[Paladin79]

I am matching up the tubes fairly well and I have some extras, I will send them your way at some point. The opening has to be over 3.5 inches, some tobacco tins work, 4 inch dome for security cams work well. I have extra tobacco tins too.

I set up one board as a test jig, so it is easy to plug tubes in and out as I go through them. Otherwise it is a pain to un-solder them as you might imagine.

 

[JamieMcC]

Fill it up with mineral oil and white plastic flakes and you would have a neat audio amp snow globe

Edit I'm on a roll on mount it on top of a plastic Frisbee with some rgb leds and you would have a neat UFO

 

[Paladin79]

Trust me the snow globe idea has been tossed around, that is how I ended up getting the 4 inch dome. There are round xmas tree ornaments that are made to come apart so you can put goldfish in them and such. I have a hard time finding measurements but they should work. You just need to permanently mount your cables, seal with silicone, and it is doable but I have enough irons in the fire lol. Hmm now the UFO idea may be a good one. One friend recommended a Death Star, or a star wars robot but finding the toys the exact right size is not easy. I do have RGB strips that do all kinds of neat things so that would not be too difficult. Stop giving me ideas!!!!!! I know your builds and they are generally good ones. I need some crappy ideas I can ignore lol.

Plug the UFO Coaster into a dap playing the theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind or War of the Worlds with Richard Burton narrating, Jeff Wayne I want to say did that. Vocals by Justin Hayward.

 

[JamieMcC]

Its alive and sounding superb with my hd800

Luckily I found a locking trs jack in one of my parts boxes which is front mounted and only needed a hole. Drilling out the back of the aluminium face plate for the volume pot went well, a sharp flat bit and some Boelube lubricant made the job easy.

 

[Paladin79]

Very nice, those are amazing little amps. I prefer tube type but love the accuracy of those.

 

[JamieMcC]

After a day of listening to the Solens it was time to swap them out and reacquaint myself with some old friends from the cap collection..

 

[JamieMcC]

 

[Paladin79]

Show off!!!

I mean that in the nicest possible way.

My standard devices barely fit lol.

 

[JamieMcC]

Tom, think I am done,

Very happy with how its sounding with my hd800 wasn't sure about the V6 Burson at first thought it sounded a bit off but with 25hr burn in I'm now hearing a nice improvement. The Teflon caps will need good couple of hundred hrs as well if past experience is anything to go by.

Mulling over trying a stepped attenuator, I have had a Glassware A5 36 step stuffed with Vishay RN55's in my parts box for a couple of years now it needs just a little more space than I have.

 

[Paladin79]

Very nice work! I have been a little too busy to do anything with amps lately but I hope to get back to them soon.

 

[JamieMcC]

Picked up a couple of those 1uf Sprague Vitamin Q capacitors to give a go..​

 

[Paladin79]

interesting

 

[JamieMcC]

Seeing the Vitamin Q's in HiGHFLYiN9's Whammy build had got me curious I was able to pick up a couple for a few dollars of off ebay installed them today burning them in at the moment. Fwiw the 60v teflons are excellent I love their resolution and the sound staging can be quiet 3D at times. Only real draw back is they take around 200hrs to come on song and can sound a bit incoherent at times on the way there.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Make sure to ground the shells, mine were picking up noise. Nothing like good vintage caps though

 

[JamieMcC]

My stepped attenuator turn up today, having used the ebay Valab and Dale ones in the past I thought I would give the thin film one a try this time, they all look to use the same body anyhow. I wasn't sure if it would fit to be honest but it went in ok in the end.

I'm enjoying the Vitamin Q's as well...please excuse my messy cap wiring its only temporary and will get a tidy up once I settle on the final cap.
I use a piece of non conductive foam packaging which sits on top of the loose wires from the teflon caps it gets squashed down in place when the case is closed up this holds them all firmly in place. The caps themselves are hot glued to the enclosure and the compressed foam squishing down on top of them makes doubly sure they cant accidently come loose. Plan to drill a couple of holes and cable tie them eventually.