Do It Yourself

So for whatever reason a number of different projects are coming together at the same time. This is the latest. http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/kgsshv.jpg Its the high voltage version of the kgss with higher voltage pnp transistors, a cascode current source for the 3rd stage, the lsk389 part (or singles) and much higher voltage output transistors. The result is something that runs on +/-500 volt power supplies, and is as close as i know how to do to the T2. (except fully solid state, and easy to build) The transistors that go on the heatsinks are already insulated, which makes that part easy. Not a lot more money than an exstata, and much better sound. …

Wasn't sure about putting this in the DIY or speaker forum, I suspect that nobody much minds anyway. I'm keen to put together a pair of big silly horns to go with my big silly stats. The obvious go-to options are the J-Low and the Kleinhorn, but tragically the Kleinhorn is a couple of inches too tall to fit in my room (and nothing like as simple to glue together). The standard J-Low is *small* enough to be built and then moved into the room through the door in one piece. But! I'm tempted by the notion of scaling the build up bigger and assembling it in the room (full height of an MDF sheet is 8 feet and my ceiling is about 9.5). Back of the envelope maths tells me that…

Last year I built a pair of balanced cables to go between my Theta Pre and Classe amp. After they broke in, I was really surprised how good they sounded. I used DH Labs Pro Studio and a set of Neutrik connectors. The ground is connected at both ends. I've read that sometimes floating the ground is not a bad idea. I now realize that I could probably live with this cable for a while. Yeah, I like it! I also need to move my gear from it's current location (in between the speakers) to it's new home, in a rack along the wall and off of the damned floor. New rack is in the works. Anyway, I ordered a nice 50 foot section of DH Labs Pro Studio from Parts Connexi…

Looking for some one to build me 3 pin XLR's To Rca , or 1/4"'s to RCA to hook my Begringer DEQ2496 to my headphone amp. Can anybody help me out?

So after seeing the 60 minutes last week, and already knowing all the liquid nitrogen cooking tricks, the chemist in me idecided to try my hand at the ravioli/caviar things with the sodium alginate. Yesterday's try was a complete disaster, but today came out almost perfect. As with all of this kind of stuff, technique is all important. Its helpful to have a stash of USP grade chemicals to pull this off... So i present mohito caviar, and mohito ravioli http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/mg1.jpg http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/mg2.jpg Maybe we can have birgir show us how to do this...Correctly

Got a couple pictures last night at last. It's been running for a few weeks now, I kept tinkering with it, but it's pretty much done for now. Built mostly from parts on hand, plus an old scsi drive chassis. I did buy a few resistors once I had settled on working values, if only to replace a couple series and parallel conglomerations. Obligatory off and on shots... Started with this lumber and chassis... [ATTACH=CONFIG]3086[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]3087[/ATTACH] There is another thread (dead bug psu) that shows some other pics along the way. The amp is derivation of the mapletree design; it has higher operating voltage, similar to his super, though t…

This concept has interested me for a while now given just how simple the amp could be made. Just two tubes per channel and then a phase splitting output transformer makes for a stark contrast to something like the T2. Now whether this simplicity is better or worse isn't the issue for me, I just want something different. I figured it was time to get the concept of these amps outside of the random thread on HF and PM's. I've been talking to Frank Cooter about this and given how happy he is with his D3a/KT88 amp I'm going to try something similar. I'm always a fan of using what I have (hence my Exstata is a bit different from all the others) so soemthing like the …

I have some of these Chinese "CMC" type RCA Jacks. They have a knurled ring that has indents for some type of PIN wrench. What do you guys have for these to keep them from getting scratched up via pliers? PIC

Hi guys and gals, I bought a gamma2 and I'd like to plug in to the wall and use the trasit to send it data across toslink to avoid ground loop issues. Does anyone have any recommendations as to what to buy for a 5v 300mA supply to use with it. Sorry for the dumb question but I'm having no luck finding one and I'm obviously looking in the wrong place.

DACT Type 21 Stepped Attenuator Potentiometer 50K 300B - eBay (item 120473999989 end time May-24-10 11:05:02 PDT) Check these out, they look rather nice, any reason why I should try one out? The Rk27 on my millett is suffering from a much annoying channel inbalance! One of these would fit right in!

For the dynahi I am building (in the builds thread), I would like to use one of the vandal switches (like a Bulgin) in blue ring. What would you recommend, and if it needs anything to run it (SS relay, E24 board or whatever) note any recommendations there also. Not sure I want to mess with another transformer/PCB, but will if it is worth it. Case is a hifi2000 Pessante Dis. I have both silver and black faceplates, but was leaning towards black for this one. I will have the faceplate done by either FPE or the other place on the east coast (if I can figure their S/W out Thanks for any thoughts.

