Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity - John E. Johnson, Jr.

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.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

SET 6BQ5 stereo power amp.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Mark Audio Alpair 12P. Composite enclosure minimizes resonance.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

The Metronome tower speaker using a single Fostex FE127E driver.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

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Description of amp shown below.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

See description above.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

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.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Close-up of speaker shown in the second photo below.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Ask your wife to sign a consent form before you put these speakers in your living room.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

On the back of this power amp it says, “Good luck with this thing”.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

A lecture on tube amplifier design.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Sercona Audio remote control.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Close-up of products in second photo below.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Various Sercona Audio products.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Close-up of tone arm mechanics.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Modified Linn LP-12 turntable.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Monoblock power amps. Each one is about 6 inches wide.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Desktop wedge speakers.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Concentric woofer, midrange, and tweeter deliver point source sound.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Fantastic Indian food for lunch.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Aleph-X 115 watt pure class a power amp. $700 for the parts. www.diyaudio.com.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

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AMB line preamp with relay based attenuator (volume control). www.amb.org.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

AMB Y3 DUAL dual differential DAC.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Circuit for AMB amp shown in the second photo below.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

AMB differential power amp.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

Audio Audiistry speakers. $2,000 for the parts to build a pair. These would cost $20,000 if sold commercially.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting

 

The Burning Man DIY Audio Fest will be held here in Redwood City again next year.

2015 Burning Amp DIY Meeting