Audio Note, WE-91A, Rega, Ayon

by jetrexpro on Audio NoteWE-91aRegaAyon
System firing down the long wall
New rectifiers. 5R4WGB "potato masher"
New power supply caps for my amp that work better with the 5R4WGB rectifier.
had some copper sheet left over from my amp build so I put the very sensitive phono circuit inside this copper that I shaped into a box
input stage on the left. RIAA circuit on the right
finished circuit including hi voltage b+ and filament connections
Audio Note Home Brew Phono Pre Amp circuit built in copper box. Its power supply is behind it in a larger aluminum chassis
Happy to be finished with the amp. It now takes its place in our listening/living room. And its wife approved!
Starting by trying to visualize how to fit everything underneath.
using a hole saw bit to make the holes for the tubes
The hole for the Goldpoint stepped attenuator is the trickiest hole to make since it doesn't go all the way through
Under side with the holes for the Audio Note RCA female plugs made. The C3m driver tubes are about an 1 1/2 inches away from the Goldpoint stepped attenuator and the RCA females and also very close to the attenuator. Extremely short signal path.
completed holes
installing the tube sockets
top with tube sockets installed
with more aluminum bracing so the amp can support the heavy transformers.
looking at capacitor placement and considering isolating the circuit from the power supply with a copper box
this is the copper mesh which serves as top of the copper box (once the amp is right side up). The mesh is in direct contact with the copper sides which will be attached to the copper cover, which I have not finished yet. This copper box will be grounded which will allow any electrical hash to go to ground and not enter the circuit.
with the tubes and chokes in place to see how it will function. Volume control will be very close to C3m tubes. Paper cut outs show where the Audio Note output transformers and the power transformers go.
ground wires terminated at the copper chassis.
ground wires terminated at the copper chassis.
Mounting the four filament transformers
Duelunds caps and the 300b bias resistors installed. Blackgate caps bypass.
Working on the power supply
Completed copper box. it will be grounded to earth thru the AC line ground so that any hash from the outside world goes to ground and doesnt get into the circuit
Carefully mounting the output transformers
Iron on deck
circuit with copper box
50k Goldpoint attenuator. One piece of unisulated silver wire going from the attenuator to the grid of the C3m driver tube. I am hoping with the copper box and extremly short signal path a grid stopping resistor and shielding will not be needed.
Completed circuit including star grounding
copper box
Amp is finished and ready for testing all of the voltages. I am most nervous at this point. The first time powering up the B+ is always scary. No matter how careful I am with wiring, there is always a possiblity of a mistake or a faulty solder joint. Or something touching something else that might cause a short circuit.
Testing went well and the amp passes audio. What a relief....
2nd version - tiger maple chassis
2nd version - tiger maple chassis
2nd version - tiger maple chassis
1st version bread board of my WE91a amp

Description

Audio Note, WE-91A, Rega, Ayon
1/20/12 -I built a 300b single ended triode amplifier based on Joe Robert's Western Electric 91A. Used all vintage caps and vintage resistors-Alen Bradley and Ohmite. These vintage parts came from Leeds Radio just a few subway stops from my apartment in Brooklyn. The coupling caps are .1uf V-Cap TFTF. Large motor run oils in the power supply. Sophia Electric 91-05 Opt transformers and Sophia Princess Mesh Tubes. Stancor PT's came from ebay.

3/2012: Replaced the Alps Potentiometer with a Goldpoint 50K stepped attenuator. More clarity and transparency through the entire frequency range.

Still not using a pre amp.

5/12- Replaced the oil capacitor C-3 biasing the 6C6 with a Black Gate.

6/6/12- Finished new chassis

7/12 - Added Rega P3-24 with Power Supply and Exact Cart. Will look at different cart options later

7/12 - Pulled the 24 gauge silver hookup wire used throughout the amp and installed 16 gauge pure copper wire. The 24 gauge wire gave the sound a weightless quality that I did not like.
The 16 gauge has been in for three weeks and I can report that the weight and depth has very pleasingly improved. Vocals have an added pleasing quality. Instruments throughout the entire frequency range have more depth and richness. The low end is more powerful. I can more easily perceive the stage that the players are performing on.

