Klp1

[Greg.]

Hi Bob, I have not made further progress owing to feminine demands for a room to be decorated , however that is now done so intend to continue with my build of the GlassWare ACF into my Pre II chassis, power supplied at 200v from my altered (WAD Cathode follower conversion) PSU II.

Same as Andy, I have the 9 pin valve base version and I will be using 6922's. I bought the kit from a friend who had not progressed it and it came with just a couple of generic components being C6,9 (Wima red bricks in the photo) and C7,8 electro's. I have bought in valve bases and the other resistors and caps. Through Hi-Fi Collective I have used Tackman metal film in un-critical locations and Carcroft Z foils in the special places. I have used these before in my 300B PP and my WAD CF to very good affect. The Carcroft are expensive (I looked at the option of buying direct from Texas Instruments in Calafornia for equivalent naked foil resistors but when factoring in shipping etc, there was little to be gained) but worth it in my experience and are certainly advocated by John Caswell. C1,2 are also critical and I have used Mundorf M cap Supreme.

When you get the instructions, you will see there are many options on power supply and valve choices with this kit. When I have completed this message I will email you the schematic and component choice sheet that will allow you to start getting it all into perspective.

A few things to note that are not clear in the instructions. As Andy says, providing 6.3v for heaters for 6922 is not a problem, requiring no messing around with simple wire links across Junction 2 and 3 only. You will see on the PCB there are junctions J4,5 which can be ignored. Furthermore, because of a lack of information in the instructions, I gained email advise from John Broskie being, with 6922 type, omit C3,5 but make a wire bridge at C5 location only.

I hope that helps,

Greg

[bob orbell]

Thank you for the email Greg, I am sorry about the decorating, I am very fortunate there, Janet loves decorating and does most her self, I am only asked to paint the ceilings and remove all electric switches and sockets, back to far more important thing's, I think I may get one of these in the new year, not too sure about the z-foils though, but who knows, I know that Black Stuart rates them very highly, but the price, are they really that good, anyway, ha-ho. BOB

[davebms]

hello all (long time no post) i have a pre 3, well, the pcb and the transformers,and a ACF, NONE OFF IT BUILT very interested to see what u all think off yours z-foils ive found them like most audio components some times YES then err no ... i put 2 in my HD83 very impressed , got 2 more for shunt volume pot mod, 30 mins OUT OUT
ive found the same with caps/resistors all seems to depend on what its in

[pre65]

Originally Posted by davebms

got 2 more for shunt volume pot mod, 30 mins OUT OUT

Why was that ?

[davebms]

Originally Posted by pre65

Why was that ?

it was all very strange in the headphone amp +++++
but shunt volume pot mod, it was all^ top end and very hard soundig^

dave

[Greg.]

Hmmm,that sounds classic for newly fitted unused components. Half an hour probably isn't long enough. Allow at least a couple of hours and I'd expect treble to diminish and bass to come back to restore balance. Personally I particularly like Z foils in the signal path.

[bob orbell]

Originally Posted by davebms

it was all very strange in the headphone amp +++++
but shunt volume pot mod, it was all^ top end and very hard soundig^

dave

Completely agree with that Dave, the shunt pot mod with metal film and even carbon was far too bright for me. BOB

[Richard]

Originally Posted by bob orbell

Completely agree with that Dave, the shunt pot mod with metal film and even carbon was far too bright for me. BOB

Keep it in mind though Bob as it may be a useful tweak if you make other system changes.

It was good for me. Yes it sounds brighter and more detailed than pot alone and it might not suit some systems in any form. In my case metal films with Alps worked well but metal films with Panasonic pot were too bright.

Just recently I had a similar situation with a well-liked dac that was better than using Squeezebox alone but was simply too sweet for my system. Not surprising as both speakers and amp are on the soft and warm side. Another dac sounded too bright, but a third dac sounds amazing and I've finally moved forwards overall

[pre65]

Which DAC was that Richard ?

[Richard]

Hi Philip, the latest dac is the Arcam IRDAC, very pleased with it