Do It Yourself

MachMat VCCS filament supply Gary Pimm CCS Design by HF member Roam, traced out by me while I was over at his place to pick up transformers for my own project. Yes I have his permission to post it. I spent about 20-30 minutes listening to it out of his Capitole CDP and my RS1, this amp is good, stupid good, but also stupid expensive thanks to the transformers and Emission Labs AD1 tubes. He says he has what should be a slightly purer version in the works using WE 205E's on the front end, but it may sacrifice a bit of bandwidth. No PSU schematic yet as he's still waiting for some parts to come in so it's running off an adjustable benchtop PSU. Can also be built with…

I didn't find anything in search, which was surprising. Maybe I suck at searching. Anyway, a couple q's for those that own one or more: 1) How do vintage ones hold up? How often do they need recalibration? I'm not talking about serious vintage, with 50 tubes inside, but 1970s to 1980s solid state stuff. 2) Specific brands to look for/avoid? 3) What's the cheapest decent digital oscilloscope that can be hooked up to a PC? This or something close to it is what I'm used to using in the labs (yes I know it's a couple thousand... used): Digital Phosphor Oscilloscopes: TDS3000C Series > Data Sheets : Tektronix Specifically TDS3012B. 4) How useful/not useful has i…

Could someone point me to a schematic for re-termination of a Jade with a Stax Pro plug? Thanks, Jim

I would like to build my new balanced rig properly. Should a source have male or female XLR terminals, and again what should the amp have?

Hey everyone, I was wondering if anyone on here makes wooden grado cups as I have a pair of Turbulence X drivers and am in need of some wooden cups to help complete my Magnums I'm building. I have very positive trader feedback on head-fi if anyone is willing to help me out. Cheers, Erich

I recently picked up a wireless charger for my phone that works well aside from the annoying inductor whine. I was thinking of dropping some hot glue on it to dampen the noise, but thought maybe folks here might have a better suggestion of what to use. Any suggestions on a better damping material than hot glue? Thanks

Does anyone know where I can get instructions for adjusting the bias on an SRM-T1? I would like to replace the tubes and it seemed logical to find out. Then again, maybe not. Who cares? Seriously though, any help would be appreciated.

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!

Lil knight among others have asked for an updated dynahi board. Here it is. http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/dynahi8.zip changes, remove 2sk389,2sj109, add lsk389,lsj109 2sk170,2sj74 you can use opa445 instead of op27 and then you don't need the 7815 and 7915. 2sa1349,2sc3381 can be replaced with the single versions. I need to check this a few more times. unbalanced input, balanced output version coming soon.

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....

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)

There are a few of us building this amp, and at least two of us that have taken this on as a first project, so I'm thinking a thread is in order, since I'm sure that there will be some discussion and questions.

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…

Well, it took me a bit longer than I expected, but I finally finished my second TNT Flexy-based rack, this time going for a Double Flexy. Some pics, and as usual, they're pretty bad. I may try to take better pics during the day with better lighting. Few things to note after building two racks based on TNT Flexy design- At least in my area, Home Depot carries better quality MDF than Lowes. Lowes do, however, carry bigger sheet of MDF, making it cheaper (and easier) if you need to get many shelves, which I did for the Double Flexy. Having built both 4-legs and 3-legs version, 3-legs version is much easier to build. Also, 3-legs version is so much easier to…

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

I'm modding an Adcom CD player for a member here, installing a pair of Colin's I/V boards (player is balanced), and am debating on how and where to connect ground on these to the main board and power. These boards have on-board shunt regulators, so I am tapping power from the main filter caps right after the rectifiers for the 2 +/-15V power supplies for the analog section on the main board. AFAIK, it is usually not a good idea to connect more than 1 ground per board. The options I see are: Ground the boards through the power connector Ground the input of the boards Ground the output of the boards Currently, I am leaning towards #1, thinking that noise from the shunt r…

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.