AU X1:New and improved phono board F-2772

Here's a video of my AU-X1 with the new phono board playing dire straits.


It works!! And it sounds great!! Thanks Willy!

Everyone listen to it while you can before YouTube party poopers spike it for playing too long.
 
It works!! And it sounds great!! Thanks Willy!

Everyone listen to it while you can before YouTube party poopers spike it for playing too long.
And I don't paint my finger nails pink I die my salmon and steelhead bait pink and the stuff won't come off for a week or two
 
Thanks for that, now I dont need to message you as soon as I thought. I assume you'll get a better price the more you do right?
Makes sense to put it out there....I think they will be a popular board since there are so many of those relays on it...
Excellent work by the way!!

Better price for more depends on the fabricator.

Certainly a Chinese fabricator would be cheaper,
but OSH Park product quality and customer service is downright award winning.

The market for this board is extremely limited. I imagine that there are only about 100 people in the world who might want this board.

So as long as I am serving them up, I will serve up the best. I will stick with OSH Park.

AK does not want forums to be used as a selling platform, and that is not really my intent.
There are PMs and email for that.

Maybe I'll start a point of sale website...hmmm.
 
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Better price for more depends on the fabricator.

Certainly a Chinese fabricator would be cheaper,
but OSH Park product quality and customer service is downright award winning.

The market for this board is extremely limited. I imagine that there are only about 100 people in the world who might want this board.

So as long as I am serving them up, I will serve up the best. I will stick with OSH Park.

AK does not want forums to be used as a selling platform, and that is not really my intent.
There are PMs and email for that.


Maybe I'll start a point of sale website...hmmm.
Agreed, further discussion will be by PM. We do need to abide by the rules.
But thanks for all the information, and personally I have no problem paying for quality

You did very nice job of that board...
 
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Our next order.

OSH Park allows orders of 3 unit batches.

So the smallest order is three boards. Then 6. Then 9.

These boards are much larger than their usual board submissions, so for our 2772 it gets crazy expensive quickly. (At OSH Park at least.)
 
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Yes I want to see if there's much of a difference in sound between the nichicon muse and the elna silmic ll 's.
I was informed that those capacitors are not in the signal path so they won't change the sound at all...Live and learn that's my motto.
 
I was informed that those capacitors are not in the signal path so they won't change the sound at all...Live and learn that's my motto.
The whole point of the X1 is there are no capacitors in the signal path at all, except obviously the RIAA preamps.
You can, from memory select to capacitor couple the power-amp input.
But, still, the filtering for the power supplies and what not will affect noise floor and ultimately the sound to some degree...
 
The whole point of the X1 is there are no capacitors in the signal path at all, except obviously the RIAA preamps.
You can, from memory select to capacitor couple the power-amp input.
But, still, the filtering for the power supplies and what not will affect noise floor and ultimately the sound to some degree...
Since I put those nichicon muse caps in it I might as well leave them there right?
 
I was informed that those capacitors are not in the signal path so they won't change the sound at all...Live and learn that's my motto.

There are other X1 restorations I’ve seen online which used MUSE or other high grade caps in those positions on the F-2772..

I ain’t talking mere novices, amateurs, or hobbyists. (Like me.)

For an example lets look to a true tech with stellar credit, Kale.

upload_2018-7-12_13-22-18.jpeg
Here, as you can see, he uses one of the most well regarded audio grade caps, the Elna Silmic II. These are pricier and a bit harder to source than Nichicon stuff.

You can read his epic X1 restorations ( plural intended ) here http://audiokarma.org/forums/index....o-export-model-plus-restoration.477461/page-2

There are a couple other sites where I’ve seen MUSE or Silmic were used in those positions on that board. So naturally I thought that they were sonic-ly important.

WELL, in the end, I say nothing wrong with overkill if function is not impeded.

Signal path.
From the early 80’s until their demise in the early 2000s , Sansui had the wisdom and grace to mark the signal path in their service manuals using a red line to trace the path. So it became easy to see what components were in the path.

The X1 SM did not do that. It was from an earlier convention. ( You had to know your schit.)
 
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The whole point of the X1 is there are no capacitors in the signal path at all, except obviously the RIAA preamps.

Wow...the X1 has tons of caps in it too.
Any idea how many actually are in the signal path? A rough guess is acceptable to me.
 
