savoy014

Here is a nice project for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Frustrated with your stock DC cable that comes with your Kingrex PSU ? Come on guys, the cable is far too short ! Parts List 1x Neutrik Male XLR socket 2x 1m 18 AWG Neotech 7N Teflon insulated PCOCC copper cable or silver cable 1x Switchcraft 760 DC jack (fits my Squeezebox Touch just fine) Instructions Step by step instructions are probably unnecessary for this simple project. I twisted the cables together lightly to provide a bit of RF rejection. It is worthwhile to also consider using shielded cable for this purpose. Impressions Initial impressions were that of a more detaled midrange and larger image size. Unfortunately, the high frequencies also sounded a bit hashy and the overall sound is quite grainy. In comparison, the stock cable is smooth, with a relatively laidback soundstage. The stock cable also sounds a little bit vague and the tonal contrast is lacking. After 10 hours of burn in, things got ...

I am quite familiar with the original Usher BE-718 which uses a Beryllium alloy tweeter. The BE-718 and the X-718 that preceded it stirred up quite a lot of controversy, from its close resemblance to a certain other renowned manufacturer, to the Beryllium content (or lack thereof) of its tweeter dome. Controversy notwithstanding, the BE-718 sounded great and I would have walked home with a pair if my amplifier had the power to drive it. Audio Basic had no issues driving it with their solid state amplifiers, but a quick hook up to a 30 watt per channel EL-34 push pull amplifier proved that these speakers really thrive on power. Fast forwarding to the BE-718 DMD, I believe that the speaker is internally identical to the BE-718, with identical crossover points etc. Worldwide, dealers are offering the DMD tweeters to BE-718 owners as a drop-in upgrade. Local users should be aware that the domestic version is not the same as the U.S. version which sports a tweaked crossover with upgraded ca...

Shuguang's Black Treasure KT-88 tubes are being run-in on my Cary amp at the moment. Visually striking, these tubes are classy. Launched to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Shuguang, the Black Treasure tubes are said to have 60 differences compared to their normal line. The most obvious is the black high polymer compound carbon coating inside. Initial testing upon power up resulted in a loud crackling distortion that lasted about 2 seconds before disappearing one one channel. It never happened again, so I would not put too much into that. Trawling the internet revealed user accounts of long tedious burn in (200-600 hours), with an accompanying roller coaster ride in quality in the process. It kinds of reminds me of my Mundorf Silver-in-oil burn-in experience. Thankfully, the Black Treasure sounded quite good from the outset. With about 10 hours under their belt,  initial impressions are that of exquisite refinement and quietness. Compared to the Genalex re-issues ...

No money for fancy power distributors ? Why not make your own ? I saw a very nice solid aluminum power distributor casing in one of our local electronics surplus stores. It certainly could not be considered as refined, but was made from solid 5 mm thick sheets and had nice cut out holes for US sockets and an IEC inlet. Choose your favourite sockets and your internal cabling of choice, and you are ready to go. In my case, I used the following :- 1 x Oyaide SWO-XXX AC outlet 1 x Hubbell 8300 Hospital Grade AC outlet 1 x Hubbell 5362i AC outlet 1 x IEGO gold plated IEC inlet Neotech 12 AWG PC-OCC teflon insulated solid core copper wire Raw materials before assembly.  Fit and finish is a bit rough Close-up of the Iego IEC gold plated inlet. Silver plated o-ring terminals are provided. You can also put in your choice of damping material, e.g. Fo.q, bitumen sheets. Feel free to put in other stuff like AC line filters (X-rated capacitors only please and make sure that your leads are well ...

Here are some listening notes from experimenting with a variety of 6SN7 tubes in my Cary SLI-80 integrated amp (used as a driver). Tungsol GTB re-issue These tubes are really quite good. After chalking some hours under their belt, these tubes have good handling on both bass and treble extension and have a smooth and liquid midrange. I find the Tungsol to be a wee bit less transparent than the EH, but the Tungsol has the heft and liquidity that could be said to be more musical. Dynamics in particular are superior on the Tungsol. Instruments and voices also tend to have more tonal density and bigger image size compared to the EH. Electroharmonix Visually, the internals of the EH tube are almost identical to the Tungsol re-issue. The plates are of a slightly different colour, and the halo getter is larger and  the bottom part of the ring is attached to  the support rods, compared to the Tungsol where the top part of the ring is attached to the support rods. Sound wise, both tubes...

Telos Audio Design ( http://www.telos-audio.com.tw/ ) was almost unknown in Singapore until recent distribution by local distributor, Audio Basic. Telos has beautiful and well made RCA caps. The interesting thing is the manufacturer's claim of sonic benefits from using these RCA caps to cover unused inputs and outputs. Bear in mind that their caps are of non-shorting design, i.e. there is no shunt of positive to ground. Telos caps are made of copper and then plated in either gold or platinum. Fit and finish is excellent and is as good as jewelry grade. Insulation is teflon. Photos from official website I have had a set of both the gold and platinum caps for some time now but did not quite get around to writing a post on them. Part of the reason is my difficulty in rationalizing why these caps work so well. The manufacturer claims that they protect equipment from stray EMI and RFI. I think the reason is far more complex than suggested. Both caps have a not so subtle effect. Putting ...

Photo Essay Beautiful and classic workmanship. 18 watts of single ended power. Tube complement - 6SL7, 6SN7, 6C33C. 8 Ohm and 4 Ohm speaker taps, 3 inputs and an IEC inlet with user accessible fuse holder. Russian 6C33C double triode. From Soviet era missile and Mig Foxbat service to consumer audio. How the world has changed ! Volume control.  Carved logo on the front panel. Input selector. There are 3 inputs. The first indent is mute. RCA 6SN7 GTB and Sylvania JAN VT-229 tubes Power transformer is inside the chassis. The exposed center "transformer" in the first photo is in fact a power supply choke. Russian K42-Y2 coupling caps. A surprise, quite uncommon in commercial gear. Mini-Review The Almarro A-318B is quite an unusual beast. Single-ended triode and assembled by hand in Japan, the A-318B is affordable, beautiful and powerful - typically these words are not seen together in the same sentence. Being an integrated amplifier, you save quite a bit of useful money. Total up...