Zen Variations 3

In the past, I used to believe that numbers and graphs could clearly present amplifier performance. I saw no good reason to build a class A amplifier. Big, heavy, expensive, inefficient. These words deterred me from building class A amplifiers. I thought I was satisfied with class AB. That was until I heard Mr. Kiril Kirilov's ZEN V4. The sound was marvelous. Back home, when I played "Class AB" I was asking myself where the music had gone. Fortunately, things have changed. Thanks to Kiril, I built my ZEN amp. Even though it's V3, I am perfectly happy with it. I am sending you the pictures so the rest of DIY community can see it. The enclosure is from a scrap-lab-PSU, bought in Bulgaria for 14 Euros. In fact, it is very similar to the one that Kiril is using. I am using two 200w transformers. The choice of capacitors is interesting: 20x2200mF=44,000 mF (per channel). They turned out to be cheaper than a single cap of equivalent capacitance…. One of the heatsinks is placed inside a box, so I am using a 12V, 80mm fan, working on half supply for quiet operation. It may be noticed that there are four input connectors. The truth is that two of them are wired in parallel, and share the BOZ output, feeding separate subwoofer amplifier. Bride of Zen is even lovelier than Zen. It found a home inside a scrapped 'Technikus' satellite receiver. Works perfectly, sounds marvelous. Since I could not obtain a 5 K potentiometer, I placed the volume control at the input, using a 100 K potentiometer. It is placed on the back. I will also mount the 5K variant as soon as I find it. (A view may reveal that I already poked a hole on the front of the enclosure). Some folks say that a picture is worth a thousand words. But here, these pictures can tell you nothing about what this amplifier is about. It MUST be heard. For those skeptics out there, give it a try. You will be rewarded. Special thanks to Mr. Nelson Pass for sharing his valuable knowledge. Also, a huge thanks to Mr. Kiril Kirilov, a generous DIY-er, without whose help this project 'wouldn't see the daylight'. Best regards, Viktor Halili Kosovo E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)