Our new preamp kit - Smash

[Paul Birkeland]

Wish I could justify getting onee, but not at least until the backlog is taken care of.

Yeah, you sure have a lot of projects going!

[xcortes]

Paul,

How complicated is the build? Again, the quickie being one and the BP 10 I would assume a five.

[Jim R.]

PB,

Yes, but now I have a lot more energy and overall better health plus a nice electronics work area and a decent wood shop, so other than idintifying terminals and dealing with circuit boards, no real roadblocks. Oh, and with the analysis paralysis out of the way and a real plan in hand, the work feels fun and nicely mapped out for me.

-- Jim

[Karl5150]

Crackphones and Smash in a couple of months. It doesn't sound like anybody at BH headquarters is coasting.
I want 'em both!

[Mr. Davis]

Doc,

Can you give us some hints of what this new (middle price range) power amp will be?

[Doc B.]

It will be EL84 based, about 4.5 watts per channel. As usual we are doing things a little differently than others. I will give some more info once we are a little farther along with the project.

[Paul Birkeland]

I thought I'd also mention another feature in this thread that didn't make it into the announcement.

With the particular regulator that we are using, I am able to limit the maximum available current that the regulator will output.  For a directly heated tube, the filaments draw considerable more current when cold than when warmed up.  This puts a reasonable amount of stress on the filaments, so by limiting the current draw at start up, we can extend tube life a bit.

It is worth mentioning that this is a phenomenon that tube manufacturers are aware of and design for, so it is not mandatory and we do not plan to retrofit it into other kits. 

-PB

[dougmon]

I hope I didn't miss something in reading about this, but the specs say one of the outputs can be used for a dedicated headphone amp. Does this mean one of the outputs can be wired as a fixed volume line out?  Will there be instructions to do this?

Thanks!

[Paul Birkeland]

You could wire a Tape Out to one of the outputs for this purpose, but I would instead recommend using the Smash as a buffer to drive your headphone amp instead.

[Cleet Torres]

It will be EL84 based, about 4.5 watts per channel. As usual we are doing things a little differently than others. I will give some more info once we are a little farther along with the project.

Doc, am I assuming correrctly that the price range of the new amp will be below the Stereomour?

I cannot quite swing the $$ for Paramounts but I was toying of building Stereomour poweramp - sans selector, volume etc to run off my foreplay III (and soon my Smash).

How will the new amp compare with the stereomour? When I read "EL84", which is a nice sounding pentode for sure, I'm thinking it's not going to be able to compte with a 2A3  stereomour no?

Thanks
Cleet.

[Doc B.]

Yes, the EL 84 amp is intended to cost less than the Stereomour and give the same or a little more power. We are still working up the design at this point and thus it's premature to make some definitive statement about how it sounds.

[Sonido]

Out of curiosity, does rolling the center VR tube do much in terms of affecting the sound?

[Doc B.]

Rolling the bypass cap on it probably has more impact.

[Mr. Davis]

Rolling the bypass cap on it probably has more impact.

Are you talking about the  .1 uf 400V film capacitor? I was wondering about that.

[Grainger49]

If Smash follows the FP III regulator circuit a USSR Military surplus 0.1uF@600V bypass will sound better there.