Description
Hi all, Im looking to sell my Alex Cavalli-designed Bijou headphone amplifier. This was a DIY project that Alex offered around 2008, its a great OTL amplifier inspired by the designs of Julius Futterman who invented the OTL circuit. I did not build it, Im the third owner of this amplifier. This was the first tube amp I ever bought and it inspired me to purchase 2 more - I havent listened to a solid state amp since. I fired this up prior to sale and its working perfectly and sounds fantastic. I just have too many amps for comfort at the moment. Please see the photos for condition details, the item is in excellent working condition but has some scratches on the silver case finishing. The black front plate looks incredible and the knobs are very nice and tactile. Locking headphone jack works well. Tubes included are:(2x) JJ E88CC (driver tubes)(2x) Russian 6N6P (output tubes)(1x) JJ EZ 81 (rectifier tube) The prior owners description says it better than I could, so Ive reproduced it here with my edits in bold to bring the information up to date: Prior to creating practical designs for Drop and Monoprice, Alex Cavelli was a legend in the DIY world for designs like this one. A great fan of the original handmade OTL (output transformerless) designs from Julius Futterman, later adopted and cared for by New York Audio Labs (NYAL/Moscode), Alex decided to take the Futterman approach to the problem of headphone amps, and came up with the BIJOU. Many DIY builders made them, and here we have one that Ive received from its original builder.This is different in several ways from most available designs, although in current terms we might describe the goal as a more open-sounding Darkvoice or Little Dot. The sound brings me right back to what I love about tubes in the first place--the sense that a note played on a cello is a resonating cello, not just a note--or that a drum is a stretched skin and you can hear that, and you can hear the wood of the drumstick click, and the metal sides of the drum bonk. Harvey Rosenberg of NYAL used to wring out the thesaurus to try and explain this, but in brief what the Bijou has is timbre.It also has something youll find very seldom, which is a knob labelled NFB, which gives you the chance to dial in as much or as little Negative Feedback as you think suits your particular headphones and your preferred sound. Generally headphone amps dont acknowledge that different headphones are going to react differently, but rather they try to design a middle-ish compromise, or maybe provide a hi/lo switch for more gain (and noise). This NFB approach is unique in my experience, and goes a little way to explaining why youve heard of Alex Cavalli.-------The original builder of the amp was kind enough to send me some notes on it, and Ill produce some of them here, maybe with some annotations to fill in any engineer-speak:Takes a few minutes to warm up, the volume knob isnt linear, and I dont suggest listening to it with the case open as its high voltage inside.(This is self-explanatory except for the nonlinear volume knob. Most volume pots are designed so that the full range of volume is usable; this one is most useful in the higher setting, and the first 8 hours are more of a gradual spin through lower volumes, which then increase logarithmically toward the end of the dial. Unusual but usable.) I actually prefer this, as many headphone amplifiers are sufficiently powerful such that you can barely get any headroom on the volume dial. This volume knob leaves plenty of usable range, more than any other amp Ive tried in fact.You do not need higher impedance headphones. I have found it works best with dynamic headphones, i usually used lower impedance ones, but it can drive higher impedance ones as well.The NFB is really to adjust the amp to handle higher or lower impedance headphones better, I always had lower impedance headphones, so I usually kept the dial lower. But on higher impedance cans it should make more of a difference. OTL amps are typically associated with high impedance headphones and they do sound great together, but I confirmed the amp is also very usable with low impedance headphones especially with the NFB knob.-------Note that the preamp and power tubes do not need biasing in this circuit. Every year or so, you can bias the single power supply tube to make sure its within the right range. This doesnt need to be thought about until mid-2024 sometime. Its a single adjustment with a screwdriver and a multimeter, and I have the instructions for how to do this, which Ill pass on to you if youre the buyer. I dont have a multimeter at the moment so I wont be able to bias it further prior to sale, but it was last biased 3/2023 and I gave the amp a listen prior to sale, its functioning normally and sounds incredible. I would recommend you bias it shortly after purchase though. Thank you!
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