Do It Yourself

Hi guys Just finished my Bijou. It's only got about 20 minutes on it so far, but this thing sounds great. I'm currently listening to Fiday Night in SF with my K701 - very sweet. I'm not so great at describing the sound, but this amp certainly delivers - to me at least. Cheers Oh, I've temporarily mounted it on a piece of board so it looks pretty ghetto, so I won't post pics.

I noticed a channel imbalance in my Pearl phono. It appeared out of the blue, was working fine up until a few days ago. Anyone have any suggestions where to begin trouble shooting? Does anyone still have the schematic/build PDF? Pass DIY site only has the Pearl 2. It is the phono, I've isolated every other component including the cartridge. And I'm getting perfect channel balance with another stand alone phono.

I need a caliper for my guitar experimentation. Is there a better value out there than this one? I see this one on Amazon -- any good?

I want to match some PRP resistors to 0.10% so I read tangent's blog on this and I need a meter with 10,000 counts or better. Is this worth doing or am I wasting my time? I was wondering what everyone else's experiences were?

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 recently got a Nugget B22 that had been around so I gave it a good tightening and put it to work. Sounds great no issues there. However I have noticed that like the consumer PC speakers I have at work, it picks up Blackberry traffic and passes it through to the headphone. Has never happened to my KGSS in the four years I've had it. So the question. What causes that and is there any way to fix it?

In the past I've liked Neutrik's connectors best for RCA, but I haven't tried anything more boutique, yet. When it comes to binding posts, I'm pretty clueless on what is quality and what isn't. What is everyones' favorites?

I see that Panavises are highly recommended by a number of you. What base/head combination would you suggest as an initial purchase? The circuit board holder looks great, but there doesn't seem to be much expandability. I was thinking the model 350 (tray base, wide jaws) might be a better option because it can take a wire holder. Do the wide jaws work well for PCBs? Is the soldering station useful? Thanks for suggestions!

after looking at swt61's thread on his custom TT i've decided that's my next project. i'm a begginer audiophile with woodworking experience. what components do i need to make a turntable? how much will it cost for a decent/beginner TT build and how much will an even more decent one cost? what are some options? is it just motor, bearing and platter, and arm that i need? i've got wood. andreu

I've been messing around with a Counterpoint preamp I have owned for several years on and off. It's always had a slight amount of hum, not real bad, but it bothered me. Over the years I've managed to make it worse, and then much better, but never quite gone completely. After dealings with a couple of former service techs on diyaudio, I finally decided to try once again to rectify this. I was prodded to look at the PSU, particularly the heater supply (I'd already done some work and parts replacement in the HV section). Looking at the heaters, I had recalled seeing some ripple on them back when I rewired the umbilical (both before and after). About 50mV of r…

I need help putting together a simple TTL converter circuit to raise three DSD / SPDIF3 signals up to TTL level. I'm tapping the lines off a TI DSD1608. Here's what I have so far. Specifically, I was looking at a single TI SN74HCU04D for all three signals. Any recommendations on the cap here? I was thinking all surface mount here, but whatever the consensus is for the caps, I'm fine with. I'm thinking of adding a regulator as well nearby, like a National LP2985 5V regulator, or similar. Currently, these SPDIF3 lines won't leave the single box player, but perhaps down the line I'd route them to an external box via BNC cables. Either way, I'm assuming a single buffer…

Colors Sovietized for effect * this should be in DIY forum

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 don't know what's going on, but my solder just isn't flowing. It's Wonder Solder 0.031" and I tried every temperature from 390F to 800F, it melts but just blobs on the iron and stuff. I was able to desolder some previously connected wires, but I can't tin my new ones. I'm thinking the solder is bad (I bought this new since I used up the last batch of Wonder Solder I had is used up) but any other insight is appreciated. I'd really like to get going on these projects I've had on hold for too long.

