The Burning Amp DIY Convention was held on Saturday, October 17, 2015 in Redwood City, California. DIY’ers from all over the world attended. Some of the items shown were components where you can buy the parts and make the product, while others can be ordered all put together. Some were just unusual items that the exhibitor wanted to show but were not for sale. It was a very interesting meeting, attended by such notables as Nelson Pass.
This is a vintage 1974 four-channel Sansui integrated amplifier (called “Quad” in the old days). Vinyl had all four channels embedded in the groove. The fad didn’t last long, so these amps are very collectible.
SET 6BQ5 stereo power amp.
Mark Audio Alpair 12P. Composite enclosure minimizes resonance.
The Metronome tower speaker using a single Fostex FE127E driver.
Description of amp shown below.
See description above.
A stereo power amp designed by John Eckland. Note that output transformers are iron core. The lecturer in previous photo said never to use toroidal output transformers due to their gapless design which saturates more quickly than iron core.
Close-up of speaker shown in the second photo below.
Ask your wife to sign a consent form before you put these speakers in your living room.
On the back of this power amp it says, “Good luck with this thing”.
A lecture on tube amplifier design.
Sercona Audio remote control.
Close-up of products in second photo below.
Various Sercona Audio products.
Close-up of tone arm mechanics.
Modified Linn LP-12 turntable.
Monoblock power amps. Each one is about 6 inches wide.
Desktop wedge speakers.
Concentric woofer, midrange, and tweeter deliver point source sound.
Fantastic Indian food for lunch.
Aleph-X 115 watt pure class a power amp. $700 for the parts. www.diyaudio.com.
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AMB line preamp with relay based attenuator (volume control). www.amb.org.
AMB Y3 DUAL dual differential DAC.
Circuit for AMB amp shown in the second photo below.
AMB differential power amp.
Audio Audiistry speakers. $2,000 for the parts to build a pair. These would cost $20,000 if sold commercially.
The Burning Man DIY Audio Fest will be held here in Redwood City again next year.