[nysulli]

for a while now i've been planning on building a pimeta, and now that my wallets recovered from a computer upgrade, its time, few quick questions first

i plan on this being a pretty maxed out amp, elna caps, hand matched resistors, double stacked buffers, etc. and will have a low gain, as for the most part it will be paired with my hf-1's

i was originally planning on pairing it with a tread powersupply, but i was wondering just how much better it could get with a steps, as a quality wall wart and tread costs around half what a steps would

i was also debating diamond buffers, but i have no idea where i could buy them from, and a builder's guide would be great

and one final question, does anyone know where/when i might be able to get a mint board, tangent's site no longer has then listed in his part shop, and i've got a friend who would like one, and is willing to let me build his first as a learning experience

 

[skyskraper]

in my experience there has been no audible difference between running a pimeta off a TREAD with cheap wall wart, TREAD with cheap transformer, or TEPS. you don't need a decent quality wall wart, most any will work well with it even a $5 bargain bin one.

i dont believe there is a dedicated diamond buffer board available for the pimeta but there are a few BUF634 discrete replacement designs on the board, a search will sort it out.

i'd assume the MINT boards are no longer in stock because the PINT design is arriving in the near future. shame, i woulda liked to have built one last mint for myself.

 

[nysulli]

PINT you say, i'm gonna have to look more into this, sounds interesting

then from the sounds of it, tread and a cheap wallwart it is, afterall, that would only put me out 25 bucks, can always build a steps later

and for the buffer boards, i didn't think anything was designed for the pimeta, but what about wiring in say the diamond buffers designed for the millet hybrid, and where i could find those

 

[n_maher]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nysulli PINT you say, i'm gonna have to look more into this, sounds interesting

Check the Headwize DIY Forum for more info.

Quote:

and for the buffer boards, i didn't think anything was designed for the pimeta, but what about wiring in say the diamond buffers designed for the millet hybrid, and where i could find those

There is actually a drop in BUF634 replacement diamond buffer that sijosae designed (I believe). I've seen it posted a couple of times but can't say that I've built one myself. Here it is but I can't find the design file right now.

As far as the Millett DBs are concerned I don't know of anyone who's actually tried them in another amp yet. I started work on a PIMETA last night that I'm going to do this with but please realize that you're on your own if you choose to try this. As to where you can get boards for the Millett DBs look no further than the Group Buy forum here

.

Best of luck,

Nate

 

[NeilR]

Hi Nate,

I thought about splitting a couple of your DB buffer boards to try out on my Pimeta, but I don't think it will fit, especially the ground buffer. The PSU caps are right next to the ground buffer so I guess the caps would have to located "off board" somehow.

Similar problem with the C4 box caps- oh so close but no cigar....

Have you thought about this?

Regards,
Neil

 

[dhp]

Does this mean that my MINT has increased in value so I can sell it for profit??

 

[n_maher]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilR Hi Nate, I thought about splitting a couple of your DB buffer boards to try out on my Pimeta, but I don't think it will fit, especially the ground buffer. The PSU caps are right next to the ground buffer so I guess the caps would have to located "off board" somehow. Similar problem with the C4 box caps- oh so close but no cigar.... Have you thought about this?

Neil,

My thoughts are that I may try (for starters) just using the DB in the L and R channel and using either a 634 or 551 in the ground channel. I may eventually cut one of the boards in half to use as a ground channel buffer but from all my experience with the PIMETA the L/R buffers (stacked vs. single) made the biggest difference.

As far as the physical fit of things go I'm thinking that I may mount all the caps on the bottom side of the board to give more room on top for the buffers but even at that I still think that they'll have to be air-wired to the sockets as the geometry is close but in the Millett they are orientated 180deg. from each other.

Nate

 

[NeilR]

Nate, I don't understand why you need to air wire the boards unless you don't want to cut them in half...

Post the results if you ever get this built! I would need to build another Pimeta; my case is too small. So it will be very low priority.

Regards,
Neil

 

[n_maher]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilR Nate, I don't understand why you need to air wire the boards unless you don't want to cut them in half...

You are possibly correct, for me with OPA627s there's precious little room around the buffers to play with so I'm just going the easy route and air wiring them. With AD8620/10 there may be enough clearence to direct mount them.

Quote:

Post the results if you ever get this built!

Oh, it's getting built alright. I had nearly all the parts I needed for a PIMETA in my parts bin so last night I decided to populate the board while American Idol was making my living room a place I'd rather not be

. I've already got a spare DB built and will be testing that tonight to make sure that it's working properly as well. And wouldn't you know it but I've got a spare 24V TREAD to use for a power supply

. Honestly I expect within two weeks or so I'll know if this works or not.

Nate

P.s. nysulli, sorry to derail your thread so badly!

 

[NeilR]

Nate, it never occurred to me that you are such a masochist that you would try to do this on top of a brown dogged OPALR

 

[nysulli]

nothing wrong with derailing the thread in that direction, all the talk about how to mount the DB's on a pimeta board gave me some clearity on how i would work it, i was planning on air wiring it anyways, but at least now i know i don't have much choice but to do that, maybe i'll just build on with stacked buf624's if i can find em, or some other stackable buffer with a single buffer on the ground, 24v tread was going to be my psu choice, just torn between ad8610 or 627's for the opamps to go with my hf-1's, but the gain will be pretty low, since 50% out of my computer is already a tad loud, so probably 2-3 for the gain to land normal listening volumes in the sweet spot of the blue velvet

 

[n_maher]

Mouser is currently showing 61 BUF634P's in stock, you might want to jump on a few of those as DigiKey is currently out of stock.

Best of luck,

Nate