Do It Yourself

i have the next 3 weeks to kill before school starts again. id like to do something productive with my time. i dont know anything about electronics (well i know a little but assuming that i dont know even that will probably be safer for me). i would like to start working on either an amp or a dac that is fairly easy to build. cost is a slight issue so the whole thing should be less than $100 including tools. i already have a soldering iron but no solder. also, i dont know how to read a schematic, much less know how to plan out the layout of the build, so step by step instructions would be highly appreciated. pictures would go a long way too. lastly, id like to build s…

Hey, I was wondering if anyone might know of other attenuation curves, other than the standard log? What I'm thinking of is something that uses multiple logarithmic slopes, but I cannot really expect this to be a novel idea on my part. I have an idea that I'm working out, but was wondering if there was anyone else that has gone down this path? My one requirement is constant input impedance My second question has to do with SMD resistors. I'm looking at the Vishay Dale TNPW and Susumu RG/RGH (due to vanishingly low tempco values), but was wondering if there were other lines out there you guys might be aware of. I'm focusing on thin film resistors at the moment (unless t…

Ok, Not exactly a huge mod but it's made a huge change to how they sound and they sound ferkin' awesome. I imagine it's somewhere between the SR-Lambda and SR-Sigma and definately has many of the Sigma qualities I've read about with, seemingly, none of the drawbacks. Deeper well rounded bass, smoother highs and a very nice midsection. The soundstage now rivals the K1000 at the angle I normally listen at. Despite the extra distance from the ears there's very little drop in volume and they go really loud in a spectacularly full way. I lined the inside with felt to dampen reflections and used very strong, pliable mounting tape to fix the wedges in place. The seal is perf…

Just fyi: RadioShack Recalls Power Supplies Due to Electrocution and Fire Hazards

I'm about to give my M^3 a major overhaul - new enclosure, sigma 11 to replace the current tread power supply, and a possible cap upgrade. I've never found myself using the bass control much and am considering removing it. It's removal would seem to remove 1 pot and a few caps from the signal path, which might be a good thing to do, especially if you don't see the need for constant bass adjustment.

Seems like there have been a few new issues with the shunt psu and wasn't known prior to the group buy going through so I am going to be ordering boards for the KGBH PSU (ordering from pcbnet.com). If you would like a PSU board please let me know and I will start a list. Files that will be submitted are below: KGBH PSU Board: http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/boards/kgbhpsu2.zip LIST: jose: 2 psu JK47: 1 psu gwrskien: 2 psu n3rdling: 4 psu chiguy: 1 psu No_One411: 2 psu Knerian: 1 psu Arthrimus: 1 psu Wokstarr26: 2 psu VelvetX: 1 psu …

Tonight, I'll be making some new ear pads for my new vintage electrets. The electret arrived with ruined pleather pads. No pleather left, only uncomfortable fabric. As a downside, the fabric ruins all the deep bass. My first attempt to restore the pads wasn't a success. They ended up a bit too small for the baffle. I'll be making them (or try to make them) with a bit bigger diameter, to reach further out on the baffle. They are to fit onto here: And the old pads measure like this:

A mate at Auriculares posted the link to this article which may be of interest for you DIYers. Not being a DIYer myself I found it interesting nonetheless.

I'm probably going to get in on the H2 + TR2 (xlr version) group buy over at the other place, so I figured now would be the time to start researching a speaker amp build. My F2 clone is almost done, but I was wondering what other options were out there.

I'm trying to learn MAGIC which seems to be the most popular open source VLSI layout program. Feel free to post anything relating to VLSI layout in this thread, perhaps something you bring up will be of use to me and others. Currently wondering if there are any other good programs, open source or not, and if there is something more GUI than command line based. I'm currently trying to run MAGIC off an SSH connection to my school's Unix server and it's giving me troubles so I'm going to go home and try it or just install MAGIC on my computer. Any good tutorials or examples would be nice as well, I'm currently following a set of tutorials by John Ousterhout.

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?

Does anyone have measured dimensions for the Cardas GRFA DBL RCA jacks? I am trying to do a PCB and case layout, and Cardas doesn't give quite enough information away to actually accomplish this. Even better, anyone have an Eagle part library for these? Drawings for an alternative part from another manufacturer (Vampire?) that is of decent quality would be fine, too.

The end of a headphone plug broke off in one of my headphone amps that has a locking Neutrik 1/4" headphone jack. I tried the straw trick, and even the screw trick (gently), all to no avail. Considering the glue/heat trick. Am I fucked (and not in a good way), or is there another technique I should consider trying to get the piece out? Any inputs are appreciated. TIA.

I just boought a locky_z curve tracer https://www.ebay.com/itm/Locky-z-2019-Curve-tracer/114233327020?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 Has anyone here used one or have experience with one? I was reading on another forum that the ones he's built with used parts sometimes fail. They're also swapping out the relays, electrolitic caps, op amps, voltage ref, and some of the resistors for better accuracy. I'm waiting on a power supply so can't use it just yet.

just a general question on tubes. Is there any rule of thumb regarding plate voltages for any given tube? I mean, if a tube is rated for 450V is it best run at the upper end or kept a bit lower? I know little about tubes and what is the best way to run them. Is there a benefit to running higher or lower voltages?

