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Tracing The PeeCeeBee
- Thread starter shaan
- Start date
I had the opportunity to listen to this little beauty recently. It is fair to say this is an outstanding amp for its meager price. If you are willing to forget the price then this still remains an outstanding amplifier, I was thoroughly impressed with its control on my Ushers. Particularly its attack and precision. I did feel it could do with a little more subtlety but by then I was nit-picking.
An amp as good as this one deserves more listening sessions, hopefully that will happen soon!
An amp as good as this one deserves more listening sessions, hopefully that will happen soon!
Thanks for the kind words Shibashis da. Yes with a pair of fine speakers such as your lovely Ushers this amp can shine easily.
I am continuously engaged to mod/improve the micro-detail area of the sonics of this amp and for this I appreciate your kind invitation. The many sessions that this particular amp has gone through provided me with indications of its control and compatibility with different speaker systems small and large, to be its strongest aspects. As with any amp, it's not perfect. But I am willing to bring it close to sonic perfection.
I am continuously engaged to mod/improve the micro-detail area of the sonics of this amp and for this I appreciate your kind invitation. The many sessions that this particular amp has gone through provided me with indications of its control and compatibility with different speaker systems small and large, to be its strongest aspects. As with any amp, it's not perfect. But I am willing to bring it close to sonic perfection.
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Thanks for the kind words Shibashis da. Yes with a pair of fine speakers such as your lovely Ushers this amp can shine easily.
I am continuously engaged to mod/improve the micro-detail area of the sonics of this amp and for this I appreciate your kind invitation. The many sessions that this particular amp has gone through provided me with indications of its control and compatibility with different speaker systems small and large, to be its strongest aspects. As with any amp, it's not perfect. But I am willing to bring it close to sonic perfection.
Why don't we have many such sessions in your quest for perfection for the PeeCeeBee, suits me perfectly. Good company, some munchies, great music and even more importantly someone to enjoy such music with, I am getting a great deal out of that if you ask me! :licklips:
I must say I was heartened to see the amp match so well with the Ushers, at one point it felt almost as if my speakers were forced to sing that well, fantastic pace and rhythm, just superb.
It's always a pleasure for me to bring the amp to any listening sessions. Just name the day and the place.
A mighty horse demands a mighty tamer. While the speakers' dynamic range is already excellent, we need an equally good drive source to allow them to show that range.
Heard the the PeeCeeBee V3 power amplifier yesterday connected to Cayin SC-6LS , Denon DCD1500AE and Usher V602, all interconnects & Speaker Cable from The Chord Company. To say the least I'm damn throughly impressed by the amps power and rhytm to drive a 87/85.6 db speaker to levels unimaginable.It is a very detailed and musical amplifier. The bass was superb too. Finally when he disclosed the price , I almost fainted! My next amp for sure.
saheb11123
Active Member
Yes ofcourse, the price point vs performance is literally stupid. No amp is supposed to perform like this.
PS : I also own one so....
I think maybe I should double the price, eh? :lol:
thekingstallion
New Member
Plz do it for rich audiophiles but consider the poor diyers like me...[emoji12]
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk
:lol:
Rich be the music. We are all poor here.
PeeCeeBee will remain the Poor man's Rich amplifier.
:lol:
PeeCeeBee will remain the Poor man's Rich amplifier.
That Says it all. Could you talk about the kind of amps you build, for what type of speakers? Do you spec the amps as per the speakers they would be used with or is it generic type?
I have a pair of Kef IQ5 which i picked up recently. Right now I am powering them with NAD 304 as a power amp connected to the Pre Out of a 5.1 receiver. The speakers sound fine at low volumes, but I feel the amp is running out of breadth at slightly higher volumes. Could you tell me what amp would be able to bring out the best? Adding the price would be useful too.
MaSh
Hello MaSh.
I build symmetrical current-feedback Class-AB BJT-input MOSFET-output amplifiers, a.k.a. the PeeCeeBee. I like amplifiers that have very low distortion, very low sonic signature, very high speed, very low thermal drift and extreme indifference towards passive component variation. Everybody who has heard the Version-3 PeeCeeBee would agree that it is first and foremost, a transparent amplifier. That said, the amplifier can be "tuned" to the taste of the listener.
