Phoenix Gold Phorum

So, kind of thinking of starting a new custom amp project and I need your thoughts. I relied heavily on a bunch of you when I designed and built the ZPA0.8, which still isn't 100% done BTW and it's twin isn't even started, but... I got thinking the other day, I wonder if a ZX board will fit in a ZXti or TI case. I'm 99% sure they will. I have a bunch I could play musical cases with, but I haven't had a chance to give it a shot. If they will, I may take a couple of my scrubby ZX amps and put the boards in some of my better Ti cases. Ever since I saw the PG "ad" for the first ZxTi amps that shows the amps with gold boards, I have wanted them! I think the sticking point will probably be crossover controls and inputs, but that is not something insurmountable. So, Phase one would be swap the ZX amps over and get them going, then I will have some Ti amps with no homes.

So, I'm thinking of building a reactor themed amp, only bigger and with Ti amps. My gut says to do it with a Ti1000.2 and a Ti600.2 and 500.4 and possibly a bass cube. I could also roll with a Ti1200.1 or even a 900.7. I actually have a 900.7 with no case, but I am not sure who could possibly need an amp with that many jeezless channels. Two 500.4s and a 900.7 would be a tweaker's paradise though, you could independently amplify and cross over every single speaker in a fairly complex install.

Thinking that for a name it should possibly be "Chernobyl" but I'm not sold on it. I want something short and sweet. I wish that PG hadn't spoiled the name Fusion with the amp that never was... Maybe "the big one" or maybe "Doomsday"...

I'm going to start doing the modeling soon to see what it would take to build. What are your thoughts and opinions?

Thanks,
Jason

anyone running a 3 way active set up needs that many channels. Hell I just got my 2nd mq430 of a planned 3 which will give an extra channel that I look forward to making to look like one big amp with links between them. The mq1290? Projects are always fun and this Sounds like fun I see no reason not to do it especially since you have all the tools to do it.

I really miss my old reactor. It was definitely my favorite amp and it was in an install with a MS1K TA. I ought to just rebuild it, call it 501 out of 500

I know the feeling I loved my octane and it will always have a soft spot for me although funny enough I hate fake carbon fiber now after adding some real pieces. I am looking forward to the 1000 backed by the big franked 1290 driven by F1 gear for sure though.

Maybe something more simple like "Radio-Active"?

I'd do a 900.7 and 1000.2. That would be awesome.

I say go big or go home

I'm going to have to get some measurements, but to keep the Reactor shape, I think the amp will have to be enormous, It will probably require open space between the amps heat sink side to get the overall amp dimensions to match a scaled up reactor.

So, what goes in the center... Better cooling, some signal processing, huge bank of caps??? Give me some ideas

For name, I have a few more ideas. Reactor Overload, Tokamak, Reactor Meltdown...

On a side note, do any of you know what the GW 6.10 means on the reactor case???

Thanks,
Jason

how about something really stupid like "the elephants foot". Do a search and you will find vids of the melted down core that grew into an oversized molten ball that was named "the elephants foot"

Caps have been done and have already served their use imo. Now stick that new dsp in it for a little taste of new/old and it could be fun.

If the terminals face top and bottom I don't think it would get too much bigger.

Weaklink wrote:If the terminals face top and bottom I don't think it would get too much bigger.

Yeah, that crossed my mind. I'm going to have to do some measuring and mock-ups on my days off. I'll keep you all posted.

So I dug out the big TIs today to measure them up. Original reactor is about 25x14. Back to back two large form factor TIs are 25x18, which sounds good except you would need to add 2-3 inches on each side for wire covering and then it ends up being ~square. Also I think it would look pretty odd with the windows on the shorter end.

So, if I were to straight up scale the reactor case to fit the wider amps, we would end up at ~25x44, which I think is absolutely doable. It's on the outside of the large end of the scale, but it's width would still fit in the average trunk... Not that I'm likely to run it, but it would be nice to know I could.

On a side note, I looked at putting a zx board in a ti case this morning. It could be done, but it will be far from drop in. It will either require the end plate (where all the terminals are) from a zx to be cut off and welded into the ti chassis, or all the pots, switches, and rcas would have to go to panel mount and pig tales to the board. Over all a lot of work for no real gain... I'll keep thinking on that one though.

