Thinking Of Doing Some Mods

[Moko]

Well I've had my Quickie for a year now and its been perfect in every way, but maybe now it might deserve a little bit of extra love.

I was thinking of putting in an Alps RK27 pot, but what value do I need and is there a way when I change this to make the volume control a little less sensitive? With the current pot I never really get past the 8 O Clock setting so by the time its at 10 O clock its far too loud so what can I do to alter this. Unfortunately I have no idea of my power amps sensitivity as it as DIY job that I bought and apart from knowing its an EL34 PP no one so far has recognised the circuit.

Also any recommendations of Output caps to improve the sound / sound stage would be most welcome.

If you could please keep the terms simple that would be a big help as I am no electrical expert (even after building the Quickie)

Thanks in advance.

 

[Paul Joppa]

For the hair-trigger volume control, the best solution is to install an attenuator at the input of the power amp. Usually the main reason not to do that is fear of voiding the warranty; since your power amp is a DIY there should be no problem. You can also install an L-pad at the Quickie input, if your source output is too high. There is an optimal balance somewhere in there. My paper (on the Community page) goes into a lot of details but might be helpful.

 

[matthewmckay]

I replaced bypass caps with elna silmics, and I am very pleased with the results.  The bottom end has tightened up, and I find that the overall presentation appears to have more "authority".  They take a while to burn in, sounding pretty good at first, then doing some really wierd "underwater sounding" type crap for 20 hours or so.  Mine have about 65 hours on them and I am completely enamored with my quickie now.

I also installed an alps blue pot for a while, 30 hours or so, but ended up removing it because it sounded darker and more restricted than the stock pot.  I replaced that with an audio note from parts connexion and found it to be vastly superior in my system.

Another thing you might consider is modifying your amplifier so that the quickie is a better match for it.  I installed some 180k ohm resistors, under PJs suggestion, at the amplifiers input and it has made all the difference in my system.  I splurged a little and had texas components make me some custom nude z-foil resistors for this...  all I can say is that now I understand what all the hype is about.

 

[Wanderer]

If you have not installed a PJCCS consider it.  

I think it really "wakes up" the unit. See my comments under the PJCCS thread.

 

[Moko]

Thanks for the advice so far, I have already fitted the PJCCS which works well

As to attenuators what are they are where do you find them?

Inputs to my Quickie are phono from a linn linto phono stage and a Squezebox connected to a Beresford DAC  so nothing to unusual there I hope so I am not sure if that's the way I should be looking to solve the problem.

Which Audio Note volume pot did you use as it sounds from your post what I could be looking for?

 

[matthewmckay]

Audio note potentiometer

http://www.partsconnexion.com/anote_72544.html


I would also pick up a few pair of NOS 3s4 tubes,  I have settled on two sets that I really enjoy.  Some amperex bugle boy from the 60's for the majority of my listening, rock, electronica, metal, hip-hop...  and a set of 40's tung-sol that have a very seductive mid-range that I like to listen to blues and jazz with.  I buy most of my tubes from tubeworld.com.