Home > Descriptions > Aikido amplifier 5 pc

Aikido amplifier 5 pc

Log in or Sign up. Steve Hoffman Music Forums. Location: Wellington, New Zealand. Hi guys. I hoped members here might enjoy seeing the build process for what will hopefully soon be a fully constructed tube preamp.


We are searching data for your request:

Schemes, reference books, datasheets:
Price lists, prices:
Discussions, articles, manuals:
Wait the end of the search in all databases.
Upon completion, a link will appear to access the found materials.
Content:
WATCH RELATED VIDEO: Cool Gadget: Yaskawa Sigma V Amp, Controller and Servos

Aikido octal mono PCBs and 5687 PCBs and Aikido and 300B amplifiers


At any rate, this faithful audio scribe is going to take one for the team and find out. The aim of this article is to inform, encourage DIY audio, and satisfy my own curiosity of course. A line stage should have a pretty easy job of it, right?

A line stage should in essence just get out of the way and let the signal flow from the source component to the power amp. A digital source that is not quite on its game, I can let a little go there as well.

But will this leave me something worth listening to? Will my target price of to Canadian dollars for a complete line stage in a decent case be too ambitious for something worthy of audiophile consideration?

Time will tell. That sounds like a good thing to aim for in cheap; and maybe I should stop using the word cheap.. But this is the work of John Broskie, an American who, through his websites, tubecad.

Broskie also publishes a blog that explores tube circuit design and topology. The sale of kits supports the blog, though how is a mystery to me. The kits are, to put it mildly, a great deal. The international shipping charges are reasonable as well, and it ships from the USA. A manual is included with all purchases. The manual does not give step by step instructions, but the schematic is shown and described, the parts values are given and basic assembly tips and procedures are conveyed.

All parts are individually bagged and labelled. Note: Despite what you might read on the web the Russian 6N1P tube is NOT a substitute for any of the 6DJ8 family of tubes, click on the link below and scroll down about half a page.

The Aikido 12Vac is a kit, and the buyer must assemble the parts to the board and solder them. A digital multimeter is essential but an inexpensive one from Canadian Tire, Princess Auto or other source will usually suffice, an example is shown below. Please note that I am in not connected with, nor do I receive compensation of any sort from tubecad. I have purchased a few of the kits from tubecad, and have scratch-built a few of the circuits as well.

I have purchased tubes and parts from thetubestore. The Tubecad Aikido 12Vac board quality is, in a word, superb. It is 2. The copper traces are wide and thick, and all holes are plated through.

If you buy the board with parts with tubes or without , standoffs are included to mount the board to your chassis. There are five mounting holes, one at each corner and one centered between the tubes. There are multiple holes for most components, so if for instance you want to upgrade the output caps, many audiophile grade types can be easily accommodated. If this project appeals, and you are considering parts upgrades — do it right from the get go. The 12Vac Aikido can be ordered in an 18 volt version using 12AU7 tubes.

Added to this is the fact that the DC voltage with an 18 volt transformer approaches the volt mark. The 12 volt version using 6DJ8 tubes offers more tube rolling choices, always a good thing. The quality of parts included in the kit is not extravagant, but decent, especially for the price; all parts are by brand name manufacturers. The six power supply diodes are fast recovery, low-noise types that cost one or two orders of magnitude more than generic 1NX diodes.

The output caps are decent, but nothing special. One option you have when ordering is the choice of carbon film or metal film resistors. You get to decide which side of the resistor divide you fall on. The Aikido circuit is quite simple and does not have any loop feedback, a good thing in my book. There is only one coupling capacitor in the amplification chain. Another Aikido feature is a part of the circuit that cancels most of any remaining power supply noise from the audio output.

This variant of the Aikido design is called the 12Vac because the board has an ingenious power supply that allows a single 12 volt transformer to supply the filament voltage, and 80 volts to the tube anodes plates to us old-timers. The Aikido power supply, except for the transformer, is on the board with the amplification stages. Nearly all of my Aikido listening has been headphone amps and phono preamps. I have only briefly had an Aikido line stage in my system, and did very little serious listening at the time.

Most people who have actually built them like them. I will present my listening impressions first, then detail the chassis prep and build procedure in later installments. One thing to note; the Aikido circuit inverts absolute phase.

