I built my three Hagerman kits with my particular system requirements foremost. I plan to mount my equipment in a professional audio rack in the future. So half rack kits did not appeal to me as much as a full rack box.
The beauty in the Hagerman kits is the circuit design, board layout, and the incredible amount of information and support Jim offers his customers. Jim does audio right!
My kit required several design considerations that were non negotiables in my mind.
First, I wanted to use a full Lansing rack with a front mounted power switch.
Second, I wanted to use the Vampire direct gold plated oxygen free copper female RCA jacks I am using in my other DIY projects.
Third, I wanted to to ditch all the potentiometers and go with a Dale/Vishay ladder type stepped attenuator.
Here is a picture of the front of the unit. The handles were procured from Lowes as a special order item. The knobs were obtained from Antique Audio in their Misc knobs section. These are very nice knobs at about 3-5 dollars. For the price they are a steal of a deal.
Some other things I wanted to try were replacing the stock H+ caps with Panasonic TSHA caps. I also replaced the B+ caps with Panasonic ED caps. These are just a few bucks more than the stock pieces and they sound a little less edgy and give a solidity to the bass line. The preamp sounds more like what I hear in the high dollar brands.
I replaced all the H+ and B+ resistors with Mills wirewound 5 watt pieces and replaced the wire wound ceramic resistor with a Mills 12 watt piece.
All the resistors that are in the circuit path are Vishay S102 "nudes." The grid and comparitor resistors are Kiwami.
Right now I am using a pair of VitiminQ Sprague PIO 0.10uf 400 volt caps in the incoming stage, and Dynamicap 1.0uf 425 volt caps in the B+ power reserve decoupling cap as well as the final in line cap.
These give me a taller and wider sound stage than the Auricaps by a large margin. Plus they have more dynamic punch and a bit faster and more extended top end that allows the Clarinet to really shine.
I have an octet of Russion Teflon 0.10uf caps on their way by mule and slow boat. I will try these in place of the Vitamin Q PIO caps in a week or two.
So far the sound exceeds my expectations. The sound is smooth, effortless, fast, and detailed. It sounds like row 10 in a concert hall. As the components break in I expect the sound to be even more satisying. I had two DUH moments with my project. First one of the two left channel 10k ohm B+ resistors was shot. So I was seeing about 90 volts more than specified. I simply removed the Mills item and soldered in a Kiwami 10k I had in my parts supply.
I forgot at first to reverse the speaker outputs on the Bedini 150MKII and that created some interesting sonics while listening to a Telearc recording of Stravinsky's Firebird suite. Once I switched the speaker leads the sound quality was stunning. Remember that the Clarinet reverses phase, so if you don't pay attention your speaker drivers are moving in when they should be moving out.
I love the sonic results so far. There is serious magic in the SET Cornet2 matched with the SRPP Clarinet. I love the fact there is no negative feedback to ruin the inner detail and clarity of the sound. I somewhat expected a light or wooly bass response, but it seems nice and tight and well defined. I cannot wait to get 40-100 hours into the break in and see how it sounds then. Right now I am in audio heaven.
Jim, can you get me some Hagerman Tech white decals for my faceplates? You deserve some kudos for your awesome designs.
Cheers!
