The backing away from DIY stuff continues. The missus didn't think I meant it. She does, however, believe me now.
Having built the twin power supply NVA clone courtesy of Richard's boards a few years ago, I'd also built my Phono 1 into the amp, making it an old school fully functional integrated with phono capability.
Yesterday I was listening to vinyl, via the valve amp and Fane full-rangers when the left channel disappeared. After much cursing, plugging, re-plugging and a process of elimination, the fault was traced to the MoFi StudioPhono itself, which had failed on one channel.
Going inside the thing revealed a board, stuffed with surface mount components. Even the op-amps were surface mount devices, so that was that with regard to repairing the thing.
Back to the NVA clone and despite attenuating the input and, playing with the feedback, the damned thing was still too loud for my 100dB efficient Fanes, but it was the only way now that I was going to be able play any records. I'm not exactly rolling in phono stages.
To cut a long story short, I got pissed off with the racket, so decided to look for a pair of speakers more suited to the characteristics of the NVA. Like it or not, the NVA amp is not really a match for big, hi-efficiency speakers. Even Richard acknowledged that.
The Fanes go so loud on a whiff of throttle, that the NVA never really gets to warm up. I've never got the heatsinks above stone cold with the Fanes, which to me must be preventing the amp from giving its best performance, given the fact that Richard always emphasised the importance of a warmed through amplifier.
Anyhow, our Ant came up with a pair of little 1996 vintage Mission 731i speakers that had been stored for ten years at his place. He'd completely forgotten how he had acquired them and they were frankly in a filthy state, but I took them off his hands, brought them home and set about them with soft bristled brush for the bass driver and a tin of Pledge for the case.
They cleaned up a treat and worked when plugged in, after a test for shorts across the input terminals gave the same DC resistance on each speaker. They were advertised as 89dB efficient but are actually around 86dB/W and the attenuated NVA had to be wound to 2 o'clock on the volume control for decent volume. The attenuators were removed, restoring the amp to original spec.
I must say, with the NVA driving them, they are brilliant little speakers, especially for nowt. I love them. So does the NVA.
The Fanes will be retired once I have made some stands for the Missions at the weekend.
Now the heatsinks get warm and the NVA clone sounds better than I have ever heard it. A good result all round I'd say.
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They won’t be at Owston. I know the opinion held by you lot about ‘boof boof boof’ pretend bass from little ported speakers.
You’ve been trying to get away from it for years, and here I am embracing it. What have I done?