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Avondale S100 - NCC200 amp Q's

lencotweaker

Mostly dreaming of record players
Hi all,

I recently bought an Avondale S100 (don't know if it is LesW built or not) that has arrived with a kaput LED on the front panel. Amp is working normally otherwise so not a real biggie but it is useful to know when it's powered up. Does anyone know what the replacement part is that I need to order? I am an electronics numpty but can just about wield a soldering iron when pushed so that armed with the correct part I'm sure I can sort it.

For what its worth here are a few pics of the broken LED. It appears to be panel mount, pushed in from the back of the panel (glued in). The long thin part that has broken off is 2mm diameter.

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Once I have this minor issue sorted I'm going to think about what improvements might be possible to this amp as it seems there has been a lot of development by Les over the years.

Overall layout
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SSM1
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Minicap 6's
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NCC200's (early ones I think. One board has also suffered a burnt out resistor at some point. They have been checked over by WitchHat recently according to documentation from the seller so presume all is OK)

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I'm thinking the only obvious improvement I can make to these is to install a pair HCR200's between the Minicap 6's and the NCC200's. Is it that simple?

I'd need to move the SSM1 module onto the back of the front panel and swing round and squeeze the Minicap 6's between the transformers to make space for HCR200's but it looks just about do-able. Any opinions on a configuration like this?

More importantly what would HCR200's bring me sound wise?

Anyway grateful for any assistance, especially to fix the LED initially, and of course for your helpful advice :)
 
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The HCR would benefit from their own power supply to go Voyager configuration, and all that won't fit. Regulation on the whole board would benefit higher voltage to reap rewards?
I'd suggest NCC220 Qudos boards, I swapped early V1.1 to V1.4 NCC200's and could hear the development for the better.
 
first thing replace the burnt resistor is should be a 1/2W 680R resistor if the boards are same as mine which I think it is
then I would have a play around with the input cap try different types wet tant, dry tant, filmcap ect
cant comment on the hrc200 regulator boards as I have no experience
Glenn
 
Why don't you phone Les and ask if has spare leds?
As for HCR200s don't forget that the output voltage from a regulator is several volts lower than the input so you'd either have to run the NCC200s at a lower voltage than at present (a retrograde step) or replace the transformers with higher voltage ones. If you check post no. 116 on this forum's "Avondale NCC300 amp project" Les says regarding overall regulation of the entire amplifier, "the supply of current at every part of the frequency band is a hit-and-miss affair once the speaker impedance is taken into account". Having suffered the inability of a Naim 250 to drive Shahinian Obelisks (2 ohm load in the treble) due, apparently, to the regulator boards (on which I believe Les's HCRs are based) - a Naim 180 was much better (no regulator boards) - I'd say forget the HCRs in this case.
I bought an extensively rebuilt NAP180 recently with 2 minicap 6 supplies and NCC200 version 1.4 (brand new last November I believe) boards and subsequently replaced the NCC200s with Les's NCC220 Qudos modules and found even more detail with a sweeter, more musical presentation.
If you must spend more money on improvements (and we're all tempted to after all!) the Qudos boards are where I'd look first.
 
Thanks all for the comments. Very helpful. I think I’ll save up and contact Les in due course to have this upgraded to NCC220 spec. I’m very much enjoying it as it is right now though :)
 


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