Orion modification and custom power electronics

[jpv]

I made three modifications to the Orion speaker :

The side panel is modified to integrate the rear tweeter. The shape was slightly modifyed and gives the impression ( side view) of a G clef IMHO. With the mirror piano black lacquer, the 'ensemble' has a connotation of musical instrument.

The midrange holder is made of masssive brass. It is a 6 degrees of freedom adjustment ( for fun).

5 small led's are integrated in a black L shaped profile under the dress panel. They indicate the clipping of each amplifier (including Thor). A data connector is provided at the rear side beside the Speakon connector and the power on switch.

This system is designed to be run by a cutsom power amplifier system integrating the ASP. The final layout of the pcb's is done. After debugging, pcb's will be ordered.
Per left or right channel, the system contains two stainless steel plates with the power supplies on one and 5 amplifiers + ASP ( Orion and Thor) on the other. These are open frames, no packaging to allow the ultimate performance in cooling and layout. It has to be mounted remotelly in a cabinet or better in the basement under the floor.

The power plate comprises:
power supplies with transformers rectifiers and fuses for 5 amplifiers
ancillary power supplies for micro processor, signaling, ventilators and Jung super regulator
Circuit braker, emi filter and TSR ( a device actively contolling the magnetic flux in the transformers to avoid inrush currents at power on)
a microcontroller pcb supervising the amplifier alarms, signalling and controlling.

The amplifier plate comprises:
5 x 150w amplifiers, the asp's and a Jung super regulator for the asp's and the opamps + a balanced Jensen input transformer.

Two amplifiers are mounted on the opposite sides of an aluminium hollow block heatsink with integrated ventilator forced cooling. The power transistors are mounted on the two other sides.

Each amplifier output stage is a triple T Leach/Locanthi BJT stage with the latest Onsemi thermaltracks including on chip diodes for transient thermal stability. The front end uses an LME49810 stage with mute control, clipping monitoring, baker antisaturation clamp and high slew rate and ultra low distortion.
The speakers are protected by a special relay with two contacts ( low voltage silver and power tungsten) in parallel.
Each amplifier has DC detect on ouput, servo DC control, dual slope FSOA power control including short circuit and heatsink temperature monitoring, all this under processor control.
The layout uses an hybrid multi grounding system with carefull control and separation of low level and high current loops.

Specs are per amplifier: 150W in 8 ohms, continuous full power in a 4 ohms 45° load, transient 1250 W peak in a 2 ohm resistive load

The picures I made are too big in the most compressed mode ( 500 to 750 K). If people are interested I can email them directly or try another way .

JPV


JPV

[Kolbjorn]

Sounds interesting. We Want Pictures!
Can't you just scale them down a bit?

[jpv]

picture

[jpv]

another

[jpv]

and another

[jpv]

led's above woofer

[jpv]

piano black

[Bill Schneider]

That's just drop-dead gorgeous! The mass of the mid's brass mount must attenuate vibration amplitude well.

Did you build these Orions yourself? How about the turning of the brass parts?

That's a great job no matter how it was accomplished.

[jpv]

I designed the parts. The brass was cut from two rods with a small and a large diameter; the holes and threats where made by a friend on a lathe and a milling machine.

Thanks for the comments

JP

[JimB]

Looks like you had fun! Betcha can't wait to settle in and listen to them!

[LukasLang]

They are looking really great, at this level of style, I would consider using black screws for the drivers

[jpv]

They are looking really great, at this level of style, I would consider using black screws for the drivers

You are correct, the same for the tweeter.
Unfortunatelly the MDF panels are here in europe 18 mm thick and the smallest black screews I could find were 25 mm.

If somebody knows where I could find black screws of 20 and 16 mm, I can then replace them. This will be definitely nicer.

JPV

[LukasLang]

http://lautsprechershop.de/hifi/schraube_en.htm - maybe they make a special shipping rate for the screws, they are well regarded for DIY supplies
I can also recommend BMM: http://www.bmm-electronics.nl/Producten ... p_A_ID=127

[Davey]

Pretty neat.

The brass dominates visually.

I'm wondering how much improvement in performance (if any) this mounting method offers over the standard Rev 0.1 mounting scheme?

Cheers,

Dave.

[jpv]

I do not expect an improvement.

I intended to use also a more massive supporting bar shaped with in an asymptotic way ( like a volcano) but the copper cost is to high now.
I did this to have an 'clever way' to adjust the position and I like the combination brass black laquer.

Another option would be to do a chrome plating which is nice too with black lacquer;
I am interested by your opinion and the others too.

JPV