Audiophiletalk - Buzz and "The Dowdy Llama"

Ed

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Buzz and "The Dowdy Llama"
May 3^rd, 2009, 4:18pm

Jim Dowdy aka "The Dowdy Llama" brought his amplifier. Pics soon. To say it was good is the understatement of the decade. Let's put it this way.....Joel does not drink. He listens. He never went to bed! At 4 am he came in the room and asked if he could sleep in the room and to set his mattress up. So he did. Then he said......."I'm gonna listen a little longer". I got up at a little after nine and he was still listening. He said "I just could not leave the room".

Oh, there was other stuff with EXCELLENT sound on both Dave's (Parker Audio) 2 way and my Horns. Many combinations were stellar. But.....Jim Dowdy's amp was beyond belief....in every way, looks, weight, sound and cost! It is worth the cost....even on 800 dollar speakers, as insane as that may sound. Spectacular. The Buggatti and Koenigsegg of amplifiers....except without the high horsepower........and it's not missed at all. The most insanely beautiful 14 watts you could imagine.

But that is only part of the post.....Jim and Buzz got curious about my Transcendent Sound CFA and peeked inside. It was like watching two doctors. They "clicked" for sure. I can build from a schematic, I can fix something but "turning a circuit into a schematic in my mind" is something I can't. I was not sure what they were talking about.....they "tuned me and Bill out". A good thing! After a few measurements they thought they might help it a bit if I had a few resistors. I had not a clue. They made the change. Oh yea. Now keep in mind my amp is NOT a production one. Bruce was kind enough to gift it to me. It is the actual prototype of the production one. It may not be and probably isn't exactly like the production one.

Jim took the time to draw me a schematic and show me how and what they changed. From what I understand the output transformers are seeing 85 ma now instead of 78. I like it better, much. Again due to the parts used in mine the productions may already be seeing the higher current.

Any way here is the gist.....watching the "Dowdy Llama" and Buzz interact was amazing. Truly amazing.

You guys are awesome, thanks for "fixing me up".

Ed
ps....I am going to post and upload the HornFest stuff to the Face Book entry Guy was kind enough to set up. After I get some rest! Seems appropriate to me.

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Designing a loudspeaker is very easy, building one that actually sounds good is much harder.

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buzz

My System: 6s45p phono stage. Type Ten amp.

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Re: Buzz and "The Dowdy Llama"
Reply #1 - May 3^rd, 2009, 6:34pm

Ed, we also removed the cathode resistor bypass capacitor. That slightly increased local negative feedback and may allow the reduction of global feedback in the future.

I just wanted to say I had the most enjoyable weekend at your home! Some of the friendliest people anyone would care to meet attended, yourself included!

And I'll just add this... if you want to understand Ed, you have to meet him in person. Thank you for the grand memories, I hope to attend many more Hornfests to come.

Here is a picture of Jim and myself listening to the 'Vinyl Fetish' 6s45p phono amp driving the superb 'Dowdy Lama' GM70 amp on Ed's stunning 'Model 3' speakers. For all those who were asking, the vinyl was by the artist "Songs: Ohia" album "Ghost Tropic".

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nitpicker. Senior Member Offline Posts: 857 Decware home state (Illinois)	Re: Buzz and "The Dowdy Llama" Reply #2 - May 4^th, 2009, 4:33pm buzz, any hum issues with cables so far?
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buzz My System: 6s45p phono stage. Type Ten amp. A Contributing Member Offline Long live diamonds and ditches. Posts: 1167 Greenville, SC	Re: Buzz and "The Dowdy Llama" Reply #3 - May 4^th, 2009, 4:44pm Nitpicker, you should have come to Hornfest and found out for yourself. The sound was excellent, Joel even had the digital rig sounding great. Vinyl was stunning good, with great sense of emotion and intimacy with the recorded artists, ask Ed, or anyone else who attended. You could have made some friends.
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nitpicker.

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Re: Buzz and "The Dowdy Llama"
Reply #4 - May 4^th, 2009, 5:23pm

buzz wrote on May 4^th, 2009, 4:44pm:

Nitpicker, you should have come to Hornfest and found out for yourself. The sound was excellent, Joel even had the digital rig sounding great. Vinyl was stunning good, with great sense of emotion and intimacy with the recorded artists, ask Ed, or anyone else who attended. You could have made some friends.

I guess I'll never know the answer to my cable question. Sad

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buzz My System: 6s45p phono stage. Type Ten amp. A Contributing Member Offline Long live diamonds and ditches. Posts: 1167 Greenville, SC	Re: Buzz and "The Dowdy Llama" Reply #5 - May 4^th, 2009, 5:34pm nitpicker. wrote on May 4^th, 2009, 5:23pm: buzz wrote on May 4^th, 2009, 4:44pm: Nitpicker, you should have come to Hornfest and found out for yourself. I guess I'll never know the answer to my cable question. Its too bad to hear you say that. I would have enjoyed meeting you.
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nitpicker. Senior Member Offline Posts: 857 Decware home state (Illinois)	Re: Buzz and "The Dowdy Llama" Reply #6 - May 4^th, 2009, 6:35pm buzz wrote on May 4^th, 2009, 5:34pm: Its too bad to hear you say that. I would have enjoyed meeting you. Now that I know buzz's Kryptonite, it's not that bad of a turn out after all.
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buzz My System: 6s45p phono stage. Type Ten amp. A Contributing Member Offline Long live diamonds and ditches. Posts: 1167 Greenville, SC	Re: Buzz and "The Dowdy Llama" Reply #7 - May 4^th, 2009, 9:29pm nitpicker. wrote on May 4^th, 2009, 6:35pm: ...I know buzz's Kryptonite... Who told you that I am allergic to pickled ginger?
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nitpicker. Senior Member Offline Posts: 857 Decware home state (Illinois)	Re: Buzz and "The Dowdy Llama" Reply #8 - May 4^th, 2009, 10:58pm buzz wrote on May 4^th, 2009, 9:29pm: Who told you that I am allergic to pickled ginger? For your own safety, you ought to find out if it's the pickling or the ginger.
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Randy in Caintuck

