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It looks like one could enlarge the transformer holes to add an extra set of those nice Neutrik rca jacks.

Have the caps values been defined? What are types the stock ones?
 
xcortes said:
It looks like one could enlarge the transformer holes to add an extra set of those nice Neutrik rca jacks.

Have the caps values been defined? What are types the stock ones?

Hmm, I suppose you could enlarge those holes if you wanted.  Getting everything perfectly aligned by hand drilling can be frustrating.  Standard insulated gold RCA jacks should fit in those holes. 

The caps are 10uF/250V stock.  Two will dominate the sonics of the single ended outputs, and all four the balanced output.  200V is a sufficiently high voltage rating for these caps.
 
By the way that cap value was arrived at empirically by measuring bass response with cap values ranging over about 1uF to 20uF. Anything below 10uF was where we saw some bass roll off into lower impedance loads.
 
I plan to try some Audiocap film and foil caps next week. Right now I am experimenting with rearranging the positions of the drivers in my speakers after a listening session on Friday. Some new, slightly lower seating seemed to make the image kind of high in the room. I have to redo time alignment and trim levels, then we will do some comparison of the stock metallized caps vs. Audiocaps.
 

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The Bee looks awesome Dan!
And you got some comfy looking seating for listening. Once you get it all dialed in, folks are never gonna want ta leave!
 
pdxgrampa said:
And... the 6.4 x 10 to the fourth question....is there an expected ship date Doc?

Packing has begun, and the manual is at about 60% completion (steps being photography, draft writing, photo editing, and text editing, we are at photo/text editing right now).
 
Doc B. said:
I plan to try some Audiocap film and foil caps next week. Right now I am experimenting with rearranging the positions of the drivers in my speakers after a listening session on Friday. Some new, slightly lower seating seemed to make the image kind of high in the room. I have to redo time alignment and trim levels, then we will do some comparison of the stock metallized caps vs. Audiocaps.
Where did you get the shelving that
 
I can confirm those are IKEA Expedit...great for LP's, easy to assemble.  Lots of posts on the Vinyl Asylum about them.  Two thumbs up, as far as I"m concerned.
 
Well, after a lot of consideration the compromises I'd have to make to my system in order to dedicate the top shelf of the rack to the BeePre, it's probably something I just can't dco right now.

Of course I still have no idea how good my BH custom preamp will sound, but I'm certain it will be fantastic.

I think my best bet is to go with what my gut is telling me, and that is a pair of 2a3 paramounts for the Nagas.  BeePre will have to be a project for later.  In the mean time I'm going to be watching and listening to what all the new BeePre owners have to say.

-- Jim


Jim R. said:
Paul -- thanks -- 10" is the max shelf clearance on my rack, so I'd have to check out if my TT could go in that space and the pre on top.  Still pondering...

Hey Aaron, you're right! :-)

I've got to take some time to heal first then I can regroup and plan the next steps.  Looks like Dowdys will be coming next week.

-- Jim
 
Not to confuse the issue  :^)  but the BeePre should work with a 6B4G, which is 1.25" shorter than a 300B.

It needs an octal socket of course, and nobody has tried it or listened to one yet. But I just mention it anyhow.
 
Curse you, Red Barron!  No, sorry, really have to do the paramounts first, but this may be a real possibility for later on unless I decide to build a larger rack at some point.

-- Jim
 
Yes, except that my current rack is a really beautiful piece of handcrafted furniture with specially tuned composit shelves made of 6 types of woodd and 4 kinds of glue.  Mortise and tenon joints all around and not at all inexpensive.  And yes, I can definitely hear a difference in sound quality with this rack.

As I said, maybe someday...

-- Jim
 
Well, I am 45 minutes into proofreading the complete draft of the BeePre manual.  I think that those who are experienced Bottlehead kit builders will appreciate some of the tweaks we have made to make the building process simpler.
 
The gang is totally committed to getting the first BeePres out today. I think they got the first six packed and Eileen is going to run them to the UPS store since we already had our pickup this afternoon. Since we are actually packing and shipping kit, this means any new Bee Pre orders will not be what we would consider pre-orders.  But I will continue the free power cord kit offer thru Sunday to anyone who orders this weekend.
 
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