Quickie mods

[4krow]

It IS not!  It means Real Nerd. 

 What if you used a stiff sheet of dampening material? Or dampening material over teflon? I check a plate by tapping it while being held by the corner. Most materials ring.

[2wo]

I am serious about the glass jar. I was at IKEA, the other day, where most of my project cases come from  .

And found this. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40065867/  They have nice thick glass and a good seal.

I'm thinking, drill a hole in the lid. Hang the socket by its wires, or rig a nice suspension, poke in a thin plastic tube. Seal it up with some silicone seal.

 Then suck the air out.
Isolate the tube without dampening it 

We don't need a perfect vacuum. Hook it up to your vacuum sealer, or do you have one of those brake bleeders. We're DIY guys, you'll think of something, though if your getting ready to fire the getter, call me        

[proud indian]

Registered Nurse - Dude you are quite the jet setter! Hanging out, drinking single malts in Dubai! How are the hookers over there?
[/quote]

Well, on a Thursday night it is difficult to walk around. The theme has changed from Russian to African. You cant enter a bar or night club. Its that bad.
I was there in 2007 or 08, and the place has taken a dive since then, The place looks washed out and boaring.

shreekant

[corndog71]

Ok, I guess I can jump in here with my experiments.

I purchased the quickie with PJCCS but decided to build it stock first.  I was very impressed by how quiet it was.  It was instantly better than my modded Foreplay II.  The tubes provided sounded good but were very sensitive to my fingers and bumping the attached cables and rang easily with any vibration.  They do settle down after a couple of seconds and just get back to making music.  As good as it was I knew from many years of playing with my various Foreplay tweaks that there was room for improvement.  

PJCCS - Ah, now we're getting somewhere!  This made a very nice difference adding a bit better focus to the soundstage, tighter bass, and just a fuller sound.

Output Caps - After the power supply this is the most noticeable area of improvement.  

1. Sonicaps (Gen 1) - These brought much better resolution over the stock caps, more air between instruments, better dynamics, tighter and better defined bass.  These run on the slightly brighter side of neutral and so provide less of the tube warmth many people like.  If you like a leaner and closer to solid state sound then consider these.

2. Clarity Cap ESA Series - These are very interesting and unique caps.  Both detailed and dynamic but with a very warm overall sound.  This is particularly noticeable on the higher frequencies.  If you have bright sounding speakers then these may just be the ticket for you.  I really love these in my S.e.X. Amp.  I really liked them in my Quickie but was very curious about trying the next step up in Clarity's line up.

3. Clarity Cap MR Series - Holy &$%#!  My jaw hung, mouth agape, and I was just stunned at how much more information I was hearing!  Yes, you will pay a price for it but considering the low cost of the Quickie it's not too bad of a hit to the wallet.  One small caveat, they do take a few hundred hours to sound their best but even early on they were an immediate improvement over the ESA caps.  Older recordings seemed blown up in space and resolution.  Cliche as it sounds I heard stuff in familiar recordings that went previously unnoticed.  I could go on and on about these.

(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi576.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fss207%2Fcorndog642%2FBottlehead%2520Quickie%2Fb374d05f.jpg&hash=de345e669b2e3a5ffd9142e663d2aab9f26992b4)

Vibration control - Initially I borrowed the wood base from my Foreplay II as the plates are the same size.  This certainly made my Quickie look nicer but did nothing to suppress vibration.  I happened to have some foam bricks used for shipping expensive servors handy so I cut one to just a little wider than the wood base.
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi576.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fss207%2Fcorndog642%2FBottlehead%2520Quickie%2F8f408d8e.jpg&hash=6c76acf7c5d24345a46495d9589669f390618f15)

But then I thought I'd go simpler.
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi576.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fss207%2Fcorndog642%2FBottlehead%2520Quickie%2F7669d368.jpg&hash=14b914bb8c19b18960f72b60edc627e4bdfe9618)

That helped some but still not perfect.  Eventually I decided to splurge on a pair of Herbie's Tube Dampers.  Now we're getting somewhere.  At first I didn't really hear much of a difference.  Then I tried some different tubes with and without the damper rings and noticed that they did help cut down on the ringing.  I had to bend them smaller to get them to fit the tubes even though they were supposed to fit the 3S4.  Not a bad tweak for the money but not a necessity.  Unless you're like me and want to cover every base.

That's pretty much all I did with my stock Quickie.  Eventually I wanted to build an all out Quickie as I had lots of ideas on how to take the design further.

