Tweakers' Asylum

RE: Regulator Opinions

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This Post Has Been Edited by the Author

In Reply to: RE: Regulator Opinions posted by vesaII on November 23, 2009 at 10:32:30

Hello.
Finally managed to write down test results with Tentlabs, DEXA and Belleson regulators.
For I/V stage Belleson regulators are simply useless. DEXA is much better but do need good caps (used 4x ZA 150uF) on output, otherwise they are so slow you fall a sleep. But with caps they are quite good and musical. Still shunt type is the only way to go if you want The best.
CD transport (5V) is very critical to PS quality. Again Belleson did not impress. Even LT1085 is more musical. DEXA UWB is great in this position! Do not use any cap next to it, but a big heat sink.
Did also 'beading' with Murata(6pcs) stuff on CD transport and changed all electrolytes to ZA:s. Not sure if it helps, but quite easy to complete. Just be careful with those delicate lines.
All shunt regs have now common PS with toroid.
Cooling is improved by louvers on top of a player, just over tubes and regs. And 8cm fan with adjustable speed.

Conclusions:
This player do need best quality tubes to reach its true potential. Mullard NOS is best so far, but Genalex Gold Lion E88CC/6922 is very good tube and cost almost nothing.
Njoe fitted with a Super Clock, AD797 and good electrolytes is better than original Upsampler setup.
Dexa discrete Opamp is again much better than AD 797 and very reasonably priced.
But all mods done here and Bursons with 4x 15V shunt regs makes Njoe Tjoeb to a KILLER!

Looks like i cannot easily improve this great player much more. After some final tuning i will check how it competes with really expensive stuff. Funny to see how many thousands they need to lay down to beat mine humble project. Quite a few i believe.

ps. My experience with Belleson is limited and they may sound very good somewhere else.
pps. Pity i noticed Paul Hynes first now. http://www.paulhynesdesign.com/page6.html
ppps. Hope this helps you and It would be nice to hear of some other HC DIY modified Njoe's and how you have succeed.
Best,
/VK

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