ANK Audiokits Have Arrived! Follow the Build Here

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Raylinds, Feb 6, 2015.

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  1. Metralla

    Metralla Joined Jan 13, 2002

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    Also you showed us a big 40Ohm Mills under the power supply during the very first stage of the build.
     
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  2. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer Thread Starter

    That's right! I forgot. But that's in the power circuit- not the signal.
     
  3. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer Thread Starter

    Finally the Audio Note speaker kits arrived from the UK (via Canada). Also the oscilloscope that I ordered for testing and tweaking arrived:

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    Here they are unpacked:

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    The cabinets are really well built The burl walnut veneer is scheduled to arrive tomorrow:

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    The crossovers are pretty substantial. The caps are not AN like in the uber-expensive signature series AN-Es, but are Audyn Q4 caps.

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    These seem to be a substantial step up from the basic AN Kit speakers:

    [​IMG]
     
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  4. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer Thread Starter

    Here is the silver voice coil AlNiCo tweeter:

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    The silver voice coil hemp AlNiCo woofers. I was glad to see that they were not as bright blue as they appeared to be in the pictures:

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    Finally, here's a shot of the new scope:

    [​IMG]
     
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  5. Metralla

    Metralla Joined Jan 13, 2002

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    What did you pay for the Rigol DS1054Z
     
  6. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer Thread Starter

    $399 I was able to do the hack to turn it into a DS1104Z.

    I got it here, but they told me it was the last one they had in stock.
     
  7. finn

    finn Forum Resident

    It wasn't any retail outlet closing, it was just my workshop being repurposed. As for getting work, whilst I once did jobs like that I now don't. Customers now seem to want everything for nothing and I'm getting too old and cranky to play along. One day I will have an almighty ebay sale, at least all the stuff is genuine. Cheers.
     
  8. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer Thread Starter

    Then how do you account for the blue resistors in the photo on post 60? Just because you haven't seen them, doesn't mean they don't exist. Again, I have an invoice that says they are Audio Note tantalums. So unless a reputable parts supplier is committing fraud, that is what they are.
     
  9. raferx

    raferx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
    I'm jumping in, and just adding that in my limited experience with resistors, I believe the blue ones are Beyschlag resistors like in the photo below of the guts of my factory AN UK Oto Line SE, also in this link if you scroll down to the discussion of the Jinro, AN UK states:
    "The Jinro also offers exotic parts like copper foil in oil
    capacitors, Beyschlag capacitors in the power supply as well as
    Beyschlag resistors and a sprinkling of those elusive Black Gates
    capacitors."

    The Jinro retails for around $27,000 US I believe, so in my 'umble opinion, ain't nothing wrong with the Beyschlags.

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer Thread Starter

  11. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer Thread Starter

    I guess it doesn't really matter, but blue AN Tantalum resistors exist as pictured in post 60, and my invoice that lists the parts identify them as AN. Probably not worth arguing about, though.
     
  12. raferx

    raferx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
    FWIW Tantalums are very effing expensive... I've never seen blue Tantalum resistors in any factory-authorized AN UK material, I can't speak for a photo with "AN" Photoshopped over it. If you look at the resistors listed at HiFi Collective, there no AN UK blue resistors...
    http://www.hificollective.co.uk/components/tantalums.html
    Shinkoh's are blue:
    http://www.hificollective.co.uk/components/shinkoh_resistors.html
    If they charged you for Tantalum (about $20 US each for 2W versions) then I'd call them up and say "WTF?"
     
  13. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer Thread Starter

    But if you look at the HiFi Collective pictures of the AN and the Shinkoh, they both have blue resistors, that look kind of gray (in the AN picture, the third from the left). I think this could be the result of exposure and white balance. Anyway, being in the power supply, I am not going to sweat it.
     
  14. triple

    triple Senior Member

    Location:
    Zagreb, Croatia
    By "audio shops' I actually meant any audio related business. BTW, you certainly didn't sound cranky to me.
    All the best,
    Goran
     
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  15. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer Thread Starter

    Okay, so we've established I know little about identifying resistors. o_O :help: The blue ones may not be AN as claimed, but they are in the PS and AN uses them in high end units, so it probably doesn't matter. I took a shot of the remaining resistors that are identified as AN Tantalum. Some are in the PS, some in the signal path.

    [​IMG]

    Based on the picture from Hi Fi Collective- these look pretty legit to me:

    [​IMG]
     
  16. jupiterboy

    jupiterboy Forum Residue

    Location:
    Buffalo, NY
    That brown looks right.
     
  17. beowulf

    beowulf Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chula Vista, CA
    Wouldn't a call to the guy who supplied the kits straighten this out altogether? He should know for absolute what resistors are supplied in his kits!
     
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  18. tubesandvinyl

    tubesandvinyl Forum Resident

    Pretty impressive they are using a 50 watt resistor in the PS!
     
  19. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer Thread Starter

    It looks like I have to eat crow on this Beyshlag contraversy- I emailed Brian at AN kits and here is his reply (The parts manifest wrongly identifies them as AN, but I was charged for the kit, not by the piece,- no harm done):

    The filament pcb is basically setting a voltage divider behind the solid state regulator so the type of resistor does not matter – and also you cant get the 300R value
    With the tantalums so we use the beyschlag 100R and 300R to give a 3:1 ratio!

    The others in the picture are AN Tantalums.
     
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  20. beowulf

    beowulf Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chula Vista, CA
    Well at least you got it straightened out and it's worth noting. Now we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming "the sweet build" you have going!
     
    timw likes this.
  21. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer Thread Starter

    I am awaiting some parts for the monoblocks,so I thought I would get started on the Mentor L5 Preamp. Here is the unpacking:

    [​IMG]

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    Here is one of the extremely high quality KHOZMO 48 step attenuator The Mentor has a separate volume control for each channel:

    [​IMG]

    The kit comes with either Audio Note or V-Cap Elite Reference capacitors, depending on availability. Mine came with V-Caps. After researching them, I am not disappointed:

    [​IMG]

    The Mains Transformer and power supply chokes have neen installed.

    [​IMG]
     
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  22. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer Thread Starter

    Starting assembly of the rectifier PCB:

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    Bottom of completed board:

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    Top: Board installed along with Mills Resistor and shunt Dyna Choke. Notice the bases for the rectifier tubes.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  23. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer Thread Starter

    I found covers that fit perfectly over the Quad C-Core output transformers on the monoblocks, and they match the finish of the chassis. While the trannies looked pretty cool, I thought the silver and bright red was to busy and focused your attention. This looks much more elegant, to me:

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    One of the monoblocks and the Mentor together- A whole lotta heavy iron!

    [​IMG]
     
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  24. triple

    triple Senior Member

    Location:
    Zagreb, Croatia
    Very good parts in that preamp.

    However, you are in for a rocky ride with those V-cap CuTF's, though. These things will take a thousand hours to burn-in.
     
  25. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer Thread Starter

    Yeah I read that, but they are supposed to sound really good when they finally get there. Have you heard them, and have any idea how they would compare to AN caps?
     
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