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MDAC First Listen (part 00100110)

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Reenberg said:
Hi John

I love the new ones ;).

I think the ' old ' one is quite ' industrial ' in it's presentation, and the new one is much more ' Scandinavian ' in it's look ( mabee with a Italian touch ).

So my vote goes to the new ones.


(ps. Im in Prerov ( Hotel Jana ) right now, and trying to get time for a visit at your place Thursday.
ill send you an mail tomorrow when I have my schedule locked. Pick-up ( or cap ) would be cool, after 12h in a car i really need a bear ( or 5 ).)


Best

Theis
Click to expand...

Theis,

We can do tomorrow if its easier for you - or both evenings, we can collect you once we have arranged a time :)
 
Rune said:
Thank Aaron,
I could not pin point why I did not like the pattern on the sides.
But now i know it is the round holes that messes it up.
The Death Star pattern looks much better.
Click to expand...

Nothing been set in stone yet, I'm still trying to create a design that looks balanced, 178mm looks rather tall so I've extended the unit rearwards to 400mm. This also allows me to spread out out the output devices on the heatsink + add a few extra packages on the heatsink for local regulators etc.

I'll run some ideas past Theis when he's here...
 
Have the heatsinks width been reduced ? As you mentioned John I also like the original rectangle cutaway on the top rather than the circular. What are the target dimensions of the new chassis ?
 
JohnW said:
Sorry for the delay in responding, PCB arriving Wednesday so I've spent some time setting up the Lab (Still waiting for the AC wall sockets to arrive).
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I'm puzzled a bit - the long awaited PCBs have arrived but I'm reading almost only about VFET. John, I thought you would be diving into the PCB up to the neck as usual ;)

BTW what are the plans for beginning design on the digital board?

I'm asking because I upgraded to my first DIY amps (dual mono ncores) right now and for the first time hear the MDAC's balanced output as it should be. Could only get still better with MDC2 I think!
 
Asphaltradler said:
I'm puzzled a bit - the long awaited PCBs have arrived
Click to expand...

I believe the PCB is only due to arrive today, hence the buzz is around VFET while John progresses the design of that... hopefully the arrival of the analog PCB will be the source of much excitement tomorrow!
 
Reenberg said:
Hi John

I love the new ones ;).

I think the ' old ' one is quite ' industrial ' in it's presentation, and the new one is much more ' Scandinavian ' in it's look ( mabee with a Italian touch ).

So my vote goes to the new ones.


(ps. Im in Prerov ( Hotel Jana ) right now, and trying to get time for a visit at your place Thursday.
ill send you an mail tomorrow when I have my schedule locked. Pick-up ( or cap ) would be cool, after 12h in a car i really need a bear ( or 5 ).)


Best

Theis
Click to expand...

John should take you to U Tří Králů. It's on a communist - era estate but it's nice inside and the beer is good, there are 7 different types brewed on the premises. The food isn't bad either. The place is also ridiculously cheap - barely a euro for a 0.5l beer.
http://www.ratebeer.com/p/u-t345i-kral367-prostejov/23559/
 
Asphaltradler said:
......

I'm asking because I upgraded to my first DIY amps (dual mono ncores) right now and for the first time hear the MDAC's balanced output as it should be. Could only get still better with MDC2 I think!
Click to expand...

Could you make any sort of estimate of how much improvement you get from the balanced connection? I'm still hoping the MIMP/MAMPs will appear sometime, but it will be a bit of a leap in the dark when they do, since I'm pretty happy with my unbalanced amp (Flying Mole, in case anybody remembers them, with Creek passive) at the moment.
 
PhilCTTE said:
Have the heatsinks width been reduced ? As you mentioned John I also like the original rectangle cutaway on the top rather than the circular. What are the target dimensions of the new chassis ?
Click to expand...

Yes, still going for the "rectangle style cutaway on the top".

