[gosha68]

My Clarinet is up and running - I couldn't be any happier! 

It started as a failed attempt to build Claricorn: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=108170.0

Eventually I've decided to not to scrap the whole thing and just add PS and finish Clarinet in the same enclosure. It worked out perfectly, but I had too much of a free space under the hood and on the face and had to cover up three extra wholes left from the Cornet side. So I got carried away a little and made some more or less useful modifications and some absolutely unnecessary ones:

- moved power switch to the front using homemade shielded cable;
- moved fuse holders to the back panel;
- replaced R313 with 5 watt 5 Ohm pot with a dial scale and added DVM module (switchable off) to be able to adjust heaters voltage on the fly;
- added switches to bypass input DC offset blocking caps when connected to the trusted sources;
- signal and power sections separated with aluminum divider;
- added VU meters with dedicated driver board. Yeah, I know, this has no functional purpose whatsoever, just for looks (even though  most of the time I listen to music with my eyes closed). In my defense I can add that meters use separate PS with it's own fuse and switch. Input signals connected through magnetically shielded reed relays - killing power to the meters circuit effectively removes the whole thing from the picture. So far I haven't noticed any side effects.

Too early to comment on sonics - first of all it's not even broken in yet, and it doesn't really make much sense to use Clarinet to drive my mediocre integrated p-p amp which has enough gain on it's own. This brings me to the next question - what would be a good match for Clarinet? Really want to try to build SET monoblocks. Any suggestions?

Here are some pics:

[Grinnell]

Very Cool.

[poty]

Very nice! Your mods are very similar (in spirit) with mines - I also add all "modern convenience" to a simple device to made it perfect!

[Brinkman]

Looks great!

One of the greatest assets of the Clarinet is the elegance of it's low parts count.

Question: did you perform the resistor mod that Jim came up with about two years back? Jim said he would revise the manual around it.

Also, have you considered swapping the three 47uF electrolytic caps (C103, C300L, C300R) with polypropylene film caps? There's a small handful at Parts Express worth considering.

[gosha68]

Thanks, I just wish I had more opportunities to listen to it - probably should have started with a headphone amp...
I did use 1.2k ohm and 820 ohm resistors for R308 and R310 in my build. I've been researching this board for awhile before I've started.
I'm not going to try any further upgrades until my system is completed with suitable power amp and speakers - I really doubt that I will hear any difference with my current setup.