10/12 Pulled C-5 and didn't replace it. Pulling this capacitor has changed the sound of this amp. Clarity and detail throughout but especially in the lows thru the mid range. Much easier to detect decay and the accompanying reverb. Dynamics seem more unconstrained as well. It has decreased gain by around 20% but in my room with the AN-e's it does not matter.

1/2013- Replaced the 1k Allen Bradley 6C6 Cathode resistor with a Vishay TX2575. This resistor is very neutral...almost as though it has no sonic character of its own. Each instrument has its own accurate color and detail but not at the expense of the overall musical message. Took about 100 hours of break in time.

2/16/13--After a month with the TX2757 in the 6C6 cathode position, including bypassing them with Black Gate Caps I decided to pull these resistors. They did not provide the richness and room filling sound that the A-B's and the older AN Tantalum did. A few weeks ago I got two of the most recent production 1k An Tants from the Hi Fi Collective.

These new Tants are more closely akin to the A-B's than to the TX2575's. They are not as sonically accurate or pure as the TX's. But they do fill the room with rich satisfying music like the A-Bs but with more detail and without the extra noise or warmth or whatever it is with the A-B carbon comps. Still running the amp without the 6C6 bypass cap.

2/2013--Built a home brew phono pre amp using the Audio Note M3 schematic.

4/2013-Upgraded to the Rega White belt and Groovetracer Reference subplatter. Excellent sonic improvement.

5/2013- WE91a amp---Replaced the the screen cap (6C6) which was an oil with a 12uf Solen cap. Have about 50 hours on the Solen. Not sure I like it. Makes the amp sound a little cold and forward. Will live with it for a while.

Late 5/2013. The 12uf Solen has broken in and I like it better than the oil that it replaced. Warmth but with plenty of detail.

Mid 7/2013 (Audio Note DIY Phono pre) ---- Added Audio Note Tantalum resistors into the signal path. 7/27/13-took out the .047 and .33uf Solen caps in the signal path of the phono pre and added .047 Vcap TFTF and .33 Audio note copper caps.

8/11/13 (Audio Note DIY Phono pre) After two weeks with the Vcaps and AN copper caps in the phono circuit my vinyl rig is a lot fun to listen to. A more beautiful and open sound than with the Solen caps.

10/12/13 WE91a---
replaced the 15uf oil cap that was biasing the 300b tube with a polarized 22uf Black Gate. Will listen for a while and see if I like it.

11/1/13 WE91a
The Black Gate by itself is still fine.

I cleaned the resistor and Cap leads, tube sockets and tube pins with 99% alcohol. They have been in the cicuit for 2 years and were tarnished and very dirty. Once cleaned much more mid range clarity and cleaner bass.

11/20/13 Added Gold Lion GZ34 Rectifiers. Sound is open and airy. Very nice

12/28/13 Added Emission Labs 300bXLS.

2/17/14- Audio Note Home Brew Phono Pre-Finished new chassis for the Power supply.
Added 8 more Tantalum Resistors (4 per channel) to the Phono circuit. Now the circuit has a few A-B's and 6 Tantalums per channel. Phono pre sounds a lot better than it did with the PRP red resistors.

3/16/14 WE91A. Because the EML300bXLS tubes are so well internally balanced, I was able to remove the Hum pots and still use AC heat. Now the 300b bias is going thru the center tap of the 5volt filament transformer. Without the hum pots, the sound is much freer and alive. I am liking this!

3/31/14-AN Phono Pre. Replaced several more PRP resistors that were on the plate of both the PS and circuit with Mills. Hopefully they will sound better than the PRP's

5/1/14 WE91a. Took out the Allen Bradley grid leak resistors and replaced with Shinkoh Tantalun resistors. took about two weeks to break in.
5/25/14 WE91a. Put the Allen Bradley grid leak resistors back in. The Shinkoh Tants made the amp have a glare that didn't go away even after the resistors were broken in.

Running the Amp at 425V B+ is sounding good with EML 300bXLS and GZ34's.

6/7/14 AN Home Brew Phono Pre-
Took out the last PRP resistors in the circuit and replaced with Allen Bradleys. Very nice change. Now the circuit has a good mix and Tants and Allen Bradleys. There are a few more PRP's in the power supply that I will replace very soon.

