Recent content by NicMac

I think adding more FETs comes at the cost of higher capacitance and distortion and therefore to be avoided unless really needed. Like you I'm using 8 FETs per channel, balanced, no pre-amp, but feeding a Class A power amp (F5X). I have all the fidelity and power that I need so for the moment...

I have matched 2SK369's and to promote the SEN I can sell some of these to interested builders. I do not want to interfere with Patrick/XEN audio's business so pricing will be the same as he/they offer (about 59 euro for a set of 16). You can find the XEN audio offerings on the Service Request...

Good choice - you will love it! The ES9018 -> SEN -> F5X is the best I ever heard. Fully balanced, DC-coupled and only two gain stages. I think we will have to wait quite a bit for the F5Xpre, but for digital material it is not really needed. Cheers, Nic

If the FETs you get are like mine the Idss values will be in the 16-26 mA range. The Idss values are fairly well distributed and with 500 devices the matching yield will be very good (>90%). In the SEN the devices are running at Idss so it would be best if the Idss is measured when the FET...

Looks good to me :cool:

I have both on order so I will compare. To me the extreme simplicity of the amanero together with its DSD and high freq. capability makes it interesting. It also cost less than half of the WaveIO. For I2S at 24/192 there is probably not much difference. Very happy that I did not spend 10...

There is a new USB -> I2S/DSD module out there. Amanero It looks very promising - and at the price phenomenal! There is a GB here over at the diyAudio forum. I just thought it might be of interest to Buffalo owners looking for USB input. Cheers, Nic

For R1/R2 would not worry to much about precision. I'm still using those calculated for 16V with my 22.5V rails and it sounds mighty fine to me. They do affect DC offset a tiny bit, but nothing to worry about whatsoever.

Riv is certainly the most important passive component. I'm still using some fairly standard PRP resistors for this, but the Charcroft will come in ones I understand what output swing I need.

Tony, What values are you using for SEN R1 and R2? When I was shopping for the build I actually succeeded in overlooking that the values for these are in kilo ohms:o Cheers, Nicv

I don't think you need the Vref ground there. There should be no ground connection from Vref to the SEN board. I will verify if I get sound with the Sen non-povered.

No sound at all.

What is the input impedance of your pre/power amp? The Sen has a highish output impedance. Did you check that you have the phases of the ES9018 right? Like Paul, I am surprised that you find it similar to the Legato. I found it very very different right from the first power on.

This is of no importance for a hard-core diyer:D Look at the apparent complexity of the SEN and you can see that it simply can't sound any good. BTW. The twisting of wires is a piece of art!

Sound or smoke?