[gjs_cds]

Hey Guys,

I'm *very* strongly considering ordering the Super Pas Three Rebuild Kit from Frank in the near future.  (I've been designing & building speakers for a while now, and I'd like to try something different for a change.  Further, I can work on this @ night without the use of loud power tools that my wife may not appreciate after she puts our kid to sleep!)


So this is simply a quick shout-out to anyone that's built the kit before...  Any words of wisdom?  How tough is it?  Is it worth a go, or is it better to send it in and let the pro's take care of it?  While one replaces the boards, should everything (including the rectifier tube & switches) be replaced as well?  Just basic "been there, done that, wish I did *this*" type of advice.

I'm not bad w/ a soldering iron--so I'm thinking this might be a fun project...

[kurtbauer]

Hey back,

I did the Super Pas Three rebuild about nine months ago.  I found the instructions to be very thorough, accurate, and easy to understand.  The parts are of good quality with nothing exotic.  Bottom line is that if you know how to solder it's way do-able. 

I really am enjoying the finished product. The line stage and the phono stage are quiet and can easily drive my 24kOhm input impedance SS power amp and my tube amp is even easier. 

I ordered the connector kit and would do that again.  I did not order the selector switch and would probably do that again too.  There may be some sonic advantage with the new one if multiple sources are playing simultaneously but that wasn't that important to me.  I am using the JJ tubes that AVA sells and would do that again too.  You probably already know this but be ready to say goodbye to the tone controls -- that was cool with me!

One thing I added after the fact was a 12V trigger to turn on other devices but that's just a thingie that I wanted. 

Overall, while the kit was expensive, I found it to be worth it for the fun of doing it and the quality of the finished product.

Kurt

[gjs_cds]

You probably already know this but be ready to say goodbye to the tone controls -- that was cool with me!

Yeah--the use of tone controls simply means that one is driving poorly designed speakers with poor speaker placement in a room with poorly designed acoustical treatments.  This does not apply to me in the least.

Thanks for the review; I agree that it is a bit overpriced--but it's a hobby that I think would enjoy doing...

[avahifi]

Overpriced?  Gee, in comparison with a set of interconnect cables?

Oh well.

Frank Van Alstine

[rustneversleeps]

>>>chuckling<<<<

Because of Frank's comment about the interconnect, some of the interconnect cost $10000.00 a pair, but that's not the point. We all know fancy interconnects are bullshit. So let's compare audio to audio, not audio to bullshit.

I don't think the super pas 3 is overpriced, otherwise I wouldn't have bought it. I bought the board without the parts. Actually, you don't save that much by getting your own parts.

Time is the key, I am still working on getting the parts together due to other family issues. But it will be fun once I get all the parts together. I like to build and repair electronic equipment.

Frank, I know you used to build audio circuits for things like Philip tuner, and Magnevox cd player. Just a business idea, how about searching out some desirable  vintage audio equipment and design some good audio circuit for them, maybe a.........audio board for a.......Pioneer RT-909 reel to reel recorder, this recorder built like a tank, but lack of good audio circuit, I need one, I am sure it would sell well on Ebay as well.

[mark funk]

I have an old Dyna PAS-3 just sitting here waiting for the boss to OK the upgrade, then I have a Dyna PAT-5 that some one did an AVA Super FET upgrade years ago I would like to upgrade to a OmegaStar. After the fun of building them you have some dam good stuff, for how much money? It's hard to beat the bang for your buck that Frank gives us. I going to use my Super Pas 3 to turn some of my friends on to real HiFi. After a month or two with the Super Pas 3 one or two of them well most likely be calling Frank! IMO well worth the money.

[gjs_cds]

Overpriced?  Gee, in comparison with a set of interconnect cables?

*chuckles*

Point well taken.  I guess I never looked at it that way, because I don't buy those kinds of cables.  (And I don't really relate to the "hifi" sentimentality.)  I bought 100 feet of (bulk) Monster Cable 301 (interconnect) for 50 bucks back in about 1993--and I'm still whittling away at it on a cut-to-length basis.  Standard (generic) 12 OFC speaker cable seems to work just fine for me as well.

So I guess I need to learn to code switch between the DIY speaker building culture and the "hifi" culture!

[Flyquail56]

I purchased a Super PAS 3 kit several years ago. It's a considerable improvement over the stock PAS with tone controls and filter circuit deleted and, IMO is the best mod available that retains the basic Dynaco circuitry. I had tried a few other PAS mods over the years, including Norman Koren's design from Glass Audio around 1995, which used some of the same ideas as Frank (dealing with subsonic garbage) but also used cathode followers. Not as good as Frank's mods.

If I were building one today, I would use a better switch for the tape monitor, or bypass it altogether if you're never going to use it. Also, I recently did some work on a PAS for a friend in Canada, and he insisted that I use teflon insulated hookup wire. Now I won't use anything else. It makes for a much neater, nicer appearance. You can see some photos of the wiring in his PAS here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikehazel/
(I didn't install the cap board and wiring, it was already there)

Hope this helps; let us know how you do.

Best regards,
Mike

[kurtbauer]

A couple more things...

Agree with Flyquail on the teflon wire though the stuff AVA supplies is easy to work with.  Those pix look good, BTW.

At one point, Frank offered an output buffer that was covered in Audio Basics that you may find useful especially if you're a taping kinda guy.  I've toyed with the idea of doing the buffers on my own but have too many other projects ahead in the queue and I'm happy with the sound as it is.

Let us know what you decide. 

KB

[avahifi]

Note that the photos Flyquail supplied above are NOT of an AVA Super Pas Three kit.  The photos show original Dyna boards, not AVA replacement circuits, boards, and precision controls.

Frank Van Alstine