THE ORRONOCO AUDIO DIY

Adcom GFA-555 II is one of good amplifier you can buy. Just like many others amplifier designed by Nelson Pass, this amp deliver high power output on class A and the sound is clean, natural, yet dynamic. This amp is built around 90's and you still can find them in mint condition. The services that you should do at the first place is only adjusting the bias. We want this amp running optimal while still maintaining the heat on proper level.

The electric outlet in the United States are 110 volt and bring their domestic product to my country which is 220 volt is require the step down transformer, which somehow more complicated and dangerous if you accidentally plug in directly to the wall outlet. Luckily most of the product are compatible with 220 volt, but need some modification for this voltage conversion. And this is how I do it on the Counterpoint SA-2000 pre-amplifier.

IHEAC is a yearly hi-end audio show in Jakarta. In this year and mostly like yester-years, this event is held at Menara Peninsula, Jakarta on 17-20 Nov 2016. Most of the time I missed to come to this events due to lack of promotion and information from the event organizer itself. But this year, Someone told me about this events and I have to come.

Continuing from the  part 1 , now this amplifier will be assembly with the boards and rewiring the power supply cables. Let's take a look on the progress.

My friend ask me to restore his Quad 405 amplifier and make some modification to improve the sound. This amplifier is the early generation Qad 405 built in 1976, I am not even born yet at that year. So let's begin this project.

Meridian is one of the best audio company and very famous in 90's. They build in the USA and for sure the voltage input required is 110 volt. Unfortunately in my country, which is provide the 220 volt for the mains is not suitable for this Meridian. Using an external step down transformer gives me  worries of miss-plugging the AC input. It even can degrading the sound quality by using low quality step-down transformer. So I will convert this Meridian to accept 220 volt instead. And of course with high quality transformer.

I recall my memory from my teenager age, when I was looking at the MIT cable advertisement in the Stereophile magazine, I believe it was mid 90's, the mysterious box is in line with the cables that makes me curious about the purpose of that box. I was thinking it should be some magic or top-secret tuning equipment from the MIT engineer for speaker cables. My curiosity keeps rolling through my head until today, I have a chance to have it. So let's take a look closer and let's find out the magic.