[amphead]

There are probably a few builders, who currently have built the Millett Hybrid and the Millett Max. What are the similarities in sound and what are the differences? Is there a night and day difference in the sound? Thoughts?

 

[ruZZ.il]

I'm going to a little meet in 2 weeks and will try out a whole bunch of cans on both my MAX and M³. Will update. I wont be too familiar with most cans though, so I don't expect much

 

[tomb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by amphead /img/forum/go_quote.gif There are probably a few builders, who currently have built the Millett Hybrid and the Millett Max. What are the similarities in sound and what are the differences? Is there a night and day difference in the sound? Thoughts?

Well, I built 4 Milletts - used single BUF's, double-stacked BUF's, the OPA551 and finally - the Intersil HA-5002, stacked and unstacked. Then I proceeded to add Diamond Buffers to each: one with the 2S3422/2SA1359, one with the 2SC3421/2SA1358, one with the MJE 243/253, and one with the BD135/136. All were powered by upgraded Treads.

The sound signature is identical to the MAX except the MAX has an unbelievable reserve of power. The Millett, even with highly detailed Diamond Buffers, did not have the authority needed to maintain the very deep and strong bass of the MAX. The Millett also seemed to choke a bit on higher impedance cans, while the MAX seems to push through every last bit of detail to the phones.

Keep in mind that there are those who said the Millett Hybrid with DB's performs better than a Melos, is better than almost all the familiar Asian tube amps, and when equipped with Black Gates was up there with an M3. So, take the slightly negative comments compared to the MAX in perspective, please.

None of that should be viewed as a criticism of the older Millett Hybrid - either Pete's or Drew's and Nate's version. Colin Toole's MAX is the next stage of refinement - one should expect that it is an improvement in many respects.

EDIT: Given a choice of amps, I would always want to have a Millett of some sort - Hybrid or MAX.

 

[xmokshax]

i'm planning on starting to build a MAX at some point soon, and since i'm placing an order with soniccraft for a few other caps, i figured i might as well take care of my boutique cap needs for the MAX as well. however, i need some advice - i've done a few searches of this thread (obviously sifting through the whole thing is out of the question), and here's what i've gleaned:

-CA3 and CA6 can be populated with the box film caps recommended in the BOM, despite the fact that they're "consensus boutique cap" locations according to the notes on the BOM.

-it may be a good idea to use a slightly higher film cap value (~1.0uF) at CA8 than at CA9

assuming these two things are true, i still have a couple of questions. first, does anyone have any suggestions about which line of caps to use at the CA8 and CA9 locations? i don't have much experience with boutique film caps, and unfortunately, the cost is somewhat prohibitive of experimentation. i'd like to get the caps i need from Soniccraft if possible, and i've been looking at the Auricap, Dynamicap, and Sonicap Gen II lines. are any/all of those suitable? any favorites?

second, has anyone built a MAX using smaller (~0.47uF) blackgates at CA8/9 rather than film caps? if so, how do they perform?

 

[tomb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xmokshax /img/forum/go_quote.gif i'm planning on starting to build a MAX at some point soon, and since i'm placing an order with soniccraft for a few other caps, i figured i might as well take care of my boutique cap needs for the MAX as well. however, i need some advice - i've done a few searches of this thread (obviously sifting through the whole thing is out of the question), and here's what i've gleaned: -CA3 and CA6 can be populated with the box film caps recommended in the BOM, despite the fact that they're "consensus boutique cap" locations according to the notes on the BOM.

Look more closely at that BOM. Those double asterisks "**" are only on the CA8L/R and CA9L/R.

Quote:

-it may be a good idea to use a slightly higher film cap value (~1.0uF) at CA8 than at CA9

I remarked at the time that Troyhoot's strategy was interesting, but it hasn't been proven out. As Dsavitsk told me recently, there may be more going on with bypassing than simply selecting a cutoff frequency for the big cap (where the film bypass takes over).

Quote:

assuming these two things are true, i still have a couple of questions. first, does anyone have any suggestions about which line of caps to use at the CA8 and CA9 locations? i don't have much experience with boutique film caps, and unfortunately, the cost is somewhat prohibitive of experimentation. i'd like to get the caps i need from Soniccraft if possible, and i've been looking at the Auricap, Dynamicap, and Sonicap Gen II lines. are any/all of those suitable? any favorites?

If you're using Muse ES caps at CA2 and CA7, no question according to Dsavitsk - the Sonicap GEN II's. I've also been talking with him lately and I get the impression that he likes those film caps as the inexpensive choice, period.

Quote:

second, has anyone built a MAX using smaller (~0.47uF) blackgates at CA8/9 rather than film caps? if so, how do they perform?

MrMajestic2 has done this. Unfortunately, like a lot of us - he doesn't have another MAX built yet to provide a frame of reference.

I've been having much the same conversation with Dsavitsk offline. I'm going to try to build a few more MAXes in the next couple of weeks and hopefully will get the chance to test some of these things out.

EDIT: Rest assured, the MAX with the basic Wima's sounds very good ... with ES's in CA7 and CA2, even better. So, that's a killer - cheap - combo that sounds very, very good.

