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Mr. Nixie tube headphone amp kit

post #1 of 10
11/27/11 at 9:06am
Thread Starter 

Hi,

 

what do you think about this one: 

http://www.nixiekits.eu/MiniHeadphoneAmp.htm

 

MiniHeadphoneAmp_anthrazit_600.jpg

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post #2 of 10
11/27/11 at 10:43am

Not enough information about the circuit to make any guesses about performance, but it looks very cute. 

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post #3 of 10
11/27/11 at 2:53pm

The "Magic Eye" VoltMeter looks pretty awesome if you ask me. The graphs for THD look alright but without any hard numbers (Like %THD+N) it would be a difficult guess

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post #4 of 10
11/27/11 at 3:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by liamstrain View Post
Not enough information about the circuit to make any guesses about performance, but it looks very cute. 


Do see a fair amount of specifics in the PDF: http://www.nixiekits.eu/Downloads/MiniHeadphoneAmp_Aufbauanleitung.pdf   And the stuff up on that site looks pretty good & solid to me.

 

I've too many tube hybrid headamps, so won't be trying one, but the idea of a SMPS (555-based) HV seems interesting to me.  I'd tried to get something like it going using a modded off-the-shelf nixie SMPS but could not get around some noise issues... Probably could have cleaned it up but it became more trouble than it was worth (for me).

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post #5 of 10
11/28/11 at 5:28am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maverickmonk View Post

The "Magic Eye" VoltMeter looks pretty awesome if you ask me.



Agreed. Would be a nice combo to have both on the desk wink.gif

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post #6 of 10
11/28/11 at 7:20am

All they need is a little usb/coax/optical dac in a low wide format, that allows the amp and volt-meter to sit side by side on top. Nice looking little desktop set. Still not convinced of the sound.

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post #7 of 10
11/28/11 at 9:41am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by cfcubed View Post


Do see a fair amount of specifics in the PDF: http://www.nixiekits.eu/Downloads/MiniHeadphoneAmp_Aufbauanleitung.pdf   


Schematic is on the last page of this build manual.

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post #8 of 10
11/30/11 at 6:31pm

It's basically a Millet Starving Student.

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post #9 of 10
3/6/12 at 10:59am

I ordered the combo of both the amp and vu meter. They come well organized with PCB's and parts seperated in to little bags keeping them tidy. The build of the VU meter was very easy and took about 1.5 hours from start to test run. I decided on the stereo EM83 VU tube and the green glow is very pleasing.

 

The headphone amp was more time consuming to put together for me since it had been a while since I soldered. I also wasnt trying to assemble it "fast" but to look nice when completed and to not make any mistakes. I have to say that the kit went together very smoothly. The case and presentation is very nice and it looks great sitting on my desk. Now to the sound. It's rich and buttery. I'm very impressed with the amp and the sound produced. Plenty of power to drive some power hungry open air headphones. The low end bass and mids sound fantastic.They look great sitting side by side and the LED's with the glow of the tubes is great in low light. The price may be a little more than other kits out there but I'm very happy with it over all and the matching case makes them look great. I would reccomend to anyone interested in a very nice tube PCB headphone amp.

 

www.nixiekits.eu

 

Cheers!

 

 

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post #10 of 10
3/6/12 at 2:24pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks for your report, but: iconneedpics.png

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