Orange 86 Build Thread - no PCBs for sale

[Bobby Baird]

If I’m understanding this correctly, according to this Orange 86 schematic I know I connect the secondary as Green to 2 and Grey to 1 on the PCB, then if I want to experiment with the center tap further I’d solder Violet (1:7 with the 34.5% tap) between the junction of R-Z and C-Z? As a side note, they’ve been adjusted to the suggested 470pf and 10k for the Sowter.

Yes, I believe green would be 2 which feeds to the grid of V1 through RL1. Grey to 1 gets grounded because it's a single-ended circuit as opposed to a deferential circuit. Violet would be a tap for probably a 3.5:1 ratio similar to the Cinemag CM-9661A. I would try the white wire to junction of R-Z & C-Z and adjust suggested Zobel, or leave unattached.

 

[MidnightArrakis]

For those who have used the Sowter 9970/9980 combo, are the center taps left unterminated on the 9970 (orange, violet, and white), and secondaries on the 9980 wired in parallel (tie blue and brown, and yellow and white)? The sparse documentation from Sowter apparently expects me to be more knowledgeable than I am haha. Thanks!

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>> SOWTER 9970 -- 3D CAD-model shown below:

>> Other popular audio transformers used within GroupDIY projects:






>> By the way.....can you provide me with either the mechanical dimensions or either an -- IGS -- or a -- STP -- file of this bracket of yours?:



/

 

[thelivingroom]

I finally was able to finish my Orange 86. It’s the most expensive and heaviest project I’ve built to date haha. I haven’t had a chance to use it on a session yet, but listening to music through it sounds wonderful, even when testing the DI by sending the signal through my reamp box then out of that into the jacks. I’m very happy with it, and glad I went for the orangesicle aesthetic. Thank you @guavatone for this project!

While waiting for the front panel to arrive I tested the relay circuits, and didn’t like how the LED’s would dim more and more as each relay was turned on. I drew up a little addendum PCB to regulate the 24v coming out of the PSU and had it made, then changed the 12v relays I had on the front panel to 24v as well, pulled all of the 12v-related parts out of the PSU PCB, and jumped R12. I also went with ultra bright LED’s and run them at about 1mA, so all eight hi-sense relays and five LED’s draw less than 100mA total.

I also went for the Antek AS-05T280 (smaller of the two Anteks in the BOM) because I wanted to use their CA-050 steel cover, and it works perfectly. I’m getting 300 and 297 volts at the power link without tubes, and 291 and 288 with the tubes in. Heaters are rock solid 6.33v. I bought the other Antek just in case, and it is massive.

 

[ron_swanson]

I finally was able to finish my Orange 86. It’s the most expensive and heaviest project I’ve built to date haha. I haven’t had a chance to use it on a session yet, but listening to music through it sounds wonderful, even when testing the DI by sending the signal through my reamp box then out of that into the jacks. I’m very happy with it, and glad I went for the orangesicle aesthetic. Thank you @guavatone for this project!

While waiting for the front panel to arrive I tested the relay circuits, and didn’t like how the LED’s would dim more and more as each relay was turned on. I drew up a little addendum PCB to regulate the 24v coming out of the PSU and had it made, then changed the 12v relays I had on the front panel to 24v as well, pulled all of the 12v-related parts out of the PSU PCB, and jumped R12. I also went with ultra bright LED’s and run them at about 1mA, so all eight hi-sense relays and five LED’s draw less than 100mA total.

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Beautiful build! Congratulations!

 

[guavatone]

Very sweet look. I like big switches and I cannot lie! Nice attention to cosmetic detail.

What output caps did you go with?

 

[TimG]

That’s amazing!! Beautiful.
Inspiration to mine half built!

Did the transformers go to the rear of the case to address an issue? Obviously it’s always good to see Sowters!

You did Squish! Does it sound cool or useful?

 

[thelivingroom]

Beautiful build! Congratulations!

Thank you!

Very sweet look. I like big switches and I cannot lie! Nice attention to cosmetic detail.

