DIY amp and such build gallery

[JBLoudG20]

About $200ish

[philodox]

Nice Jason, I'm glad it worked out well. Did you have any hum issues with your old build? Good idea going with a metal case this time... we don't want a repeat of the melting amp incident.

[JBLoudG20]

HAHA

No I had no issue last tine, but I used some big honkin caps. This time I kinda forgot about that, and only used about 200uf of capacitance. I don't know what the hell I was thinking when I decided to do that. I had some spare high voltage caps, I just upped it to about 450uf, and I greatly reduced the volume of the hum. I have about 3000uf on order

Yeah this metal case gets freaking hot! I've had it running now for about an hour and a half for testing purposes, and the case is nice and warm right now. Not a big deal, of course, the case is one big heat sink. You should see the grid resistors I used on teh 6AS7. Since I modified the 6AS7 to run MUCH more hot, the resistors get melt-the-skin-on-your-fingers hot, as I found out last time. this time I used some heatsinked resistors that are freaking huge.

[philodox]

Oh, I've seen those heatsinked resistors... very cool, not cheap though.

[n_maher]

It is my distinct pleasure to introduce you to the Hertsens Signature DAC.

[justin]

Is that a prototype you built for Tyll?

[EdipisReks]

Originally Posted by n_maher

It is my distinct pleasure to introduce you to the Hertsens Signature DAC.

is it going through a space/time wormhole, or something?

[n_maher]

Nah, not a prototype, it's a one-off stand alone balanced MAX dac. Two and a half years of harping on Tyll for not building a DAC when he's got the modules already in house and finally he broke and said, "Would you shut up if I sold you a module?!?!" I literally jumped at the chance and after about 3 months of planning and designing this is the result. It's only wired for single ended right now as I just wanted to get a proof of concept up and running but it's all ready to go balanced as soon as I feel like it. Here are some clearer images.

Top View (power supply is amb's sigma22 running at +/- 12VDC)


Front View


Close up of module and custom daughter board


Back Panel


Test Rig

[en480c4]

Originally Posted by n_maher

Nah, not a prototype, it's a one-off stand alone balanced MAX dac. Two and a half years of harping on Tyll for not building a DAC when he's got the modules already in house and finally he broke and said, "Would you shut up if I sold you a module?!?!" I literally jumped at the chance and after about 3 months of planning and designing this is the result. It's only wired for single ended right now as I just wanted to get a proof of concept up and running but it's all ready to go balanced as soon as I feel like it.

Hot damn!!!

Nicely done. I can't wait to hear it!!!

[EdipisReks]

dude, kick ass! the Max DAC is very good.

[n_maher]

Originally Posted by EdipisReks

dude, kick ass! the Max DAC is very good.

You aren't kidding. I've got it burning in right now running a mix of Poe, Patty Griffin and Opeth.

Initial impressions are on the order of ohmyfuckinggod but I need to let the excitement of not blowing the damn thing up wear off so I can be a little more rational about it. I guess I have one other impression, Tyll, Jamey and Joe (Headroom's Engineer) friggen rock for letting this all happen.

A couple other minor details - the USB input will eventually go live via the front panel switch but I decided to abandon the optical input (also on board with the usb). It would have been a nightmare to do the panel work and I just couldn't see using it for anything. Even the USB is a luxury that might eventually be forgone in the name of two switched coax inputs. Only time will tell on that front.

[philodox]

OMG!!!!! That is way too cool. I bugged Tyll about this a while back as well... maybe if I go into hardcore bugging mode I might be able to weasel a couple modules out of him?

Congrats Nate! So jealous!

[tkam]

Very nice Nate I bet that sounds fantastic.

[hYdrociTy]

I want a module and pin adapter board

[Salt Peanuts]

Very nice, Nate! I can't wait to hear it at the meet!

[JBLoudG20]

My jaw just dropped. TYLL I want in j/k great work Nate, and that was really cool of you Tyll!

[aerius]

This build is around 4 years old or so.
KG Dynalo, from the group order of creditcard sized boards organized by Subsonic on Head-fi.


Yes, that's a switchmode PSU from the surplus store, the good PSU doesn't fit on my computer desk, plus it got stolen for another project.


The insides of the tin. The case is the box from a cycling computer.

[Mister X]

Originally Posted by Nanoha

Clear panels are weird.

Skull screws?!

Plan b looks pretty wierd to.



Will see how plan C turns out later today.....

[TheSloth]

Originally Posted by n_maher

Nah, not a prototype, it's a one-off stand alone balanced MAX dac. Two and a half years of harping on Tyll for not building a DAC when he's got the modules already in house and finally he broke and said, "Would you shut up if I sold you a module?!?!" I literally jumped at the chance and after about 3 months of planning and designing this is the result. It's only wired for single ended right now as I just wanted to get a proof of concept up and running but it's all ready to go balanced as soon as I feel like it. Here are some clearer images.

Top View (power supply is amb's sigma22 running at +/- 12VDC)


Front View


Close up of module and custom daughter board


Back Panel


Test Rig

Wonderful work Nate. Which makes me wonder, why didn't I ever get a convertable with socketed DAC's as well as Modules?

I really loved the Max DAC, particularly balanced. My little HR amp only has a Desktop DAC in it, but it's OK as I'm having a friend do some tricky soldering on it to change the opamps to 827's and add some fets for biasing. Hope it doesn't blow up.

[n_maher]

Wife wasn't home tonight so I decided to take advantage, fire up the soldering rig and have a go at a mini3.

The project is wonderfully laid out, simple and concise, if you don't mind a couple SO8 parts it's a breeze. Total build time was just over an hour and a half from start to finish, and I'm not boasting since I'm neither the quickest (Marshall) or the slowest (nameless). That's probably about average and included casing the amp with the premade FPE panels which are a godsend.





Sound straight out of the box is damn decent. This amp is the high performance version and with tunes at an acceptable listening level I was pulling about 25mA average so battery life will be right at the projected 8hrs or so. That's pretty much perfect for my applications