Here's a list of features on the Ultimate Quickie:
1. 3"x10"x17" Hammond aluminum box and lid
2. a sheet of Dynamat Extreme
3. Erse Pulse X film caps for the power supply
4. Goldpoint selector switch for switching the signal and ground of each input
5. PRP Resistors in the power supply
6. Two D-Cell holders per channel wired in parallel for longer play time
7. 16AWG wire for power supply connections (I know, total overkill here! )
8. Homegrownaudio 22AWG cotton-insulated and teflon-insulated silver wire for signal
9. Three Power Sonic rechargeable 12V/5Ah SLA batteries for 36VDC supply
10. PEC 100K Volume Pots

(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi576.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fss207%2Fcorndog642%2FBottlehead%2520Quickie%2FIMG_6781_zpsea11e3b9.jpg&hash=ee9559a73dae99b92fc83ee60c0b9eb8030be700)

With the previously mentioned Clarity MR caps this turned into quite the project.  Since all of this came together at once it's hard to say where improvements came from.  Well, the Dynamat really cuts down on ringing from the tubes as does the boxed design.  Now my fingers don't get close to the tubes when I'm  fiddling with any of the controls.  I don't bump into the cables anymore since they're all in the back which also helps avoid ringing.  I really think the film caps cleaned up the sound vs. the stock electrolytics.  The music seems more lifelike and faster.  In the end I think it sounds fantastic and well worth my efforts.  

[earwaxxer]

thanks Rob for the comprehensive update and impressions!

The Clarity Cap MR's are certainly a great cap. When I get a job I might spring for some. Curious you should mention the gauge of wire on the power supply connection. I actually used some old Audioquest type 4 wire on my power supply. I 'think' it improved the sound! This shit is crazy, so I dont admit to it much. So be it! - I like it!

[corndog71]

Coincidently the white power supply and ground wires came from some old audioquest type 6 wire I experimented with 10 years ago.  It was nowhere near as good as Kimber 4TC as a speaker wire but I liked the solid core wires and saved them for projects just like this.  One of the things I like about this hobby is how reusable things like caps, resistors, and wires can be.  The only down side is hanging on to it all over the years takes up space.

Oh and you don't have to feel too crazy about wires making an audible difference.  Check out what Shunyata has come up with as far as measurable differences.

[4krow]

Funny how wire gets used more than once. I keep using AudioQuest 'Midnight' speaker cable for all kinds of hook ups. But I have to remember that the ground wire has a semi-conductive insulation. About 10 ohms .

[earwaxxer]

I also noticed that Rob has his Quickie mounted in a cut out block of foam. That is a very good idea! I like it. You dont have to worry about heat or anything. Might help with microphonics.

[Alonzo]

Eric,
I tried foam mounting, with the high density packing type, low density cushioning and a open air type I got from work.  Neither worked for microphonics.  I don't have alot of external vibrations that aren't caused by me mucking around with components.  I settled on copper tape and tube dampers.  In my mind it made a difference (putting the Quickie on it's own shelf may have helped too but that wasn't part of the experiment so it's discounted...) and it looks really nice.  I want to try some thin copper wire to wind the tubes in...

[earwaxxer]

copper tape! - cool - The foam just makes the Quickie look so comfortable!

[Doc B.]

I'm glad to see Bottleheads coming up with approaches to deal with microphony. It's simply an inherent part of using directly heated tubes for low level signals. They sound so resolving that we need to keep coming up with approaches to deal with this one potential shortcoming. We seem to have gotten the other issue - hum- sorted out pretty well. And if one can create an environment where the directly heated tubes don't pick up vibration, well, in my book there is nothin' else that sounds as good.

I have seen some reduction of ringing with the application of copper tape on some tube types by looking at the ringing on a scope. It doesn't eliminate it, but it can reduce it noticeably. Our racks are composed of a stack of Ikea Lack tables, which are very low mass. Many years ago a friend, Andy Bartha, made me a big batch of pucks made from lead shot mixed with a pourable silicone sealer made for patching mobile home roofs. He molded them in different sized muffin tins. I had the inspiration to place a set of these high mass pucks under the Bee Pre and a set under my Eros. They seem to reduce the energy transfer of any vibration of the shelf to the chassis quite well. 

[corndog71]

The foam worked well against ground borne vibrations but couldn't control vibrations transferred through my cables.  My ultimate quickie solves that by providing a very stable chassis.  

[4krow]

Good thinking, all of this. Follow the source. If it is cables, change cables. I use Nordost because of that very fact. But I also believe in the greater mass approach. Then, if isolation is added at the right juncture, that is all we can do...now where IS that right juncture? I thought that the base of the tube would be effective, but no, there is still vibration coming directly through the pins. Detaching the tube socket may help us here. I am planning to put my Quickie into a more suitable enclosure. That may be the time to deal the rest of this issue.

[Paul Birkeland]

Detaching the tube socket may help us here.

It might be a tradeoff between vibrations coming up through your rack and into the plate and airborne vibrations.

[Doc B.]

You might try the trick we use on the SEX amp, putting a soft o-ring between the socket and the chassis. It will require longer screws.