6/22/14 AN Home Brew Phono Pre- Took out the last of the PRP resistors in the power supply and replaced with Mills resistors

9/23/14 AN Home Brew Phono Pre - Installed Audio Note Copper Capacitors in the RIAA network. .0028uf and .0082uf in each channel

11/21/14 AN Home Brew Phono Pre - Replaced the six more Allen Bradley resistors (3 per channel) with Takman one watt resistors.

11/28/14 AN Home Brew Phono Pre - Tweeked the voltage in my phono pre. Very good results. Much more open and transparent sound. Orchestral strings sound really nice.

12/6/14 Rega P3-24. I added a Audio Note iQ3 cartridge. Needs about 100 hours of break in.
Rega Exact is a great cartridge but opportunity came up. We'll see which I prefer once the iQ3 is broken in.

12/13/14 WE91a. installed Duelund Copper Cast coupling caps. After two weeks more natural sounding than the V-cap Teflon

1/12/15-Duelund Copper CAST 630v coupler caps have a very natural, emotionally engaging musicality with a very rich and colorful tonal pallet. Keepers for sure!

3/1/15-WE91a - Experimenting with WIMA power supply caps. These are Metallized Polypropylene. C2 in my power supply is a 100uf oil. I have replaced it with a 50uf Wima. I think the 50uf is a better choice as it controls the woofer a bit better.

3/7/15- WE91a - Added new custom built power transformers by Heybour. 250mA. Also added another WIMA cap at C1- its a 15uf.
B+ went from 424 to 450. 375v across the 300b plate. 76mA. With all these changes the amp has better control over the woofer. Punchy bass.

3/25/15 WE91a. Took out the Wima at C1. Made the amp sound harsh. Put it a GE F97 oil.
3/30/15 WE91a. Took out the Solen 12uf Cap on the screen of the 6C6 driver tube and replaced it with a 22uf Black Gate VK cap. The Solen is muddy compared to the Black Gate. I didnt realize how important the cap on the 6C6 screen is to the sound of the amplifier.

4/15/15 WE91a - A friend has lent me four low DCR 2H chokes (two per channel) to try in place of the single 10H Hammond in each channel. PS is now 15uf/1.8H/15uf/2h/50uf. Amp sounds faster and more nimble. Nice.

5/14/15 WE91a. I have bypassed the Wima Cap at C2 in the power supply with four very low value film caps. Too soon to draw any conclusions about sound.
5/31/15 WE91a. New production Audio Note 50uf Kaisei Power supply capacitors have arrived and after a week of burning them in, I have installed them in place of the Wima 50uf and all of those bypass film caps. will see which I like better in a couple of weeks.

6/13/15 WE91a. The New production Audio Note 50uf Kaisei Power supply capacitors have been in my power supply for two weeks - about 100 hours or so of playing time. They have a purity, and a crystal clear clarity that no other cap in the power supply has had. I am going to replace the rest of the PS oils with these to see what happens. Maybe it will be too much- who knows. They dont have too much of a sonic signature. They just sound very free and open so adding a few more may be ok. If not I can put an oil back in.

7/10/15-WE91a. Installed Audio Note Ultra Hi B output transformers today. Will need a few weeks to come around.
9/1/15 - WE91a. The Audio Note Transformers and great with excellent depth and coherence. Added copper shrouds. 
9/25/15 -Western Electric Speaker wire and interconnects. I like the speaker wire better than my Audio Note Lexus copper. More direct. They make the Lexus cable sound soft around the edges and diffuse. The WE Interconnects are very good too. But still learning about there sound.
10/11/15 - WE91a. Took out the 6C6 driver tubes and installed C3m drivers. 

11/28/15 - WE91a. Added Regulation to the Screen of the C3m driver tubes. K&K CCS board and an OD3 glow tube that is puts out 150volts. The C3m driver tube and regulation is an excellent driver of a 300b output tube. Very fast  and dynamic with lots of detail and musicality. I am very happy with the sound of this amp.  Probably not making any more changes for quite a while.

1/1/16 - WE91a I still notice a bit of extra weight in the lower mids so I replaced the last oil cap in the power supply (c-1) with an Audio Note Kaisei 50uf cap.