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Re: Buzz and "The Dowdy Llama"
Reply #9 - May 5^th, 2009, 3:38pm

Ed wrote on May 3^rd, 2009, 4:18pm:

Jim Dowdy aka "The Dowdy Llama" brought his amplifier. Pics soon. To say it was good is the understatement of the decade.

Oh, there was other stuff with EXCELLENT sound on both Dave's (Parker Audio) 2 way and my Horns. Many combinations were stellar. But.....Jim Dowdy's amp was beyond belief....in every way, looks, weight, sound and cost! It is worth the cost....even on 800 dollar speakers, as insane as that may sound. Spectacular. The Buggatti and Koenigsegg of amplifiers....except without the high horsepower........and it's not missed at all. The most insanely beautiful 14 watts you could imagine.

Ed is not just woofin' ..... Cool

Imagine an amplifier that takes a very modest (but excellent sounding) Jolida CD player and a pair of 800 dollar speakers (in the case of The Horns) or a pair of 450 dollar bookshelf speakers (in the case of the Parker Troll Signatures) and creates a living, breathing full size 3 dimensional personal concert that is believable beyond anything you have ever (and I mean EVER) heard. The sense of the recorded space is insane. The texture and tonality of every instrument and voice is spot on. The dynamics are jaw dropping ..... and not just on "girl and guitar" music but on everything from horns to electric guitar to Hammond B3. On music that you normally cringe just a little when it hits the peaks at a realistic volume level because you know that it is going to "fall apart" ..... you now look forward to because the music will now just continue to soar effortlessly. I recently bought a 75 watt tube power amp as an experiment and this 14 to 16 watt beast drags it kicking and screaming backwards through the mud when it comes to dynamics ..... while suffering none of the muddiness that you generally hear with big push-pull amps. The inner detail on instruments and vocals is like nothing I have ever heard on any system ..... and I have heard some very costly ones over the years. Oh yeah ..... the girl and guitar music is so good it will give you a cold chill.

We have some very talented audio designers that have provided truly excellent sounding amplifiers for us "poor folk" and some of these amplifiers have sound that is out of proportion to the modest asking price ..... but this amplifier is different. The raw cost of the resistors, capacitors and iron is more than the total cost of most of the systems I have owned. If anyone doubts that stuff this costly isn't audible, I will say to them that you shouldn't form an opinion until you have heard it. I'm still shaking my head in disbelief.

I would be interested to see what Steve or Eddie could come up with if they were going for the 30K market ..... but this "assault on the state of the art" amplifier is something that every music lover should hear if given the chance.

Is it practical ? For most of us, no.

But it reminded me of touring the Biltmore House ..... I will never live there, but I certainly appreciated the grandeur.

As soon as I got home from the HornFest, I fired up my system and sat down to enjoy some music. Was it still good ? Indeed it was ..... but I would be dishonest to say that "what if" didn't cross my mind.

If my rich uncle ever gets out of the poor house ..... Grin

Randy

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buzz

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Re: Buzz and "The Dowdy Llama"
Reply #10 - May 5^th, 2009, 5:40pm

Another thing about Jim, he is kind to the DIY guy!

For the people who have ever attempted their own amp build, his amp is what we always wanted to build but reality, sanity (and our wives) keeps us from building. He understands this and indulged us with specifics about his mercury rectified, 826 driving GM70 amps. Topology, plate voltages, bias values, nothing was off the table. This only drives the mystique of these amps further, because as he explained these amps, and flipped the open bottoms up for all to see, it was as if Jim was saying "Go ahead... try to build it yourself!"

Well Jim, thank you for teaching me many things and verifying others. While I probably never will be able to justify building my own 'Dowdy Clone' you have really got the creative juices flowing. I certainly hope that you will continue to indulge us with your creative genius.

Well, onto my next build... of course it will be inspired by your beautiful amp.

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JimR

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Re: Buzz and "The Dowdy Llama"
Reply #11 - May 5^th, 2009, 6:05pm

Thanks, Buzz,

Give me another reason to kick myself in the butt for missing the fest.

I've heard a couple of GM70 amps, including the insanely priced Lamm ML3.1s and they can be magical, but it is certainly not guaranteed. A 6c33c is about as far as I'm ever likely to push it, but even that is only a remote possibility.

So, what kind of B+ are we talking about here, and what is the iron? Interstage transformer on this amp?

Do you still have those 300Bs I sold you a zillion years ago -- I remember you had talked about selling them, just don't know if you ever followed through.

Hope you're well,

Jim

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