[Tomo]

Hey,

I have refitted my Szkeres amp. I made two great assumptions:

"Low impedance headphones ONLY"
"AD HOC!!"

This means the amp does not have to swing a lot. So CCS offer negligiable benefit. The amp should stay linear within 0.7V margin.

I paralleled 1000uF, 4.7uF, and 0.47uF for output coupling. Input coupling of 4.7uF. I used 2200uF ELNA per channel for bypassing. Gate voltage is set to 6~7V which is few volts above threshold voltage which is adequate for this application. Input impedance is 10Kohm which is perfect with 50Kohm pot. (Do plotting to find out why) PSU is Lambda LDS-X-15 Medical Grade PSU.

Only the fancy parts used are the ELNA bypass capacitors. All film caps are Solens and Siemens MKPs. 1000uF coupling capacitor is generic.

Surprisingly, the amp has the reference level quality. Of course, the flavoring of the sound is very different. Very laidback and it is tolerant of CD quality. Very listenable.

T

 

[Voodoochile]

Sounds pretty good, Tomo. When did you originally build your Szekeres?

 

[Tomo]

Hello,

I have built version 1 on a cardboard chasis early 1999. Then course of two years, I produced Version 2 and Version 3.

Version 2 had CCS. Version 3 has CCS and enhanced for K240M.

This one I just constructed would be Version 4.

The true theme of Version 4 is to go back to origin. But unlike on other versions, I have done this on a single board. Thus, it is "physically" simplified. (I did a little booboo and I had to put input coupling caps on a different board.)

Tomo

 

[Tomo]

Hum ...

This amp is bit on laid back side. It does not have crispiness. It does have impact. It is emotional in a different way. I wouldn't describe it as "soul tearing away from my body." I would decribe it as "sounds that weighs down on my body."

I would love to try it out with a Grado SR225 or something and watch Terminator 2 or something. Sound should knock me off of my chair. I will put it on my wish list.

T

 

[andrzejpw]

When I saw the title, I thought the szkeres psu would explode or something after prolonged use.

Sounds good Tomo! It's nice to see an amp by a fellow Pittsburgher.

 

[Voodoochile]

I bought the parts to build one about seven months ago, in order to both help fill out a small order, and because I have always wanted a szekeres.

There are certainly a lot of flavors of the amp, and it seems that most of them have been 'rebuilt/chopped/channelled (read:rickmonster)' more than perhaps even all the other popular designs combined!

Fascinating.

 

[Tomo]

NOTICE: It ain't blowing up.

Hello,

I should have titled, "Return of The Szkeres Amp."

Two years since the great war. The war of numerous wonton experimentations. Like anything else forgotten, my Szkeres amp collecting dust. Under the cover of dust, one can see the several horrifying burn marks on components and smell the heavy stinch of burnt flux. It was waiting single mindedly (if it has one) for its master. ...

Of course, the master took pity on the poor Szkeres amp and retrofitted it with a new body. As soon as its heart IRF510 (one and the same from two years ago!) was installed, it started singing the same old songs.

Tomo

P.S. Last time, I checked I am in Upstate New York. ... Pitts is so far away, I can't walk there.