Finally installed my new nano-c plate chokes in the Kaiju rebuild. I haven't tested it yet, and so not listened either -- will post about that sometime in the near future.
But it is now WAY too heavy. Each of OPTs and plate chokes is 5 kg. So that's 20 kg right there. Plus another estimated 6 to 8 kg for the combo of Kaiju power trafo and 2 power supply chokes. Add in the metal chassis and the two huge power supply fim caps, and we're getting close to 35 kg. So it's definitely 70+ lbs.
That would be OK if I didn't need to move it, but I like to tweak stuff. I had a bunch of experiments planned involving the grid chokes: different coupling cap sizes, w/ and w/o damping resistors across the grid chokes. Plus trying out simple resistor bias on the drivers in place of the regulated bias. That's all on hold. It's too heavy -- and will get dropped/damaged or do damage to me. Because of how my rack is configured, it needs to go on a shelf that is 5+ ft from the floor. I had hoped that the additional 8 or so lbs that new choke add over the weight of the previous chokes might be manageable - but it's not. Holding a 70 lb amp at head/shoulder height is a challenge but doable. But then having to extend my arms a bit and hold it out it from my body is crazy -- the resulting leverage (amp leveraged against me) is way too much. Trying to do that multiple times a day to do tests is a complete no go. Bummer.
So I need to break it into 3 separate enclosures: power supply, right channel and left channel. Eesh. I don't have the stomach to do all that metal work again, so I will try Send-Cut-Send that PB has used on some of his projects ... but next winter. On the upside, I now have a compelling reason to learn some rudimentary CAD. And a year to figure it out.
In the meantime, there's the new BeePre with upgrades to look forward to. Lots of tweaking possibilities there.
cheers, Derek
