I am also planning a DCB1 preamp with blue mezmorized boards right now. So I'll probably hit up zhougfang or spencer for some k170. It would be nice to get some real j74s along with the k170s as well. Any idea on how much he's asking for them? (J74 anyways.)
yeah i'm just finishing up a dual mono/DIFF hotrod salas version, go with Zhou IMO, slightly better pricing, free shipping and you can mix grades for the same price. he has the J74 already, but matching them into bins has taken a slight back seat because of his increased work schedule and as you can imagine, measuring a couple thousand devices can take a while :D confirmed legit and I think he even has the V grade. reckons they'll be available sometime early in the new year.
yeah well not so much balanced, dont know if you are familiar with the Pass X series and J series amps, basically the drive devices are cross coupled, so you produce a balanced output using only N channel devices, this is great news as there are far more choices for easily available low noise N channel Jfets and because you cannot truly match P and N channel as they have different behavior and performance curves; so using all N channel you can match perfectly and if they share a heatsink, they will track very well thermally as well, so will STAY together. you feed the amp a balanced signal and it outputs a balanced signal, but its not really balanced so to speak. I suggest you read up on it. the EUVL balanced F5 design can be wired both ways, you can run it balanced, or X'd, i'll be going X'd.
and yes it is gonna be HOT!! in a few ways hehe. prototype buolders will not finish until early next year though, so I have some time to gather funds, as I have a feeling i'm going to go a bit crazy with parts choice.
