diy amp builds
With a few members building amps based on Colin's seca i would be interested in their thoughts regard boutique parts and the potential effect on sound quality. I have my 20w back now and after the transport mishap it was recapped with elna silmic uprated caps . These have a 100 to 200 hour run in period so mine have a way to go before a proper evaluation can be done from memory of course. What interests me is can my amp be improved with uprated parts and cable etc. When one looks at the likes of audionote and their basic circuit being enhanced with boutique parts silver cable and the like is it worth it or balls.
Chris
Comments
I find choosing the nicest color seems to work well.
The samwha WF are lovely !
To start, the design is different to the ID25. For one thing the power supply capacitors are not mounted on the PCB in my case. I had some large, very good (though apparently overpriced) capacitors from a previous project which were installed, Colin said these would provide very good bass (I think we measured the amp as -3dB at 5hz during setup). But we could have done as well or better for less money, we only used Kendeils because I already had them.
However, he made me sell my Avondale full wave bridge rectifiers I had bought at £50 a go because they were unsuitable in this circuit, in place of something much cheaper more widely available. Not boutique at all in fact. As the man says, it's about how well you (or in my case, someone else) understands the circuit and then using the most appropriate part, not the most expensive.
Elsewhere on the circuit, the specification was mostly for very high, even over-specced components. In other places Col was happy for an appropriate cheaper part to be used as it would usually perform in that application better than anything else (I especially liked the ingenious voltage regulators at under a pound each).
I would have loved to put in really top end transformers and internal TQ wiring loom etc etc, but the gains could end up being minimal for the amount it would cost (it would have doubled the cost of the project). I already have one of the finest sounding amplifiers around so I'm not going to worry about it. You are probably in a similar situation.
My 'baby blob' SECA is another amplifier, only 10W, was made out of old scrap parts and hammerite (it really looks like it should be installed in an early Land rover defender), and it saw off an NVA statement stereo amplifier easily. It was made of scrap parts. So I don't think boutique components are anything to fret about.
A far greater improvement came later when Colin performed a little upgrade (it took all of two minutes), which definately did not involve fitting boutique parts.
Later on, I rewired the volume pots & selector switched with TQ wire (I had a very sort set of black cables with I cannibalized), and I think I noticed a difference. It wasn't night & day though.
But in it's final form, Maggie wipes the floor with my previous Lightspeed LDR pre, so it all added up to something.