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DK Design VS.1 Reference mkII - Optimization

I would like to know what tuning, customizing, hot rodding, tweaking, what ever.. that you owners of DK Design VS-1 MK2 are using to bring out the best in this amp. It seems to be responsive to changes in interconnects, tubes, power & speaker cables, speaker dynamics, etc. most probably to both the positive and negative.

Please share your work. I would like to know what improved it's performance, what caused no real change and what made it sound worse. Thanks in advance!
jomoinc
audioari1
128 posts
 
Tvad, I am fairly certain that it is not due to the cooling effect because the amp doesn't get very hot in the first place. And it makes logical sense that the electromagnetic bounce effect is at play here. In any case, whatever you want to call it, the DK amplifier sounds substantially better with the top cover off, try it and see for yourself.
tvad
9,467 posts
 
And it makes logical sense that the electromagnetic bounce effect is at play here. In any case, whatever you want to call it, the DK amplifier sounds substantially better with the top cover off, try it and see for yourself.
Audioari1 (Threads | Answers)
Honestly, electromagnetic bounce effect sounds like pseudo-science to me, but if the DK sounds better with its top off, then top-off it shall be!
bobf
207 posts
 
Audioari1,
I also have found that the amp sounds better with the cover off.Regards,Bob
papi_chulo
11 posts
 
This may be a dumb question but I believe tubes need biasing (dont know what that means though).

Anyway, do designs like DK and BAT and McIntosh offer a feature where the biasing is done automatically since I'm quite apprehensive of doing this myself. Unless someone here can convince me that it's easy and hassle free.

Thanks
audioari1
128 posts
 
One way to achieve the best sound and still have a cover for your DK is to have one made from Lexan. It is a clear material, so the cover will be see through, but it wont have the electro-magnetic bounce effect like the aluminum cover does. I think that DK really dropped the ball on this detail because really it sounds MUCH better with the cover off.
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