Kool Audio Designs and/or Kind And Dedicated and/or Kick Ass Dude? Maybe all and more?
Well I got the upgradeitis bug at a young age. Around nine, my mom brought me back a 25-in-1 electronic kit where one could build 25 projects with various parts, spring loaded no less. She was attending a conference in Vancouver, when she returned to Montreal; what a gift! She planted the seed for my passion towards electronics, mathematics, science, especially computer sciences.
However as a hobby, I always return to electronics and audio, I dont know why?
So as a dinosaur from the seventies, I had the opportunity to build a few of these:
- Dynakit ST70 tube amp
- Heathkit AR-29 receiver
- Heathkit AA-1640 amp
- Heathkit speakers (I forget the model)
- SWTPC 202-C Headset Amplifier
- SWTPC Psychedelia 1 and Psychedelia 2 color organs
- SWTPC 198/A preamp
- SWTPC Tiger .01 amps
- SWTPC Tigersaurus 250 amps
- SWTPC Dynamic Range Expander
- SWTPC Guitar and Instrument preamp
- SWTPC Stereo Octave Equalizer
- SWTPC Stereo Compressor-Expander
In addition to loads of other stuff:
Oscilloscopes, function generators, AF & RF generators, signal tracers, EICO tube tester, EICO Variac, then went into computers hardware & software & real-time embedded electronics.
My current home theater is composed of:
- Pioneer Elite SC-65, Pioneer Elite SC-61, Pioneer Elite VSX-27TX, Pioneer Elite VSX-95 receivers (mainly for the bi-amps, except the SC-65 with its Hi-Bit 32-bit upscaling of audio signals. Wow what a difference it makes!)
- Pioneer SX-1250 receiver
- Rotel 400 W amp
- Pioneer Elite Pro-510HD HDTV
- Samsung UN55ES7100F HDTV
- Pioneer HPM 150 main and Pioneer HPM100 rear speakers
- Bob Carvers True Subwoofer MKii
- Sunfire TS-EQ12 subwoofer
- Celestion Ditton 66 surround
- Celestion Ditton 100 (4) of them center
- Energy Veritas (Klipsh) Dolby height
- Design Accoustics PS88 Dolby wide
- Technics SBA-11 XL & XR
- Technics SP1400 MK2 + AudioTechnica cartridge
- Oracle / Lynn tonearm / Grado cartridge
- DBX dynamic range expander
Plus various ribbon tweeters, dome midrange horn loaded titanium 2 voice coil 96 oz magnet (on the midrange), and a smorgasbord of tweaks, enhancements etc All bi-tri-amplified with custom-built precision active 3rd order butterworth crossovers, hence the need for so many amps. Now Im pushing over 10,000 watts RMS continuous not for loudness, but for transient peaks, clarity, definition, low-distortion, and all the right reasons. 5700 W RMS just for (2) subwoofers resulting in 120+ dB @ 16Hz with very little distortion. A compass would be disoriented at my house. And it sounds just right! Onto anything, be it classical, jazz, rock, or dub-step. Movies are awesome. What I like about it, is that it sounds so different with each source of input.
:rolleyes:
A Windows 8 Pro / MediaCenter kick *** HTPC with ultra-low-signal-to-noise ratio served by a media/file server based on Windows Server 2012 are the computer tidbits.
It is only now that I realize the mistake of selling most of my precious SWTPC equipment to long time gone friends 40 years ago
So I stumbled onto these dyiAudio forums, while searching for a schematic to the SWTPC #202-C Headset class A amp. Yeah, I realized how atrocious a .FLAC sounded on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone via my Sony XBA-3 earbuds, when it should have sounded so sweet Simply plugging them into the Pioneer Elite VS-65 was an eye opener! Mainly due to the 32-bit upscaling I suppose? So now I need to build an ultra-linear high-performance low-distortion headphone amp Sure I could buy one, but why? I like to tinker. And I think Im in good company here. To learn and share and have fun.
All the best everyone!
