Musical Fidelity A1 speaker amplifier clone: volume control bypass in 10 minutes
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- čas přidán 4. 09. 2024
- So this is how you can bypass volume control pots on this clone. This is 10 minute job and totally reversible. You want to do this because placing volume control pot as an attenuator directly in input signal line is not the best way to do it. And maybe you'd also prefer to use volume control at the source and dont bother with balancing of two separate pots. Its amazing amp and it can be even better!
If you would like to go deeper down DIY route it's possible to just solder some nice silver plated, teflon coated wires between RCAs and power amp board audio input.
All in all, superb little device with even better sound quality when modded!
Thanks for posting. It's good to see that there are quality clones !!
Thanks!
Great video. Loads of good content in your channel.
Maybe hifi fuses next......
Can do. Have some of these. Effect is miniscule. But good idea for video! And thanks for you kind words!
What's the impedance of the volume pot ?
This impedance is part of the load of the input......so it should be good to know the load difference afterv the modification and correct it if necessary ...........putting a resistor of the same value as the pot ( in // as done when using the pot ) will restore the initial impedance of the amp !
Getting RID of those ( bad industrial ) connectors by soldering the wiring directly to the pcb and using better quality wiring will be another upload as well as installing better RCA plugs .
Have a nice day and thank you for the upload.
Good idea about measurement, I'll try do that tomorrow.
Yes I think I was mentioning this in the video (and surely in the comments) that I'd like to solder some nice silver plated, Teflon coated OCC wires directly to PCB. This is a very nice and accessible build to try f.e. bridging power caps with MKPs with low ESR or other things one would like to test and evaluate with own ears.
Thank you!
Great information, tank you!! You are doing a great job here!!
Thank you!
Nice mod. I had an acrylic cover made for the amplifier. The interior is too beautiful to hide behind metal.
Cool idea!
if the cover gets warm it means that it acts as heathsink This thing must be hot after a while
@@gino3286 I made the ventilation holes bigger than original, but yes, I constantly check if something is getting warmer than usual.
@@quma001 hi very good indeed
Another good idea is to check the bias
I do not know if they provide some values and info about the procedure
Nice amp indeed
@@gino3286 Most of the heat goes away through fins. Top and bottom covers are just warm to touch compared to heat of the fins
Done. Just be careful not to pinch the black conductor/wire under or near the heat-sync.
Thank you for showing and explaining this mod.
Nice mod, I'd tempted to wire in an uprated external toroidal...or two.
Having two separate sounds good. This has also great modding potential as I would replace signal carrying wires with silver plated teflon coated solid cores: I would solder them to the boards. But its great straght out of the box!
Or use an external power supply.
I purchased both, the DartZeel D5 Pro clone and the MF A1 clone. As both continue to “burn in” -here are my first impressions. (For reference, I have about 25 receivers/amps in my collection; my reference amp is a vintage Marantz 2252b that you can purchase for ~$USD 1600. This Marantz is exceptionally musical, open and clear. My reference speakers include an 8 foot tall set of Voigt Pipes and and Open Baffle’ (18 inch bass driver, 12 inch mid and two asd1001 tweeters): Compared to the Marantz both the the D5 and A1 are significantly more veiled ~40% less “open-transparent-clear” (mid range and tweeters). The D5 is about 10% better than the A1 - making the A1 clone the better purchase. I would say that both offer relative value, given the price. Sonically they both compare well to the Schiit Vidar. They are not giant killers. I would be looking at both as platforms for experimentation e.g. replace capacitors etc. Please share your experience with these!
That's not exactly fair to compare them to 1600usd Marantz:)
Yes they have great modding potential and when compared to something with similar or even somewhat bigger price they win hands down. For me the interesting thing is that these basically scratch the surface of the clones market, as there are copies of different brands going for as much as 2k USD.
Thanks for sharing!
Comparing new stuff in such a way to a well used old receiver makes not complete sense. YMMV
Did someone buy the JLH 1969 and the Musical Fidelity A1 clon?
Is there big differece in sound?
The JLH 1969 copy is OK but nothing special.Quite musical and refined and smooth but not very high resolution .More of a NAD 3020 sort of sound.
Thank you for nice video, could you show amplifiers boards more in details? I am curious if these boards are available as kit to diy on aliexpress....
