Curious what you guys think of the Whammy after more time with it.
I’m looking for a project that doesn’t involve cleaning the garage.
2 Likes
I use it as my SS amp exclusively. So it gets a decent amount of use. My main setup has 3 amps in common use, the Whammy a Liquid Platinum Hybrid and a ZDT Jr, the LP get’s the most play on the Aeolus.
I’ll stand by my better than the other Pure SS amps I own statement.
I swapped the op amp in it for a Burson classic, the effect is subtle, but I like it, Marginally improved staging and smoother treble. You should really drop the PSU voltage to 15V to do this, mines still at 16 and change without issues. I might pick up a Burson Vivid at some point.
3 Likes
So apparently there are two of these WHAMMY topics. Here’s my op amp experience that I posted in the other topic:
Alright, I’ve now had 2.5 days on all op amps except the default RC4580 with has about 3 weeks on it. Here are my very general notes in order of most to least favorite. Your mileage may vary.
OPA2134PA - It’s open, lively. Good bass. Good detail. Best so far. Good dynamics. Spacious.
OPA2107AP - Good bass. Spacious. Good attack. Good detail, texture.
OPA2228PA - Decent top end. More lively than 4580. Bass lacking.
RC4580 - Dull, lifeless, no dynamics.
AD823 - Not feeling it. lifeless. tired. don’t want to listen to it. dirty. constipated.
Will give them all more extended listening and update if my thoughts change.
I heard Fred Schneider has one of these.
I must say thats pretty great for a 30$ amp. it beats out 200$ amps. I would love to dive into this stuff once i get my solder station up. Op amps look cheap too. Some guy is selling this amp for 500$ on ebay lol
I’m looking into doing a build for myself. I’m in no rush, so I’m pricing out my own BOM. Might be worth it to just get the kit and have everything, but I’m have a couple components tweaks in mind that I want to do.
For op amps I currently have V6 Vivid amps, but they are in use so I’ll have an excuse to order V6 classics, otherwise I also have 5532D JRC op amps on hand as well.
The PCB is $30
The kit with PCB and components are around $190, not including the chassis.
So $500 for finished product on Etsy or eBay? Its kind of high but probably a more reasonable markup than other amps.
$220 in parts including the Chassis.
Your paying for 3 - 5 hours of time in that assuming they are quick and they’ve gone through the pain of making the chassis cutouts a quick process.
$500 is not unreasonable.
2 Likes
And let’s not forget,l it’s $500 for an entry into a Pass Labs design, if that matters to you.
1 Like
A little update. After ~3 months of listening now, the OPA2134 is the op amp to have. Hands down. There are a few more ( OPA1612AQDRQ1, LM4562, Burston V6) that are supposed to be very good but for now I’m very happy so I won’t try those out anytime soon.
A few notes to make your build more successful:
-If you get an anodized/painted chassis, make sure to sand clean all contact surfaces including where the body of the pot sits against the chassis front. You want ground continuity between all surfaces and the ground nut. This insures a star ground pattern.
-Make sure to use shielded wire on the input. I had a high noise floor issue while using an unshielded 3 conductor braid. Swapped that out for a shielded Mogami mic cable and noise dropped to zero.
-Get a Neutrik plastic HP plug. Plastic being the key here - you don’t want the plug grounded to chassis.
-If using the Hammond case, either omit the plastic trim rings on the ends or, put them on the outside - not between the chassis endplates and the rest of the chassis. Again - proper grounding.
I priced out the BOM on Mouser and it comes out a few bucks more than just ordering through the DIY store.
And for those of you wondering - it’s a killer amp.
6 Likes
It is. A total impulse buy- I bought one that had already been built by someone with a Burson opamp.
7 Likes
Looks solid, any thoughts on it yet?
It’s a a neutral, moderately powerful, quiet, maybe warm amp with good dynamics. I’ve been enjoying it! I can’t say that it can compete with my Phonitor e, of course.
1 Like
Do you know what model the Burston is? V5/V6? Classic/Vivid?
Was looking at Bottlehead kits and stumbled on this…super stoked! Working to get PCB now.
2 Likes
This looks like a lot of fun, but I just bought a fa-12 
WHAMMY has always annoyed me with being too…what’s the word…meh. Mainly it’s got zero transients. Sounds like molasses. After swapping the caps on my LP and loving the results, I decided to do the same with WHAMMY (using all Audio Note caps in the signal path - PSU caps left untouched). Got all excited and turned it on and waited 4 days for the caps to burn in. Put on the cans and…meh. No change. WTF 
I figured I’d put it up for sale and suggest to a potential buyer that it’s best used with bright cans.
Then, on a lark I decided to swap op amps and see what happened. I had been using the OPA2107AP after trying out a bunch. I put in the op amp I liked the least (AD823 - my original notes read “not feeling it. lifeless. tired. don’t want to listen to it. dirty. constipated.”) just for shits and giggles and damn. It’s a new amp. The transients are not QUITE at the level of my modded LP but they’re way better than before. Maybe this is a good thing - it makes it a very easy amp to listen to for many hours at a time without fatigue. Staging/imaging is a lot better than before - way better than my modded Crack for example. Bass on HD600 seems more substantial than on my two other amps (modded LP and highly modded Crack). I guess I’ll go through all the op amps I have and re-evaluate with them.
Long story short, with two vastly different amps, Audio Note caps have made a substantial positive improvement. My go-to cap brand from now on. And, WHAMMY can be better than it is. Oh and also, it appears that the OPA2107AP imparts it’s own sound and isn’t transparent to other components.
3 Likes
i’m happy to read this. i have a whammy with a OPA2134 and I liked the amp a lot. That is until I heard a new release a particularly congested passage. Another DIY amp I have handles it with ease. The WHAMMY didn’t and I would love to get it to handle a really busy passage. Perhaps some opamp rolling will fix the potential to be congested.
which DIY amp handles with ease and Whammy doesnt? for omp amp rolling i recommend the sparkos labs one, really takes it to another lvl for my preferences
Neurochrome hpa-2