an LA2a is born :)

[Scenaria]

This one is due to all of the effort of one of our very own... I'll give him props once im sure he is ok with it

fired up on the first shot... only problem was one of the 100k pots were defective...

next one will have metal film resistors..

 

[fum]

Sweet!, and damn at the same time. I was hopin to get one of mine done first :grin: Have a few more ours at the bench before it's there.

This one looks great!

Regards

ju

 

[Scenaria]

oops


I thought i was imagining things when I saw the tags disapear :roll: didnt relize they were too big... they look small on my screen

 

[Ethan]

[quote author="Scenaria"]oops[/quote]

No problem. I jus get cranky when I'm overworked and under-guinessed :guinness: :guinness: :grin:

Nice job on the LA2a, mystery builder.

 

[fum]

and if the mystery builder would reveal his source for the slotted 1M pots, it would be appreciated =)

Regards

ju

 

[SSLtech]

[quote author="Ethan"]Nice job on the LA2a, mystery builder.[/quote]
Hmmmmmm......

I wonder who that could be!!!

...conclusive proof that Guinness doesn't make you mess up an LA-2a assembly job!!! :wink:

Keef

 

[Steffen]

She wore bloo velvet,
Blooer than velvet was the night.. . .

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Mark Burnley]

Cool!

Nice tidy job- very inspiring :grin:

So how's it squashing?

...and how much Guinness was consumed in the making-of?

Total cost of DIY = Parts + time spent on The Lab + beer

:green:

Mark

 

[Scenaria]

the way keef consumes beer... he costs more than all of the compressor parts :razz:

I'll post some nice upclose ones of his work later... the batteries died in the camera I have to let em re-charge..

he even did some lacing work

 

[SSLtech]

Running through testing this morning on the Neutrik... compressed exactly as it should. Swapped the home-made T4B for a 'genuine' UA T4B and re-plotted the amplitude in/amplitude out/amplitude graphs were essentially identical.

Currently the unit is on the Audio Precision and I think that Scenaria is testing several different tube sets on it and measuring/listening.

Next units will probably be used for comparative testing of input/output trannys, I don;t know what Scenaria has in mind.

This one was used to verify the build documents, next step is to have someone locally with rather less experience (We have one candidate who is one step above "trained-monkey"... one who only recently started using utensils to eat, instead of his hands... -"I said DOWN Igor"!!!!) build one from the same set of plans. If that works on first power-up as well, then I think that Scenaria can be reasonably pleased that the documentation which he'll be supplying with the Bloo kit will be the definitive LA2a-style build documentation.

Currently there are a couple of photos and diagrams to insert into the build instructions. Also I think that we've identified a couple of test methodologies to identify the "set-on-test" components which even Universal might not do on their current production models... We've got methods worked out, we need to do the documentation and include it.

While I'm nothing to do with "Bloo" the company, and I should stress that I'm unpaid... I'm just doing it out of love and respect of the LA2a and similar compressors and out of Scenaria being a friend and colleague.

However, I have to say that my impression of the Bloo kit is that -as simply put as I can- it is very probably the very best, most professional version you can hope to affordably own. The finished job is absolutely and unquestionably "professionally made" in appearance, rather than "home made". This probably means that it has one thing that many home-made LA2a's don't: -Resale value. (although Roger Mielke might suggest that even comparatively less well-made units have some resale value!)

I could probably make one, use it for a bit and then sell it for more than it cost me to make it, with no effort to "sell-it-up"... it really does look that good!

Keith

 

[tmbg]

so... what's it gonna cost??!


And what all is included? tubes, trafos, chassis, everything?

 

[SSLtech]

email scenaria to keep commerce off the Lab, or have a look in "the black market" forum...

But so many people wantMetal film resistors for low noise. Others insist on carbon comp. for the "mojo"... some folks want Jensen or Lundahl or UTC or Sowter trannys, others want Amperex tubes, some want Telefunken tubes... some want cheap tubes and insist that there's little or no difference... it wasn't really possible to come up with a single complete kit to keep everyone happy, so the builder supplies trannys, caps, tubes and resistors. Basically all the items that you can source yourself. -The Sowter transformers are imported by Prodigy Pro, and are very cost-effective (and by all accounts very good!)

The kit contains chassis, tube sockets, a T4B, T4B socket, Power transformer, the proper Beede VU meter, and correctly sourced turret strips, (including the tiny VU meter one!) with instructions, hardware, knobs, switches etc.

 

[PRR]

> didnt relize they were too big... they look small on my screen

Then buy all of us big-screens.

They look big on my dual-19" rig at work. Each image is bigger than my home monitor. Then with forum-format, it's all left-right scroll to read any text more than a few words. Bah, I just won't look in threads with over-blown pictures.

I'm sure your image tool can tell you the pixel-width. Ethan has mandated 400 pixels wide max. For screen-fit, I could tolerate 500 pixels even on the small home PC, but folks with 28K modem (which is still a LOT of the world, even in the USA) will prefer smaller.

 

[Mbira]

Hey Scenaria, if you need to check to se if your instructions are usable with untrained monkeys speaking these strange New Mexico dialects, just send one this way and I'll help you out-no charge!

Joel

 

[Scenaria]

thanks for the offer joel :green:

please get in line :razz:

just tossed it on the Ap... im pretty happy with the results..


.2% THD+N @600/1Khz compared to the stock UA models running at around .3%+ this is with some telefunken 12AX7's in it.. im going to try some cheapie ones to see how they affect the numbers..


wow...

I just popped in some sovtek 12AX7's... THD went from .2007% to .3489%

will have to listen to em for some real life opinions...

 

[CJ]

Very cool you guys! Congats!
That's a lot of time, work and money to make that a reality.
Good way to learn DIY if you got the coin.
:guinness: :guinness: :guinness: :guinness:

 

[rlantis]

I just popped in some sovtek 12AX7's... THD went from .2007% to .3489%

What version of Sovtek 12AX7 tube were these?
The "upscale" cheapo LPS with the spiral filaments, or perhaps the "budget" cheapo 7WA? or... ?

:wink:

Thanks,

 

[Scenaria]

just checked the sovteks

they have WA behind the number :\

 

[SonsOfThunder]

[quote author="Scenaria"]THD went from .2007% to .3489%...
just checked the sovteks...they have WA behind the number :\[/quote] I'm certainly no LALA expert, but I kinda doubt you'll hear so much difference between 0.2 and 0.35...There might be some other differences you'd note though I doubt that they are "directly" related to THD.

HTH!

 

[Ethan]

I never realized how much 12AX7LPS Sovteks (or at least the 4 for that I have) stink, until I replaced them with JJ/Tesla's in my LA2a. I kept hearing very very low level intermittent crackling/hiss. I kept thinking it might be a bad solder joint on a badly connected ground, so I went over all my solder joints again, still no luck. Then, I put in some of the Tesla's and the noise is gone. I've heard that low level hiss and noise are a sign of tubes going bad, but the 4 Sovteks were brand new, so I'm not sure what that says. Either I'm just unlucky or Sovteks' QC isn't all that great.

I don't know much about tubes (or much about anything for that matter) but that was just my experience.