Do It Yourself

Both Birgir and I have wanted one of these for quite a while, and they never seem to show up. So with a little help from one of the members here we were able to reverse engineer this one. http://gilmore.chem....rn.edu/ksa5.pdf http://gilmore.chem....rn.edu/ksa5.jpg still have work to do on the power supply. All the parts are still available, but identical and compatible parts also available. mpsw06 and mpsw56 and lsk389 I think this one is fairly cheap to do. And easy to assemble. Single channel is 10 x 3.65 inches. Single ended not really a HE6 killer, but balanced, a HE6 heavyweight for sure. If you replace the servo opamp with opa445, then you …

Hey guys, I'm building a desktop system in a custom rack, more on that later, but I need a few cables that I can't find commercially. First, I need a 2' cable with 4 right angle banana plugs on one end, and a rear panel mounted female 4 pin XLR connector on the other. It needs to be somewhat flexible, as it will bend 90 degrees in the middle of the cable. It would be nice if each banana could be marked in some way, as to L+, L-, R+, R- (for K1000 pinout). Next, I need two very short pairs of analog RCA interconnects. They need to be 6" ea. and of good quality wire and connectors. Last, I need a 6" 75 ohm RCA digital interconnect. I'll of coarse pay well, but d…

Just been auditioning the Asus Xonar Essence One, and they sent me some of these Muses 8820 op-amps to replace the stock 5532s. My, this amp/DAC sounds pretty damn good for $599, and with the Muses ($899 is the price with these installed) it sounds very nice. Articulate, punchy, smooove! I likey. Anyone used these parts? Linky

I'm looking to build something along the lines of the Stax SRD-7/ Woo Wee but with better iron in a lower turn ratio (maybe 1:10/1:15/1:20). Does anyone have recomendations for iron? Spritzer, do you offer your bias boards still? I'll keep my eye out for s SRD-7 with pro connection but in the mean time this could be a fun project. Thanks!

Hi forum, I've recently purchased a set of Sennheiser headphone with no microphone. As my intended use was for the pc, i've purchased a few cheap headphones with mic to try and mod a mic onto my headphone. Unfortunately everything was going great until I reached a point where i had to dismantle this metal part from the line of the microphone, which resulted in me cutting into the cord by accident, so now I've just decided to strip the cord completely trying to figure out how i can connect / solder it back together. (Will have to buy the soldering equipment) Below I've attached an imagine of it all, this microphone was originally attached to the turtle beach XC1 xbox he…

Hello all!! This is my first post here and was hoping that you DIY'ers can help out a noobie. This will be my first attempt at making a headphone cable and would like to know if this is the way to go about it... Unbalanced cable using a 1/4" TRS plug and 2 mini 4-pin XLR's for the headphone end, left and right. Is this the correct way for wire hookup? See diagram below....

Since I discovered electrostatic headphones two years ago, I have been wanting to build a Blue Hawaii. Thanks to the generosity of Head-Casers Nattonrice and Wink, I've got my chance. They supplied the board sets FOR FREE! I am so stoked, I cant thank you guys enough. For whatever reason, I enjoy doing quirky builds. Aesthetics have never been my thing. (prolly because I'm a cheap bastard) I like to instill some sentimental value in my creations along the way. This KGBH isnt going to win any "best of show" awards. It will fulfill three of my objectives: 1) Be totally encased / covered. My listening space, the living room is also shared by two rowdy teenagers …

Didn't see a thread topic relegated specifically to automated machinery specifically so I thought I'd make one. I'm working with another person in starting up a company that offers consulting services to optimize parts and layout production efficiencies, which includes a machine shop of our own. We're starting with conventional subtractive machining, but are looking to expand later with plasma/lasers, casting, plating, PCB layout and fabrication, etc. Currently we have a (cam operated) B&S screw machine with an old Bridgeport CNC coming in soon. We'll be looking to retrofit them both with open source CNC software and the proper motor drive modules pretty soon. Current…

I've decided to create a new division of HeadAmp dedicated to offering DIY parts (both in-house made as well as reselling such as transistors). It's just less stressful and overall more enjoyable dealing with DIYers (of course, this is just in addition to selling the HeadAmp made amps/DACs) I'll have to come up with a list of items. So this is a "Wanted" thread. Current items: - Custom machined Teflon Stax Jacks (pro or normal bias)

Anybody know the part number for the LEMO connector used in the stock Qualia 010 cable? Thanks.

Is there a demand for another run of the classic kgss board? Show of hands please. I for one love to build it, with the new sockets coming from Justine soon. Maybe makinging fully ccs. Naming it Kgss+ ??