2/1/16 -WE91a. After adding additional Audio Note Kaisei capacitor to the power supply, the voicing of this amplifier is complete. The power supply is 50uf/5h 30ohm choke/ 50uf and it sounds dynamic fast and clean. With all Kaisei caps in the power supply the lower mids are now more open and that weight I mentioned above is gone. Will rebuild the amp onto a new piece of wood and hide all of the hi voltage parts underneath. Will post pics of the new build as it progresses.

3/10/2016 - WE91a.  New Chassis is finished. The new build features and extremely short signal path and a copper box known as a "faraday cage" which isolates the audio circuit from RF/AC, Cell phones, and other nasty's. The goal here is to eliminate the grid stopping resistors that are usually necessary on many tube grids. In a SET amplifier any extra part effects the sound especially a resistor in series with the grid. They are usually necessary on the C3m grid as well. Without a grid stopper the C3m tube can squeal and make all sorts of other very harmful noises but with my new chassis implementation I have not needed a grid stopper.  If the C3m tubes continue to behave it would be a major step forward. The sound of the amp without a grid stopper is more open free and natural.

4/2/16 - Audio M3 Phono Pre- I had some copper left over from my amp build so I made a 8x6x2 copper box and put the phono circuit inside. Pics added.

5/16- Bought Kondo KSL-LP silver interconnects and am using them with Audio Note Lexus Bi Wire copper speaker cables. After trying various IC's like homebrew WE-16g and Ocellia silver reference and various Speaker cables like WE-16g and 10g and Kondo KSL-SPz, the Kondo KSL-LP silver interconnects with Audio Note Lexus Bi Wire copper speaker cables really bring something special to the table at least to my ears system and room.

9/20/16 Ayon CD07 - put in NOS Raytheon 5687 tubes and after a week of break in they sound tremendous. Transparent mids fast and clean lows and clean extended highs. Better than any tube thus far.

10/2016  WE91a - I removed the 91k bleeder resistor from the last cap in the power supply. I can't believe how much more open, free and transparent the sound is. It's like that bleeder had clamped down on PS and now without it there is more energy coming into the room. Any tonal warmth that had been left in this amp is now gone.

11/2016 WE91a - with the bleeder resistor removed I noticed a tinniness in they high frequencies so I removed the GE 12gauge wire from both the power supply b+ and ground and replaced it with vintage WE 16gauge wire and that tinniness is now completely gone. The WE vintage wire sounds very good just as others have reported.

1/2018 -WE91a. Replaced the Goldpoint 50k stepped attenuator with a Seiden Shunt stepped attenuator loaded with Audio Note tantalum resistors. Its been in for about a month and I am shocked at the change in sound. Extended highs and lows and more lively mids. Huge step up. The highs and mids are so open and beautiful. Powerful bass. A very worthwhile change.

3/2020- WE91a.  Over the past year and one half, experimented with a .22UF Russian vintage cap in the coupling position in place of a duelund .1uf copper cap after growing tired of the  accurate and analytical presentation of the Duelund. The Russian cap did not do anything that I liked even after a year of listening. It was kinda like all the instruments turned the color of grey. I’ve had some Audio Note copper .47uf caps sitting around for a few years so put them in around the first of 2020 so they now have three months on them. 

The AN copper .47uf coupling caps after a two month an up and down ride stopped changing about a month ago. So I’ve been listening for a solid month after they finally settled in.  

I perceive no less detail with them compared to the duelunds but the detail is integrated into a more musical and three dimensional presentation. There are real instruments playing in front of me. Much more texture and dimension. There may be just a bit of glue tying everything together but even with the glue, there is individual instrumental color and tone in spades. A bit more overall warmth and richness.  Keeping in mind that my system has AUDIO NOTE output transformers, speakers, speaker cables, resistors and capacitors, kondo interconnects and an AN IQ lll Cartridge. So I would have thought adding an Audio Note coupling cap would have been to much, but it actually brought everything together in a very nice way.

 I think they might be too much of a good thing in a system that already fills out a three dimensional space but for me they add something lovely and musical that was missing. This reminds me that there is no such thing as the best capacitor or best anything else....

