diy-gallery of my mini-aleph

I followed the discussion about the Zen and Aleph's for several years. But only as an observer, not intending to build one myself immediately. I hesitated because of the power dissipation of the bigger Aleph's and because I do not have very good experiences with the sound quality mosfets in general.

Now I decided that I wanted to hear it all for myself. In the Netherlands there is a very nice supplier that has pcb's and all components needed including a very handsome case to put it in for a reasonable price. I just build the Aleph-3 in this manner.

It all works flawless from the start. The first few days it only sounded normal, not extraordinary. Only after a few weeks of burning in the amp started to sing. I am not sure though if the amp really outperforms my usual benchmarks (some Hiraga's and some small tube amps). I am a person that wants to fiddle around and try this and that.

The case and lay-out of my Aleph-3 are not very well suited to do experiments. Just for that purpose I decided to make a 'try and test' version of the mini-Aleph. I use normal grade components: some Dale resistors and some Beyschlag resistors, Philips capacitors, irf1610 and irfp240 mosfets. I made a breadboard by hardwiring the components directly to each other.

The sound is very much like the other Aleph-3. Everything worked for the first time, no hiss, no hum. And again the amp needs to burn in for some time (do other people have this same experience, or am I fooling myself?). In the first days the sound is a little too dark and shut-in, the highs are not freeing themselves from the speakers etc. As you see there is no cabinet or case yet, just a cooling device (around 0,3 C/W) with the boards on it, some wires and a simple power supply (CRC, both channels sharing the same supply).

I intend to experiment with other mosfets (irfp140, since irfp044 is not easily obtainable), with different voltages and idle currents (now around 15 Volts and 1 amp). Sure, many people have done this but I want to see for myself and my situation. Without doubt this is a very special amplifier: easy to build, it is a very simple and original and robust circuit, no points of manual adjustment, it is not critical for parts quality (I think), it has a stable offset of around 50 mV or less and, before I forget, a very good sound. The sound is not clinical (as were the other mosfet-amps I tried) but more on the warm side of neutral with smooth highs. But very good is not good enough, I have yet to find out if the amp outperforms other (small transistor) star-amps as the John Linsley Hood (2003 edition) and the 20 Watt Hiraga. It just is too early for me to make that final judgment.

Rudy van Stratum The Netherlands