[Kevin P]

Hi Kevin,

Well, ask a busy man to get something done, and it generally does. I've emailed Roger back and forth, definitely a knowledgeable guy. You definitely have enough on your plate. So when I order the deluxe package whether it be the 180 or 400, do you cut out the holes individually for the IEC socket, or because I just want just one socket for both amps, there would be a spot cutout for the 2nd one. Another aproach is to use the one socket, and two on/off toggles. Just a thought.

Ray

Ray

At this point we are custom CNCing a rear panel for each amplifier.   It takes nothing to leave off or add a component.

If you want something custom on the front panel it adds about $100 to the price.

[Milehighguy]

HI,
I recently went to the DIYcable website to get information about the amplifiers, but there is no trace of them on the site. Will you be adding that info?

[Kevin P]

HI,
I recently went to the DIYcable website to get information about the amplifiers, but there is no trace of them on the site. Will you be adding that info?

We don't have them on the site yet.   They will be listed soon.

[Brian Bunge]

Kevin,

I should have my new speakers done around the time you have your demo unit ready.  Therefore, I'd like to be put somewhere near the top of the list for your demo!  That is, if you don't already have a long waiting list.

[Kevin P]

Kevin,

I should have my new speakers done around the time you have your demo unit ready.  Therefore, I'd like to be put somewhere near the top of the list for your demo!  That is, if you don't already have a long waiting list.

I'll get you on the list Brian.   It isn't going to be soon though.   The Auricap upgrade is still weeks off.   I'm also planning vacation time so I'd say sometime in November before we have a demo unit.

[Brian Bunge]

Kevin,

That's cool.  I'm also going to try one of Brian Bell's chip amps (www.chipamp.com).  Since he lives in the Atlanta area he said he'd be willing to loan me one of his to try out with my speakers so that'll give me some ideas on which direction I want to go.

[darwin]

Kevin,

I've been dutifully saving my pennies and digging through the sofa cushions for one of your seven channel amps (with the UcD400-AD8620 and EMI-RF upgrades) for two months now, but you seem to be raising the bar and the cost since I'm a sucker for upgrades.
Will you be able to add the Hypex soft-start module (or your own version) to these amps, and could you give us an idea of the cost?
Also, do you have any idea yet as to how much the per channel cost will be for the Auricap upgrade?

[Kevin Haskins]

Ha.... I know the feeling.   I've been digging through the sofa cushions too.  

We are having heat related issues on the 7-channel in one chassis units.   We have greatly increased our cooling capacity but I'm inclined to point people towards doing two seperate units, one with four channels and another with three.   Either that or we can do a power supply in a seperate chassis and just the modules in another.

It has a couple benefits besides distribution of the units for cooling purposes.   It allows us to build a mixed UCD180 & UCD400 based system.  You rarely need the same power requirements for the surround channels and you can save some money if you can use the UCD180s for surrounds.   It also allows us to get a bigger power supply installed because we where real estate limited with seven UCD400s in one chassis.   You can also focus your money on the front three channels for upgrades and such and generally get by with spending less on the surrounds.    

The Auricaps are going to be about $40 retail each uninstalled.   For the modules we sell with the Auricap upgrade we are also upgrading the onboard power supply caps, bypassing the DC blocking caps, using an outboard 2.0uF Auricap for that purpose and upgrading the power supply decoupling caps.    We are only doing this with the UCD 180AD & UCD400AD modules and the entire modification is going to cost about $85/module over the price of the standard Hypex module.  About $60 of that is parts cost.

We can easily use the Hypex based softstart and I'll probably roll my own version down the road.   I'd like to roll the DC filter & RFI filter options onto the same board and I'm working on a 12V trigger for people who want the unit to power up with their preamps.

[darwin]

Kevin, thanks for the detailed reply. It sounds like waiting a bit until you get some more bells and whistles developed may be a good thing.  

I would like to have a minimum of five UcD400AD  channels in one chassis because I'm going to be running five full sized Maggies, and I could run my smaller two back speakers later with one of your UcD180AD two channels. How limited in space  would a five channel be in terms of being able to go with a bit of overkill on the power supply, transformers, and all the upgrades you'll be offering without running out of room or creating heat issues?  I suspect that it's probably do-able, but do you think it's advisable? I would rather not have to buy three amps if the same job can be done with two.

[Kevin Haskins]

Kevin, thanks for the detailed reply. It sounds like waiting a bit until you get some more bells and whistles developed may be a good thing.  

I would like to have a minimum of five UcD400AD  channels in one chassis because I'm going to be running five full sized Maggies, and I could run my smaller two back speakers later with one of your UcD180AD two channels. How limited in space  would a five channel be in terms of being able to go with a bit of overkill on the power supply, transformers, and all t ...