Now this is my first time on this forum so hi everyone! Right so the main business is that I've always stuck with Skullcandy for comfort and style, but i always get the same problem over and over again(no matter what skullcandies they are!) and that is the cable goes dodgy up in the speaker can. this happened with 2 pairs of skullcrushers i bought and because i live in the UK their warranty doesn't extend to over here. bottom line is , I've soldered the cables back down in the can but the sound still cuts off regularly, is there a smarter way to reconnect the cables inside? or is it worth completely replacing the cables? only problem being is that the subwoofer is c…

My apologies if this is in the wrong forum. Years ago I came under the possession of a beat up pair of Realistic Nova Pro headphones at a garage sale for two dollars. Not in the best condition, but serviceable enough for use. For a while now in the absence of speakers and disposable funding, they've served not only as my main choice for computer audio but also the headphones I carry with me to provide personal audio on the go. In the past two months alone, I have opened them up multiple times to replace oxidized connections, resoldering almost every connection in the left can alone, to maintain their functionality. Yeah, even though they're collector's items of sort…

updated Megatron schematic. If you manage to figure out what the stax mafia is doing, please let us know. We are having a hard time keeping track of it all

I'm having some of the teflon Stax jacks w/ the gold plated pins machined. I should have them in 4-6 weeks. I don't have the final price yet because I don't know what it will cost to have the pins assembled. But it shouldnt be more (probably will be less) than the jacks have previously been sold for and it will be excellent machining quality. Edit: August 3, 2012 All connectors from this group buy have been shipped out. If you're reading this late, I've listed more connectors on eBay. Find them at the below links 1 connector - Custom Teflon Chassis Jack for Stax Headphones from HeadAmp 2 connectors - 2 pcs - Custom Teflon Chassis Jack for Stax Headphones fr…

First off, I'm about as much of a DIY audio builder as I am a bronze sculptor. Secondly, I recently bought an enclosure from dsavitsk that has some parts in it that were once a DAC. Specifically, it needs a 12AX7 tube and a CS8412 chip. The tube I have already of course. I did some shopping on the 'Bay and found what I believe is the right DAC chip for $6 from a Chinese seller. The rest of the iterations mentioned in this post are strictly for academic purposes. I'm genuinely curious what the differences (if any) are. The version I bought. CS8414CS for $13 The main difference here is that this one can speak hibit (24/96) and purports to have lower jitte…

Head-Case DIY'ers, I've got a quick question on wiring for neatness. What is a recommended method for tying two 18awg cables from a transformer into one quick connect terminal? Should it be a short piece of 18awg cable soldered to both at one end, adding heat shrink over the junction? Thanks, bperboy

ok, so I've been looking on and off for the last few days and I'm wondering what everyone else is using? I've looked at the amphenols, but what confuses me is the price point. I only need 6 connections and metal is not necesarry, but if the price is the same or close to plastic I'd go with that. Any reccomendations that Mouser would stock?

I am having some PCBs made, and I have a 3.5" x 3.9" spot left empty on the panel. If anyone has a small board they want made, and it will fit within that spot (that size or smaller), I am happy to add it. Board will be 2oz copper and RoHS if that matters. Cost is Free. The only complication is that I am sending the order in late Sunday, or possibly very early Monday, so I'd need the files before then. I guess the other complication is that if you did not do the board in Eagle, there is no guarantee it will work. We'll see.

I'm building a pair of the rev2 dynahi boards and a pair of Sigma22's and I wanted everyone's opinion on weather or not boutique capacitors make a difference in those boards. Since there's no electrolytics in the signal path (correct me if I'm wrong) I'm not so sure they would make a difference. And I think I remember somewhere that the boutique capacitors often have a negative effect when placed in those positions. My other option would be just to use Panasonic FC's

So I recently picked up a couple of niche audio control modules. They're unusual passive summing boxes/mixers controlled entirely by midi. It's 8 inputs, 8 outputs, and then a summed out. The 8 inputs and 8 outputs are TS unbalanced, with a TRS out that's 1-4 TS and 5-8 RS. If I were to make an XLR patch panel that has 4 XLR inputs that send each channel to pins 1/2 and 1/3 as TS cables, would this result in a 4 channel balanced mono summing mixer?

So for a little while now my Sony DAS-R1 has had a problem with the left channel cutting out. It used to get better by itself after a minute or so, then it needed longer. Now I have the lid unscrewed all the time and give it a wee tap. While this cures the symptom it doesn't cure the disease and the wee tap is now turning into a prod, before I know it, I'll be using a frame hammer. I'd like to fix this myself however I only just know which end of a soldering iron plugs into the mains and which end you use to burn your fingers touch against things to heat them up. I've looked under the board and I cannot see any obviously broken connections. I am fairly certain that …

Who needs low distortion and high power? What about some high distortion, high noise and very limited power output. Apparently some people want that in an amp... This has been a long time coming but this one will bear a striking resemblance to certain production amps but combine dynamic and electrostatic output in one amp. More to come...

Quick question and likely an easy one, but it escapes me. If one were to have a power meter on the front of their amp, say, like the D'Agostino Momentum, what would it be connected to? I assume across the power supply...or would it be across the output? Thanks! Gratuitous picture for fun.

Well OK this one may be tamed, but it is indeed beautiful to behold. Naaman's casework (and all around attention to detail) sets him apart, along with a handful of amazing builders we have in our group. But this one in particular really hit a chord with me. Simple but eye catching at the same time. I've had my sights set on this DAC for some time now, as it seemed a natural progression from the Epic Opus ( Opus DAC w/Zapfilter output stage) I had from the Twisted Pear line. And this DAC had a surprise for me. Naaman built in a Mini³ amp into the case, so that it could be used as a stand alone system if wanted. That would be nice for desktop use, meets and for me a reason…