Hello from beautiful Sintra's oceanfront

LMR-Miguel

Member
Oct 19, 2023
23
51
15
43
Sintra, Portugal
Hi,

My name is Miguel and I live in the Atlantic shores of Sintra, Portugal.

Sintra was named Mons Lunae (the sacred mount of the moon) during roman times, and me...having dug quite a bit of roman relics myself (and being a bit of a local history buff), decided to create the "Lunae Mons Research" humorous brand...where I design and build analog wanna-be masterpieces for my own use, without the shackles of commercial restraints

Here are a few works of mine:

A Kondo Ongaku inspired SET amplifier (my main amplifier at the moment):
ongaku small.jpg


and another one: with a similar design philosophy but employing EL34s in UL mode: I called it "St. John the baptist", aka "Bota-Fogo", a famous portuguese galleon which was part of the joint coalition christian army which took Tunis from the Ottoman pirate "Red Beard"/"Barbarossa". You can't see it from this picture but the shiny RCAs lined up in the left side make it look like a galleon's hull. bota-fogo - St John Baptist - small.jpg

most recently I've been working on my phono stage (still a work in progress), which is a variation of Andrea Ciuffoli 's brilliant high end c3g phono, but my version deviates mainly in the power supply, which is separated from the preamp in another chassis and also employs valve rectification instead of the SS rectification bridge of the original design. I called it the "Oceanic Phono" as the valves it employs were originally made to be used by the german post company in the oceanic telephone repeaters which powered intercontinental phone calls. here's how it looks right now (that center piece's recession will hold a brass plate logo...which I still have to design):

IMG_2175.jpg
 
Last edited:

J007B

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2020
357
701
163
67
Hello Miguel, welcome to WBF. Let me be the first to say, beautiful craftsmanship. Well done…..
 

LMR-Miguel

Member
Oct 19, 2023
23
51
15
43
Sintra, Portugal
Thank you Peter, I was struck by your beautiful analog system, one can't help but look in awe at all that unusual solid cast mass. And also I've got a soft spot for anything from North Sails (I was into windsurfing about 20 years ago and was also a small boat sailing instructor in my teen years at highschool, teaching other kids to sail lasers). Please do take my far-away friendly nod from the other side of the Atlantic
 
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Sablon Audio

Industry Expert, VIP Donor
May 22, 2015
1,619
1,490
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Welcome to WBF Miguel and congratulations on your wonderful diy amplifiers. I know your area quite well, having visited Lisbon / Cascais / Sintra many times - is a lovely part of the world.
 
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Reactions: LMR-Miguel
Jan 18, 2012
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Drobak Norway
Hi,

My name is Miguel and I live in the Atlantic shores of Sintra, Portugal.

Sintra was named Mons Lunae (the sacred mount of the moon) during roman times, and me...having dug quite a bit of roman relics myself (and being a bit of a local history buff), decided to create the "Lunae Mons Research" humorous brand...where I design and build analog wanna-be masterpieces for my own use, without the shackles of commercial restraints

Here are a few works of mine:

A Kondo Ongaku inspired SET amplifier (my main amplifier at the moment):
View attachment 118410


and another one: with a similar design philosophy but employing EL34s in UL mode: I called it "St. John the baptist", aka "Bota-Fogo", a famous portuguese galleon which was part of the joint coalition christian army which took Tunis from the Ottoman pirate "Red Beard"/"Barbarossa". You can't see it from this picture but the shiny RCAs lined up in the left side make it look like a galleon's hull. View attachment 118411

most recently I've been working on my phono stage (still a work in progress), which is a variation of Andrea Ciuffoli 's brilliant high end c3g phono, but my version deviates mainly in the power supply, which is separated from the preamp in another chassis and also employs valve rectification instead of the SS rectification bridge of the original design. I called it the "Oceanic Phono" as the valves it employs were originally made to be used by the german post company in the oceanic telephone repeaters which powered intercontinental phone calls. here's how it looks right now (that center piece's recession will hold a brass plate logo...which I still have to design):

View attachment 118413
very nice stuff
makes me really curious what´s the rest of the system
btw love Portugal and visit normally twice a year
Sintra is very nice, as is Sesimbra, Porto, Lagos, Silves and of course Lisboa
 

LMR-Miguel

Member
Oct 19, 2023
23
51
15
43
Sintra, Portugal
very nice stuff
makes me really curious what´s the rest of the system
btw love Portugal and visit normally twice a year
Sintra is very nice, as is Sesimbra, Porto, Lagos, Silves and of course Lisboa
:) Hi Christen,

The DAC is a ANK DAC 5.1 Signature that has quite a few upgrades in the signal path and the speakers are AvantGarde Duo Omega, TT is a heavily upgraded Thorens TD124Mk2 and the CD transport is a Thorens TCD 2000.

here is a video of the system (streaming Tidal if I remember correctly):

the TT: IMG_2215.jpg
 

Ron Resnick

Site Co-Owner, Administrator
Jan 24, 2015
16,219
13,682
2,665
Beverly Hills, CA
Welcome to WBF, Miguel!

The amplifiers look fantastic!
 

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