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Rockhopper M^3 - The Review - Page 7

post #91 of 508
2/17/09 at 1:27am
I was thinking about looking for one on Rockhopper as it seems to be very popular around here.
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post #92 of 508
2/17/09 at 1:32am
Thread Starter 
Well, subscribe to his RSS feed - if you have a mac or know how on a pc you can feed it into your mail inbox so that if you're always near a computer, you will know first when he adds a new listing. He's going to put up another $375 M3 soon, according to his pre-builds section.

Edit: Listening to some rock now on the M3. The M3 is real, real good for rock.

Edit2: Listening to something hilarious, like a flac of Britney Spears 'Baby one more time' (a track I downloaded as an example of a badly produced track for friends to compare). The dynamics are really screwed up - like it's fairly quite for parts, then the punchy bits in the chorus are WAY louder. It's the most f1cking intense rendition of Britney Spears you will ever hear on the M3. Every horrible detail of this fairly threadbare recording is laid out. You will not miss every lame detail with the M3, and it has a savage fury about it that the tube amp is nowhere close to on. The M3 keeps me awake.
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post #93 of 508
2/17/09 at 7:30am
So you would say the HD 650's are not held back in any way by the M^3? I don't want bottlenecks. At the same time I might be using an RS-1 or GS 1000 in a year (depending on my cash position) so I'd expect great performance with low impedance.

Right now, I'm split between buying the kit, or just getting rockhopper to assemble it for me.
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post #94 of 508
2/17/09 at 10:58am
I say get a kit. I know if I had the time and a proper place to solder there is nothing more that I would love to do than put my own little M3 baby together.

I actually might just do that when the summer hols start.
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post #95 of 508
2/17/09 at 12:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by chris_ah1 View Post
I say get a kit. I know if I had the time and a proper place to solder there is nothing more that I would love to do than put my own little M3 baby together.

I actually might just do that when the summer hols start.
The thing is I'm a newbie @ soldering. I do have a friend who is a pro, but what is the learning curve for such things? Sorry, I've gone way OT...
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post #96 of 508
2/17/09 at 1:47pm
Thread Starter 
It is not a small or trivial amp to construct, believe me. I'd start with a CMOY before you even consider it, it's got big heatsinks to set up, transistors to bias, op amp sockets to install, mountains of resistors and caps. If your friend is really cool and you think you can build it, go start ordering parts. I'd liked to see a Maxxed M3 that had all black gates and designer resistors and stuff.

It is going to be driving the HD650 hard....it shows no sign of weakness or distortion at live levels. There are bigger amps - the Beta-22 is a no holds barred solid state amp with each of the 3 separate boards, 1 for each channel featuring three varieties of transistor...it is going to be the reigning king, it's just a very costly build. It has some small signal transistors instead of op amps, some BJTs and MOSFETS as well for the heavier duty stuff (current gain).

Can anyone offer a comparison of Beta22 to M3? I know they're not quite in the same league, but it's not to say that the M3 has very many discernible weaknesses.
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post #97 of 508
2/17/09 at 2:57pm
From the designer of both the M^3 and Beta22
The β22 Stereo Amplifier Go to the History Section. Sorry the site does not seem to have a direct link.

Also not sure how much Black Gate caps would help the M^3 since the M^3 does not have any coupling capacitors and is a DC amplifier.
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post #98 of 508
2/17/09 at 3:02pm
Thanks for the information. I am going to find out how to use RSS on a PC now.
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post #99 of 508
2/17/09 at 8:31pm
Or you can just email directly and ask to have one built.
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post #100 of 508
2/17/09 at 9:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by penger View Post
Or you can just email directly and ask to have one built.
Really? I thought you couldn't do that there. Thanks, that's good to know.
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post #101 of 508
2/17/09 at 10:07pm
he doesn't generally take commission work anymore. Just watch his rss feed.
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post #102 of 508
2/18/09 at 1:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by m1abrams View Post
From the designer of both the M^3 and Beta22
The β22 Stereo Amplifier Go to the History Section. Sorry the site does not seem to have a direct link.

Also not sure how much Black Gate caps would help the M^3 since the M^3 does not have any coupling capacitors and is a DC amplifier.
Can you explain that a little for newbies please?
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post #103 of 508
2/18/09 at 2:29am
Thread Starter 
I guess the point is that the signal is not going through any caps, so there's no degrading to be done. Still, they are probably the best for the job just maybe not enough value for the money.
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post #104 of 508
2/18/09 at 7:05am
The only electrolytic capacitors in the M³ are on the power supply rails, bypassed with film capacitors. The default recommended caps are the best for the purpose. There is no benefit to using Black Gate caps in the M³, except perhaps for bragging rights.
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post #105 of 508
2/18/09 at 3:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by amb View Post
The only electrolytic capacitors in the M³ are on the power supply rails, bypassed with film capacitors. The default recommended caps are the best for the purpose. There is no benefit to using Black Gate caps in the M³, except perhaps for bragging rights.
Thanks. That cleared things up. OK, suppose I want to buy a finished amp. Where do I begin to look?
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