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Service / Upgrades / Repair
Hificollective`s Service, Upgrade & Repair Department
Nick`s GM70 creation

click for bigger product pic   Nick Gorham`s GM70 amp
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Nick`s 211 creation

click for bigger product pic   Nick Gorham`s 211 amp
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Read all about Nick Gorham`s OTL headphone project - full descritopn, circuit and parts list - perfect for the scratch builder.

    Read all about Nick Gorham`s OTL headphone project - full description, circuit & parts list - perfect for the scratch builder.



Heading up our servicing department in none other than Nick Gorham. Very active in the DIY community with a strong presence on bulletin boards and at meets. Hightly respected and very experienced in the field. Here is what he has been up to.
  • Educated in the 60-70s when electronics was still seen as a exciting field.
  • Grew up reading Wireless World and Practical Electronics at the time when valves were giving way to transistors, and later when the first commercial anaolog and logic IC's were about.
  • Well versed in computers, having worked as a software engineer, on the edge between hardware and software. Including process control and data capture for industrial applications, and both ends of the power scale, microvolt LVDT transducers, and 100's of KW heaters and motor control. He also spent some years working on video capture and digital transmission (when it was a bit more complex than plugging a web cam into a USB slot).
  • 10 years ago, Nick decided to get back into Hi-Fi after a children induced gap, and rediscovered valves. Suddenly all the excitement and interest he had had in electronics returned, and since then its been a continual process of rediscover. What has been lost from the last 100 years of electronics, and finding how it can be just as valid in todays HiFi as it was 40 years ago.
  • Ironically, after spending so long working with valves and high voltage, he currently find myself spending a lot of time designing digital/analog circuits to try and get CD to sound as good as his SP10 turntable and valve phono stage. So that has taken me into the area of FPGAs, CPLDs and VHDL programming to manipulate the I2S data from a CD.
Test Equipment:
Most of the test kit I use for most of the upgrade/design/repair work dates from the same period equipment I am working on, and includes:
  • Gould OS3000A dual beam oscilloscope
  • Farnell LFM4 function generator
  • HP 3581A wave analyser
  • Wayne Kerr 4225 component analyser
  • Marconi TF223i distortion factor meter
  • Marconi TF2700 component bridge
  • Assorted bench power supplies, DVMs and dummy loads
  • For more than the 90dB resolution, a PC based data acquisition system does the job.
Please feel free to ask us for advice on your current project we have a wealth of experience when it comes to upgrading. Our charge is £35.00 an hour + carriage. servicing@hificollective.co.uk



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