I'm trying to balance the designs proportions - looks like I cannot use the Plasma display as the amp would have to be 180mm tall - making it look rather stumpy and fat :(

I could use a LCD panel, but I like the "old school" simplicity of the plasma bargraph display, fitting for a Tube / VFET design :)

I'd like to extend the Amps depth from about 330mm to 400mm (+connectors) to allow more power devices to be fitted to the heatsink - PSU regulators and such.
 
Asphaltradler said:
I'm puzzled a bit - the long awaited PCBs have arrived but I'm reading almost only about VFET. John, I thought you would be diving into the PCB up to the neck as usual ;)

BTW what are the plans for beginning design on the digital board?

I'm asking because I upgraded to my first DIY amps (dual mono ncores) right now and for the first time hear the MDAC's balanced output as it should be. Could only get still better with MDC2 I think!
Click to expand...

PCB should arrive today - they normally arrive sometime after lunch.

The MDAC2 sonically will be a step-change upgrade over MDAC...
 
Bob L said:
Could you make any sort of estimate of how much improvement you get from the balanced connection? I'm still hoping the MIMP/MAMPs will appear sometime, but it will be a bit of a leap in the dark when they do, since I'm pretty happy with my unbalanced amp (Flying Mole, in case anybody remembers them, with Creek passive) at the moment.
Click to expand...

The amplifier design & topology is more important then the balanced connection, the Balanced connection is the correct way transfer a signal if implemented correctly.

Lets see where the VFET amplifier development leads us... the problem with amplifiers is that once heatsinking / Chassis design & the PSU has been taken into consideration, the balance in cost of the remaining electronics is only a small proportion of the whole designs cost - so while the VFET are expensive devices, proportionally there's little cost saving using standard devices.

To design an amplifier correctly is expensive.
 
Reenberg said:
Im in Prerov ( Hotel Jana ) right now, and trying to get time for a visit at your place Thursday.
Click to expand...

If your just sitting around this evening in your Hotel with no nice Czech Lady's looking after you, then as a distant second best option - your more then welcome to visit this tonight, we could work on the VFET industrial design and go drinking tomorrow night when we have the luxury of Renata as our chauffeur!
 
Hey :) PCB just arrived - gosh now the work of building and testing each section begins - I'm a little scared after all this the design effort, this is where I get to see if the computer simulations are correct - and find my errors!

Its so complex, I'm not sure where to begin!!! has to be the analogue stage....
 
JohnW said:
I'm trying to balance the designs proportions - looks like I cannot use the Plasma display as the amp would have to be 180mm tall - making it look rather stumpy and fat :(

I could use a LCD panel, but I like the "old school" simplicity of the plasma bargraph display, fitting for a Tube / VFET design :)

I'd like to extend the Amps depth from about 330mm to 400mm (+connectors) to allow more power devices to be fitted to the heatsink - PSU regulators and such.
Click to expand...

180mm high does move it into the "large" category when finding rack space. I'll only be purchasing any new racks once I know the final sizes and when I have a room to put them in !.

My AVP measurements are 439 x 372 x 164mm . Which is my largest component. So 400mm depth of Vfet amp is no problem for me !

I still like the idea of an exposed plasma display mind , but not the end of the world.

New rack is going to be exposed to show these off !.
 
JohnW said:
I'm trying to balance the designs proportions - looks like I cannot use the Plasma display as the amp would have to be 180mm tall - making it look rather stumpy and fat :(
Click to expand...

Why not go back to MDAC width (I like my HiFi narrow and my women...) and tall, and deep, but not wide. Then I don't need to get a new rack ;)
 
PhilCTTE said:
I still like the idea of an exposed plasma display mind , but not the end of the world.
Click to expand...

Just to be sure, we are talking about Plasma bargraph display - not a plasma Ball! :D


This is the shorter version (IN-9) but its missing a second "Pre-charge" cathode so they don't work well... they need to warmed up and over-driven before they start to function with reasonable accuracy... or not...
 
How about mounted side by side horizontally, one "firing" left, and the other firing right ?

edit: I guess that would look nice, but not very practical for comparing the levels.
 
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