Untitled Document

Toms upgrade experience

Hi Benny

I thought I may be bugging you with the various emails that went backwards
and forwards, so when I received the upgrade kit, I informed you that I had
received it and that was the end of my bugging you.

Well you asked, so here it is:

I installed the kit with no problems. It's probably possible to do it
without removing the main PCB, but I decided to remove it anyway to make the
desoldering/soldering easier. I put it all back together again and both
channels worked first time. This has made a big difference to the amp,
which I thought was pretty good anyway. What used to bother me most was
that the amp was not too good with transients or at increased volume levels.
It's difficult to describe exactly what the problem was, the sound became
less refined, with less dynamic range is the best way I can describe it.
Anyway, that's all history, now the amp sounds excellent at all volume
levels and no problems at all with transients, like those from cymbals.
Good job DIYParadiso!

One other upgrade I did earlier to the amp was to remove that little input
circuit board and replace those terrible el-cheapo RCA sockets with some
decent ones. Also, I connected some decent co-ax between the connectors and
the PCB, in place of the stuff they supplied. I also changed the tubes to
matched Svetlanas in place of the Sovteks - that helped a lot too.

One other comment. In California, we had a lot of power brown-outs last
winter. On more than one occasion, the soft-start circuit would kick out
and not kick in again, leaving the start resistors in series with the mains
transformer primary. Smoke would come from the amp and I would have to dive
for the power switch. So I just shorted the soft start resistors out. It
may reduce the life of the tubes, but it's a lot safer in case of future
brown outs.

Thanks again for your help and the upgrade kit. What else can I build?

Best regards

Tom From: "Tom Davidtz" TDavidtz@irdetoaccessusa.com