[Icarium]

Quote:

Originally Posted by edisonwu /img/forum/go_quote.gif Very interested in the amp. How many of the units from the first run are still available?

No units available that I know of. But there will be future runs with different simpler chassis (This first 10 are handmade chassis). I confirmed this with Craig at CanJam.

There are no speaker taps and you won't be able to power speakers with it.

Apparently with the latest change they should power k1000s pretty well out of the 4 pin. He is getting partial silver electraprint output transformers that should do a great job. This will be a 120 dollar premium.. I'm not sure if he's doing it for all or you have to elect to do it or what. All I know is that foo_me and I are getting them

He should have the amps assembled by the end of this month, but waiting for the output transformers may go into July a week or two. Hopefully by the end of July latest I'll have something in my hands... with good luck perhaps mid July.

 

[Brighten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icarium /img/forum/go_quote.gif No units available that I know of. But there will be future runs with different simpler chassis (This first 10 are handmade chassis). I confirmed this with Craig at CanJam. There are no speaker taps and you won't be able to power speakers with it. Apparently with the latest change they should power k1000s pretty well out of the 4 pin. He is getting partial silver electraprint output transformers that should do a great job. This will be a 120 dollar premium.. I'm not sure if he's doing it for all or you have to elect to do it or what. All I know is that foo_me and I are getting them He should have the amps assembled by the end of this month, but waiting for the output transformers may go into July a week or two. Hopefully by the end of July latest I'll have something in my hands... with good luck perhaps mid July.

That's a bummer about the chassis. I really liked it.

 

[Jarmel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icarium /img/forum/go_quote.gif No units available that I know of. But there will be future runs with different simpler chassis (This first 10 are handmade chassis). I confirmed this with Craig at CanJam. There are no speaker taps and you won't be able to power speakers with it. Apparently with the latest change they should power k1000s pretty well out of the 4 pin. He is getting partial silver electraprint output transformers that should do a great job. This will be a 120 dollar premium.. I'm not sure if he's doing it for all or you have to elect to do it or what. All I know is that foo_me and I are getting them He should have the amps assembled by the end of this month, but waiting for the output transformers may go into July a week or two. Hopefully by the end of July latest I'll have something in my hands... with good luck perhaps mid July.

Would I need the partial silver transformers to power the HD800s? I plan on using mine with the 800s and it seems that it wouldn't really affect me. Any tips appreciated.

 

[Karo]

Balancing Act w/ Raytheon VT99 driver.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Did you opt for the amp to be coverless, or take them off yourself, or is that a photo that craig sent you?

 

[fkclo]

The look is quite different from what Craig's website ? Is this the final production model ? Confused !

F. Lo

 

[Karo]

It's a photo that Craig sent. I must have sent him something cool.

He gave me the okay, I thought people might like to see it.

I hear he's using it as a pre-amp. Sounds pretty radical. Here's the quote of the day ....

Quote:

The power supply has one power torroid for B+, and heaters, one power torroid for the power oscillator which is an 18 watt discrete power amplifier with a 40kHz Colpits oscillator in front. Each channel has separate regulator boards with 6X4 rectifier tubes. Pretty nuts amp, sounds good though.

Yeah I bet it does.

I told him the photo with the lid off explained alot. He gave me a quite a bit to think about. Good 'ole Craig.

btw ... I wouldn't worry about the chassis.

 

[ironbut]

That photo is Craig's personal amp which he does his experimenting with. He just reuses the same chassis over and over (probably the first proto BA he showed at CanJam 2008).
I have a photo he sent me back in Nov 2008 of the exact same Indian blanket and set up but with a 6sl7 driver. That was when he first got his balanced AD2000's and he said he was lovin' it!

 

[Karo]

Ironbut ... have been meaning to thank you, as Craig said you turned him onto the AD2K's. Bravo.

Also thought about your photo from November, same exact spot.

Awhile back when I mentioned that the 2A3 I was looking at was a Moth .... even my hardened, curmudgeon friend lightened a few shades and said "Oh. Those are valuable". The word is on the street.

Whoever gets these amps, I have a feeling they are in for something special.

 

[jrisles]

Hi Guys. I have just discovered this thread and have just placed a deposit for a ZDBA (240Volts version). I have just about recovered from my "sting" with Singlepower and am venturing out there again with another attempt to purchase a high quality balanced headphone amp. I currently own the Yamamoto HA-02 and i actually think it is a very nice unit. Don't have alot of experience with tubes but it would seem the 307A is the way to go. So i have requested those for my build. This will be my first Balance Amp and i have yet to purchase a pair of Balanced Headphones. So this will also need to be on my shopping list prior to the arrival of my amp. Looking forward to coming back on here and reading about your experiences with this amp and tube selection.

 

[Jarmel]

Looks like the babies are going to be shipping soon. I haven't gotten an email or anything but there is an update on the website.

 

[jrisles]

Hi Guys. I had someone say something about this amp that has got me a little confused (which is not hard to do with my lack of electronic knowledge). A friend of mine said that the Balancing Act can never be a Balanced Amp because it has a single ended circuit? Now i understand what he is saying but i don't know whether this is true or not? Anyone have an opinion on this? Is this the reason why perhaps it is called a "Balancing Act"? Sounds like a Balanced Amp when in fact it isn't? Happy to hear your thoughts on the matter.

