[sachu]

bloody brilliant work alcaudon...Masterstroke right there.

 

[Alcaudon]

 
Quote:

Alcaudon, is that a set of 3 LED indicators at the top-left of the amplifier case? If so, how did you fill in the gap and what does it look like when lit?

Yes it is, there are 3 white leds inside the small box at the left. The gaps are filled with small squares of plexiglass glued with silicone. This is how it looks when illuminated:
 

 
Quote:

Alcaudon - it was utter joy to view your masterpiece, congrats. 
 
...is there a light show we‘re missing, love to see that too.

 
Many thanks johnwmclean, I felt the same when I first saw your beautiful Balanced EHHA (I may ask you for some advices soon ). And, no there is no light show, just the input selector leds, sorry....

 

[cfcubed]

There sure are a lot of nice/unique touches to your build Alcaudon.  Makes me almost embarrassed to post this
But I've finished my stack of joy (except for a different USB/Optical switch on B32s & riser for the ND-S1).
 

 

[stew1234]

 
Quote:

There sure are a lot of nice/unique touches to your build Alcaudon.  Makes me almost embarrassed to post this
But I've finished my stack of joy (except for a different USB/Optical switch on B32s & riser for the ND-S1).
 

 
Great looking work. Where did you get that volume knob from?
 

 

[cfcubed]

Thanks.  Had a thinner black knob w/spinner indent that I didn't care for so I just searched fleabay for "solid aluminum knob" & combed through for the diameter inset (like 44mm).  Was a surplus item from China IIRC.

 

[El_Doug]

w00t it is done!  hows the stack sounding? 

 

[Garage1217]

Outstanding work visually, very modern and professional looking!
 
Quote:

Finally found some time to finish my soha II (unfortunately still need to solve a noise issue)
 
Some crappy pics (I'm sorry, I don't have a camera right now so I took them with the phone

):
 
 

 

 
Inside:
 

 

 

 
Happy new year to everyone!!!!!  

 

[cfcubed]

Its sounding great.  Very good match for my "new" HD650s.  We'll see about getting you a listen sometime
Quote:

/img/forum/go_quote.gif

w00t it is done!  hows the stack sounding?

 

[jlefley]

I finally got around to taking some pics of the β22/σ22 combo I finished up several months ago: (click for hi-res)































Some specs:

1. β22 boards built with recommended parts, configured for gain of 5
2. 4 channel, balanced configuration with selectable balanced/unbalanced input
3. TPA Joshua Tree relay attenuator
4. Dual XLR/TRS combo and 4-pin XLR output jacks
5. Binding posts for speaker connections
6. Dual σ22 boards built with recommended parts, configured for ±30V
7. 80VA Avel-Lindberg main transformers
8. 15VA Avel-Lindberg auxiliary transformer
9. ε24 power switch driver circuit for power control
10. σ25 power supply to provide DC to attenuation system
11. DPDT relay switches power to both σ22 and σ25
12. 16 contact umbilical cord provides power to β22 boards and attenuation system and also carries ground returns for unbalanced headphone connections, uses AMP CPC connectors
13. Recessed LED on the power supply front panel provides power indication
14. Par-Metal 20-12123B 12" x 12" x 3" enclosures ordered without panels and with 2 front frames per enclosure
15. Custom 6mm panels machined from raw aluminum by Cam-Expert, black anodizing and white text fill completed after receiving panels
16. Lian Li case feet

 

As for the performance, the amp sounds great. At this point I have been using it with a pair of Grado SR-60s and a Matrix Mini-i balanced DAC and the sound is phenomenal. Apart from this, I only have a Cmoy that I built ages ago so I don't have much to compare it to but the huge sound stage, clarity of individual instruments, and the speed this amp provides is nothing like I have heard before. The construction went fairly smoothly without any major problems. I was having some issues with noise and hum but ensuring that the case and panels were fully grounded eliminated nearly all the problems I was having. Even at full volume the amp is near silent with only a slight hiss which I assume is the noise floor of the DAC.

More pictures, including some taken during construction, can be found here: http://tech.gotdns.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=161

 

[FallenAngel]

Awesome looking build jlefley, very impressive!

 

[johnwmclean]

cfcubed the stack looks very cool, nice and compact, any heat issues with the smaller sinks?
 
jlefley, that’s one awesome looking black beast, congrats!   

 

[gabriel-dan]

Wow!!! I would never be able to pull a build as spectacular as that SOHA II or the β22. Beautiful craftmanship.

 

[Alcaudon]

Oh my god!!! there's so much beauty in this thread....
 
Congrats to cfcubed and jlefley for they impressive betas, really unique builds.

 

[cfcubed]

Quote:

cfcubed the stack looks very cool, nice and compact, any heat issues with the smaller sinks?

Thanks.  I talk about the heatsink thing here & subsequent posts: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/85561/post-pics-of-your-builds/7515#post_7083203
 
We could bring this to the b22 thread if necessary, but will say I did some testing on this - letting my b22s come up to temp.
The 4-ch single s22 PS is comfy w/the tall sinks in the tall case, but found my 2-ch "budget" b22 mosfets regulating their bias down about 20% until I used my one & only small Greenlee punch to put some holes top & bottom:
 

 
And that "fixed" the issue, mosfets maintained bias (no heat issues).... So did this to 4-ch b22 too & things are working very well.  Keeping it on top of stack of course (above buffalo32s
).

 

[jlefley]

Alcaudon, excellent looking SOHA II.  What process/technique was used to apply the lettering?