Read more...

Room Details

Dimensions: 25’ × 12’  Medium
Ceiling: 9’

Components Toggle details

    • Audio Note UK Audio Note UK AN-e LX HE
    Fun to listen to speakers that do a nice job with most types of music
    • DIY WE91a
    Very natural sound amp with good pacing. Duelund Copper cast caps. Audio Note Ultra hiB Output Transformers. Very short signal path and power supply wiring.
    • DIY Western Electric WE-91A
    Old breadboard

Comments 326

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I simply cannot remember the last time I received more enjoyment looking at system pictures. Absolutely beautiful, fascinating work.

devilboy

Owner
had some copper sheet left over from my amp build so I shaped it into a box and put the very sensitive phono circuit inside. Lots of pictures.

jetrexpro

Owner
Thank you Dan!
The sound is a bit different now. The old chassis was made mostly of tiger maple and it added some warmth and colorations. The new chassis has a lot more metal and the wood is a harder wood from Africa. The sound is now a bit clearer and cleaner. Detail seems more exposed. The noise floor has probably dropped but that is harder to pin point since all these changes took place at the same time. I like the sound so far but it's also a matter of taste how much warmth vs detail one wants in their system. There is still plenty of that 300b texture so I am happy :) it's also nice to hear the Audio Note AN-e's respond to these subtle changes. After four years with these speakers I love them even more. 

jetrexpro

Jet, congratulations on such a monumental, beautiful, expertly done piece of work on your new amp. The ground grid and copper shield must have a profound effect on lowering the noise floor.

So how does it sound?

Best regards,
Dan

islandmandan

Owner

Amp is finished, and passes audio! whew! what a relief. Always scary when firing up the B+ for the first time. Also so far with the close signal path and copper cage around the circuit there turns out to be no need for a grid stopper in the C3m input/driver tubes. The amp sounds much better without grid stopping resistors.

I posted pictures that show from start to finish building the amp -Regards Jet

jetrexpro

Owner
added some pictures of building a new chassis for my 300b amp. This new version will have all the hi voltage parts hidden underneath.

jetrexpro

Owner
I also wanted to relate my ongoing thoughts about the homemade Western Electric 16ga shielded interconnects which are terminated with Canare F10 RCA plugs. Now that my amp has so much more inner clarity and detail I am finding more synergy with the Kondo KSL-LP interconnects that with the WE interconnects. After changing the driver tubes on my amp from 6C6 to C3m and regulating the screen on the C3m and then adding more Audio Note Kaisei capacitors into the power supply the Kondo ICs seem to compliment this added clarity with their own natural and delicate musicality. Before making these changes to my amp, the Kondo ICs seemed too polite and not as musical as the WE ICs. Now the Kondo ICs don't sound polite at all. They sound in perfect harmony with my amp and speakers. Music sounds natural and beautiful but also when called upon they can sound loud and crazy. When the music dictates this kind of loud presentation I am hearing the sound leaping into the room. Before the Kondo IC didn't respond as well as the WE ICs did to the many types of music I listen to. So now I am hearing from the Kondo all and even more of the musicality I do from the WE ICs but with the Kondo's inner clarity and extended frequency response. Very interesting developments indeed. Jet

jetrexpro

Owner
Posted a picture of the beginning work on rebuilding my amp on a new piece of wood with all of the electrical components underneath. After installing Audio Note Kaisei capacitors throughout the power supply, I can report they are very open sounding and have done nothing but improve the sound of this amp. Excellent clarity throughout the frequency range. 

At this point I am still deciding the position of the tube sockets, the capacitors and the filament transformers. As progress continues I'll post more pictures of the rebuild.

I have been voicing my amp over the past four years by ear and changing only one part at a time to arrive at this final version. I am done so its time to rebuild the amp so my wife is not afraid of it :) Regards Jet

jetrexpro

Owner

Manga, Correct, the original Thorsten Loesch "Legacy" used the SV83 tube as the driver but he changed it to the C3m. If you google Thorsten Loesch Legacy, you'll find the article that talks about the changes.