Also I wanted to comment your statement about volume attenuation. If you see schematic of many amps, preamps, volume pot always work this way- it attenuates signal coming to the device. Here we have just power amplifier with passive attenuation, but if you take preamplifier, most of the builds have same attenuator before (or after) the amplification stage. Almost always preamp or power amp has preset gain. Also, regulating signal voltage in dac or computer is bad idea, it decreases audio signal resolution and quality, best preamp is passive ladder stepped resistive network with or without unity gain buffer after. See elekit tu-8500 beloved by many DIY kit/preamp. It is just passive attenuator and tube buffer with unity (no amplification) gain
Hi! There are many diy mf clone sets available but these seem to be different, I was looking for them separately but couldn't find any. As for volume setting via attenuation I prefer to have it at the end of chain. About the source volume setup: current TOTL DACs are doing this really, really good: I have yet to try preamp that will do that better than my Gustard X26PRO. Also, many of the TOTL converters use analog volume control as the last output stage. But for cheaper or a bit older (5y?) equipment you're right.
And yes, volume control on PC or streamer is the last desperate resort because of loss of source resolution right at the start of the chain!
Is it worth modifying? Does the sound quality actually improve. BTW purchased on your recommendation and so far so good.
If you have any sort of 'decent preamp' as well as this amp, please do this mod.
Exactly, use preamp and just bypass these. It does sound a little better and you do not have to set balance each time you wat to change volume. I got JC2 based simple and very clean preamp lined for a review that works very very well with this MF clone.
The Jc2 clone I have, a breeze audio version sounds very bright. May have been designed to give detail with a usual tube power amplifier of its time.
@@Rasenkrieger interesting, what speakers do you have for it? Because mine with Martin Logan Motion is nicely balanced
Well done
Anyone has the schematics of this clone? Maybe isn’t A1 at first look. Before mod (20h), dark and not detailed. After, espectacular without pots. It needs to be modded 😅
Why no sound test? Is it that bad?
I'm recording these with my phone and then it goes through CZcams compression. And the most of the viewers watch it on mobile. That's recipe for shitty sound with a hint of additional shittines :)
Wow! and thank you! I am hoping that you will not have any problems with this amp. If you do
not then I may consider purchasing. The other clone you reviewed which got your high approval
was the DartZeel NHB 108 D5. Now, that amp really peaked my interest but I discovered that a
few customers had (minor) problems. I am not electrically inclined enough to fix these minor
(DartZeel) challenges but I could certainly rewire the volume controls as indicated here for the
A1 clone. My speakers are the Elac DBR62 rated at 6 ohms. I am wondering if the A1 clone can
handle this impedance? I do not listen to my music loud but mostly low to mid low volume.
In any case, I love your videos and again, thank you!!!
May I know what are the minor problems from the Dartzeel? I am quite interested in the Dartzeel but now have to kiv first since you mentioned there are minor problems faced by others.
Hi Charles - I have the Dartzeel clone and I am blown away by it. it is a significant improvement on my previous exposure VIII stereo power amplifier in all aspects - power, transparency, speed, grunt for the low level. The only downside I see is that it runs quite warm and the idle power consumption is quite high when compared with modern designs - but hey, the first stage is pure Class A otherwise it runs in Class AB so it's a tradeoff I happily make allowances for the gorgeous sound and delicacy with serious power. Did you hear of any other issues? As far as I am aware it is quietly building a solid reputation for itself. I hope it lasts like my Exposure did (38 years and counting!) all the best, Rob in Switzerland
Thanks!
Ive reviewed D5 Pro (just to make sure) - I havent heard about any issues with D5 Pro, though Ive read that there are some people that had problems with 1:1 DartZeel clones (golden cases, eyes and nose button).
My D5 Pro runs strong and solid, during burn in it made 3 weeks in a row - like a MF clone - with no problems.
MF clone will have no problems with your Elacs, take a look at my video on modding DB52, these can me modded in similar way (removing mesh on treble driver and dampening of the speaker basket)
@@johan5660 Hi Johan, I replied to your questions yesterday but I see they are not posted. Sorry but I'll
try again. Most of my concerns were generated by customer review/comments on the AliExpress listing
for the Dartzeel amp. You can read through them for yourself. One comment that really concerned me was
relevant to the "inrush limiter something or other". I have no idea what that means but the customer indicated
that he did get a prompt replacement. I have access to an excellent audio technician up here in Canada.
If I do have a challenge with the amp I am sure he can fix it. Hope this helps.
