Bigbottle Phonostage - MK3 Design, Pictures and More!

They should be fine..

Oli,

I bought some of the above valves sometime ago, I totally forgot about them until today. 
I place 1 in the centre socket and nothing. No sound. Thought it could be a faulty valve so good job I had another 3 to try. But nothing. None are giving any sound at all.

could this be due to me using the transformer from the BB1?

Ah right! 
is that easy to do! Do I need to de-solder something?

thanks for the quick reply Alan. 

Hahaha, yes, it's easy to miss..


Let us know how you're getting on!

It's been a while since i offered any updates here, so while i am assesing my new purpose made Mains cable for the BB3, i thought i would put a bit up about whats been going on with the Phonostage.

Recently it was discovered that the BF861B we use on the MultiFET PCB's were no longer being manufactured. This was really disappointing to read, as the phonostage had just hit the "it's done" landmark. Well yet again, i was on the hunt for a new Jfet and this time there seemed to be very few available that ticked all of the boxes.

That was until i got a slice of information that opened things up to a wider scope of catchment.

I bought 10 off, of 3 different candidates. After much listening and evaluation, i picked my favourite. The 2SK932-22-E

In my opinion, this has been a bit of a blessing in disguise. The 2SK seems to have more gain, more fluidity and reminds me of the original and genuine BF862, that we would have still been using had they not become obsolete.

Another fantastic result is the price. They are a little cheaper too.

They are also still in production and from what i can find out they are fairly new?

Either way, i have 500 in the draw and 300 of the BF861B. I will be selling the BF861B off in the next few days, as i will be using the 2SK from now on.

Another part of the forward planning for this project was to try and get the BB3 in the same case as the transformer without losing ay of the magic discovered in the E&I transformer. I ordered an O-Core Transformer from James Transformer in Asia and it finally arrived today. Not their fault as the local postal system originally rejected it and sent it back!

Anyway, it is here now and i am very happy with how it looks and it feels like a quality item. I am just about to nip off and plug it in to see if it hums or vibrates. If all is well, im gonna lash it up to the BB3 and see what happens.

I'll update a bit later.

A few pics for the interested:

I'd like to say this had been a success, so I will 🤣🤣

I am totally convinced that this is the equal to the EI and I am now going to build a one box Phonostage to try it out.

Have used James in the past quality stuff, is he actually manufacturing again as a couple of years ago he was just doing stuff for the local people?

Simon, with most traditionally manufactured shaped toroidal cores totally agree, however there are a few companies that you can specify both core material and shape, also the winding wire. These do incur more cost I would suggest, always a trade off in those critical areas.

Lol

Sounds promising , think I might get one for mine. Then I can repurpose the toriod for the BB mk1 board I have.

I can use that for Lenco then as I have permission to set that up in another room 🙂

Ah! That's a great move.

I had a transfer of the Bigbottle logo done for mine and it was £15 if I remember correctly.
(Just had some nice Greek wine with lunch)

Well, I have committed to making a One-Box BB3.

Only one way to really know if you've cracked it, and that's to build it.

Plain Jane of a box, but it will do nicely and it already has the IEC hole punched out...that's almost 40 minutes less work I'll have to do.

Most likely.

The idea of making it in one box is so I have a loan unit. It seems to be the stumbling block between converting interest into sales.

Being a very small unknown "brand" I think people need a little bit of convincing.

There is no benefit to going from 2 boxes, to 1, other than you can dispense with the umbilical cord, which I have never liked btw.

Other than that, sonically it makes very little discernable difference that I can hear

It's a good Phonostage mate