[groovybassist]

I was at the GTG and Anand's phono stage is insane.  In my wildest dreams I can't imagine being able to build a component like that.  If I could, I don't think I'd do anything else, much to my wife's dismay.  Well done!

-Mike

P.S.  I was pleasantly surprised at the Vista Audio Phono 1 as well.  As Rich described, it didn't have the grandeur of the Narada, but wasn't far off - kudos to the designer of the Vista unit.

[dnd]

Sorry if resurrecting this is bad form, but I have a question:

Taking a look at what you did with the main board and I am curious how you hold the Jupiter caps in place?  Is it just the soldered leads?

Also, how is it holding up these days?  Any other adjustments?

[Nick B]

Anand,
Just curious...what was the cost for the parts and chassis?
Nick

[poseidonsvoice]

Sorry if resurrecting this is bad form, but I have a question:

Taking a look at what you did with the main board and I am curious how you hold the Jupiter caps in place?  Is it just the soldered leads?

Also, how is it holding up these days?  Any other adjustments?

The Jupiter caps are held up with a 3M double sticky tape. I also put zip ties on afterwards for extra stability. Yes, the leads are soldered.

No other adjustments, but you can curtail the sound somewhat by the adjusting the tube bias. I have it set at 8mA, but you can go as low as 5mA or as high as 12mA. 5mA is 'softer' sounding and 12mA is more incisive. This is a tweak that will be strongly based on the rest of your playback chain, tube brand, interstage cap,  parafeed output cap quality and listening habits. The bias holds up perfectly once set. It's set and forget in all honesty. Because the B+ is slowly ramped up, that extends tube life even more.

Anand,
Just curious...what was the cost for the parts and chassis?
Nick

I sent you a pm.

Best,
Anand.

[poseidonsvoice]

Couple changes that I made today. I purchased a set of NOS Reflector 6N23P Chrome Pin tubes circa 1984 to try. They were matched on an Amplitrex AT100 tube tester , which is advantageous as the amplification factor or mu is very closely matched and is based on the typical current used for this tube. Indeed the matching is rather close, as I had to only make minor adjustments to the current sources in my build:



Second change I made was to remove the Cardas bypass caps in the output stage and replace them with a 0.01 uf Duelund Silver Bypass Capacitor. Time will tell if there are any sonic benefits/detriments to these changes:








Best,
Anand.

[paul79]

Never tire of looking at this piece. Nice work

[ohenry]

Anand always does the finest projects and is one of the nicest guys on the planet (I'm gifted for stating the obvious).  Great job as usual. 

[Folsom]

Anand always does the finest projects and is one of the nicest guys on the planet (I'm gifted for stating the obvious).  Great job as usual. 

I love that he has his own brand, that only he poses. And yes, they're always very nice.

[audioguy213]

it looks nice
would you mind sending it along for me to listen to?

[poseidonsvoice]

Thanks guys for the compliments. You guys are funny though! I post a project with tubes and you guys act like kids in a candy store. But solid state, not so much. Frankly, I'm not that different but I do see great applications of both. Over the years I've become a Class A/AB/D, tube, MOSFET,Jfet, BJT agnostic! It's the implementation that counts. Don't get me wrong the engineering is terribly important to me! A careful understanding of the measurements & sonic evaluations will lead you to nirvana! I've always been shortchanged when I lean too much towards one or the other.

Best,
Anand.

[audioguy213]

I was being nice,
I don't like the tubes,
I will take the SS one, if you prefer tubes.

[poseidonsvoice]

I was being nice,
I don't like the tubes,
I will take the SS one, if you prefer tubes.

 

Ok, so I'll send it to you without the tubes. It amplifies a little better with the tubes installed though 

Best,
Anand.

[advanced101]

If you were to build a cost no object version of this phono stage what would you change?

[poseidonsvoice]

If you were to build a cost no object version of this phono stage what would you change?

I would change the output coupling caps to Jupiter Copper instead of the Jupiter HT series I have shown above. The bypass cap can remain Duelund PIO Silver based. I would change the input MC transformers to the Lundahl AG series (silver).

Maybe a 10% improvement and maybe not. The design is extremely tweaked out as is.

Best,
Anand.