Pentodes driving DHT (WE91a) lend a very natural tone and pacing to recorded music. I don't know why, maybe its the simplicity of the circuit but when listening to especially Jazz, the music just breathes. One of my musician friends actually used those words after an afternoon of listening.

And if I know I am going to listen to Jazz on vinyl, I'll take out the 5ar4 rectifiers and put in Mullard GZ37's (CV378) which lowers the b+ and lets the amp truly relax. With vinyl and these rectifiers I hear the give and take, push pull of the groove that the musicians are laying down. When listening to Pop, Rock and classical, I prefer 5AR4's. With these Rectifiers the amp has more jump and dynamics. 


jetrexpro

Hi Jet,
I had a look at the C3m datasheet and have to say that your chosen operating point is indeed in a very linear region of the plate curves. Distortion there should be minimal and combined with the low screen voltage (for your swing requirements) there's all you need for great sound - just as you've been experiencing.

It's been years since I last had a look at Thorsten's 300B design, but I was under the impression that he was using the SV83 tube as the driver. Maybe he had more than one design. For pentode drive I don't think that the current through the tube matters that much - at least not above a certain point, as the output impedance of a pentode stage is set by the load resistor. It appears that pentode drivers have some sort of synergy with DHT finals as you very well know by now. It's great that you can genuinely think about retiring from solder slinging, even if it's only for a period of time. Enjoy the music my friend!

manga

Owner
Grannyring, I posted some pictures of the CCS and OD3.

jetrexpro

Owner
Hi Manga,  I am running the C3m tube at the operating points suggested in the Tube data. 225v on the plate, 150v on the screen and a 270 ohm resistor from cathode to ground. This gives me a 75v swing. At these operating points the 16mA operating current should drive the 300b very nicely. These are Thorsten Loesch's "Legacy" amplifier operating points as well. Your example OP's look a little bit like Yamamoto's C3m/300b amps OP's. I found their schematic on line. We'll see how the sound fleshes out over the coming weeks. I was pleased before I installed the CCS and even more so now. I sincerely hope to hang up my soldering gun for a while :)  Thank you for thoughtful post. Its great to have a community of folks so willing to share their thoughts and ideas. Regards Jet

jetrexpro

Haven't been here in months and I've just caught up with your latest developments concerning your mods / improvements. A very entertaining and informative read, as usual. Glad that you've come to a point where you feel you could stop tweaking for a while, but I would be a bit cautious here, since it does take some time to completely get a handle on a new sound signature. I think we've all been there before.

Just curious, what is the standing voltage at the plate of the C3m tube in your application? I'll assume that it's probably close to the screen voltage of 150V or maybe a bit higher. There are some folks that like to run the screen voltage at such a point where the largest positive-going signal swing of the plate never drops below the screen's voltage. So, as an example, if you needed say a 75V peak swing one way from your driver, you could bias the plate at 165V~170V and use an 0B3 regulator to set the screen voltage at 90V.

Of course this is just a suggestion or some food for thought if you will, which I 'm only able to suggest knowing that you have a CCS board that allows you to change only one tube and a resistor to set a new operating point for the tube, making the exercise relatively painless. In any case, enjoy the fruits of your labor - you have an excellent system here!

manga

Owner

Salectric, I'll try the grid Riken grid stoppers once I am sure the CCS has settled in. Should be able to try them by this coming weekend.

Grannyring, The K&K CCS board does not have an octal socket for the OD3 tube. You'll need to buy that separately. In my case I needed 150 volts on the C3m screen and the OD3 puts out 150v. The way I set the CCS voltage was to use a 9v battery and a 10 ohm resistor hooked in series with the positive side of the CCS board and measure the voltage drop across the resistor. The instructions in the K&K manual on how to set the voltage were not very helpful and Salectric came to the rescue on this and several other parts of this CCS project. If you want to see the schematic that I drew message me and I'll send it to you.

The cool thing about this regulation was I was able to remove two resistors and a capacitor from the C3m screen. That may have as much to do with the increased detail and musicality of the amp as the regulation itself.

jetrexpro

Jet, good to hear the screen regulation seems to be working for you. I know your wife is probably right that you should leave the amps alone for a while, but I am curious nevertheless what you will think of the Riken gridstoppers. It never ends....

salectric

Jet, does the board have a socket for the od3 tubes and is it as simple as wiring it in and setting the output voltage? Most interested.

grannyring

Owner
On Saturday I installed voltage regulation on the screen of the c3m driver tube of my WE91a amp. The regulation consists of a K & K constant current source board and an OD3 RCA glow tube. This circuit holds the screen at a constant voltage. Thank you very much to Salectric for all of his help and advice during this process.