Recently I built a set of 5 strand braid of 18 gauge Jena cryo treated wire for XLR interconnects. They sound great in my system. I have seen references that the Jena wire is considered pricey ($5 ft.) for copper cable. I am wondering is there is a less expensive alternative that still maintains the quality of the Jena wire. I would most like to hear from members who have listened to the Jena as well as any recommended alternatives. But if that is too restrictive, then comments on wire you have personal experience with is fine. I'd rather that the discussion focus on the sound quality of the various cables and bypass discussion of any other recent controversies wit…

Hello Guys, I'm organizing a group buy for mini3 kits for europe. If you're anywhere else in the globe you're welcome too! Here's a link for the thread at HF:Mini3 group buy Manuel

I'm getting ready to build up one of Colin's tooleaudio I/V stages to put into my Rotel RCD-991. This is a dual PCM-63P player with pcm100 filter. I have currently been listening to it modded with THS4031s for the I/V stage and AD8599s doing the buffer/bal conversion. stock output stage: U302 is the single I/V opamp, U306 is the buffer/conversion opamp (dual) and U304 is an anti-aliasing opamp (socketed now, but not populated. I am trying to decide whether to Retain the AD8599s as buffers/conversion Replace the AD8599s with different opamps Use transformers? If so what? Other? I want to retain the muting relay functiona…

I was just wondering how this amp would work as a headphone amp. It doesn't have a headphone jack but the speakers are connected with rca plugs into rca jacks on the back of the amp. It is rated at 1.2 watts at 1000 Hz with 10% distortion. I read that it puts out .75 watts per channel with very low distortion into 8 ohm speakers. My question is how would it work to connect headphones directly to the speaker jacks with an adapter? Would any modifications need to be made? These little amps actually sound really good with small bookshelf speakers and are dirt cheap. Thanks a lot, Gene PS I have asked this same question on several forums this morning. Sorry if …

Hi all, First of all let me begin to say i am a beginner wit some detailed instuction and BOM i come pretty far. Just finished my O2 and ready for a new challange. I have a new DAP on the way with balanced output so i thought a Balanced in to out would be a great additition. So i have a few options which i cant decide which one to build. -Krell KSA5 Clone -Audiotechnica AT-HA5000 clone - "The Wire" bal-bal amplifier OR the Dynalo which is pretty hard to research because his website is down. This link for instance http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/boards/ My headphones are Audeze Sine and HD650. So not that much dem…

When I found out that amb had designed a single-rail version of the σ22 power supply I thought it sounded just about perfect for my Squeezebox3 power supply project. Here are the preliminary results. This PS is actually for a friend but mine will be very similar with just tweaked casework. If you want more info on this PS have a look here. I did just a little testing tonight and the new PS definitely seems to have helped the anemic base that the SB3 DAC has with the stock PS. More on that later when I can back to back it with the DAC I'm currently using.

I need to pick up three sets of tube sockets for my Dared 845 amp and I assume I need 2 pcb mount 12ax7, 2 6sn7 pcb mount (do they make a 7n7 pcb mount?) and a pair of 845 bayonet type sockets. I really prefer high quality over saving a few bucks. Any ideas on where to buy also ceramic and teflon is one better than the other? The reason I ask is I found a local tech here in the East Bay (SF area) that will do the work if I source the sockets. Great older guy who grew up in the radio and recording industry. Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide.

Basically a two part question. I want to get some isolation feet for some of my gearses and speakerses. The speakers are easy, as I know they are M6. But... 1) How would I go about determining the thread size where I don't currently have a screw? In other words, the component has a threaded insertion point, but I don't know what size it takes. 2) For those components where I want to replace the current feet, what's the proper way to measure the screw so that I arrive at the proper thread size?

I've acquired some parts that need to be put to use... don't know what project would be appropriate though. I've got 2 PCBs for an adjustable power supply that can put out a max output of 2A and a voltage of under 25V. I've also got some tube prototype boards with 2 9-pin sockets on each, like this: What I need is an idea of what I can do with these parts... something with 12au/x7 perhaps?

I was going to name it 'Double the Carbon, double the voltage, double the fun', but I'm afraid that would be too wordy. Ever since I measured the output swing capability of the Carbon, I wanted to see if it can drive my ESL speakers. To do that, I'd need a beefed-up version that can output at least 1kVrms before clipping. That's 1414V peak, out of a ±750V to ±800V PSU. To simply scale up the Carbon amp and the GRHV PSU without major changes to the PCBs, a few hurdles would have to be overcome. First is the 900-V rated 10M90s in the cascode CCS that bottom out with ±450V PSU. When I was browsing the high voltage FETs at Mouser, I found the UnitedSiC UF3N170400B. …