Zen Variations 1

About me
My name is Tony Wong and I am from Singapore. I have been browsing Pass DIY for quite some time now and I feel that this is a wonderful site.

I have just completed a Bride of Zen preamp and a Zen Lite power amp. It took me about 6 months to source for all the parts especially the 120V light bulbs because our country’s power supply is 230V. I was fortunate to get these new old stock 120V 200watts B22d light bulbs produced by GEC from an electrical shop. These bulbs had been with the shop for more than 35 yrs!! In the end, I purchased the whole lot of 50 pcs from them at US one dollar each. I have attached the photos for both the preamp and power amp, most of the parts are obtained from scrap yards. The BOZ has an EI transformer with 55V 2A Sec. The Zen Lite has a 600VA EI transformer with 65V Sec. I used an EI Choke to replace the L1 inductor. Total of 66000uf filtering capacitors. The Power Amp chassis is an aluminum printer drum which weighs around 14 lbs. Because I placed the light bulbs on top of the drum, the heatsink has to be at the bottom of the drum which is cooled by 2 mini PC 12V fans operated at 8V dc. I also added in a soft start plus turn on delay circuit. The sound of this amp is really superb, clear and dynamic. In fact, this is the best amp I have ever heard! All thanks to your brilliant design! Thank you Nelson for providing such a wonderful site packed with so much information. Regards, Tony