lynn_olson
Responses from lynn_olson
| 300b lovers Spatial Audio now has the preamp and power amp in production (scroll down about halfway). The power amps are now 18" wide, the same as the matching preamp. The tube lineup is 6SN7 input (balanced), triode-connected KT88 drivers, and 300B output i... | |
| 300b lovers I did most of those things for the Seattle trip. I hadn’t flown in more than a decade, and I knew it would be Hell on Earth if I didn’t tick all the boxes. So, in the months preceding, I applied for TSA Pre-Check, Instant Bag Check using the QR co... | |
| 300b lovers Don and the Spatial team will be in Dallas, but I will be home here in Colorado. If Spatial goes to the Seattle show this year, I will be there along with Don. I learned my lesson about flying last year. This time, I’ll fly First or Business Clas... | |
| 300b lovers Maybe Peregrine. Something fast and powerful, which are the hallmarks of these designs. | |
| 300b lovers Maybe Swift. | |
| 300b lovers As an overview, the Raven is a 1-stage amplifier with a 4.5:1 step-down transformer, and is output-limited by what both sections of a 6SN7 can crank out. The Blackbird is a 3-stage amplifier with a 28.7:1 step-down transformer, and is output-limit... | |
| 300b lovers Most likely not. It can drive 600 ohm phones no problem, but definitely not 16 to 32 planar phones, which are pretty popular these days. They require small power amplifiers in the 2-watt range. | |
| 300b lovers Just heard the first production Raven was completed, and the folks at Spatial Audio in Salt Lake City thought it was a big step up from the Raven preamp at the show. It uses a new Monolith power transformer, a newly designed input transformer, and... | |
| 300b lovers I showed the pix of the Amity (1997) and Karna (2003) amplifiers to emphasize they were developed largely in isolation from the SET community. I found out the hard way that SET practice wasn’t always useful with this approach. Similarly, practice ... | |
| 300b lovers If it doesn’t say "electrostatic shield" there’s no copper foil between windings. Medical-grade is even better, with primary and secondary on opposite sides of the core. If you want full isolation, in the absence of these features, you need two t... | |
| 300b lovers And here’s the very first version, the 2-stage Amity amplifier, built on old Tektronix chassis by Matt Kamna in 1997: | |
| 300b lovers Here’s a close-up of the 2003 Karna amplifier, showing one channel of the audio chassis, with the power supply chassis out of sight. These have been my personal amplifiers until I received a pair of Statements about eight months ago. Note the avi... | |
| 300b lovers The Statements are the previous versions. I strongly urged Don to use a spacious layout, with all components on a single layer. Easier to build and signal-trace. Don ran with the suggestion and improved it by putting all the power supply component... | |
| 300b lovers Alexberger, the Cinemag input and interstage transformers are under the top plate. These are the third generation of the custom Cinemag transformers we started with. The two Monolith transformers are visible on the rear of the top plate. The othe... | |
| 300b lovers From Don Sachs: "First pair of production Blackbirds in walnut... running and sounding really good for only 10 minutes on them :) Tomorrow we start the first pair of production Ravens...." |