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Post by zleepy on Apr 17, 2023 6:54:24 GMT
A bit of a clickbait title for a thread isn't it? But it's the name of an amplifier I have on trial at home. It's Andrea Ciuffolis' design and it's the 2022 version. Documentation can be found here: www.audiodesignguide.com/Hybrid2022/index.htmlIt's a hybrid design with valve voltage amplification and solid state current amplification stages. A lot of the design documentation goes over my head, but I was seriously intrigued when I saw one of these for sale on a local hifi forum. It had been used for under 10h. Hence I have been keeping it on 24/7 since I got it. I now have close to 100h on it and it's starting to open up nicely. It's certainly a couple of notches better than my current amplifiers, but that's not saying very much. My references are a Hegel H80, DIY monoblocks based on TPA3116 and my Audio Space ref 3.1. The Audio Space is fantastic but it sadly can't control the 10" woofers on my TG Faital 3WC-10 speakers. The asking price of the amplifier end is 1,5k€ and that's a sizable chunk of money for me. The build is not perfect, and it has a faint mechanical hum which does not come through to the speakers. Still, for that kind of money, even if it's DIY it should be pretty much perfect. In any case a very interesting trial. Its biggest strengths are a fluid but authoritative sound with good bass control and it gets the timbers of instruments spot on. It's also very resolving.   |
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Post by firebottle on Apr 17, 2023 9:09:05 GMT
Excellent simple circuitry. Not surprised it sounds good.
I have also used that R26-90 transformer in some of my builds.
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Post by jandl100 on Apr 17, 2023 9:12:50 GMT
Power specced at 1.5% distortion. I wonder what the 0.1% power rating is?
Not that I'm fussy about power, I'm happy with 10wpc. But it looks a bit intentionally misleading.
And you say it has good bass control, but can't control the TG 10 inch woofers. Maybe it's a bit too early in the morning for me to get my head around that!
edit; whoops, I did get that wrong!
1.5k euros seems a lot, tbh.
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optical
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Post by optical on Apr 17, 2023 9:15:09 GMT
And you say it has good bass control, but can't control the TG 10 inch woofers. Maybe it's a bit too early in the morning for me to get my head around that! Is he not referring to his Audio Space 3.1 regarding the lack of control? |
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Post by jandl100 on Apr 17, 2023 9:19:43 GMT
And you say it has good bass control, but can't control the TG 10 inch woofers. Maybe it's a bit too early in the morning for me to get my head around that! Is he not referring to his Audio Space 3.1 regarding the lack of control? Haha, absolutely spot on. I said it was too early in the morning! |
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Post by zleepy on Apr 17, 2023 9:35:28 GMT
Yes, although it indeed sounds very good, I don't think this is my "end game" amp. And for that money, it should be something really special.
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Post by zleepy on Apr 24, 2023 6:50:38 GMT
I returned the amp last week. Although excellent it was not perfect. Being a DIY build I realized I would have wanted to have my saying in some of the parts choices. It also had very high gain, which made me think about adding a quality pot and a selector switch for input switching. The amplifier search continues.  |
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Post by stevew on Apr 24, 2023 7:36:54 GMT
I returned the amp last week. Although excellent it was not perfect. Being a DIY build I realized I would have wanted to have my saying in some of the parts choices. It also had very high gain, which made me think about adding a quality pot and a selector switch for input switching. The amplifier search continues. Karl, I don’t have the skills that you obviously do. I need Oliver to help me out with a 686 build. Why not look at this or the less expensive end of the Neurochrome range? |
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Post by zleepy on Apr 24, 2023 11:19:11 GMT
Hi, I'm really not very skilled. I can connect a pot and selector, change out parts for better ones and such. I do think I could manage assembling a Neurochrome amp since they are almost plug and play. So yes, I have seriously thought about the Neurochrome range.
It bugs me that there's no European distributor, but nonetheless a 286 or 686 is absolutely an alternative.
I was going to start a new thread to ask about them but since you brought it up, those of you who has experienced both 286 and 686, is there much in between them SQ wise? I'm hoping that if I don't really need a massive amount of power, I'd be just as well off with a 286?
At the same time I'm kind of thinking that why not go all in and make a 686, just for peace of mind and covering eventual future needs...
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Post by stevew on Apr 24, 2023 11:40:51 GMT
Hi, I'm really not very skilled. I can connect a pot and selector, change out parts for better ones and such. I do think I could manage assembling a Neurochrome amp since they are almost plug and play. So yes, I have seriously thought about the Neurochrome range. It bugs me that there's no European distributor, but nonetheless a 286 or 686 is absolutely an alternative. I was going to start a new thread to ask about them but since you brought it up, those of you who has experienced both 286 and 686, is there much in between them SQ wise? I'm hoping that if I don't really need a massive amount of power, I'd be just as well off with a 286? At the same time I'm kind of thinking that why not go all in and make a 686, just for peace of mind and covering eventual future needs... Your last sentence is exactly the conclusion I came to. Oliver has experience of both models and I’m sure you’ll have his reflections before too long. |
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Post by brucew268 on Apr 24, 2023 14:52:31 GMT
Hi, I'm really not very skilled. I can connect a pot and selector, change out parts for better ones and such. I do think I could manage assembling a Neurochrome amp since they are almost plug and play. So yes, I have seriously thought about the Neurochrome range. It bugs me that there's no European distributor, but nonetheless a 286 or 686 is absolutely an alternative. I was going to start a new thread to ask about them but since you brought it up, those of you who has experienced both 286 and 686, is there much in between them SQ wise? I'm hoping that if I don't really need a massive amount of power, I'd be just as well off with a 286? At the same time I'm kind of thinking that why not go all in and make a 686, just for peace of mind and covering eventual future needs... Having a 686, my guess would be that a 286 and 686 would not be far off from each other in terms of SQ, though I seem to recall 686 employed a design aspect that should surprass the 286 slightly.
If budget is a concern and you really don't expect to ever get speakers that are hungry for watts, you could do fine with the 286 as an end-grame amplifier.
The 686 configured for its full 240W@8Ohms/ 360W@4Ohms uses a full size chassis to take advantage of 40cmx16cm of the heatsink on each side. If you don't need that much you can use a smaller chassis and a power supply with a lower voltage output if I recall, 28v instead of 36v.
I could imagine someone building it with a full 36v power supply but into a smaller chassis for sake of space and they are future proof. If they ever get some REALLY power hungry speakers one day, they could re-assemble it into a larger chassis for the extra heatsink capacity. I ran it on Magnepan .7 speakers and the warmth was barely detectable with a hand on the amplifier. Maybe Maggie 20's would warm it a bit more.
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