HiFi Porn!

[shooter]

On sunday the HiFi forum's had an interesting thread resulting MattSPL and myself conversing over HiFi Tuning fuses. We all know how the thread went and as some of you may know i was waiting on my amp being returned from Chord as i was having a new EPROM fitted, (memory chip). We'll its back and no i haven't fitted any HiFi Tuning fuses but i did take the casing off in search of said fuse and took some pictures to show you. Why? Well its a pretty impressive piece of engineering and if you take into account the main chassis is only 30cm wide and 32 cm deep (outside dims), Chord have crammed a lot into that small space. Now i haven't a clue whats inside and yes i found the fuse! but the little information i do know i've put with the pictures. I do know though that some of you out their will and i'll be interested to know how this amp is put together, so please fire away!
Top cover off.

Bottom cover off.

Close up.

Close up (black) of three banks of four high voltage capacitors running at 300 to 350 DC which is chopped into high voltage MOSFETS running at 80khz. (Not really sure what this means!)

 

[chebby]

Doesn't do anything for me.

The Chord QBD76 DAC looks nice.

Some B&O gear looks good too. (In the right surroundings.)

Most hifi is ugly. (I am including my own Naim stuff in that statement.)

The only ways to deal with it seems to be either to reduce box count to minimise the ugliness (active speakers, all-in-one units etc.) or find a nicely styled cabinet with decent ventilation and opaque doors to hide it.

Your Chord is impressively built, but from that angle seems to have a lot of 'oil rig' in the styling inspiration.

 

[shooter]

chebby:
The Chord QBD76 DAC looks nice.

Your Chord is impressively built, but from that angle seems to have a lot of 'oil rig' in the styling inspiration.

It does have that look about it, i will though take a picture when the sun does down with the LED's on show!

 

[drummerman]

A lovely made amplifier. The solid internal speaker connector cable stands out immediately. Kind of makes me wonder why so many others use thin wire to the terminals, some with far more space to play with (and we then try to make it good again by using good quality cable to the speakers ... ).

Anyways, beautiful engineering.

 

[shooter]

drummerman:
A lovely made amplifier. The solid internal speaker connector cable stands out immediately. Kind of makes me wonder why so many others use thin wire to the terminals, some with far more space to play with (and we then try to make it good again by using good quality cable to the speakers ... ).

Anyways, beautiful engineering.

Thanks Drummerman. Yes the copper cable is pretty hefty strand!

I use Kimber's Monocle X speaker cable which is also multi strand copper, to keep it in balance!

 

[MattSPL]

Lovely amp. Nearly bought a chord amp myself a a while back.

 

[Anonymous]

Superb stuff. What speakers and source do you use?

 

[shooter]

Thanks guys.

The speakers i'm using and have been for a while are Totem Mani II signatures. Isobaric Dynaudio drivers toped with a seas tweeter, most enjoyable!
The source is a MF Nu Vista 3D CD and VPI SSM with Dynavector XX-2. Love the turntable, as honest as the day is long and the CD has a nice enjoyable sound to it with the valve output stage. I had that apart today but not as impressive as the amp!

 

[Anonymous]

Some seriously nice kit there. Love the speakers, I'm sure I'd like them.

I'm really pining after a CDP with valve output stage to get rid of any sense of hardness to CD playback.

 

[Craig M.]

thanks for posting, shooter. always nice to see inside kit, especially quality kit like that.

 

[Anonymous]

 

[chebby]

maxflinn:

Unsold items from the Jason King props auction?

 

[shooter]

This is it!

 

[shooter]

Any chance of moving this thread to 'Your System'.

Cheers.

 

[shooter]

igglebert:Some seriously nice kit there. Love the speakers, I'm sure I'd like them.

They sound great, the bass is excellent with the 2 drivers and the Chord power has total control over them.

igglebert: really pining after a CDP with valve output stage to get rid of any sense of hardness to CD playback.

Definitely worth looking into it does make a big difference. The MF has a pretty good soundstage and overall its an enjoyable listen. Joel's CDP is also very good. The guy i bought the amp off had theUnison and rated it highly he was also running B & W 8 series.

 

[Anonymous]

chebby:
maxflinn:

Unsold items from the Jason King props auction?

never heard of him to be honest ...

 

[chebby]

maxflinn:chebby:
maxflinn:

Unsold items from the Jason King props auction?never heard of him to be honest ...

He was a really badly acted detective character in the late 60's/early 70s on ITV.

His on screen persona was a kind of creepy, ageing rou‚. He was one of the inspirations for Austin Powers and the hairstyles sported by the 118-118 blokes.

 

[Anonymous]

ah ok , he sounds like the kind of character that would have em

 

[RCduck7]

I love a bit of porn to, my Chinese tubed MHZS CD88G player weighs 18kgs.

http://www.lampizator.eu/lampizator/REFERENCES/MHZS/MHZS_CD66F.html

my actual pictures...

http://img251.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=dsc00239ou.jpg

My Dussun V8i and multichannel D9 (aka mark levinson red rose, it is the same amp)

http://www.audiocostruzioni.com/r_s/ampli/dussun-v8/dussun-v8.htm

http://bbs.kakaku.com/bbs/-/SortID=9640694/ImageID=320618/

 

[Alantiggger]

Looks nice... what cools the amp ?

 

[D.J.KRIME]

chebby:maxflinn:chebby:

maxflinn:

Unsold items from the Jason King props auction?never heard of him to be honest ...

He was a really badly acted detective character in the late 60's/early 70s on ITV.

His on screen persona was a kind of creepy, ageing rou‚. He was one of the inspirations for Austin Powers and the hairstyles sported by the 118-118 blokes.

 

[RCduck7]

Only the heat sink i guess, it doesn't get very warm suprisingly, certainly not hot.

 

[Anonymous]

D.J.KRIME:chebby:maxflinn:chebby:

maxflinn:

Unsold items from the Jason King props auction?never heard of him to be honest ...

He was a really badly acted detective character in the late 60's/early 70s on ITV.

His on screen persona was a kind of creepy, ageing rou‚. He was one of the inspirations for Austin Powers and the hairstyles sported by the 118-118 blokes.

 

[Zubkabera]

referring iggle's photo I too like the speakers which make/models are these, looks like EB

 

[shooter]

Zubkabera:referring iggle's photo I too like the speakers which make/models are these, looks like EB

They are Totem Mani II signatures. They're pretty short in the looks department but they are far from short in the sound department, and thats where it counts right!

They are isobaric in design which Linn patented in the 70's which basically means the second driver (which both are Dynaudio) is sat directly behind the one facing outwards and mounted magnet to magnet with a small amount of space between them. I'm not sure how much space and i've tried to find out before by having the backs off the speakers to tighten the bolts on the driver inside but couldn't get the cabinets open.
The tweeters are SEAS.
Internally they are veneered to give extra rigidity they are also dampened with layers of borosilicate damping and the cabinets are braced and lock-mitred. Their pretty lightweight but they are deep at 12" but they need to be for the extra driver.

I have them sat on Partington Heavy 2 stands which Partington made especially for the Mani II Sigs but for the european market. For the America's market they have they're own Totem stand the T4L.

I really enjoy these speakers and paired with the amp really work nicely the highs are clear and extended and the lows are low but with no stodginess or boom. They are though a tricky set up and i have found myself moving the speaker an inch here and they're but i think i've found its optimum now and it sounds the business.