What output caps did you go with?

Thank you! There’s not much stuff on this pre to fill out the 3U panel, so I wanted big paddle switches and Gain knob, and I wanted all white. It proved to be tougher to find it all than I thought! After months of following searches those NOS switches finally popped up, and they had at least five. They feel robust.

The output caps are .47uF Amtrans AMCN series. I’ve never tried them before. They were chosen because they fit the footprint, I couldn’t find any worthwhile negative reviews, and I thought they’d look good on the PCB haha. Amtrans also makes some miniature polypropylene caps (AMCH series) that I put in C-Z (470pF) and the 330pF under the PCB. I got that and some other stuff from HiFiCollective. They’ve been great; I’ve placed several orders on a Sunday night and had them on my doorstep by Wednesday, U.K. to U.S. The output caps are bypassed with an 8.2nF Sonicap Gen II from Sonic Craft in Texas, and I have their .022uF Sonicap Gen I in C3. I’ve never tried those before either. I was ordering some resistors from them and decided to check out what they had for caps, and they also had favorable reviews, from what I found. I had fun with this one, trying to stray from sourcing the same stuff that I’m familiar with.

I haven’t done any sweeps in REW yet. I know it sounds great enough for now, and I want to try it out in a studio setting for a while and see if I notice anything that may warrant some sweeps and investigating.

That’s amazing!! Beautiful.
Inspiration to mine half built!

Did the transformers go to the rear of the case to address an issue? Obviously it’s always good to see Sowters!

You did Squish! Does it sound cool or useful?

Thank you! I mounted them to the rear panel solely to buy myself some real estate. I lay everything out in AutoCAD first, so I could tell it was gonna be tight in there, and when I designed the rear panel layout I accounted for them to be on there. It also kept the wires from the PCB right above to them super short. On my D-LA2A that I also just finished, I mounted the input and output Sowters on the rear panel because the plugs to/from them are on the rear of the PCB and it kept those wires as short as possible. I’ll be shooting photos of it and posting them in that thread tomorrow.

The Squish is great! I honestly initially added it because the front panel needed more stuff on it to fill it out a little more. It’s almost like having a fine output trim, and I used a polyester cap there for a little extra “vibe”, as they say.

 

[TwentyTrees]

Fantastic build, great work! I love the striking colour scheme, loads of unique visual details in this. Hats off!

 

[TillM]

@thelivingroom
What a fantastic build ! Really nice work!

 

[ElSmurf]

@thelivingroom Gorgeous build, and I love the unapologetic orange front panel. Beautiful design and font usage as well.

 

[thelivingroom]

Fantastic build, great work! I love the striking colour scheme, loads of unique visual details in this. Hats off!

@thelivingroom
What a fantastic build ! Really nice work!

@thelivingroom Gorgeous build, and I love the unapologetic orange front panel. Beautiful design and font usage as well.

Thank you all so much for the compliments!

 

[thelivingroom]

I finally was able to finish my Orange 86. It’s the most expensive and heaviest project I’ve built to date haha. I haven’t had a chance to use it on a session yet, but listening to music through it sounds wonderful, even when testing the DI by sending the signal through my reamp box then out of that into the jacks. I’m very happy with it, and glad I went for the orangesicle aesthetic. Thank you @guavatone for this project!

While waiting for the front panel to arrive I tested the relay circuits, and didn’t like how the LED’s would dim more and more as each relay was turned on. I drew up a little addendum PCB to regulate the 24v coming out of the PSU and had it made, then changed the 12v relays I had on the front panel to 24v as well, pulled all of the 12v-related parts out of the PSU PCB, and jumped R12. I also went with ultra bright LED’s and run them at about 1mA, so all eight hi-sense relays and five LED’s draw less than 100mA total.

I also went for the Antek AS-05T280 (smaller of the two Anteks in the BOM) because I wanted to use their CA-050 steel cover, and it works perfectly. I’m getting 300 and 297 volts at the power link without tubes, and 291 and 288 with the tubes in. Heaters are rock solid 6.33v. I bought the other Antek just in case, and it is massive.

