Been listening to a few different OT's the past few days and I just love nickel! I swapped out the 8W 5K 49% nickel units for some 10K amorphous units and spent a couple of days with them. They have that clear direct sound that I have come to expect of amorphous. Next in went a pair of smaller 49% nickel 5K's that are good for 2-3W and 60ma of DC current. Playing them with the 2A3's is like listening to an old friend. Just for kicks I tried to run them hard and i'm reasonably sure that 3W of the 2A3 was the limiting factor and not the OT being abused.
This brought me back to the 80% nickel OT's I did for a certain feline in Boston. These were for 1200hz and up so 5hy's was the primary inductance. They were on the same core size as the 49% units pictured above and when I gave them a run in the kepco I heard some of the most incredible sound ever. The bass was limited but the rest was glorious. From that day on I have been dreaming of big 80% nickel cores and in the future I see some lovely 3W 80% nickel full range OT's in our stable.
Posts
Yep - that's exactly what I heard on some similar small 80% Ni tweeter OPTs. Loved them so much I listened to them down to 500Hz or so for a while.
ReplyDeletePut it another way: I built the amp using clip leads to test out the OPTs quickly; it was intended to live 2-3 days at most. The sound was so addictive, it lasted about 14 months. Got scared it would dispatch someone off to heaven. Where, incidentally, all the stuff is 80% and angel feathers are used as interwinding insulation. If you can get some of those btw, they're great, they have an epsilon_r of 0 (ie diaelectric)
In the meantime, looking forward to the big cores.
And that kepco looks truly hypnotic...
yeah, nickle!
ReplyDeletewant some, need some...
which reminds me, did you get my email last week; or are you just ignoring me?
r