OK, so I need to replace a resistor on one of my ESL-63s so it matches up with the one Kent repaired. Kent sent me very detailed instructions that I think I'll be able to follow. Basically I have to unsolder a wire, unsolder a resistor, install the new resistor and resolder the wire. The rest is just disassembly that can be done with a screwdriver. My screwdriver skillset is pretty strong so I think I'm OK there. I'm looking for suggestions for a soldering iron. Currently the resistor swap is the only task on my DIY schedule. To be honest I doubt I'll be constructing CMoys anytime soon, but who knows? So I don't need the best iron ever but I want to avoid buying ju…

Members pay a fee and can use some expensive DIY equipment: Ping - At TechShops, Do-It-Yourselfers Get to Use Expensive Tools - NYTimes.com

not sure if there is any interest, but ran across these: DODD AUDIO DIY

That was seriously misleading.. I thought it was the official release of FPE's Front panel designer 4.0, but instead it was a email from Front panel Expert for their software Cetina CAD 1.3.7 This was followed shortly by another email for a 25% off promotional offer this month. My order is still going to go to cam-expert since FPexpert doesn't offer plexi, but I'm curious to see how their service compares to FPexpress and cam-expert. They've been out for a while now from what I know, but I haven't heard any mention of them before.

Anyone else get the following email this weekend/today? modu Case made in Italy by Hi-Fi 2000 We would like our kind customer to know that the Galaxy, Slim and Dissipante series are now available in full aluminium see here modushop.biz and it is already possible to customize them. Click here modushop.biz Modu Staff A bit expensive, more of a jump from the standard pricing than I would have thought. Oh yeah, I got this email 3 times yesterday, and once (so far) today

So after a successful T2 project, it is time to tackle something i've been playing with on and off for quite some time. The KGITSOJC The Kevin Gilmore in the style of John Curl preamp. Now if you want to read over 700 pages of babble and bullshit, you can go over to diyaudio and read the two threads. But suffice it to say that the Blowtorch circuit sounds very good, but JC is of the opinion that only 2 people in the world are capable of building and getting the thing to run. I kind of disagree with that because i have one exact copy of the blowtorch amplifier running right next to my version. He has some reason to say this, parts matching is ultra critical,…

33 Step 100K Stereo Volume Control tube Preamplifier - eBay (item 150423738955 end time Apr-13-10 19:23:07 PDT) No personal investment, but Craig wanted to know so I thought I'd ask

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?

Ooh, this does look interesting .... Introducing δ1 (delta1), the first of a series of application modules for the LCDuino-1. I will add more info here, but for now here is a 3D render "teaser" of the PCB: The LCDuino-1 I/O processor - Page 20 - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

I finally stopped dicking around with psud and actually dead bugged this psu I've been mulling over. It's alive, and no parts were killed. Glad we don't have a cat anymore. Loaded it down, and it was pretty close to what psud predicted. Not knowing what the regulation of the transformer was, I adjusted the setting in psud until it matched the output, and it scales properly. Added a small resistor up front to bring the output down a bit, and I think I'm done. No electrolytics, with a shared C-L-C, then it splits into two channels, each having an L-C-R-C string. The output power tap is at the L-C jct, the gain stage tap is at the end. Rectifier is a 5V4GA I had on han…

Question regarding Diptrace. I decided to try this because I was laying out a board that was way outside of Eagle's capabilities (free version). This is a vertical backplane board housing 6 pairs of XLRs and 6 pairs of RCAs, some relays, etc. Do you guys trust the autorouter? I manually placed the jacks on 1: x and 1.5: y grid, and locked them. I then manually placed the relays in the best spot (I think), locked them, then let it place the rest of the components. I adjusted some net trace widths, but let it autoroute. Seemed OK once I did a few tweaks to it, but just wanted to get some input, as I normally wouldn't trust an autorouter in a non-commercial package.

I could use some help with a problem I have in my father's amp. It is an integrated tube amp, Sonic Frontiers SFC-1. The amplifier has a "direct" toggle switch, which sends the signal directly from the RCA input to the volume pot,and then has 4 inputs which go through an elna selector switch and a balance control. When using "direct" nothing is wrong, but when using any of the other 4 inputs there is audible distortion in the music. I went through the tubes, checked and replaced each one with some older ones and they seem to be fine, the situation continued. I've inspected the solder joints in the rca's and the elna switch andthey seem ok. the balance control is i…

As many of you know, APL is being flaky as ever so I might as well keep my 3910 since it works well for my needs and sounds pretty good. I do have two major problems with it though, first of it is 117V only and the second, it is not silver. The solution for the latter is pretty simple, I just bought a Japanese 3910 for very little money (which are champagne colored) so I'll just move all the trim parts over and gain a replacement drive too boot. That player hasn't arrived yet so I'll tackle it at a later date. As for the issue of 117V, well an outside step down transformer is just a pain so why not try to mount one internally? Since I was ordering some transform…

Gang, My Dad seems to have misplaced the wall wart for his EC/SS. I know it is a 16V AC wall wart, but I'm not sure what exact specs I should be looking for. Any help is appreciated.