@@RobWhittlestone Hi Rob, Thanks for the commentary. I've been chasing the class A sound for sometime but have
yet to own anything that is dedicated to just A (electronically). I do wonder just home much of the Dartzeel's first stage
runs in A before the hand-off to B. I listen to low to moderate volumes so I imagine that the DZ will run primarily in A.
In any case, your commentary further peaks my interest so much appreciated. The heat issue is not an issue for me
because I live in Canada on the side of a mountain in North Vancouver. Summer starts soon but I am still having to
heat my home on occasion. Cheers, Charles
Why is there a Krell badge on the front?
Thats a sticker they slap on. No idea why, no idea why Krell specifically. It can be easily removed and I plan to replace it with something nicer and more true.
D5 pro, FM 300a, MF A1 ? Is one of those amps the best you have heard?
FM300A is on its way here so I am yet to hear it.
For other two I prefer to have both of them then to be forced to choose just one. MF clone is way cheaper and I see it as something so cheap that I want to have it here anyway.
@@k4syx okay great, I figured you might have heard the FM 300a before. I'll make sure to watch that one :)
You should try the A1000 Clone
Can you share a link?
Hope u get to test the FM3000 as well
On its way here, actually ;)
You gotta love those Ali coupons cause they go so fast... :)
Do you recommend buy 2 pcs for the biwire?
Yes and use them for bi amping - one amp per side driving separately treble and bass. That can be superb setup for small amount of money!
Can you compare the sound to a similar price class d 3255 amp, something from Aiyima or fosi? From memory even though they quote crazy high wattage their actual is more 20-30w without clipping. So is actually maybe a good comparison against this one. Keep the videos coming. Thanks.
I don’t have the MF clone, but I do have a Sugden A21 SE, which is a very good pure Class-A amplifier. I also have a Fosi Audio V3, and the Sugden destroys it in every way. The Fosi sounds shrill, in comparison.
Yes I can and in short - this is better across the board. Id say they its not ever fair to do that comparison. D class went a long way and I own a couple of popular 3255 based amps, but this is way better (though 3-4x more expensive even being a clone)
Exactly. These are class A and its not fair to compare them (not yet at least, D class evolves rapidly)
@hifi zone
If my budget is upto USD2K for the fake integrated or power amp, which one will you recommend? Are there anything better than Dartzeel pro, that is without any problems, sound better than Dartzeel pro?
For that kind of money we have accuphase clones in range. At the moment my choice would be DartZeel and some pre. I have two ready for testing and I've ordered some more power amps and pres, but for now my recommendation is D5PRO
@@k4syxThank you for your advice. I will wait for all your pre & power amp tests and review. I can spare a few more months before I proceed to purchase. Thank you very much for your great efforts in helping people like me. 👍👍👍
@@johan5660 Thank you!
I am interested to see if you need further mod to make it better. Or what further mod you will do later
It's not like it needs modding, it's great straight from the box. But it can be better. Bypassing the pots, using real preamp, later maybe soldering some nice silver plated solid cores between RCAs and PCBs, that would be my choices
Hi...My unit will be arriving in a few days..Will do this mod. Thank you!...I wonder if it could be possible to make it a mono block?
Actually this is set of two monoblocks in one case. There is no way to connect them in series, but you can use two for biamping thus dedicating whole power of one to one speaker
@@k4syx Thanks.....looking forward to hearing it.
It can push Dynaudio Emit 20 properly ?
@@maxrider2887 its 20Wx2 what's Dynaudios sensitivity and impedance?
Any difference after modification sound wise and volume wise mate?
@@izzy1798 volume wise it's the same because you need to set it up with pre or DAC. My ears tell me it's a tiny bit clearer and transparent, and the most important thing is you don't have to setup balance by ear everytime you change the volume
@@k4syx cheers yes I've done it 👍
Give the reason why you need to bypass the volume control.
1. It's made with very cheap pots
2. It's very hard to match the volume level setting by hand with two separate pots
Can i use one master volume control?
@@maxrider2887 that's the general idea here, to make MFA1 clone pure power amp and set master volume on earlier stage with preamp:)
@@k4syx planing to use with wiim pro + streamer with polk r200. Or it must need a pre amplifier . Pre amplifier suggestion please. Thanks
@@maxrider2887 if you can control volume with Wiim then you don't have to have pre, though digital control on the player will be inferior to analog one. IMHO exception from this rule is control by DAC chip, as for all DACs I have and had it was always very good too.
So for pre check this one out: czcams.com/video/eS4fGOBiMZs/video.htmlsi=KR2M-CfE-81i84fI