Not a big deal, just reverse your speaker connections either at the amp or at the speakers. Substituting the Aikido into my rig does not require reversing any speaker wires. After some brief listening just to ensure the component under review works satisfactorily, I leave it to run for 24 hours with a CD on repeat or input from a tuner.

I have a selection of tracks that let me home in on the essential characteristics of a component quite quickly. My auditioning is not limited to these tracks but I start out with them as I can cut to the chase very quickly with regards to sound quality.

Once this is done I just play whatever strikes my fancy for pleasure. If indeed it is a pleasurable experience. The REF and the diminutive Aikido with their shirts off. I consider my ARC Ref 3 and Ref the heart of my system, the two just seem to work magically together.

The Ref also has fans to cool the output tubes. Even on the lowest setting they are too noisy and can be heard during quiet musical passages. This kind of defeats the purpose of high end audio when the amp raises the noise floor in the listening room, potentially obscuring musical detail.

There are no children in my household, except for me of course, and no pets, so the danger level is relatively low. The low bass is not as forceful as the Ref 3. Not MIA, just a little shelved down in comparison, and not quite as dynamic. I was never completely happy with the MF. No combination of tubes could get it to sound dynamic, resolving and musical.

At one end of the tube rolling spectrum it sounded smooth, but rolled-off and dynamically challenged. The other extreme had dynamic and forceful bass, but harsh and in-your-face upper-midrange and treble. Replacing the coupling caps helped a bit, but I could never find a middle ground that was a good balance, despite trying many different tubes. The Ref 3, when it came into my system about 6 years ago, proved to be the magic bullet. The Aikido with 24 hours on it sounds far better than the Musical Fidelity F22 ever did.

When compared to the Ref 3, with a single-ended input from my Cambridge CD player, the Aikido can hold its little head high. The Aikido is not as resolving or dynamic, nor does it have as much musical drive and flow as the Ref 3. It also lacks a bit of resolving power and the ability to sort out complex, high level musical passages that the ARC effortlessly delivers. I find that if I do listen for it I ignore the music.

That being said, the Ref 3 is better at presenting depth behind the plane of the speakers. The Aikido is a bit squashed front to back, by comparison, but not drastically so. The Aikido punches far above its weight. The bass was a noticeably indistinct and slow — the Aikido was better in this regard. Going back to balanced connections returned the advantage Ref 3, its bass was again deeper and more forceful than the Aikido.

A digital recording from , the violin tone is at times a bit steely and can set the fillings in my teeth resonating. I love the performance though; it is impassioned and gripping, in a reserved English sort of way, of course.

The music ebbed and flowed and I was captivated, involved and connected as it washed over me. In one way, the Aikido outperforms the Ref 3. The Aikido glosses over that last bit of high frequency detail and as a result is gentler on the occasionally screechy violins in the Vaughan Williams piece. Through the Aikido, the essence of the performance was there, but scaled back a bit. The image flattening was slightly more pronounced with the Vaughan Williams piece, than the compression I noticed on the tracks of my demo disc.

All that being said, the little Aikido is still fun to listen to. Music flows and my toe taps. Yes, the Ref 3 is better, but the Aikido is not drastically worse. You do the math: does this sound like a good deal and a compromise worth making? The Aikido is a fine line stage, period.

No cost qualifier is needed. Audiophilia is very subjective; you might hear the Aikido and say it offers less than half of the performance of the Ref 3. Like a good inexpensive wine, it pleases greatly and offends only slightly.

The Aikido has an extremely faint hiss that is even lower in level than the buzz of the Ref 3. The other area in which the Aikido betters the Ref 3 is the cost of re-tubing. The ECC88 Teslas sound much like a classic Mullard Blackburn 6DJ8 to me, in that they have bounce, drive, decent dynamics and extended frequency response, especially in the bass. Let me pass on some Tesla lore to you. The best Teslas have factory code 32 on them.


hot GUESS Factory Men's Hank Solid Flat-Front Shorts | exclusive designs

In spite of the improvement of communication link and despite all progress in advanced Most cards of sound in computer, are deprived stereo input for microphone, on the contrary have This is an oscillator sync circuit that gives the kind of effect you find on old analogue synths This circuit outputs a TTL-compatible - pulse whenever the signal falls within the limits set by Here is a simple SWR protection circuit you can easily build. The directional coupler and

USB to Mini A Male mm Jack Plug o Data Cable 45cm 2 Pcs ZEROZONE Assembeld EX-2 Hifi Class A Headphone amplifier board with ALPS Pot L