Until 2012 all the amplifiers I used to build were other popular designs available online. Those amps used to work one way or another, but had always been causing me headaches one way or another. If it was easy to build then it was unstable, if it was stable then it sounded bad, if it sounded good then the electric bill doubled, if the electric bill didn't double then it was no more easy to build.
PeeCeeBee is stable, sounds good, isn't a mains sucker and is easy to build due to the simplicity; it uses only 6 total transistors in the Whole amplifier. Power output can be scaled up or down as per speakers' requirement. It goes well with virtually any preamplifier, tube or SS. The KeF IQ5 seem to have an extended high frequency response of 40KHz. PeeCeeBee's high frequency response is 800KHz, so No attenuation at HF, but can be tuned easily if necessary. It has a damping factor of 150-200, so is neither over-the-places with cone control, nor lackluster control or "boomy" sounding.
And the vocal section is to write stories about; the storyline being same from Tannoys to Ushers to Polks to my own noname cheap inefficient DIY speakers.
You may call it a bleeding-edge "generic" amplifier, or an "all-rounder", both suits. :lol:
Too much praise, sorry.
Due to forum rules I can not post price here. If you like we can talk over e-mail.
Thanks.
shaan
I build symmetrical current-feedback Class-AB BJT-input MOSFET-output amplifiers, a.k.a. the PeeCeeBee. I like amplifiers that have very low distortion, very low sonic signature, very high speed, very low thermal drift and extreme indifference towards passive component variation. Everybody who has heard the Version-3 PeeCeeBee would agree that it is first and foremost, a transparent amplifier. That said, the amplifier can be "tuned" to the taste of the listener.
Until 2012 all the amplifiers I used to build were other popular designs available online. Those amps used to work one way or another, but had always been causing me headaches one way or another. If it was easy to build then it was unstable, if it was stable then it sounded bad, if it sounded good then the electric bill doubled, if the electric bill didn't double then it was no more easy to build.
PeeCeeBee is stable, sounds good, isn't a mains sucker and is easy to build due to the simplicity; it uses only 6 total transistors in the Whole amplifier. Power output can be scaled up or down as per speakers' requirement. It goes well with virtually any preamplifier, tube or SS. The KeF IQ5 seem to have an extended high frequency response of 40KHz. PeeCeeBee's high frequency response is 800KHz, so No attenuation at HF, but can be tuned easily if necessary. It has a damping factor of 150-200, so is neither over-the-places with cone control, nor lackluster control or "boomy" sounding.
And the vocal section is to write stories about; the storyline being same from Tannoys to Ushers to Polks to my own noname cheap inefficient DIY speakers.
You may call it a bleeding-edge "generic" amplifier, or an "all-rounder", both suits. :lol:
Too much praise, sorry.
Due to forum rules I can not post price here. If you like we can talk over e-mail.
Thanks.
shaan
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Thank you so much for the detailed intro. Please do PM me with the price details. I am on the look out for an amp to drive the kef to their potential.
MaSh
Sent from my Redmi Note 3
Hello Aniket. Here are the three amplifiers I uploaded in diyAudio. You can find the schematics for each of them there if you wander about a little.
V1.1 PeeCeeBee - Page 191 - diyAudio
V2 PeeCeeBee - Page 195 - diyAudio
V3 PeeCeeBee - Page 219 - diyAudio
This amplifier originated in Japan circa 1970. First introduced/shared in diyAudio by user gaborbela. Popularized and commercialized into a closed design by LazyCat. I just kept talking about its virtues and I still do.
Enjoy.
shaan
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cat's squirrel
New Member
Hi Shaan,
is there any info on v4? Can't find any.
is there any info on v4? Can't find any.
Hi cat's!
V4 is the latest revision of PeeCeeBee designed with best-in-class sonics in mind. Born out of a six months long period of brainstorming and sleepless nights (almost made a smoker out of me, just kidding).
