Battery PS Heaven

[q]

To be honest I wasn't expecting this level of performance. I am glad I ordered 2 of them for sure.
Thanks to you all for this insanely easy awesome product. The tubes need some vibration control which is an easy fix. This problem was greatly reduced by me digging out my old Misson Iso-plat. Thought I'd never use the silly thing again, glad I didn't toss it. Sometimes it's good to be a pack rat?!
Any way here she is resting in the Foreplay 3 surround



 The Foreplay needs another round of trouble shooting. I didn’t think the Quickie should sound dramatically better than the Foreplay. After completing the Quickie, “so quick” and after hearing it on my 2nd best system. My confidence in troubleshooting/kit building has been restored

The system
Just a simple Sony RDRGX315 (DVD Recorder)
SPIDF Coaxial out to a Monica3 DAC
Quickie feeding two Charlize monoblks (Obbligato oil caps and SLA battery Power supplies)
Nothing special as far as wire goes.

The speakers


Now these are the infamous Visaton B200’s with a Hawthorne Audio 10” “Auggie
No filter or crossover of any kind on the B200’s (yes I’m living dangerously)
The Auggies are being driven by a plate amp and handle everything under 200hz (12db slope)
Some of you out there may be familiar with the visatons and there nasty little spike. They are however worth the effort to tame them. The problem in my most humble opinion is that when passive filters are used these drivers lose some life. Active is the way to go for sure with these However, the equipment I can afford/used is not all that transparent they are in need of some serious mods . I’ve tried the Behringer boxes and also a Firewire 410 with the Allocator (software active crossover). These all had there ups and downs and I still have the Firewire/Allocator in the upstairs listening/laboratory/guy space attic.

  Before the Quickie I had a DIY passive pre which did a grate job and the sound was fine but the visatons were shouting at me a bit. I always have a good indication when something needs a little more work. That would be the Mrs.

 The room the system is in the parlor so the wife is vested in what ever goes in there. She has a favorite system and that is my old Cyrus2 integrated/Epos 14’s. I know when something is good when I’m aloud to take the Epos out of the mix. I’ll never be aloud to sell them or modify them in anyway (“these are mine”). Well that’s not total true I was aloud to (after demonstrating) replace the Tweeter’s cap. The Epos has a very complicated crossover….not!
There is a cap on the tweeter and that’s it.

Ok, sorry, starting to ramble.

What is so surprising to me is after adding the Quickie to the system I feel no need to alter anything and I don’t understand how this thing has fixed a whole bunch of the problems with the system prior!

One last thing, I’d like to order a 3rd one for lowpass duties. I’ve seen the thread on making a headphone amp out of the Quickie and greatly appreciate you guys making that available to noobs like me. Can someone provide the instructions on how to make a Lowpass Quickie please and thank you.

Cheers and dark beers
q

[Grainger49]

I'm convinced, without an audition, the magic is in the power supply having no AC.  Just my gut feeling.  I use an Ack! dAck! that uses +/-12V batteries for the power supply.  It is very open and clean.

BTW, nice build and a great dog!

[q]

I'm convinced, without an audition, the magic is in the power supply having no AC.  Just my gut feeling.  I use an Ack! dAck! that uses +/-12V batteries for the power supply.  It is very open and clean.

Agreeeeeed! I've tried differant PS fro the Charlize amps and hands down the SLA batteries are the best
Now if there was a battery power amp/with glass...hehehe                       

BTW, nice build and a great dog!

That's Bear is she says thank you ..ah oh dogs talking to me again, time for my meds
q

[Len]

One last thing, I’d like to order a 3rd one for lowpass duties. I’ve seen the thread on making a headphone amp out of the Quickie and greatly appreciate you guys making that available to noobs like me. Can someone provide the instructions on how to make a Lowpass Quickie please and thank you.

I was going to post my low pass Quickie setup yesterday but got buried in work at home.

Most people won't do it like me, so others should post. I am  using an old Sound Practices article to get values for an LC filter. The low pass has no cap in the signal path (besides the Quickie parafeed cap, and I plan to upgrade from autoformers to a 4K:500 when I find them in order to get rid of that cap).

What I'm doing: regular Quickie setup except:

1. No switch a the input. Instead I'm just wiring the two RCA's together, using one for the input and taking the full range off the other. I don't know if the drain due to the Quickie pot messes anything up.

2. Use the Speco's for outputs at the 1K taps (don't snip them off at normal installation!) From there I am going to 1H chokes to the output, with (IIRC) 2.65 uF caps to ground after the chokes. After that I have 500 ohm resistors to ground. So there is 500 ohm input impedance and 500 ohm output impedance. Low pass at these values is 127 Hz. The small chokes go on standoffs near the output RCA's. You can straddle them if you are not putting in plate chokes. Otherwise take the plate chokes and LP chokes and set them at 90 degrees to each other and use one standoff for the corner, and two more standoffs for each channel. Arrange them by eye.

I thought about putting in a linear pot and making it an adjustable RC filter, then decided that I would get or wind some autoformers for an adjustable LC instead. That way there is adjustable volume and frequency and no cap in the path. It will work great to compensate for the whatchamacallit effect (where bass volume subjectively changes with system volume. I'm at work and I forgot the term).

I also drilled a 1/8" hole right before the power switch. A red LED fits into that hole nicely. Positive of the LED goes to the 36V input and negative goes to the switch. I has to be done early, before the Quickie caps are put in. That was PJ's suggestion as a power indicator.

EDIT: I forgot: If you put in the plate chokes, then change to the Speco 500 ohm taps. So don't cut them off either!

