Quote:

make123 said:

Man and man met by a little predestination, people get along by a little sincerity, people intersection by is a sincerity.
 

Click to expand...

come again?

Received my Bravo V2 12AU7 model yesterday. Took it out, fired it up and gave it a good few hour listen going back and forth between my zunes direct out and then through the amp. It was not packaged that well, and took over a month to arrive but not that big of a deal as it all arrived in one piece. It looks nice / not bad build quality for the price. How does it sound? As it was out of the package, all I could think is what a flaming pile of crap it was. It was fat sounding in the bottom end, highs and sparkle did not exists really... was a little harsh... just crappy. All I could think about was how much cash I just wasted on the pile. So I took a break and came back. Yep still sounded like a flaming pile.
 
After reading about all the mods, I pretty much performed most all of them.
- Added in 5K trim pots to adjust bias
- Replaced the power supply cap with a 4700uF / 35V nichicon
- Replaced the two 1000uF units with 2200uF 105C nichicon units
- Yanked out the two small caps on the output side, right next to the tube and ran jumpers
- Replaced the 630's with IRL530PBF mosfets
- And cut some traces and so forth per the crosstalk mod
 
Everyone kept complaining how horrid and fragile the stock circuit board is. The pics looks the same as the unit I have, except I found it to be reasonable. I was expecting a board made with a laser jet and home kit in which someone sprayed black spraypaint on *LOL* The lead free solder was the only part that made it a pain since it is much higher temp. Just used a solder sucker and cranked up the heat on my station and it removed with ease. Mods were cake overall.
 
On another note, the stock capacitors were very odd. They weighed about 50% less than the nichicons I used even though they were about the same size. Felt like they were made of foam they were so light? Strange.
 
Sounds like a lot but all of it took me around 30 minutes. Took me a bit to figure out were to test for bias but got it and set it at 13.75ish vdc on both channels. After this, let it sit for around 30 minutes per the guide I read and re-checked it, made some minor tweaks and tossed on my headphones. In all honesty, I still expected rubbish as I was so disappointed previously. So I listened, and listened some more... Wow! Is this even the same amp? Well not really as I made so many changes but whoa! It really sounds good! The murky thick bottom end was tight and smooth, vocals were fantastic and spacious, the top end that simply wasn't prior WAS! I went back and forth between the direct out of the zune and back to the amp. I was able to get the volume almost perfectly balanced between switching back and forth and the little amp simply made the sound much more enjoyable, especially vocals, mid-bass and bottom end. I had read with these mods, the frequency response was almost flat so I thought I may just be dreaming this up so I had some help and did some back to back a/b to see if I could pick out the little bravo amp and every single time I could so it was not a placebo effect. Overall I wanted to thank solderdude. and oohms for the posts and writeup over on rock grotto. These mods are fantastic and make this cheap budget amp SING! This little guy is the steal of the century for sure!

I'm sorry, i am new to this, but what is a "pot", and where could this be bought? I plan on doing the mosfet and 5k pot mod when i receive my bravo V2. Also, what is meant when you cut the traces for the crosstalk mod?
 
Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Duheee

Most all of the mod info is located here...
http://rockgrotto.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=m&action=display&thread=5297&page=1
 
A pot is a potentiometer.

Quote:

negakinu said:

EDIT: forget everything I just said! Sparks! Fire! I pulled the power plug during playback and when I put it back in again huge orange sparks came from the socket! No sound for a couple of seconds, then full sound returned. This thing is UNSTABLE! Awesome. 

Click to expand...

you "pulled the power plug during playback" and are wondering why there are sparkles... how crazy is that - especially to a tube-amp...i like this!-) i think my eyes are sparkling with joy too..

 
Quote:

garage1217 said:

Sounds like a lot but all of it took me around 30 minutes.

Click to expand...

 
Wow, all that took half an hour, and within a day of receipt of the amp?
I wish I had your soldering skill and all the components on hand.

Was a very long... long... day *LOL* And I sling a lot of solder for part of my living so it was cake.
Quote:

jjmai said:

 
 
Wow, all that took half an hour, and within a day of receipt of the amp?
I wish I had your soldering skill and all the components on hand.

Click to expand...

Pic of my little budget gem with the jj ecc82 gold pin glowing away.
 

Oh and I replaced the knob in case anyone missed that
 
I have an entire set of parts / all parts I used in my mods including the knob and an extra JJ gold pin tube if anyone wants to copy the setup, shoot me a PM.

Quote:

garage1217 said:

Oh and I replaced the knob in case anyone missed that
 
I have an entire set of parts / all parts I used in my mods including the knob and an extra JJ gold pin tube if anyone wants to copy the setup, shoot me a PM.

Click to expand...

If I knew how to solder I would

Quote:

jjmai said:

 
 
Wow, all that took half an hour, and within a day of receipt of the amp?
I wish I had your soldering skill and all the components on hand.

Click to expand...

I can believe it can be done in a couple of hours. Just finished an AMB Gamma 22 which involves SMD soldering with a magnifying glass. The components are so big and easy that soldering on the Indeed or Bravo amps now almost seems like welding, even though a month ago I was struggling with basic soldering myself 
 
After all the important mods are done and a decent tube is in, you won't believe how these little amps will keep scaling up with any improvements you make to the rest of your gear. 

Right on! Yeah I have to solder 0603 sized components on a regular basis. About as small as I go which = just larger than a spec of pepper haha.
 
These little amps truly are gems once modified!

Where did you buy the knob, mosfets and pots? Any good cheap websites where i could get parts in general?

The problem I have is it moves around on my desk with the slightest tension on the cord. Need rubber feet or something....

Quote:

duheee said:

Where did you buy the knob, mosfets and pots? Any good cheap websites where i could get parts in general?

Click to expand...

 
I believe most of those Nichicon parts used in Garage1217's mod can be found at digikey or mouser.  But I don't know which exact model of each component gives the best result - I guess the audio grade instead of the general purpose ones.
And I have no idea what type of knob he used.
I sure would like to know the model/part numbers of those components myself.