Do It Yourself

Hi All: I inquired TKD Japan directly about their 4-gang volume pot 4CP-601 and they referred me to their US distributor. Long story short, looks like I can get the 10K pot for $65 a piece plus shipping. The cost may be slightly lower if total quantity is high. I am still working out some detail information. Any interest?

I have a Vol Pot from Audio-GD(Kingwa). They use a different way of wiring their Vol Controllers than I've seen and I wanted to hear what you guys think about the method both advantages and disadvantages. Instead of entering the POT on the input and exiting the Signal on the output after passing thru the POT, he uses the POT as a drain of least resistance it looks to me. The INPUT from the SOURCE and the OUTPUT to the Amp are on the same solder point. The POT works backwards. As you turn the knob clockwise, the Impedance increases. The Impedance is around 1 ohm when the knob is all the way counter-clockwise. The way I intepret his design is that the signal h…

Not audio related but damn it's cool: Video: MakerBot's build-it-yourself 3D printer in action, replicator in the works -- Engadget CupCake CNC - MakerBot Industries If I had somewhere I could put it I'd be all over it. That is flat out frigging cool. Custom heaphone stands, knobs, wtf else. So cool

Has anyone built this balanced beast and tried it out?Rightmove Kijiji Quizlet

I'd been wanting to build a pair of speakers for a while and finally took the plunge this summer. Right now I've pretty much finished up the bare cabinets and am waiting for a pair of drivers and a couple cross over components to finish them up. So far everything's gone well but I have a couple of questions. With this being my first build, some of my cuts aren't absolutely perfect and so after gluing the panels together, some panels jutted out just a little bit. I ground down the seams which made the surface smooth but now the box isn't perfectly square especially around a couple of corners. You can't really tell by looking but the boxes don't quite sit flat. Woul…

Hi folks, the Soldermizing itch has started again...I am in possession of a Stax SRM-1/Mk 2 "energizer" that, apparently, is in perfect working condition. Still, that is no reason not to f*** with it! Elsewhere, here or on one of the other "headphone" sites, I found guides to such things as re-biasing the unit (mine is a tad off), and thanks to (uh...) the person who pointed me to a schematic of this unit. The SRM-1 looks fairly basic and is within reach of my admittedly dodgy soldering skills. I would like to, at minimum, replace the power supply caps. Also, there are 13 (to my count) little caps that could be replaced. I would like to replace them with good q…

Just a head's up: Fry's has the Hakko 936 in their weekend advert (at least in the Atlanta area) for $50.00. (Can someone please change the title to Hakko 936. Thanks)

My dad just produced a stax sr-3 and srd-5, it looks to be in good condition but I'd like to hear it and the L and R speaker inputs have this strange plug on them. Does anyone know if the female equivalent is still sold or the name of this peculiar plug ? I'm thinking of making an adapter cable and trying to feeding the srd-5 from my beta22's XLR outputs (once it returns from repair). thanks for any help

As several people have asked for the PSU boards, and some whether caps are available lets probe the interest. Group Buy moving ahead - collecting payments, and then ordering. Please bear in mind that lead time is 12 weeks ... edit: added: "Group Buy moving ahead - collecting payments, and then ordering.", and price confirmation.

Hello Board Im working on a shitty little amp that assuming the stars and plannets are in alignment will be at canjam. at the moment, not 1 part has been soldered but the casework is done and being painted.... Now that I have cursed my project by admitting that it exists: The case (a cheap "BUD box") that I am painting with hammer-tone paint, because it will (hopefully) mask some of my horrific screwups with the drill and could not ever look even close to as bad as a naked BUD box. I painted one corner of the top a little thicker than the rest, should I worry? Im going back for coat #2 in about 45 min... Thanks Ari

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?

So a couple of people have asked for a discussion of the design elements of the T2, and any observations and improvements that are possible. So as not to polute the T2 build thread, which is already seriously poluted, the discussion of T2 design elements, including kerry's dynamic amp should go here. doug wadsworth (wadia) should be stopping by soon Actually, a moderator change the thread title to discussion of the T2, and other circuitry as we see fit including but not limited to my other designs and shunt regulators and stuff like that etc...