In my personal view there are a number of 'audio path' capacitors in various sections of the AU-X1. However in the vast majority of cases these are not for DC blocking, but they do directly influence the audio signal in one way or another. I have my own personal interpretation (right or wrong) of what is signal path and what isn't. As follows, any capacitor that connects to ground, a +ve rail or a -ve rail, at one end doesn't count. In my view to be counted as audio path, such a capacitor needs to be unavoidably involved in passing audio signal to the next stage to be counted as such.

I definitely don't want to go into numbers here, I think I have exposed myself to enough criticism, or even ridicule :rolleyes: for the above comments and personally held views. But hey, if you have a better way of describing an 'audio path' capacitor lets hear it, :bowdown: I am open to any suggestions that will help clarify this often talked about subject. :D

I was informed that those capacitors are not in the signal path so they won't change the sound at all
This^^^ was my advice.

In the case of the capacitors above, they are connected directly across the relay coils, which shouldn't attract the need for 'audio grade' capacitors like Nichicon Muse or Elna Silmic. But you can fit any brand of capacitor you like in there and it will work just fine. I would strongly discourage altering the µF value as I believe they are used to delay switching or relay 'drop out' for a very short time during input switching operations.

As always any constructive comments are welcome.
 
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In my personal view there are a number of 'audio path' capacitors in various sections of the AU-X1. However in the vast majority of cases these are not for DC blocking, but they do directly influence the audio signal in one way or another. I have my own personal interpretation (right or wrong) of what is signal path and what isn't. As follows, any capacitor that connects to ground, a +ve rail or a -ve rail, at one end doesn't count. In my view to be counted as audio path, such a capacitor needs to be unavoidably involved in passing audio signal to the next stage to be counted as such.

I definitely don't want to go into numbers here, I think I have exposed myself to enough criticism, or even ridicule :rolleyes: for the above comments and personally held views. But hey, if you have a better way of describing an 'audio path' capacitor lets hear it, :bowdown: I am open to any suggestions that will help clarify this often talked about subject. :D

This^^^ was my advice.

In the case of the capacitors above, they are connected directly across the relay coils, which shouldn't attract the need for 'audio grade' capacitors like Nichicon Muse or Elna Silmic. But you can fit any brand of capacitor you like in there and it will work just fine. I would strongly discourage altering the µF value as I believe they are used to delay switching or relay 'drop out' for a very short time during input switching operations.

As always any constructive comments are welcome.

Very appreciated this. Thanks.:thumbsup:
 
In my personal view there are a number of 'audio path' capacitors in various sections of the AU-X1. However in the vast majority of cases these are not for DC blocking, but they do directly influence the audio signal in one way or another. I have my own personal interpretation (right or wrong) of what is signal path and what isn't. As follows, any capacitor that connects to ground, a +ve rail or a -ve rail, at one end doesn't count. In my view to be counted as audio path, such a capacitor needs to be unavoidably involved in passing audio signal to the next stage to be counted as such.

I definitely don't want to go into numbers here, I think I have exposed myself to enough criticism, or even ridicule :rolleyes: for the above comments and personally held views. But hey, if you have a better way of describing an 'audio path' capacitor lets hear it, :bowdown: I am open to any suggestions that will help clarify this often talked about subject. :D

This^^^ was my advice.

In the case of the capacitors above, they are connected directly across the relay coils, which shouldn't attract the need for 'audio grade' capacitors like Nichicon Muse or Elna Silmic. But you can fit any brand of capacitor you like in there and it will work just fine. I would strongly discourage altering the µF value as I believe they are used to delay switching or relay 'drop out' for a very short time during input switching operations.

As always any constructive comments are welcome.

John, I should have been a little clearer with my comment. "There are very few caps" in the signal path.

Yes there are a large number of caps in this amp, but few are audio path, most of them are filtering power, which does ultimately affect the sound as I said earlier because they will influence the noise floor..

The ones I can see just by having a quick look, are the MM and MC Head amps, and the flat amp. Nothing in the power amp, not even one cap in the negative feedback not even a little 5pF ceramic, ooooooooo that scares me!!

Not sure what you mean by criticism or ridicule John, none of us have done that.......not much of that happens in this forum...
 
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