Topless Photos (of equipment)

I'm dusting off the old amps I figured I'd share some photos with you guys.. as a car guy I like to look under the hood.. anyone else clean thier equipment, any good photos to share? In the theme of cars I will attempt to caption the photos as a car magazine would:

http://www.gostrategic.com/1clean.jpg
Check out that American made solid state goodness mmm..


http://www.gostrategic.com/2clean.jpg
The blinding sparkle of 44 amplifier chips lined up like the start of the daytona 500.


http://www.gostrategic.com/3clean.jpg
Over 300wpc of class A fire power into 4 ohms waiting on a hair trigger


http://www.gostrategic.com/4clean.jpg
Massive toroidal units and over 160,000mf of caps convert 20 Amps of AC current into 8 7 amp circuits to power the hungry chips


http://www.gostrategic.com/5clean.jpg
One of these transformers buzzes, and it anoys the **** out of me.

Here are some pics of my Sonic Frontiers LINE 1 preamp ...

http://ca.geocities.com/w_d_bailey/S...rsLINE1wRC.jpg


An inside view. The LINE 1 is fully balanced design: left to right are input, gain, and cathode follower tubes for each channel. Shown here are the orignal Sovtek 6922 tubes ...

http://ca.geocities.com/w_d_bailey/S...ne1-inside.jpg


Here are the older model Amperex 6922 'PQ' tubes I'm now using at the gain stage; (front & back of tubes) ...


http://ca.geocities.com/w_d_bailey/AmperexPQ.JPG


And here ar the newer model Amperex 6922/E88CC 'PQ' I'm using at the input stage ...

http://ca.geocities.com/w_d_bailey/Amperex-new1.JPG

Very nice, but where are the pic's of the topless babes to go along with all that power!

well, I just couldn't resist opening up my Mc :)

http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/...0/IMG_0672.jpg

http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/...0/IMG_0673.jpg

built pretty impressive for a 100Watt @ 4 ohms integrated :)
2X 30,000 µF caps
BIG tranny :p
seperate power supply for the pre, hidden below the preamp stage, maybe you can see it...

sorry for the dust in the pics, photocamera just seems to enlarge the dust...

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

Bert: Real nice setup integrated or not, also for some reason I thought you were using tubes.

Feanor: That's a heck of a nice preamp, but that remote is just goofy looking.

Cool pics so far guys...

'81 Stasis 3 after replacing the Mallory caps. 32 Motorola 150w outputs in T0-3 case for 100 watts / channel obviates need for protection circuitry



'95 Audio Research SP-9 MK III hybrid preamp. Multicap polystyrene capacitors used exclusively in signal path.

http://home.cablelynx.com/~rhw/audio/sp9main.jpg

'01 VTL MB-450 mono amp. Not much on looks, but 300 watts of pure bliss. Not crazy over color of Harmonic Tech Magic power cord, but they remove a veil over stock.



'02 GamuT CD-1 with separate power supplies for analog and digital sections.

http://home.cablelynx.com/~rhw/audio/gamut1.jpg

rw

how would you go about cleaning a CD player, as to not mess it up real bad?

I've got that old 90's kinergetics coming in tomorrow and I am going to need to give it a tune up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by E-Stat

Cool pics so far guys...

'81 Stasis 3 after replacing the Mallory caps. 32 Motorola 150w outputs in T0-3 case for 100 watts / channel obviates need for protection circuitry
...

'95 Audio Research SP-9 MK III hybrid preamp. Multicap polystyrene capacitors used exclusively in signal path.
...

'01 VTL MB-450 mono amp. Not much on looks, but 300 watts of pure bliss. Not crazy over color of Harmonic Tech Magic power cord, but they remove a veil over stock.

http://home.cablelynx.com/~rhw/audio/vtl.jpg

'02 GamuT CD-1 with separate power supplies for analog and digital sections.
...

rw

---

What's that pile of stuff on top of the transformer?