Five channels isn't even remotely a problem with the UCD180s.   The UCD400s kick out a fair amount more heat though and you have to be much more attentive to cooling them.   We are using a large 2" tall aluminum heatsink per two modules at the moment and redesigning our internal air flow so that we have a larger margin of safety for multichannel UCD400 set-ups.   The result of this though is it takes up more real estate inside the chassis and you have less room for other things.   With five channels we would be limited to using one 1KVA transformer and 82,000uF of capacitance with a single chassis 5 channel UCD400.

The other solution is to make it a two chassis configuration with the power supply in one chassis connected by an umbilical to the second chassis with all the modules.   That allows you to essentially build the supply as large as you want and gives us more room for layout.

[angelo]

hi kevin,

i remember reading from diyaudio's UCD thread to try to make the wires connecting the power supply to the amp modules as short as possible, i'll try to find out why.

angelo

[Kevin Haskins]

hi kevin,

i remember reading from diyaudio's UCD thread to try to make the wires connecting the power supply to the amp modules as short as possible, i'll try to find out why.

angelo

I've experimented with reasonable lengths.  If you use common sense and keep things reasonable it isn't an issue.

[darwin]

Five channels isn't even remotely a problem with the UCD180s.   The UCD400s kick out a fair amount more heat though and you have to be much more attentive to cooling them.   We are using a large 2" tall aluminum heatsink per two modules at the moment and redesigning our internal air flow so that we have a larger margin of safety for multichannel UCD400 set-ups.   The result of this though is it takes up more real estate inside the chassis and you have less room for other things.   With five channels we woul ...

Thanks again, Kevin. I saw on your website that you're now offering the Hypex modules and some of the associated parts. Will you be offering complete kits, with the chassis, caps, etc., at some point? I'm now leaning toward one UcD400AD three channel amp for the fronts and another UcD400AD four channel for the rears. Being able to buy them as kits should save me a bit of money as I pay myself crap wages.  

[Kevin Haskins]

We don't have immediate plans.   Much of the chassis work requires some machine work and we don't yet have a standard chassis that works for everything without some sort of custom fabrication.  

What I've found is that DIYers will not pay for a chassis unless it's cheap.   The only way to make them cheap is to do a lot of them and standardize on one design.   Since our demand for amplifiers is spread out over 2-7 channel amplifiers that causes some difficulty in fiinding a standard design.

We also don't make much margin on the actual amplifier modules.   In order to make the products financially viable from our standpoint we have to make our money on the labor and other items.  

Also... with kits there is a large investment in technical support.   No matter how easy or complete the directions DIY kits present a lot of tech support investent.   I've figured that we can in a lot of cases sell the finished product for less than I'd have to charge for a kit.

[guest1632]

We don't have immediate plans.   Much of the chassis work requires some machine work and we don't yet have a standard chassis that works for everything without some sort of custom fabrication.  

What I've found is that DIYers will not pay for a chassis unless it's cheap.   The only way to make them cheap is to do a lot of them and standardize on one design.   Since our demand for amplifiers is spread out over 2-7 channel amplifiers that causes some difficulty in fiinding a standard design.

Hi Kevin, You probably remember the days of the Heath Kit. I think there was $50 to $100 difference between the kit and the assembled product. I do understand your logic in this matter.

What sizes of transformers will you be using for the Deluxe version versus 1 transformer for both channels for the plain Jane version?? Don't really know if I've actually hear a difference between both units with one or two transformers.

Ray

[Kevin Haskins]

Hi Kevin, You probably remember the days of the Heath Kit. I think there was $50 to $100 difference between the kit and the assembled product. I do understand your logic in this matter.
...

Yes.... I try to make an evaluation on a case-by-case basis.   I'd like to do a general kit based on the Hypex units, as they are easy enough to work with that they are a natural choice for kit building.   We might do an easy 2-channel kit that has a customized case but it isn't something that is in our immediate plans.

The subjective differences are often subtle when making changes and they are also load dependent.    For that reason it's difficult to give people absolute advice.  

I'm building one model of amp that is an all out assault without regard to price point so for that amplifier we will use dual mono power supplies.   How audible each part of the modification process is by itself is beyond my willingness to investigate.  

[guest1632]

Yes.... I try to make an evaluation on a case-by-case basis.   I'd like to do a general kit based on the Hypex units, as they are easy enough to work with that they are a natural choice for kit building.   We might do an easy 2-channel kit that has a customized case but it isn't something that is in our immediate plans.

The subjective differences are often subtle when making changes and they are also load dependent.    For that reason it's difficult to give people absolute advice.  

Hi Kevin,

So for the standard unit, what transformer size are you using for the 2 channel UCD400AD, and the dual monos what size are you using for those transformers? I did not see any of the transformers or a reference to cases on your site.

Ray

[Kevin Haskins]

Typically I'd use a 500VA on a stereo UCD400 build.    For the dual mono we will use dual 500VA transformers.   That is overkill but the cost difference to oversize them isn't large.