Made for full-range amplification, the most significant improvements have been done in the bass performance. It lowers LF distortion to 1/8th of all previous PeeCeeBee versions, which means minute changes in bass notes are clearly audible and the rest of the music effortlessly merges with the basses. Fine tuning has been done in passives values to enhance its focus on micro-detail, suiting highly sensitive speakers that require minimal power for a good listening. Instantaneous current supply capability has also been increased to handle medium/low sensitivity drivers and/or systems consisting of complex passive crossovers that often present a complex and tough load to the amplifier, while losing nothing in terms of sound quality. It's not a Class-AB amplifier that sounds good only at high volume; SQ is harmonious from 1watt to maximum unclipped power. This is due to the first 5-6watts produced being pure Class-A watts which combined with better implementation of symmetrical CFB error correction technique virtually eliminates crossover distortion and delivers THD below 0.001%.
As you may know that amplifiers routinely clip with very high dynamic-range music and some bad designs can ruin the experience if the clip performance is not well tamed. PeeCeeBee V4 comprises a symmetrical soft-clipping mechanism that, when the amp goes into and comes out of overload, makes the transitions much more gentle than typical solid-state amplifiers. As a result, well-recorded and well-mixed music doesn't lose the touch and feel that was poured into it even when its loudest passages might be overloading the amplifier. The soft clipping also makes the amplifier safe for systems with delicate tweeters.
People who heard any previous version of PeeCeeBee applauded its approach to vocals and strings. V4 retains the same fullness in vocals and strings of its predecessors. It is not clinical sounding, won't cause fatigue in long listening sessions and won't lose its sonic balance while switching from cold phase to warm phase.
Electrically the amplifier has been engineered to be unconditionally stable. Biasing of the front stages have been improved to be rock-steady and much less sensitive to temperature changes. An over-current protection in the voltage amplification stage has also been implemented for much safer trimming of bias and offset (which can be omitted if extreme slew-rate is demanded).
This is about all... sis just brought her dslr home this morning; cant wait for the clicks and flicks .
V4 is the latest revision of PeeCeeBee designed with best-in-class sonics in mind. Born out of a six months long period of brainstorming and sleepless nights (almost made a smoker out of me, just kidding
).Made for full-range amplification, the most significant improvements have been done in the bass performance. It lowers LF distortion to 1/8th of all previous PeeCeeBee versions, which means minute changes in bass notes are clearly audible and the rest of the music effortlessly merges with the basses. Fine tuning has been done in passives values to enhance its focus on micro-detail, suiting highly sensitive speakers that require minimal power for a good listening. Instantaneous current supply capability has also been increased to handle medium/low sensitivity drivers and/or systems consisting of complex passive crossovers that often present a complex and tough load to the amplifier, while losing nothing in terms of sound quality. It's not a Class-AB amplifier that sounds good only at high volume; SQ is harmonious from 1watt to maximum unclipped power. This is due to the first 5-6watts produced being pure Class-A watts which combined with better implementation of symmetrical CFB error correction technique virtually eliminates crossover distortion and delivers THD below 0.001%.
As you may know that amplifiers routinely clip with very high dynamic-range music and some bad designs can ruin the experience if the clip performance is not well tamed. PeeCeeBee V4 comprises a symmetrical soft-clipping mechanism that, when the amp goes into and comes out of overload, makes the transitions much more gentle than typical solid-state amplifiers. As a result, well-recorded and well-mixed music doesn't lose the touch and feel that was poured into it even when its loudest passages might be overloading the amplifier. The soft clipping also makes the amplifier safe for systems with delicate tweeters.
People who heard any previous version of PeeCeeBee applauded its approach to vocals and strings. V4 retains the same fullness in vocals and strings of its predecessors. It is not clinical sounding, won't cause fatigue in long listening sessions and won't lose its sonic balance while switching from cold phase to warm phase.
Electrically the amplifier has been engineered to be unconditionally stable. Biasing of the front stages have been improved to be rock-steady and much less sensitive to temperature changes. An over-current protection in the voltage amplification stage has also been implemented for much safer trimming of bias and offset (which can be omitted if extreme slew-rate is demanded).
This is about all... sis just brought her dslr home this morning; cant wait for the clicks and flicks
.
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