Tag: 01a

01a Preamp: Build (Part 5)

Finished the preamp build yesterday, still have one power supply to build though. That is the benefit of the Christmas holidays as you have some proper time to work on your projects.

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Magically this time all worked fine from start. The preamp measures really well using the noisy bench power supply:

01a Preamp test 2 FR

As expected the HF response is really good thanks to the design of this stage. The -3dB pole is above 100kHz. LF response is actually better than the shown above as the soundcard LF pole is playing as well.

From a distortion point of view the preamp is performing well at maximum level which the Starlight discrete DAC will be playing at (i.e. 400mV):

01a Preamp test 4 THD vs FR

01a Preamp Test 4

The nice decay of harmonics is characteristic of this fantastic DHT.

 

 

01a Preamp Gen2: Build (Part 3)

The preamp build is progressing, albeit slowly.  I tried a new breadboard construction approach. A nice Ikea chopping board was used to build the front and back wooden panels. A pair of aluminium squared section rails are used to provide support and hold a pair of top plates for the power and audio connectors. As a bonus given the low power consumption of the filaments, I will use these rails as the heat sink for the Rod Coleman filament regulators as well 🙂

All in a very compact design as I literally ran out of space for further equipment in my living room!

01a Preamp Gen2: Build (Part 2)

Spent this afternoon building a compact modular base for the UX-4 sockets, a custom tag strip and the filament bias resistor array. Given the very low power dissipation on the filament resistors they can be placed below the valve socket board to minimise space. The actual size of resistors is a killer, but I have a stock of these lovely wire-wound ones:

Also the gyrator boards were mounted on top of the output teflon capacitors, again to minimise space. The trimpots to set the anode voltage are located at the top for handy adjustment if necessary:

01a Preamp Gen2

The return of the 01a stage

SX201a in actionI remember my first 01a pre-amplifier to be one of the best sounding ones I ever had. The uniqueness of its tone, detail and clarity was astonishing. Perhaps it is due to the warm tone it provides and I guess this is the reason why Thomas Mayer branded his design as the “sound processor”.  I fell in love with the sound of a CX-301a and the joy of listening to this stage was so great that I found a fantastic excuse now to re-build this stage. My Starlight Discrete DAC has a very low output due to the step down transformer it has. I can only get 500mV as maximum output level. Not enough to drive my system to full level.  This was a perfect argument for me to look at building a simple amplifier stage that could add the sonority of the 01a in my system.

Continue reading “01a Preamp Gen2”

Improving the CX301a DHT pre-amp

An idea discussed with Rod Coleman, Andy Evans and others in DYIAudio forum which still is evolving. The purpose is to increase the output driving capability of this preamp using a cathode-follower stage. A bonus is to provide the filament bias using the cathode-follower valve filaments:

CX301a DHT preamp cathode follower