[q]

Wow thanks so much for sharing
It will take a noob like me awhile to digest this info and when you get a chance some pics would help (went to California Public School so I do better with pictures). 127hz is almost perfect for the B200's and the Auggies. I could probably dial them in with more width across the B200's. Oh no more baffle building
thx again can't thank you enough
q

[Caucasian Blackplate]

I'm convinced, without an audition, the magic is in the power supply having no AC.  Just my gut feeling.  I use an Ack! dAck! that uses +/-12V batteries for the power supply.  It is very open and clean.

BTW, nice build and a great dog!

A big part of the magic is also, IMO, that the tubes are directly heated.  The batteries seem to really polish that off, as there is no complicated and expensive DC supply, although the modification bug is hitting me, and I think I am going to build a Quickie in the coming weeks with an AC power supply, just to do it.

-Paul

[Grainger49]

I will be eagerly awaiting your report on the AC PS.

[Len]

... when you get a chance some pics would help

Not a problem. It's nice when others duplicate my mistakes :-)

I'll try to get to it next weekend, though it may take another weekend if things get hectic.

This is for low pass only. I'm taking out the high pass portion, since I want my Lowthers to run full range. I'll need to drop the LP frequency later on to between 80 and 100 Hz, but by then maybe I'll have the adjustable setup. If you want a full crossover, you'll need 2 quickies (maybe on one chassis?). I can send you schematics for both with the pics.

The chokes could be hard to find. I got mine from Heybour or something like that. I'll look it up if you need it.

Hopefully, we can contact each other through an email function here.

[Grainger49]

You should be able to Private Message (PM) any other poster here by clicking on his/her Moniker.  Then exchange email addresses.

[q]

[[/quote]

This is for low pass only. I'm taking out the high pass portion, since I want my Lowthers to run full range. I'll need to drop the LP frequency later on to between 80 and 100 Hz, but by then maybe I'll have the adjustable setup. If you want a full crossover, you'll need 2 quickies (maybe on one chassis?). I can send you schematics for both with the pics.

The chokes could be hard to find. I got mine from Heybour or something like that. I'll look it up if you need it.

Hopefully, we can contact each other through an email function here.

[/quote]

Great minds think alike mate!
I love the B200's to run fullrange. The system I have the Quickie in is not my best system. My best drivers is a pair of Hawthorne Audio Sterling's and they need to run full range. Basically all of the fullrange drivers i've tried are best when they are allowed to run unfiltered
AN8's Hawthorne Siver Irises Fostex FE166E etc.
thx
q

[Len]

... when you get a chance some pics would help

I hope this pic comes through. It's 128K worth of my original sketch.

[Len]

You should be able to Private Message (PM) any other poster here by clicking on his/her Moniker.  Then exchange email addresses.

Thanks Grainger. I found it after you let me know to search for it.

[Paul Joppa]

I hope this pic comes through. It's 128K worth of my original sketch.

Guess I should point out that you must leave the high-pass section in if you want to retain the 500 ohm impedance as presented to the source (Quickie). You don't have to use it - go ahead and take the output to the fullrange in parallel with the input. But the highpass section acts like a Zobel to keep the impedance of the whole crossover constant.

As shown, the lowpass 500 ohm load will pull the Quickie output down about 3-4dB in the bass, but unload it above the crossover for full output. So there will be a modest shelving filter going to the fullrange.

[Len]

I hope this pic comes through. It's 128K worth of my original sketch.

Guess I should point out that you must leave the high-pass section in if you want to retain the 500 ohm impedance as presented to the source (Quickie). You don't have to use it - go ahead and take the output to the fullrange in parallel with the input. But the highpass section acts like a Zobel to keep the impedance of the whole crossover constant.

As shown, the lowpass 500 ohm load will pull the Quickie output down about 3-4dB in the bass, but unload it above the crossover for full output. So there will be a modest shelving filter going to the fullrange.

Thanks Paul!

It's still sitting on my bench at home, so I can put the high pass section back in.

The shelving effect is the reason for the Quickie. I get to boost the low end back up using the Quickie, which goes to Paraglow II's, and send the full range to the Excite II's, which go to the lowther front horns. As a bonus I get to adjust the low end for different listening volumes. Speaker leads from the Paraglow II's to the pi cornerhorns get swapped, since the Quickie inverts (since it's only one triode stage). I hope I'm getting this right.

I guess then an adjustable low pass using an autoformer would be pretty complex.

Thanks again for trying to keep me out of trouble.

EDIT: Oh! I missed that you said there is a shelving that goes to the LOWTHERS! That actually should help pull a little load of the paper cones and add some clarity. I was assuming you meant that the low passed signal was cut by about 3.5db, which was the reason for the Quickie. Still, it all works.

Do you have room here for a short explanation of why the full range output gets a drop below the LP frequency?

[Len]

One last thing, I’d like to order a 3rd one for lowpass duties. I’ve seen the thread on making a headphone amp out of the Quickie and greatly appreciate you guys making that available to noobs like me. Can someone provide the instructions on how to make a Lowpass Quickie please and thank you.

Hey q,

Here is a pic of my low pass Quickie without the low pass chokes and caps mounted. Once they get mounted, you won't be able to see any of the wiring underneath.

Hopefully, you can see the LED off the power switch, the 8 standoffs, the modified input wiring, the way the output caps are mounted, and the fact that I am using the Speco's 1K taps to get the 500 ohm input impedance.

Hopefully next weekend I'll post the finished pic and my opinion of how it compares with just the passive crossover.