nelsress begins his WOPL 400 project

[nelsress]

How do you do it Joe?

These Jensens now sound as good as the RCA LC-1's sounded on my other amps and, believe me, they're very good but they couldn't touch the LC-1's before. I think the search for the perfect amp for me has just ended after listening to one CD. I read stuff like I'm now saying and knew it would be good but it has exceeded my expectations, as high as they were. These things should be blind tested against all those ultra expensive boutique amps at the CES sometime, it would blow some folks away!

 

[laatsch55]

And with nothing hooked to the amp, the inputs need to be shorted...

 

[nelsress]

It should be a black hole for noise between tracks. Having your amp on top of your preamp may not be the right thing to do. The PL 's transformer throws a large magnetic field.

Okay, cool, that's only a temporary setup, the amp will be on the bottom shelf of the upper unit with the turntable on a pull out shelf above it, then the GA CD player above that and then the preamp so that should eliminate that. Okay Brothers in Arms is over, what next? I've got a half hour before I leave to get the Ohm Walsh 2's, maybe some Allison Krauss and Union Station with Jerry Douglas? Yeah, that's the ticket! Thanks Lee, we'll revisit that at the end of next week, it will no doubt go away when I rearrange everything.

 

[laatsch55]

You've now been WOPL'd.....

 

[laatsch55]

These Jensens now sound as good as the RCA LC-1's sounded on my other amps and, believe me, they're very good but they couldn't touch the LC-1's before. I think the search for the perfect amp for me has just ended after listening to one CD. I read stuff like I'm now saying and knew it would be good but it has exceeded my expectations, as high as they were. These things should be blind tested against all those ultra expensive boutique amps at the CES sometime, it would blow some folks away!

And you built it yourself....

 

[nelsress]

Yep

You've now been WOPL'd.....

it's official, I've been WOPL'd and I built it with help, myself.

 

[Gepetto]

Okay, cool, that's only a temporary setup, the amp will be on the bottom shelf of the upper unit with the turntable on a pull out shelf above it, then the GA CD player above that and then the preamp so that should eliminate that. Okay Brothers in Arms is over, what next? I've got a half hour before I leave to get the Ohm Walsh 2's, maybe some Allison Krauss and Union Station with Jerry Douglas? Yeah, that's the ticket! Thanks Lee, we'll revisit that at the end of next week, it will no doubt go away when I rearrange everything.

Allison Krauss on SACD is one of my go to recordings when I want to just enjoy how a system sounds. Those recordings are exceedingly well done.

 

[nelsress]

Allison Krauss on SACD is one of my go to recordings when I want to just enjoy how a system sounds. Those recordings are exceedingly well done.

I don't have SACD but my CD player makes well recorded/mixed normal CD's sound about as good as SACD's, I think. It has both a tube and a solid state section but I always use the tube section myself.

I put some cork and rubber pads I use under most of my electronic audio equipment and I think the volume of the hum went down a little bit. It could be wishful thinking but I don't think so.

Most Dire Straits recordings as well as Steely Dan and Donald Fagan recordings are very well done, all of which I use to evaluate my system when changes occur.

 

[nelsress]

Couldn't wait

until the end of the week so I moved the tuner out of the mix, put the preamp where the tuner was and left the amp on the top shelf by itself. I started the pellet stove before I started this mini-project so there's noise from that but I think the hum is completely gone now. I'll let the stove burn out in the morning and double check but I think it's dead quiet now between tracks. I toned it down so the wife can wind down from work with some Diana Krall.

 

[laatsch55]

Good deal Nelson....pure and clean ain't they??

 

[nelsress]

Good deal Nelson....pure and clean ain't they??

I'm here to tell you. Over. )

 

[laatsch55]

With some low freq punch, that's the part that still amazes me. A stock PL just wasn't that impressive down low. Course I was spoiled, owned a Spec 2 most of my life, but, after Joe got in the game.....it was all over...

 

[kevin]

Nelson.... I been following this thread from day one man... Let me say... Great job pal... I admire the hell out of Ya!!!! I have one of those 400's just like yours... I didn't build it... But I got one.. ENJOY MAN !!!!!!

 

[MarkWComer]

Nelson.... I been following this thread from day one man...

I paid a lot of attention to this as well. I've done the driver board, DC protect circuit, and the cap upgrade. Thanks- this thread gave me more guts to tackle the final full WOPL- going full comp and backplane upgrade.

A stock PL just wasn't that impressive down low.

Bought my 400/II on ebay, never plugged it in until the three above mentioned upgrades were finished. I have no idea whether I got a working amp or not, but I do know this: what I have now is above original spec, and it rattles windows without stress. Volume control rarely goes 1/3 way up- doesn't need to!

EDIT: BTW- Everyone here is phenomenally great! So much patience with answered questions, tips, and techniques. What a great bunch of people here!

 

[nelsress]

Thanks Kevin and Mark, it was fun, it now sounds phenomenal and I'm glad the thread was of some help. It was really a lot of fun and I'm not afraid to tackle the 700B waiting in the wings with all the help here, you're right Mark, great people here. Now I've got to appreciate/enjoy this one while I save up for all the parts for the 700B. To be honest, I'll be shocked if a 700B sounds better than this WOPL 400 but hey, some guys seem to like 'em better and other guys prefer the 400 so I've got to see!

 

[MarkWComer]

To be honest, I'll be shocked if a 700B sounds better than this WOPL 400 but hey, some guys seem to like 'em better and other guys prefer the 400 so I've got to see!

Might not sound better, but... increased dynamic headroom to tackle transients with less stress. Sudden crescendos will come out with more detail.

 

[Northwinds]

The WOPL'd 400s are the sweetest sounding amps I have ever heard. The 700B I don't know about since I have not heard a full blown WOPL'd version but there is this thing long known that the 400s sound better then the 700 versions for whatever reason. Someday this year I will have a WOPL700B after I finish shipping Lee his stuff so I will be able to make a fair assessment then. Either way, whatever version, a WOPL is a thing of beauty and a real step toward audio nirvana if there is such a thing

 

[laatsch55]

From what I can tell to date, with the noise levels now pretty much the same, there really are no sonic differences in the 400's and 700's any more. A slight twist of the big knob to the right does start to reveal exactly what Mark notes....

 

[MarkWComer]

Sorry to see this job come to a conclusion- am I having post-partum depression?

Reviewing the posts I understand a bit more of the transistor compliments, and good thing- I was going to order 16 NPNs from Mouser- whoops!

One bad thing is that I'm gonna have to track down a variac from somewhere. I was looking for a rental, there's nothing in this state. Is this an absolute necessity (sorry- moot question, isn't it!).

Ummm... Nevermind... Just got one on fleabay for $50.

 

[laatsch55]

A variac and a dim bulb tester....