I've never done this before, but partly due to seeing a pic of an amp that Nate had built, I was thinking of countersinking two screws on the bottom of the l'espressivo torpedo prototype that I am building for my brother. So, a couple of questions: [*]Is a Hammond 1455 case such as what is used thick enough to countersink a 4-40 flat head machine screw in? [*]Countersink bits: do you need one for each size you are doing? I would be most likely to use 4-40 or 6-32. [*]Angle: I see 82

was trying to re-wire the left driver of my ad700's, when the actual tiny copper solder tab lifted off the base of the driver... I still have it, but how the hell do i put it back??? It is the bottom left solder tab on the left driver (ground). Have i completely screwed my cans or is it fixable. Any advice greatly appreciated!

I would like to thank "DefectiveAudioComponent" for his excellent DIY tutorial I did the same as 'practice' for an old pair of Sony and got ok results. Recently, I have gotten into headphones in a big (but somewhat cheapskate) way...I now own two pair of older Stax Lambda (one normal, one Pro). While all seems to be in good shape, save wear especially on the head band, I thought it would be nice to have real leather pads. I know that real ones can be had via Stax (Ebay) but pricey ... around $100 or so. After finding the above tutorial, I said, why not try it on the cheap? Liek the original author, for this 2nd project, I got scrap leather off Ebay (black, …

I'd love to hear your impressions it's not every day that a different crossfeed circuit comes about but, when it does, it's worth trying. Unfortunately I don't have any 18K resistors to hand (everything else but ) have ordered some and they will be here Tuesday...... in the meantime if any of you finger on the iron fast guns feel like trying it out and giving feedback it would be appreciated. Feedback in this thread here please, my joint couldn't handle the bandwith, Just thought I'd put this by you guys and trust you'll appreciate it. Pinkie.

I was wondering if anyone knows what type of material is used for the inside tube of the z-sleeve? The outside looks like a giant piece of heatshrink. And the inside is some type of tube, but what kind of material and where could I buy tubing like this? http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/zcable1/sleeve.html Thank you, Biggie

Hopefully I'm at the right place this time. I want to build a kevin gilmore blue hawaii amp. As a starting point I found the original http://headwize.com/?page_id=751 and the more recent http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/BlueHawaii-T2-Servo-v1-2.zip (needs LTSpice). Is there a recent version without servo, with PCB's and all that? CCS is yet partly diskussed, has someone experiance with "mu follower Output" to decouple the complex loads partly from the tubes (see schematic)? What about a PS if no 500V pnp is found? From the PSRR viewpoint I'd start with the concept: "care about higher harmonics, PSRR can start to decrease at a cut-off in the 1 kHz region. And: …

the stock cable on my sennheiser HE-60's is starting to fail (intermittent right channel) normally I recable all my headphones with mogami 2534 but I am worried about sending 600V down that cable... so I am wondering what kind of cable would be appropriate? or would the 2534 probably be ok?

So it looks like the old B&W speakers are ok, which leaves pretty much only the amp as the culprit. Specifically, it seems like one channel is problematic. The sound it puts out sounds very very muffled, distorted, and scratchy. I opened up the amp and didn't see anything that to my untrained eye appears to be obviously kablooey. However, I did note that one of the fuses on the board looks different than the others. It's not blown but could that be it? Anyone see anything else?

This amp (plus the matching tuner and a Sony reel to teel) has been sitting at my parents house for as long as I can remember, completely untouched. I was finally curious enough to open it up recently and it is really something special in a vintage kind of way, a germanium SS amp with output transformers. I'm not sure how old this is but late 60's would be a good guess. Now it is about the same size as the larger Stax amps so no powerhouse but I'm a bit interested in hearing it. So here is what it looks like on the inside: Here is the back panel, DIN connectors everywhere plus the output transistors: It is a pretty neat layout and the assembly is bri…

Where do I get started with case work? Obviously you get a case, drill necessary holes, and mount everything, but how do you pick cases and what kind of tools are necessary for plastic or metal?

Does anyone happen to have info on the 4070 cups? What kind of wood it uses, other materials if any, dimensions (doesn't have to be exact), where the bass port is, how angled the drivers are, etc.