 

[amphead]

Tom, that was an outstanding comparison. Although the preceding designs were important for the evolution of the MAX, for me the MAXs bass extension, especially with K701, means I will build the MAX again with other quality components. Just the most bang for the buck. I was considering building one of the others, but I just can't justify the effort, with everything the MAX offers. Kudos to Pete, Nate, Drew and of course Colin, whos efforts allow me to do so!

 

[xmokshax]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomb /img/forum/go_quote.gif Look more closely at that BOM. Those double asterisks "**" are only on the CA8L/R and CA9L/R. ... EDIT: Rest assured, the MAX with the basic Wima's sounds very good ... with ES's in CA7 and CA2, even better. So, that's a killer - cheap - combo that sounds very, very good.

ok, i was misinterpreting the BOM. i was just assuming that the double asterisk applied to C3 and C6 as well, since they were all on the same line and the asterisk followed the last one. i'm quite relieved that a premium configuration won't involve 8 high-quality film caps!

out of curiosity, around how much is the MAX costing people to build, for relatively standard configurations (or perhaps with a few boutique caps)? looks like jeff rossel's BOM comes out to around $170 in parts - are people spending a lot more than that, or is that pretty reasonable?

 

[amphead]

ruZZ.il, hope you get to listen to some awesome audio equipment! If you can, bring your digital camera and show your fellow MAXers.

 

[amphead]

So, the mighty MAX is at the top of the heap! Who has built both AMBs Beta 22 and the MAX. How would you compare the sound? I know I know, the Beta 22 is high end, but we still need to put the available diy builds into perspective. So please pony up a review.

 

[tomb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xmokshax /img/forum/go_quote.gif <snip>out of curiosity, around how much is the MAX costing people to build, for relatively standard configurations (or perhaps with a few boutique caps)? looks like jeff rossel's BOM comes out to around $170 in parts - are people spending a lot more than that, or is that pretty reasonable?

Building it yourself, that's a reasonable cost to populate the board with a few other component parts. However, as with any amp, there are a number of miscellaneous parts such as mounting bolts, washers, heat sink insulating pads/heat sink grease or silpads, The Knob, RCA jacks, extra output jacks, miscellaneous wiring, tip jacks, tube bushings, upgrade transistors, - not to mention the cost of several tubes. Those things may or may not end up costing quite a bit more, depending on how you budget and what you purchase in volume. For instance, pay retail price and shipping for a complete set of tubes, a high quality knob, and price/shipping for boutique output transistors and you can easily spend another $50-$70 just for those items alone. Some people may pay that just for a pair of RCA jacks.

Now, having said all of that, the onboard power supply, the delay circuit, the footprint for heat sinks, the fact that the board is engineered to fit perfectly in a standard Hammond with no extra components needed - all those things combine along with outstanding - even surprising - performance to make the MAX an unbeatable combination. IMHO, you can't purchase an amp with this level of performance for this price - either retail or DIY.

 

[babbkutz@comcast]

with the DBs (MJE243/MJE253) using 12AE6A tubes and it sounds great into Senn 650s, Senn 600s, and AKG K701s.....rest assured you won't be disappointed!

 

[c0nsumer]

Not sure if this is interesting or not, but the software for the audio input switch for my MAX is complete. It's being released under the MIT license, and you can grab a copy of the source here: http://nuxx.net/files/nuxx_input_swi...board.pbas.txt

It's written in mikroBasic (I can bang stuff out fast this way), designed for a PIC16F630 running from the internal 4 MHz osc, and is currently set up for my dev board. Defines for pins will change in order to better facilitate better routing of traces and such.

I'll be working up a full-on project page for the nuxx Audio Input Switch after I get more of the hardware design done.

Hmm... Maybe I should start a new thread about this.

 

[Ferrari]

I have built and owning the MH Max (both versions) and the β22/σ22 (3- and 4-channel) for a while and this is my thought...

These 2 amps are from totally different sort. The MH Max is a good hybrid 2-channel amp with its own sound signature, relatively inexpensive and easy to build... lots of amp for the buck. The sound signature is much depending on various factors: BJTs or MOSFETs output buffer, the DC voltage level applied on the output buffer, the choice of the output caps...

On the other hand, the β22 with its partner σ22 are true high-end Solid State amp and PS, with the flexibility to configure it as 2-, 3- or 4-channel amp and different PS combinations. From electronics design viewpoint, the β22 and σ22 are definitely belonging to the best what a hardware designer can do: "la crème de la crème".
Soundwise, this amp belongs to top notch audio...

no doubt.

To my opinion, these 2 amps are from totally different sorts that makes it not easy to compare them directly to each other. You are not going to compare a good Volkswagen Golf to a Porsche or something like that...
Unless they are all vehicle on 4 wheels, it's simply unfair to do so.

 

[fierce_freak]

Haha, thanks Ferrari

 

[nysulli]

contruction finally began last night, depending on a pending business trip next week (which would require me finishing my mini^3 first) yet another MAX will be alive and well, BJT biased to 100 mA (yes, thats mA)

final chance to decide, i have both muse KZ and ES caps for the output, 3422 trannies, and soniccap gen 2's for bypass, main phones are HF-1's, suggestions?