Bottlehead Forum
Bottlehead Kits => Moreplay => Topic started by: twofires on November 08, 2023, 05:30:36 PM
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Quick question - I understand Bottlehead as a business is in a different place to when the possibility of Moreplay upgrades was first mentioned, but would you say these are still in the pipeline, or shelved, or other?
No stress either way, just curious.
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In the pipeline. My first couple of attempts at the "simple version" of the upgrade didn't work satisfactorily, so I will be adding some additional complication to the next round of mods.
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Ah, excellent. I look forward to seeing what you cook up.
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Any hints to what the upgrades may be? I assume a stepped volume control, but curious if anything unexpected is expected? :)
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Now that I’ve ordered a Moreplay, I’m also curious what the upgrades will look like.
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Bumping up this thread in hope of some update on the hinted-at but so far elusive upgrades to the Moreplay...I am planning to start that build soon and I am wondering what's in the works in the Bottlehead foundry... :)
Are there any plans for something similar to the "SmashQuiet attenuator upgrade"? As always, I appreciate you guys for offering improvements on existing products.
Thanks.
FS
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Yes there are improvements on the drawing board. They just need to be prototyped, listened to, revised as needed and the installation process devised. Then we can write/photograph the manual(s) and order parts for the first batch production run. Product development is an ongoing activity.
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I did a bunch of corrections today on a prior design and ordered up a fresh board to slog through prototyping on the upgrade we have in mind.
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I saw some suggestion on the BH Instagram that this might have reached early testing, with good results?
I'll be interested to see what you've cooked up. ;D
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I have one small alteration to make and we are tentatively planning on a manual photo shoot next month, but what I have here is working as intended.
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Hooray! Nice work.
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Here's a little teaser pic of what we have been working on for the upcoming Moreplay upgrade. With the current BeePre2 and Moreplay, there's much to be gained by going to a constant current source load on the primary voltage gain triode, as the loading is quite low to begin with and the plate load and volume pot are in parallel with each other and both acting as loads simultaneously. By swapping out the stock plate load resistors with a C4S, one of those loads almost entirely goes away, and the 6V6 operates much more happily. In looking at before and after shots of the distortion spectrum, the second harmonic pretty much stays as-is, but the higher order nasties disappear.
The C4S loads get fed by a solid state shunt regulator that's somewhat similar to what's used in our Integration upgrade for the Seduction. This helps to isolate the power supply from carrying signal current and keeps the power supply noise out of the signal path.
The back half of this large upgrade board houses a low voltage DC supply that feeds two individual 1085 regulators to feed super quiet DC to each 6V6, which reduces the 60Hz noise that was somewhat present in the stock circuit.
Up front I have designed a PC board that holds the standard Alps balance and Alps volume pot. The commonly available parts have slightly different shaft lengths, but by mounting them on a sub plate below the chassis, we are able to negate that issue up top and the knobs fit back on evenly. The Alps balance pot has zero insertion loss compared to the stock balance pot setup, and this further assists the signal to noise ratio of the preamp. There is also a center detent, so there's no need to fiddle with adjusting the knob up top to get it pointed just right for even channel balance. The Alps volume pot is very well regarded and offers a nice improvement in channel balance and clarity.
Ultimately when collecting data and running the numbers on how to make our typical coarse/fine attenuator work with this specific circuit, the Alps pot ended up making a whole lot more sense compared to the tradeoffs we were looking at otherwise.
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Looks very cool - I like the idea of an upgrade to the stock pots that retains the balance function.
Karl
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And now next month is this month. I am writing and hoping to wrap up the new subwoofer amp kit manual this week and then we will move right on to the Moreplay upgrade manual.
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I like it! Nice clean look. Questions ... does the gain remain the same? Will there be a top plate? Will the 6K6 still work ok? Thx!
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Gain increases just slightly, though I will have to measure the stock one I have here vs. the modded one to say exactly by how much. I could go either way on the top plate, but I'm leaning towards not offering that since there isn't any thing particularly nebulous about how the controls operate vs. the stock amp. We have done stickers in the past, and I could see possibly designing a short sticker to go across the entire top panel to provide some labels, but ultimately that will have to be something we discuss before officially launching the product.
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Roger that. Great job on the progress! Oh and is the 6K6 going to be a drop in? I'm using a few sets with the stock setup.
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The heater current restrictions of the stock circuit can be slightly lightened with this upgrade, especially if you are drawing less current. I don't immediately see any issues with using a 6K6 with this upgrade board.
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Nice! Thanks for the feedback.
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I'm excited! I'm wondering how tall that board will be with the heat sink and all?
I've got bigger than standard caps and I'm wondering if I should make my new walnut bases a bit taller to make some extra space for this upgrade.
BTW, if anyone wants to make their own custom chassis plate for this, I'm willing to design it for you, I've got all the dimensions so it's only a few minutes of time for me. It's gonna be on you to approve the drawing and order it though.
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I'm excited! I'm wondering how tall that board will be with the heat sink and all?
It fits in the base as long as you have the rubber feet on the base.
I've got bigger than standard caps and I'm wondering if I should make my new walnut bases a bit taller to make some extra space for this upgrade.
There will be some open terminals across the front of the octal tube sockets if you want to move them there.
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This is exciting, I'm ready to order.
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Ya know what would be a great idea? Offer a 10% discount on a new kit with the upgrades included. Just a thought.
I'd be happy to build another Moreplay.
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I like the idea of a plate or sticker with labels for the knobs. My two cents. Will buy either way.
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I like the idea of a plate or sticker with labels for the knobs. My two cents. Will buy either way.
check this one.
https://forum.bottlehead.com/index.php?topic=15082.0
Andre.
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Andre, I was looking for those but forgot that it was you that posted them. To my mind they have just the right look.
Would you consider sharing?... John
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Any updates on this project?