Dsavitsk/Beezar Torpedo Build Thread
Nov 26, 2013 at 6:26 PM Post #436 of 854
It's exciting to know that more detail can be had with this amp. Though in stock form it is no slouch.

I have been using the 6j6 from day one and have gotten to know them fairly well. I noticed a clear difference between my Hifimediy 24/96 usb dac and my friend's Esoteric D-07 with the Torpedo and k702. Not exactly a fair dac comparison but it proves the Torpedo is resolving enough to take advantage of great source components. Taking the resolution to another level would be very impressive.
 
Nov 26, 2013 at 6:27 PM Post #437 of 854
Had some spare time on my hands today and I installed both the PRR/CCS mod as well as the heater rectifier/snubber mod. Very nice. Very nice indeed. The amp is noticeably quieter.
 
It is nice to be able to listen to this amp all buttoned up in it's case. Last time I had used it I was running it un-boxed, which, is never recommended at these voltages.
 
I forgot how good HF-2's sound with this amp. 
atsmile.gif

 
Placed an order at Beezar for a 5920. Color me intrigued.... 
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Nov 26, 2013 at 6:32 PM Post #438 of 854
  Had some spare time on my hands today and I installed both the PRR/CCS mod as well as the heater rectifier/snubber mod. Very nice. Very nice indeed. The amp is noticeably quieter.
 
It is nice to be able to listen to this amp all buttoned up in it's case. Last time I had used it I was running it un-boxed, which, is never recommended at these voltages.
 
I forgot how good HF-2's sound with this amp. 
atsmile.gif

 
Placed an order at Beezar for a 5920. Color me intrigued.... 
wink.gif

Thanks, Jake!  It's nice to have a confirmation that the tweaks definitely make a difference!
 
Nov 26, 2013 at 6:37 PM Post #439 of 854
It's exciting to know that more detail can be had with this amp. Though in stock form it is no slouch.

I have been using the 6j6 from day one and have gotten to know them fairly well. I noticed a clear difference between my Hifimediy 24/96 usb dac and my friend's Esoteric D-07 with the Torpedo and k702. Not exactly a fair dac comparison but it proves the Torpedo is resolving enough to take advantage of great source components. Taking the resolution to another level would be very impressive.

Yes - and thanks!  I've posted this over on the amps section, but I think those guys have incurable FOTM disease:
 
I always wondered, which sounds better (clearer, more transparent, no veil, etc.)?  Is it an affordable set of output transformers or a good pair of quality coupling capacitors?  Well, I now have no doubt - transformers all the way.
 
P.S. Dsavitsk has known it for a long time.
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Nov 27, 2013 at 1:04 AM Post #440 of 854
  Quite simply, they are a superior tube - with detail that you'll not hear with a 6J6.  I kept listening for a month or two before I felt like it was safe to talk about these tubes.  My friend at work really helped me in that regard.  He confirmed that everything I was hearing was in fact, true.  I've been fooled before when some opamp or buffer was oscillating and it sounded like the "swishes" were more prominent.  This is something else - detail with great, authoritative bass (the Mullards may have a bit less bass*), and a midrange to die for.  All this without the harshness in complicated passages as might be heard with the 6J6.
 
Don't get me wrong - the 6J6 is still a great tube when looking at the Torpedo as a mid-fi amp (a very good one).  It's just that the E90CC/5920 pushes the amp into a higher class of transparency and detail.
 
* Depends on the headphone.  With Grado HF-2 (PS500's) and Sennheiser HD600's, the Mullards sound great.  The Phillips seem to have that extra bass push that really sounds neat with AKG K701's.  You'll notice the leanness again in the K701's with the Mullard E90CC's.

Thanks TomB, I am deep in the middle of a B22 build at the moment. The B22 would seem to be a reference for a SS amp, and my current SS amp (PPAv2) is awesome, but I am now craving a great tube amp to compliment my collection. There are a few amps available, but the Torpedo is very appealing. The price is great, and no P2P wiring is awesome for a "pure tube" newb like me.
 