----------
The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another's, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises.
~ Leo Buscaglia
Well I got the upgradeitis bug at a young age. Around nine, my mom brought me back a 25-in-1 electronic kit where one could build 25 projects with various parts, spring loaded no less. She was attending a conference in Vancouver, when she returned to Montreal; what a gift! She planted the seed for my passion towards electronics, mathematics, science, especially computer sciences.
However as a hobby, I always return to electronics and audio, I dont know why?
So as a dinosaur from the seventies, I had the opportunity to build a few of these:
- Dynakit ST70 tube amp
- Heathkit AR-29 receiver
- Heathkit AA-1640 amp
- Heathkit speakers (I forget the model)
- SWTPC 202-C Headset Amplifier
- SWTPC Psychedelia 1 and Psychedelia 2 color organs
- SWTPC 198/A preamp
- SWTPC Tiger .01 amps
- SWTPC Tigersaurus 250 amps
- SWTPC Dynamic Range Expander
- SWTPC Guitar and Instrument preamp
- SWTPC Stereo Octave Equalizer
- SWTPC Stereo Compressor-Expander
In addition to loads of other stuff:
Oscilloscopes, function generators, AF & RF generators, signal tracers, EICO tube tester, EICO Variac, then went into computers hardware & software & real-time embedded electronics.
My current home theater is composed of:
- Pioneer Elite SC-65, Pioneer Elite SC-61, Pioneer Elite VSX-27TX, Pioneer Elite VSX-95 receivers (mainly for the bi-amps, except the SC-65 with its Hi-Bit 32-bit upscaling of audio signals. Wow what a difference it makes!)
- Pioneer SX-1250 receiver
- Rotel 400 W amp
- Pioneer Elite Pro-510HD HDTV
- Samsung UN55ES7100F HDTV
- Pioneer HPM 150 main and Pioneer HPM100 rear speakers
- Bob Carvers True Subwoofer MKii
- Sunfire TS-EQ12 subwoofer
- Celestion Ditton 66 surround
- Celestion Ditton 100 (4) of them center
- Energy Veritas (Klipsh) Dolby height
- Design Accoustics PS88 Dolby wide
- Technics SBA-11 XL & XR
- Technics SP1400 MK2 + AudioTechnica cartridge
- Oracle / Lynn tonearm / Grado cartridge
- DBX dynamic range expander
Plus various ribbon tweeters, dome midrange horn loaded titanium 2 voice coil 96 oz magnet (on the midrange), and a smorgasbord of tweaks, enhancements etc All bi-tri-amplified with custom-built precision active 3rd order butterworth crossovers, hence the need for so many amps. Now Im pushing over 10,000 watts RMS continuous not for loudness, but for transient peaks, clarity, definition, low-distortion, and all the right reasons. 5700 W RMS just for (2) subwoofers resulting in 120+ dB @ 16Hz with very little distortion. A compass would be disoriented at my house. And it sounds just right! Onto anything, be it classical, jazz, rock, or dub-step. Movies are awesome. What I like about it, is that it sounds so different with each source of input.
:rolleyes:
A Windows 8 Pro / MediaCenter kick *** HTPC with ultra-low-signal-to-noise ratio served by a media/file server based on Windows Server 2012 are the computer tidbits.
It is only now that I realize the mistake of selling most of my precious SWTPC equipment to long time gone friends 40 years ago
So I stumbled onto these dyiAudio forums, while searching for a schematic to the SWTPC #202-C Headset class A amp. Yeah, I realized how atrocious a .FLAC sounded on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone via my Sony XBA-3 earbuds, when it should have sounded so sweet Simply plugging them into the Pioneer Elite VS-65 was an eye opener! Mainly due to the 32-bit upscaling I suppose? So now I need to build an ultra-linear high-performance low-distortion headphone amp Sure I could buy one, but why? I like to tinker. And I think Im in good company here. To learn and share and have fun.
All the best everyone!
----------
The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another's, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises.
~ Leo Buscaglia