Actually, the LINE 1 remote is very handy despite its "hockey puck" appearance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by basite

well, I just couldn't resist opening up my Mc :)

...

built pretty impressive for a 100Watt @ 4 ohms integrated :)
2X 30,000 µF caps
BIG tranny :p
seperate power supply for the pre, hidden below the preamp stage, maybe you can see it...
...
Bert.

---

Nice pics, and I have a soft spot for McIntosh.

But my Monarchy pair has 8 x 15,000 µF for 120wpc @ 4ohms, a total of 120,000 µF. (Sorry, this is only a stock photo: real thing to follow soon.)
...

Looking at many of these pics, I just love how some highend equipment looks like you could put it together in an afternoon with some solder and a spool of wire. Just really eliganent solutions that are time proven and tweeked to perfection. Also I guess it helps to make things nice and neat when each compent is a single purpose device.

In particular the layout of estat's CD-1 is just crazy.. transport, dac, power supply, output stage all there easy to spot.. it's like looking at an old carbed V8.. if you can't see it when you pop the hood it ain't there.

http://www.spydernation.com/images/m2200.jpg

http://www.spydernation.com/images/ava550.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Feanor

What's that pile of stuff on top of the transformer?

---

Looks like a homemade damping device for the transformer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Feanor

What's that pile of stuff on top of the transformer?

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DIY VPI Magic Brick EMF trap. Toroids have lower EMF leakage, but getting them in 550v is price prohibitive.

rw

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Feanor

But my Monarchy pair has 8 x 15,000 µF for 120wpc @ 4ohms, a total of 120,000 µF.

---

Very elegant layout.

rw

This is a way to win the argument over the importance of "high end" speaker cables.
Show them the wiring on the other side of the cabinet that those cables run into.
And a clean simple design doesnt always mean a good device, but that is usually
the case:1:

http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/...icture_140.jpg

http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/...icture_142.jpg



I just love my VTL TP-2.5. I would have to go up to Aesthetix Rhea to replace this one.

JRA

Quote:

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Originally Posted by E-Stat

'95 Audio Research SP-9 MK III hybrid preamp. Multicap polystyrene capacitors used exclusively in signal path.

---

That is one fine looking preamp. I've always thought ARC stuff looked bland on the inside, but this one is loaded.
Good stuff.
JRA

VERY nice!

My Audio Research Classic 150 is a little shy about going topless around so many leering eyes - NOT! The Maidstone's bum (left speaker) is just visible

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b6...0/DSC00835.jpg

The Audio Research Classic 120, although much smaller than the 150 is still a substantial beast weighing close to 80lbs. Here is one of the monoblocks without a top

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b6...0/DSC00823.jpg

Great pics in this thread so far. :thumbsup: Break out the digital cameras and keep 'em coming. Here's my contribution:


Classé CA-300. Main power supply employs thirty-six 4,700 uf caps totalling 169,200 uf versus traditional beer can sized caps. 1.9kVA tranny.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-5/191557/mod0.jpg

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-5/191557/mod1.jpg

PS caps are stacked in two tiers under the main board:

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-5/191557/mod2.jpg

Classé CP-50 preamp.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-5/191557/mod3.jpg

Marantz Reference SA-11S2 SACD player.


http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-5/191557/mod5.jpg

Pioneer SA-7100
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-...SA-7100_04.jpg

SAE-2400

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-...AE-2400_09.jpg

Phase Linear 400 Series 2

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-...57/pl42_06.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Glen B

Here's my contribution:

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And a great contribution at that. Cool pics indeed. I found your walk through time interesting. You can see a clear difference between the seventies stuff to the ultra clean layout of the Classe with its low ESR power supply approach. The SA-7100 reminds me of the innards of my TX-6200 tuner.

rw

slick stuff! keep 'em coming!
(I probably won't post mine, I ain't even have a proper power supply!)

Crown Xti1000 on the left and xti2000 right

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m...t/IMG_3146.jpg

xti2000
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m...t/IMG_3115.jpg

I have to admit, O'Shag's topless photos made it move a little bit. Got a little chub.