Hopefully I'll be able to order one soon!
 
Nov 27, 2013 at 4:31 AM Post #441 of 854
A question...
 
If I'm not mistaken, the Torpedo uses the Edcor PCW10K-7K/300-32, which interests me by itself. The specs on Edcor's website are lacking in details. In particular, did anyone measure DCR of primary et secondary ?
 
Nov 27, 2013 at 9:34 AM Post #442 of 854
  A question...
 
If I'm not mistaken, the Torpedo uses the Edcor PCW10K-7K/300-32, which interests me by itself. The specs on Edcor's website are lacking in details. In particular, did anyone measure DCR of primary et secondary ?

Send a PM to dsavitsk.  Edcor made them according to his specs.
 
Nov 28, 2013 at 12:51 AM Post #443 of 854
  A question...
 
If I'm not mistaken, the Torpedo uses the Edcor PCW10K-7K/300-32, which interests me by itself. The specs on Edcor's website are lacking in details. In particular, did anyone measure DCR of primary et secondary ?

I did measure mine, and if i remember correctly it was 6.7 ohms on the 30 ohm tap, and 23 ohms on the 300 ohm tap, but maybe i'm remembering the incorrect numbers. I can measure again tonight if I remember :p.
 
EDIT: i use the word remember way to many times in this post, I'll have to remember not to do that in future
 
Nov 28, 2013 at 4:22 AM Post #444 of 854
I'll pm dsavitsk, thx.
 
@Dingosmuggler: your memory is probably good... I found a thread where the 6ohms value is given for the 32r secondary, couldn't find anything for the 300R one but 23 sounds very plausible.
 
Nov 29, 2013 at 10:34 AM Post #446 of 854
Here are some pictures related to the Torpedo. They might be interesting to some.
 
 
Just before upgrading to Clarity Caps.

 
Testing how the tube guards looked. I ended up using only the top ring for a cleaner look.

 
Testing my amp/headphones with my friend's source components.

 
My friend decided to take an artistic picture while I was building my Torpedo.

 
Dec 6, 2013 at 2:10 PM Post #448 of 854
I received an e-mail question about the noise fixes/tweaks and I'm concerned that I may have mixed some people up.
 
Just to be clear, here's the essence of the diode/rectifier and snubber cap tweaks:
 
The BY228GP diode/rectifiers and snubber capacitors are for D5, D6, D7, and D8 – the heater voltage supply. The 1N5062 diodes are in the B+ tube supply and are already high-voltage, general purpose type – no need to change those. I also tried snubber caps across the high-voltage diodes and the noise reduction – if any – was inaudible.  So, the snubber caps have no effect there, either.
 
What is happening to produce the 180Hz ripple noise is that we originally used high-speed Schottky’s for the heater power supply rectifiers (D5, D6, D7, D8).  As Dsavitsk recommended each of these mods to me, I went from snubber caps only to changing out the rectifiers + snubber caps. I'd say the contribution of each toward reducing the noise is about 50%. IOW, you should do both.
 
 
P.S. All the kits and built Torpedo's I've sold since first mentioning this have included all of the tweaks.
 
Dec 6, 2013 at 6:40 PM Post #449 of 854
I'll second TomBs recommendation, changing out the rectifiers as well as adding the snubber caps makes a significant difference in the noise floor of the amplifier.

Using different rectifiers is a no-brainer. Adding the snubbers is quite straightforward if you attach them to the underside of the board. Wrap each of the snubber cap leads around the leads of the appropriate rectifier (in parallel to the rectifiers) and solder both to the pad at the same time. Think of it as a bypass cap for each of the rectifiers if that helps visualize what you are doing.
 
Dec 6, 2013 at 6:57 PM Post #450 of 854
Thanks for the confirmation, jdkJake!
 
I hope that post up there looks OK now.  I upgraded to IE V11 a couple of days ago and it's playing havoc with the editing system on Head-Fi.
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  I finally went to Firefox to make the edits, but looks like I messed that up, too.
 

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