With Regulation on the screen the sound of the amp is very very clean and very present. I think the circuit is still breaking in so there may be more improvement ahead. After I installed it my wife and I were listening and she said "don't do anything else to this amp. Anything else you might do could only harm how the amp sounds now." Anyway she is right and I am done. Pretty much no more tweeking. After an eight month process the amp sounds really nice and I am happy to hang up my soldering gun for a while. The only thing I could possibly consider doing would be build a choke loaded power supply much later on. Regards Jet

jetrexpro

Looking forward to hearing about your regulation!

grannyring

Owner
Bill I heard from another DIYer that has some experience with Audio Note Kaisei caps and he has not heard any glare. To be fair I am using them in several positions in my amp and am not hearing glare other than what I reported above. I am using a 22 uf on the plate and a 100uf on the cathode of the C3m driver tube and a 55uf in the last cap of my amplifier's power supply. I don't think the Audio Note guys would build caps that have glare. But I still don't know why I did have the glare I reported above.

I'll be installing voltage regulation this weekend. Jet

jetrexpro

Owner
The bleeder resistor across the last cap in my power supply has a pretty big influence on the sound of my amp. If you could get away without using it, it might be a nice improvement in sound. Or if you need to keep it in you can try different brands of resistors to find out which brand sounds best.

jetrexpro

I built several sets of bleeder cables with resistor values that drain the power supply caps in less than 2 minutes.

grannyring

I use them for the same reason. I always drain all voltage with my numerous bleeder alligator clipped cables when working on my gear. Oh ya!

grannyring

Owner
Bill, In my power supply the bleeder serves only to bleed voltage out of the caps when the amp is turned off. In some power supplies bleeders serve other protective functions. Please make sure you can safely remove them.

Once I try regulation on the C3m screen I'll report back. Regards -Jet

jetrexpro

Tube regulation would be a nice sonic improvement Jet! Thanks so much for the comments on the AN caps. It does concern me when I hear or see the word glare. I am using bleeders also in my preamp and will have to listen with them in and out.....most interesting.

grannyring

Owner
Hi Bill, your pre amp is very ambitious. Like Charles I am very interested to know how it sounds once finished. If you are like me once it’s done you'll end up doing some tweeking to get the sound just right to suit your tastes. I am still amazed at how very small changes greatly affect the sound of my WE91a 300b amp. It’s actually a bit intimidating. The more I mess with this amp the more I realize I don’t know….a real journey.

As for the Audio Note Kaisei Electrolytic capacitors I do like what it does in the last cap of the power supply in my WE91a amp with this warning. When I removed the “bleeder” resistor across the 50uf AN Kaisei the sound changed and there was an ugly glare. I don’t know why removing the resistor caused this. Once I put the bleeder resistor back in the sound returned to normal. I do remember how much I liked this capacitor for its open spacious sound and still do with the Bleeder resistor in place.

I did have an 5uf Audio Note Kaisei Electrolytic capacitor filtering the screen of my newly installed C3m driver tube but during the first few weeks that this 5uf cap was installed the amp was not making music and there was a bit of glare in the upper mids. When I removed the AN 5uf Kasiei cap the glare went away and the amp opened up and made music. I don’t know if it’s the AN cap’s fault or if it was the fault of my circuit design. Yes it’s my design so I am treading in deep water here. I am using a 22uf Kaisei capacitor to filter the C3m plate and so far this Cap sounds very good. There is more tweeking to be done including regulating the C3m screen voltage but I’ve been very happy with the amp as is I have delayed installing the CCS/OD3 regulation. I may try this over the long Thanksgiving break.

So at this point Bill, the Audio Note Kaisei Electrolytic capacitors are probably worth a try but I would not go crazy buying a bunch of them just in case they don’t work for your Hydrid Lector amp.

jetrexpro

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