A "brand new" AE-1on the way

[Erik Mandaville]

The AES AE-1 preamp is good sounding preamp, and the highest quality preamp I have. I've not been using it because of a severe noise problem it had, which after considerable rewiring, brand new B+ and heater rectifiers, filter capacitors....everythinng, still persists with an unacceptable level of residual noise. Beyond that, it sounds GOOD! Like the Transcendent grounded grid, the AE-1 is also a grounded grid design, one of the few I have seen, since grounded grids have been normally associated with high speed RF circuit design.

In any even, the entire preamp has bee completely taken apart, and original resistors (which I haven't wanted to replace because of extra cost)and capacitors, wire, all of it, has been taken out and much thrown away. One octal socket had a badly cracked pin that I hadn't seen, and two resistors that looked fun, spun around on their leads like beads on a string! Strange.

I order $75 worth of parts from AES to completely rebuild the preamp, and just this morning finished punching the new aluminum chassis it will go in. Well, almost completely. All the tube sockets and big filter cap holes are done, but the minor drilling and cutting for the AC connection still need to be done. I have been trying to figure out what to use the original chassis I got for last summer's Horus project, and it fits the bill just right. I'm also going to be using separate heat transformers for each channel, and use the same kind of R and L level control + master volume that I used on Wolfram

's Grounded Grid. I also have a $500 power cord on order that has not only 'hospital grad' jacks on it, but they are 'operating room grad,' an absolute step up in performance at only $250 extra.

Things in the original AE-1 chassis are a little crowded in terms of signal and PSU parts being close together, so this larger chassis should be helpful. I've also been researching a 1 minute time delay switch for the B+ secondary on the transformer, rather than use separate switching between stand-by mode and full on. Marie got confused after I had changed the regular rotary power switch to two toggle switches that needed to be flipped individually in the right order.

So, with another Transcendent Grounded Grid hopefully on the way, and this project, my summer off from teaching will be fun!

[Parrot]

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On 5/29/2004 9:29:41 AM Erik Mandaville wrote:

I also have a $500 power cord on order that has not only 'hospital grad' jacks on it, but they are 'operating room grad,' an absolute step up in performance at only $250 extra.

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You may find the hospital grade jacks to be too sterile.

[NOSValves]

Erik,

You actually bought a $500 power cord ?

Craig

[jt1stcav]

http://signalcable.com/magicpower.html

My power cords were only $59 each, but sound like 500 bucks!

[LarryC]

Erik, which power cord?

Paul, LOL!

[Deang]

"You may find the hospital grade jacks to be too sterile."

LOL

A little antiseptic in nature ya think?

[Erik Mandaville]

Man, I've got to watch my spelling.

Craig: This power cord is used to supply laser optical surgical equipment in a local eye surgery center. It normally costs about $2,500, I believe. It uses grain-oriented copper of a proprietary design, as well as mutiple braids composed of 99% pure silver. The transient response it provides is astounding. I am thinking of upgradiing to the next level, though, which will only set us back another $1000 per/ft. With dog surgery coming up for Kiko, we just need to watch things a little more closely right now.

[neo33]

I replaced the stock power cords on my gears with the power cords (treated with isopropyl compound to preserve their sterility) I bought from Fry's Electronics for $3.50 each and they sounded MUCHO better.