 

[Icarium]

That's his prototype amp where he does his part tweaks (Swaps in different output tube sockets or different output transformers etc) with my VT99 adapter provided to me by a good friend

You do not need partial silver transformers to run HD800s. You don't even need them to run K1000s, but they help in making the K1000s sound good as they are pretty demanding "headphones."

Reports from foo_me and Craig is that the partial silver takes the amp to a whole new level. Text message from foo_me while listening to it: "Omg...BA sounds so good with the partial silver transformers! No contest."

Craig in email: "I had not heard the silver outputs on the AD1 with the VT99 before, truly amazing, I seriously doubt there is a better headphone amp on the planet."

So I don't know if this is something that other BA owners might be interested in, but it seems like a solid upgrade for ~120 bucks (Last I heard anyways.. it could have gone up or down I'm not speaking for Craig with regards to cost

).

Jarmel the Balancing Act is the next up on the assemblers queue for Craig. There used to be some things in front of it like the Zana Deux SE/ZDT but I believe those are done and the BA is next. Unfortunately there are other larger standing orders (Apparently things like Vizio TVs) that can bump Craig's smaller orders down the queue... so it is somewhat variable when exactly the BAs will be assembled, but once they do start getting worked on he is confident they will be all done in 2 weeks though he will start shipping them as he gets them and they trickle out a few at a time rather then everyone has to wait the whole two weeks to get theirs. So here's to hoping they start this week or next

Jrisles your friend is right that it is not a "true" balanced amp in that its not 2x a single ended circuit. What Craig does with the balancing act is that he uses high quality transformers to balance single ended signal coming in and output going out. This is how the TTVJ 307A does balanced as well. I don't think anybody except for Singlepower and now maybe Woo Audio (I think the WA22 is true balanced.. not sure) offered 2x circuit balanced tube amps though frankly Singlepower didn't seem to really execute it well enough to handle the additional complexity of doubling the circuit as there were issues like single ended output would be ultra terrible though that might be attributed more to their horrible design/build quality.

Anyway in the end the BA sounds amazing single ended and it does sound better balanced. Craig was a balanced skeptic most of his life until very recently I think when jp11801 tricked him into making the Eddie Current HD2 which 909 now owns (Again transformer coupled and transformer balanced) and the improvement was enough to convert him. Thanks jp11801

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icarium /img/forum/go_quote.gif That's his prototype amp where he does his part tweaks (Swaps in different output tube sockets or different output transformers etc) with my VT99 adapter provided to me by a good friend You do not need partial silver transformers to run HD800s. You don't even need them to run K1000s, but they help in making the K1000s sound good as they are pretty demanding "headphones." Reports from foo_me and Craig is that the partial silver takes the amp to a whole new level. Text message from foo_me while listening to it: "Omg...BA sounds so good with the partial silver transformers! No contest." Craig in email: "I had not heard the silver outputs on the AD1 with the VT99 before, truly amazing, I seriously doubt there is a better headphone amp on the planet." So I don't know if this is something that other BA owners might be interested in, but it seems like a solid upgrade for ~120 bucks (Last I heard anyways.. it could have gone up or down I'm not speaking for Craig with regards to cost ). Jarmel the Balancing Act is the next up on the assemblers queue for Craig. There used to be some things in front of it like the Zana Deux SE/ZDT but I believe those are done and the BA is next. Unfortunately there are other larger standing orders (Apparently things like Vizio TVs) that can bump Craig's smaller orders down the queue... so it is somewhat variable when exactly the BAs will be assembled, but once they do start getting worked on he is confident they will be all done in 2 weeks though he will start shipping them as he gets them and they trickle out a few at a time rather then everyone has to wait the whole two weeks to get theirs. So here's to hoping they start this week or next Jrisles your friend is right that it is not a "true" balanced amp in that its not 2x a single ended circuit. What Craig does with the balancing act is that he uses high quality transformers to balance single ended signal coming in and output going out. This is how the TTVJ 307A does balanced as well. I don't think anybody except for Singlepower and now maybe Woo Audio (I think the WA22 is true balanced.. not sure) offered 2x circuit balanced tube amps though frankly Singlepower didn't seem to really execute it well enough to handle the additional complexity of doubling the circuit as there were issues like single ended output would be ultra terrible though that might be attributed more to their horrible design/build quality. Anyway in the end the BA sounds amazing single ended and it does sound better balanced. Craig was a balanced skeptic most of his life until very recently I think when jp11801 tricked him into making the Eddie Current HD2 which 909 now owns (Again transformer coupled and transformer balanced) and the improvement was enough to convert him. Thanks jp11801

I got to hear the HD2 and it was great. My ZDT with external Jensen Transformers box (for XLR>RCA) will be very similar, except for also the different output transformers (the ZDT Electraprint transformers instead of the HD2's Tango transformers).

 

[KingStyles]

Just curious, if you ues the rca inputs will you still be able to use the balanced outputs? It was said that it takes single ended in then balances it.