my new cdp tube out/headamp

[raja]

Hi, thought I'd post a pic of my (unfinished) cdp/headamp as it stands at the moment,
(don't know if my pic will work, it is taken with my low grade phone camera)
front panels still need sorting, tops and sides were veneered,stained and varnished.

basically it is cd enhacer II, by Ultranalog, unfortunatley his website is no longer with us.........

using 3a5 tubes, and az1 rectifier, oil caps for ps. Sowter 8650 PP to se output transformers to convert the balanced signal into single ended, z out is around 100 ohms or so, depending on connection of output load resistor.

I don't use the output load res.

circuit works for balanced output dacs only. The older pioneer dacs were great, they had better sounding components on chip than newer models.

In any case I use my senn hd580's, with S&B transformer volume control, no further electronics in the signal path.

Sound is stunning, just could not get close to this with a solid state setup.

Thanks
Raja

 

[raja]

Here's the circuit, as you can see quite simple, the opt's are by sowter, high nickel core.

Where this stage excel's is in tone, sort of like having a high class a bias on SS stuff. This just sounds more natural and engaging........

 

[rickcr42]

The Ultranalog site could be a real pain to navigate but still was a fun and useful web page.Any idea what happened ?
My links lead to nothing

cool project by the way.Nice job man

rickster

 

[raja]

Hi Rick,

Thanks,

Remco had some great stuff on his website. Unfortunatley, he was plagued by impatient people, who couldn't understand he had a life outside audio. When you have circuits as unique as his, you kinda get plagued by a lot of people who are inexperienced.

I'm sure there were other reasons too........

I may contact him some time just to see if he is kind enough to let me have copies of some of his schematics, which I will then post. I got on really well with him, he's a great guy.......

Thanks
Raja

 

[raja]

hi,

good news, www.ultranalog.com is back!

also here is a pic of no less than 3 super regs at work on the cdp,

the leftmost is the alw version, the other 2 are peranders modified version, both types are excellent.
The ALW board supplies the +5v for the clock, peranders boards are being used to supply each of the dacs with +5v.

The biggest initial difference was replacing the stock 7805 reg for the clock supply, fitting peranders boards to the dacs provided the icing on the cake....

Thanks
Raja