USER GUIDE. Aikido Stereo 5687 PCB AUDIO DESIGN. Dec


This PCB holds a high-voltage power supply; thus, a real and possibly lethal shock hazard exists. Ideally, a variac should be used to slowly power up the regulator, as it is better to have a mis-oriented electrolytic capacitor or a mis-located resistor blow at low voltages, rather than at high voltages. Remember that the danger increases by the square of the voltage; for example, volts is four times more dangerous than volts and volts is sixteen times more dangerous. Once the power supply is powered up, be cautious at all times. In fact, even when the power supply is disconnected or shut down, assume that power-supply capacitors will have retained their charge and, thus, can still shock. If you are not an experienced electrical practitioner, before attaching the transformer windings to the board, have someone who is well-experienced in electronics review your work. There are too few tube-loving solder slingers left; we cannot afford to lose any more.

3dRose wb_171985_1 Aikido Calligraphy Red Sports Water Bottle 21 oz Multicolor

aikido amplifier 5 pc

Although this PCB was designed for use with a low-voltage power supply 24V ,caution is still required. For example, 24 volts shorted to ground will make big sparks;and the large valued electrolytic capacitors must be inserted correctly according totheir polarity, or they may burst upon being energized. Moreover, these capacitors canhold quite a wallop that lingers after the power has been switched off. In fact, alwaysassume that capacitors will have retained their charge even after the power supply isdisconnected or shut down. In addition, this PCB can also be configured to work witha high-voltage power supply; thus, a real shock hazard can also exist.

Aikido All in One. There are too few tube-lov in g solder sl in gers left; we cannot.

Aikido All in One.pdf - Tube CAD Journal


This privacy statement describes how PassDIY collects and uses the personal information you provide on our Web site: passdiy. It also describes the choices available…. More gain than some of us need or want. At least 10 db more. What could be better? Hardly any noise or distortion added by these simple passive parts.

iGrafx Designer 1 - All In One 5687 In One 5687.pdf Aikido Stereo 5687 PCB USER GUIDE...

I had planned to dive into the subject of balanced output DACs, but a reader sent me a troubling e-mail. He asked why I keep recommending using the Aikido amplifier as the front end of an SE power amplifier, when the Aikido holds such a high output impedance. I asked what made him think the output impedance was high, and just how low an impedance he thought was needed to drive a B's grid. His second answer was that the output should be less than 10k, which was the value that he liked best for the grid-stopper resistor for the B. The Aikido enjoys a low output impedance, not a high one. Therefore, even a 12AX7-based Aikido will easily meet this reader's 10K limit. Using the same 6DJ8 example yields an output impedance of ohms. It is not.

Nevertheless, the Aikido amplifier will still function fl awlessly, as it tracks these voltage changes symmetrically. 5 GlassWare Audio Design 3 Age.

Battle of the Cheap Line Stages – Part 1

At any rate, this faithful audio scribe is going to take one for the team and find out. The aim of this article is to inform, encourage DIY audio, and satisfy my own curiosity of course. A line stage should have a pretty easy job of it, right? A line stage should in essence just get out of the way and let the signal flow from the source component to the power amp.

Total we have 11 contenders today. Some use the original PCB ordered from here and some prefer their own point-to-point design. Various tubes are here, small 9 pin tubes, Octal, and also the miniature like WA and One system is not enough.

My Home Brew Electronic Journey and tinkering with everything else.

However I am knot a beliver in less is more. I want preamp with tubes. I vill give a tube buffer a try. If it dosent work its not the end of the world it will cost me around dollars. Pleae: a preamp is an amplifying device, a buffer is a device that amplifies 0.

Each PCB holds two Aikido line-stage amplifiers; thus, one board is all that is needed for stereo unbalanced use or one board for one channel of balanced amplification. The boards are four inches by ten inches, with eight mounting holes, which help to prevent excessive PCB bending while inserting and pulling tubes from their sockets. Warning The PCB is for use with a high-voltage power supply, so be cautious at all times once the power supply is attached, as a real shock hazard exists.




Comments: 5
Thanks! Your comment will appear after verification.
Add a comment

  1. Kajinn

    Well written. Of course, there is not enough positive, but I read it in one breath

  2. Durn

    It can not be!

  3. Nilar

    This information is correct

  4. Shakagami

    the exceptional delusion, in my opinion

  5. Brahn

    Great answer, congratulations