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A little update on my build:

I noticed it was brighter when listening to music through it via the internal line pad (7.5k x2 and 150R resistors) vs. using pad off with my external barrel pads that have the same value resistors in them, so I assumed that the internal pad being after the phantom resistors (the only difference between the two) was affecting the frequency response, and decided to do some sweeps and investigating. Turns out it was down 1.8dB at 20kHz with +4dBu through the barrel pads, as well as with pad off, the input strapped with 150R, and sending low level sweeps out of my generator. Phase shift was also happening, starting around 5kHz. With the internal line pad it was up 2.3dB at 20kHz! I started scoping and the loss of HF with no pad started right at the top, at the input transformer secondary (Sowter 9970). Assuming it was the Zobel (450pF and 10k), I removed C-Z and R-Z and it was now up almost 1dB at 20kHz. Whew! I tacked wires to C-Z and R-Z and ran R-Z to a 50k pot and C-Z to a breadboard to be able to swap caps and started tweaking it with 5 and 10kHz square waves. Once I got it looking better I started doing more sweeps and minor tweaking and ended up with C-Z now being a 150pF polystyrene, and R-Z 15k. It’s dead flat now from 50Hz-20kHz, and only up .2dB at 30Hz. Phase shift is gone and the already low THD and noise floor improved a tad more, too. I would have never been able to correct that had it not been for the knowledge I’ve gained by searching things on this site and reading them over and over until it finally sinks in, so thank you to all the smart people on here for sharing your brains! To address the internal line pad issue, I reluctantly removed the PCB from the Lorlins and changed the 7.5k (R9&10) to 4.7k. It was now closer to flat response. I changed the 150R (R8) to 220R, and the internal line pad is also now totally flat. It’s around a -33dB line pad. Good enough! The high end sounds noticeably nicer now listening to music through it, and it sounds the same whether using the external barrel pads or internal line pad. I’m blown away by how phenomenal this thing sounds!

While I had it apart I also changed the R6 100k 2W plate resistor to a TKD CM2 and the R14 8.2k 5W plate resistor to an NOS Mills MRA-5 non-inductive wirewound, for the hell of it.

 

[TimG]

Did you say what transformer you used? Is it specially shielded?

I’m in the unique position of choosing the power transformer for my Orange 86 pair.
I was still drinking a lot when I was shopping for these!
I tested the PSU with the Edcor very briefly. Because it’s blue.

What would you choose for a pair of Redds, anticipating one more single channel before I’m done with Orange86?
These are all from Charlie’s BOM or his threads on here.

Is one less prone to cause interference? I have a big case.

Would one be better for other projects?

Thanks

 

[thelivingroom]

Did you say what transformer you used? Is it specially shielded?

I’m in the unique position of choosing the power transformer for my Orange 86 pair.
I was still drinking a lot when I was shopping for these!
I tested the PSU with the Edcor very briefly. Because it’s blue.

What would you choose for a pair of Redds, anticipating one more single channel before I’m done with Orange86?
These are all from Charlie’s BOM or his threads on here.

Is one less prone to cause interference? I have a big case.

Would one be better for other projects?

Thanks

Yessir, from my original post:

“I also went for the Antek AS-05T280 (smaller of the two Anteks in the BOM) because I wanted to use their CA-050 steel cover, and it works perfectly. I’m getting 300 and 297 volts at the power link without tubes, and 291 and 288 with the tubes in. Heaters are rock solid 6.33v. I bought the other Antek just in case, and it is massive.”

I initially considered the Edcor, because it is pretty and I love orange and blue together haha. If you go that route I’d hang it off the back to reduce noise. I ultimately chose the Antek because I think toroids are quieter, they’re made in the U.S., are extremely affordable, have static shield between primary and secondary and magnetic shield around the outside, and I had never tried one from them before. The cover probably helps even more with shielding, and looks super clean. I’m very happy with the choice so far!