adding a cap, but those were for the first-shipped One.2 amp internal soft-starts. Before I hook up the batts, what is the current state of thinking on all this? Get an external soft-start from Jason, if they still exist? Not sure what that'd cost, but I have bought some nicely made cables from him in the past. Or, am I good with either a 6A fast-blow fuse, or a 5A slow-blow fuse I might be able to track down?

The amp sounds damn good with the little SMPS anyway. I can just stick with that if that is better.

And I'm sorry if my question is already answered on an older post I haven't gotten around to reading yet. It has been interesting to reread and watch the story unfold. I do wish Virtue every success in the coming year.

The old external soft starts http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=75637.0
One.2 internal soft-start caps http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=79743.0

[virtue]

Thrilled to hear of your success!

That external soft-start didn't work and the one we put inside the ONE.2, had a capacitor that was too small -- I thought.  In fact, the unmodified soft-start was fine to protect the switch (we didn't lose one).

Please do not hook up a battery to an original ONE.  Those units are now out of warranty, we have none in stock and no economical way to fix them.   

I try to take care of all customer issues personally but it would be a real PIA if ONEs started blowing up around the world.

Seth

[Jason T]

barbarous

the 6amp fuse is fine.

[barbarous]

Thanks guys, for getting back to me!

Now, the "Audiophile 30v/130w Power Supply"-- that seems to be appropriate for the One, right?

The site warns the next level "JT" supply is not meant for the older amps, and recommends the 30V/ 130W for the One instead. I believe the 30V/ 130W is okay to try with my Sensation also (which I am powering with batts presently). If I had one anyway, I might try it with both amps, out of curiosity.

Wasn't sure if I can order the supply off the site or not. The first page says only cables are shipping but the power supply goes in the cart fine. I haven't tried to "check out" yet, as I didn't want to cause troubles for you guys if I shouldn't. It may be the money processing function is disabled. I might also get a pair of Melissa top rails, if they are available. Neither of these is linked off the front page but easily found via 'Search.'

None of this is a rush but I can put the order in if you can process it. I can also wait as I plan to build a pair of Jeff Bagby's Continuum speakers to mate with the Satterbergs. Those will take me several months to finish, if past experience is any guide, and a new supply won't be meaningful until they are done anyway.

Though the cobbled together system still sounds awesome! My son brought a friend over to listen today. We put on some Ben Folds and grinned like fools.

Another question, this one not just for the Virtue guys-- I need to find some walnut veneer to repair the edges on the Satterberg speakers. Anyone with opinions on good internet sources for veneers in the US? It would be a first time for me-- I've used some iron-on edge banding, melamine and wood, nothing more (and the iron-on method doesn't seem that great to me).

[harley52]

You might try Parts xpress. Not sure as to method of applying or selection. Also you might try calling a couple of small spkr. builders like Ty Lasbrook or Bob Brines ect. ect., and plead your case and a little money for their time and you may find something that will work out great. Just suggestions.

Harley

[cynan]

Thanks guys, for getting back to me!

Now, the "Audiophile 30v/130w Power Supply"-- that seems to be appropriate for the One, right?

I've been using the 30v/130W switching PSU (sold from Virtue) with an original TWO for the past couple of years with no issue. I would think the ONE and TWO would have the same power delivery circuitry. I continue to use the external soft start (with the DIY capacitor upgrade) though. I can't remember if it is still useless, even with the added capacitor. I have used it with batteries, but only a handful of times and not recently.

Edit: Here's the last I could find on using the soft start with the ONE and TWO from Jason:

I've actually found the unit to work properly if...
1. leave the dongle plugged into the amp at all times
2. never turn the amps power switch off
3. when you want to power the amp on plug the battery power cable into the back side of the dongle.
this allows the soft start to function properly and protect the amplifier.

sorry but this is the only full proof (almost full proof) way to run batteries on one of our older amps.

Is this still safe, even with batteries for the ONE and TWO? Or should we just not chance it?

[Jason T]

I've been using the 30v/130W switching PSU (sold from Virtue) with an original TWO for the past couple of years with no issue. I would think the ONE and TWO would have the same power delivery circuitry. I continue to use the external soft start (with the DIY capacitor upgrade) though. I can't remember if it is still useless, even with the added capacitor. I have used it with batteries, but only a handful of times and not recently.

Edit: Here's the last I could find on using the soft start with the ONE and TWO from Jason:

Is this still safe, even with batteries for the ONE and TWO? Or should we just not chance it?

do it at your own risk.
I have not blown mine up yet but that's not to say you'rs wont blow up on you and those amplifiers are out of warranty

[barbarous]

The battery supply blew a fuse on the One. So no worries, I'm done with that. (I still use a battery supply with the Sensation but that amp is designed to use one and has never had problems with it.)

My impression from the threads was the battery supply was more risky than the 30V/ 130W switching supply. Something about an inrush of current on turn-on, which the first Virtues were not designed to handle.

They apparently were designed from the get-go to accommodate higher voltage supplies than the 24V supplies they came with. That point is made repeatedly on these boards. And I haven't read on this board of one that had problems with one. So I am interested in a 30V switching supply-- assuming you guys still sell them. And assuming there is no undue risk to using one. Yeah, I know the amp is out of warranty, I just mean the expected results.

[virtue]

Yup, the original ONE had no soft-start.  In truth, we were shooting for a lower price point and only after Roger insisted on my hearing it with the 30/130w did it become apparent that we really needed one!  Those were the days!  What a mess!!!

The ONE.2 soft-start was too fast but apparently slow enough so that even if you didn't upgrade the cap the switch never failed.  You won't get fuses blowing nearly as much with the ONE.2.