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…

The first completed DIY project in 3 years and in my new workshop lives! It's a battery powered Philips TDA1541A based stereo DAC, About 18 months ago I needed something to kick start me back into DIY after breaking down my old setup and moving to Florida. So I built a 10'x11' room in one of the garage bays and proceeded to slowly unpack. I ran across a few threads about the TDA1541 and became curious. This is what I settled on for the first try. It's on a test board I put together so I could mess with different power supplies and experiment with controlling relays to turn the power on and off. It's sounds surprisingly good! Very easy to listen to…

Do-it-yourself-ers and MOTs: If someone had a mid-fi device that you knew nothing about, what would be your first recommendation? I'm fond of my X-Tone, but suspect it has cheap op-amps and/or caps in there -- any recommendations? I also have a MF X-24K that I suspect could be better. For that matter, I have a whole slew of X-tube stuff -- X-Pre, X-CANv2, X-LP2 -- I suspect the recommended mods for the X-Pre would be the same as the mods on the X-CANv2, neh? If anyone wants me to post pics of internal organs, let me know.

I'm about to start fiddling with wires as I build up to making myself some cables (balanced interconnect and a balanced headphone amongst others). 26 awg spc solid core wire electrical insulating tape rather than heatshrink (I found a heatgun a bit expensive for learning) a hand drill for twisting the wire Is there an optimal number of turns per inch to twisted pair and starquad cable when used for balanced headphone based audio ? I am aware that cable capacitance can increase with density of wire present at a point (so less turns might be better) and that the common mode noise rejection will cancel interference only if it affects both wires equally (ergo mo…

So, gathering interest for collaboration on KG's Dynafet. The way this would work is quite simple. There would be a group buy on parts as well as the boards. The parts would be supplied by myself and we'd work a deal out for people contributing in the matching efforts and various aspects of specing and acquiring parts. The boards would be the Hitachi version with external heat sinks, using KG's latest board files. Front end would be constructed from devices matched from a pool of 500 2SJ74BL and 500 2SK170BL matched to 20uA accuracy. All devices were pulled from original Toshiba packaging. Actually matched to 10uA with +/- 20uA measurement uncertainty added on t…

My parents have an old pair of B&W 802 Series 80 speakers. I've read that these are still considered pretty decent, but I'm concerned about the condition these are in. I'd like to replace parts like the binding posts and maybe parts of the crossovers. How difficult is this type of thing? Could an advanced beginner DIYer do it? The speakers look like this (these aren't the actual speakers):

Hi: I just placed an order to have 10 sets of KGST boards made. A few of them are already spoken for but I should have 5 sets available to those interested. Here are some details: 1. The amp board is KGST6S4CASCODE (120mm x 135mm), the PSU is KGBHULTRAMINPSV4 (105mm x 134mm). 2. The boards are all 2mm thickness, 2oz copper, green silkscreen with white lettering. I wanted the thicker board that can better sustain the mounting and dismounting of the tubes. 3. I am using a PCB fab house in Taiwan which was recommended to me but I have no prior experience with them. 4. JimL has traced the cascode CCS part of the KGS…

Power is obviously higher than dynalo mk2，but But the temperature is high too.

I was wondering if anyone had contacts to wire manufacturers? Thanks, Biggie.

I'm still on my quest to build a large an powerful electromagnet. I'm wondering if I can put a non oscillating signal in one of the RCA jacks if my old crappy, "don't care if i blow it" amp will amplify the signal. Also how can I put in a non oscillating signal? Would a 1.5 volt battery work?

Here is one of the many projects I'm working on and it is intended as the last stand for the classic BH design. The back story ties in with the whole T2 project and that Torpedo was invaluable in acquiring the amp for me. Now we started talking about building a Blue Hawaii for him using the pile of boards I have here and to cut a long story his friend Paxti got involved as well which is a is a good thing since he owns a machine shop. We all had the same vision which is to go stark raving mad with this project using the best parts and not to cut any corners. Now the ultimate chassis has to be something milled out of solid aluminum and that's exactly what we decided to …

I'm finally going to get back to some DIY projects. One that's been boxed away is the Bijou. Part of the reason is I want to get a case design going in my head before I get too far on the soldering. And the problem with this is I really am not seeing the kind of case I was hoping for. Oh well. Onward. My last ditch effort will be to use a fairly boxy-shaped HiFi2000 case. It is 12.20 x 11.02 x 3.14. My main concern, and the question for y'all: with this layout, am I going to pick up any RF with the transformer so close to the two amp boards at the front of the case? They will be about 6" away from a Hammond 370DAX . Here's a pic of the case size. Thanks! …

The "super power caps" that Nissan is going to be using in their upcoming hybrid electric diesel cars that they'll be using instead of batteries.