Thanks,
Jason

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Also, and this may be a deal breaker, straight up scaling the reactor design to fit the big amps would also mean something like 19" of empty space between the pair of amps, and that's being generous with a 4" overhang on either end to cover writing and controls.

There would literally be enough room for two more amps in the middle... I'm going to have to think on this some more, that would mean a lot of ways real estate...

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why are you stuck on the reactor shell out of curiosity? It was a neat package but I would not let it limit you. You have a few more options then the rest of us with all the toys you have don't let an initial design idea limit you.

Well, mostly because I like the deign aesthetic. Also, there are not many form factors that you can put a TI or ZX amp in without redesigning the heat sink and power device mounting and I have a lot of ZX and Ti amps, most with cosmetic issues and some with no case at all, so these types of designs are the logical solution. The other possibility is the "offroad" or ZX950 type style, but honestly neither of those designs have really done anything for me.

Other than that, I prefer to build things that I think could have come off the floor from the original PG. If I were not trying to stay true to the designs of the OEM, then anything could go, but what would be the point in that?

As for the tooling I have, yes, it makes some of this a bit easier, but for something this large I would have to farm out the sheet cutting to another guy, I'll only be able to do the CAD work and the bending and welding.

Anyhow, I am going to mock a few things up in sketchup. I'll see if I can make soemthing look decent. One thing that did cross my mind, I could put real heat sink down the middle of the big amp and switch all the BJT's out to TO-3 devices... We will see. I know I already have a length of the perfect heat sink extrusion if I were to do that.

I'll keep you's posted.

Thanks,
Jason

I think I have a CAD model of a Reactor shell. I know I have one of a ZX950 chassis. I had plans to build a ZX900 (two ZX450s in one chassis), and considered doing it in a Reactor case. I even acquired the two ZX450 boards for the project.

So, if you need any CAD for any of these projects, let me know. I might either have it, or have the means to create it. I am pretty sure I still have access to equipment from my last job where I could reverse engineer sheet metal to 0.001".

Eric, if you have the drawings of the reactor shell that would conceivably save me a ton of work. Especially if you have the bottom chassis. I've been looking at some pictures of the cases before they were bent and the bottom half is very well engineered. You wouldn't think that it was the complex part but it really is. All the mounting locations for both the shell and the iso feet are all part of that one cutout and then folded.

I haven't given up hope in this yet, but it's going to be slow going compared to the other one. I've got a ton of overtime over the next few months and it's going to leave me with virtually no free time.

I'm seriously thinking of going with the idea of doing massive sink and to-3s down the middle of a big amp. Maybe not scale it exactly 1:1 but keep it close enough to the form factor that it doesn't look like a square either...

I've got to go back and price the TO-3 BJTs that I bought for my ZxTi600 that I built. It might be tricky changing the 900.7 over, there are a lot of bias transistors that have to share heat sink on that amp, but I think it's probably still feasible.

Thanks,
Jason

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J, I like the Chernobyl theme/name. The big one is already a PG amp. Also to go along with what you had mentioned, the big bang?

I would personally fall into the tweakers realm on this project. The more channels I have at my disposal, the better.

Scott, I'd love to see 3 of the 430's together though might I throw out other names/models for it?
MQ1230 or the MQ3430?
I see how you arrived at yours, model number x 3. I like the 1230 best as it more closely relates to how the original numbers were derived. 12 channels at 30 watts. The 3430 is derived from 3 MQ430s.

Just my two cents.

chernobyl is interesting. Ever heard of the elephants foot?

You asked what the GW6.10 meant well this is a guess but GW stand for Gigawatts in physics so 6.10 gw of power maybe? I think the idea kicks ass.

I haven't abandoned the idea yet, I have been stuck working about 90 hours a week though, we are down a guy in our 4 man 24/7 rotation at work.

I'm trying to tie up some other projects and I have one more class d driver I want to reverse engineer, but I'll probably start designing an amp case soon.

I'm really liking the idea of going to to-3 outputs and a big wind tunnel heat sink down the middle. I'll post drawings when I get something going.

Thanks,
Jason

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