Do It Yourself

Saw this somewhere and hadn't recalled ever seeing it before: Switchcraft EH35MMS Switchcraft Just what Justin needs to keep those pesky 6ga ipod docks from breaking jacks

I really don't like the screw terminal blocks much, so I was going to use PCB headers/wire mounted connectors for a couple of projects. I need something in 5.08mm (0.200") or close, and the only ones I have come up with so far are the Hirose HF5 series at Digikey (http://www.hirose.co.jp/cataloge_hp/e67600011.pdf, or the Molex SPOX series at Mouser View List I want something where it is foolproof to take apart and put back together. I need connectors of 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 pins. Digikey has everything I need. Mouser has everything EXCEPT the 8 pin header (they carry the 8 pin connector... not sure why?). One other question: if I go with the SPOX, you have a choice…

The left earcup snapped off. You'll see from the pics that there is a sort of ring or collar made of black plastic around a brass/metal part. That black plastic piece snapped. I'm not sure how modular these things are, but it looks like some Krazy Glue might do the trick. I welcome your suggestions.

So I hate 99.9% of headsets on the market because the headphone portion is always uncomfortable as all hell, and the ones that aren't uncomfortable are huge HD650 style. So I have an uncomfortable ass folding headset thing from Plantronics and a pair of PortaPros I plan on combining. I've done some work so far but this seems like it will be almost too simple of a mod. The PortaPros have that random screw hole that does nothing on the left side and the Plantronics mic is on the left side of that headset with a pivot point. So far I demolished the Plantronics headset and got the mic out of it unscathed. I took the tiny screw out of the side of the PortaPros …

Does anyone know a supplier that sells the square wood tube amp cases with the metal top for mounting the tube & transformers?

I just got a PCB that has a void in the solder mask on top of the board. It is not a scratch, the mask is kinda piled up around the void. It looks like a contaminant may have kept the mask off that area. There are some epoxies online to fix this. I was wondering if you guys know of something locally obtainable to fix this?

Does anybody know where to get knobs for the bottom 2 POTS with the dual concentric turning shafts? ALPS Blue Velvet, Bourns Potentiometer and more......

Received this kit a few weeks ago and after working with it on and off i have the board populated. before i actually start the casework, if anyone has any comments/concerns/suggestions regarding just the soldering portion or anything else for that matter please feel free to post them. i have very unsteady hands so some of the pictures might be out of focus. my apologies. anyhow here are some pictures. the output transformers are allegedly custom wound for decware. thats about all i know about them. no clue as to the output impedance and what not. el cheapo el 84's from leeds radio in nyc. didnt want to use any expensive stuff while the amp is still in the testing stag…

If it works it will be pretty cool: Xerox announces silver ink, keeps printable electronics dream alive

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?

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…

I'm sorry if this isn't exactly the forum for this, but I think my amp is probably REALLY similar to a headphone amp, and I trust Hi-Fi heads more than musicians... I have a 35 year old Alembic F2-B stereo pre-amp for instruments. I play my bass guitar through it, and nothing else sounds as good to me to this day. It is based on the input section of a Fender Showman Guitar Amp. The last few years I've noticed the sound seems to have progressively dulled and lost it's life. The unit also has a little hum, and is pretty noisy. I was wondering if anyone could take a look at a picture or schematic (I have both) and suggest the items I can replace which will restore…

Hi, I'm wanting to buy a VariAC. Here's one from MPJA, hows it look? 2KVA 0-130VAC VARIABLE TRANSFORMER-MPJA, Inc. This one seems to have the amperage to do anything. Les

Has anyone here built one? I have an RCA caddy, it's about the size of a maxed-out carry-on bag. Similar to this one: The thing is huge, and while it's interesting in an ephemeral way, it weighs about 40 pounds (full), and is of course pretty musty. Big arse mofo. Right now I keep my active, or popular- tubes in three file cabinet drawers. The caddy is filled with odd and end tubes that I may or may not ever have use for, but don't wish to toss. Then I have another cardboard carton with other, stranger tubes, such as duodecar and some extra compactrons. Deal is that it would make more sense to keep the non-active stuff in the file cabinet, and the stuff I …

Oh effing snap. The LCDuino-1 I/O processor - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

Hi, my name is Miguel and I have been lurking in this forum for a while. Finally joined a couple of weeks ago and this is my first post. I am not knowledgeable in electronics and I would appreciate your help since I would like to use the JJ ECC99 tube in a Singlepower MPX3 as an output tube. Yes I know, Mikhail has made some horrible amps and has stolen a lot of money from many. However I already own the amp (bought it from Tyrion) and w/ Dr. Gilmore's help I replaced the diodes, verified the transformer is acceptable, and installed a couple of resistors to bleed the large power caps. I first came across the JJ ECC99 tube in a headphone amp by Dr. Lloyd of Mapletr…

just got this for free from the good folks upstairs. nothing beats a free soldering iron (the one i have a cheap one from home depot) but is it any good? has a nice little slider for temperature control. cant find too much info on it online so i thought i would ask. the guy who runs the electrical engineering labs is cleaning house so is giving away a crapload of stuff (transformers/old drivers/test equipment/anything under the sun). i already called dibs on anything audio and surprisingly he hasnt had any requests for the stuff i put my name down for so should be nice. he used to work for bendix back in the day and has some 600 tubes in pristine condition he is t…

So, I have 4 X Beta 22 Amp board kit + 2 X Sigma 22 Power Supply kit from Glass Jar Audio in a two HI-FI2000 slim line 2U case with aluminum top and base plate. My idea is to use 100mA quiescent current to keep the temperature a bit lower, but should I drill holes to those base plates? Would it actually help to keep those temperatures lower with those covers? Or should I just order more vented custom aluminum covers from Modushop? Cases: Top and base plate:

This is the story of a very sick little Firstwatt F5 that needs some TLC. This is hopefully the last chapter in a rather sad story involving our Scottish Lord of Drink. Dough bought it from some scammer on DIYAudio which not only botched every facotr of building the amp but couldn't even be bothered to ship it properly. To fast forward a bit I had expressed my intention to build an F5 here and Doug offered to send me this amp to do with as I pleased. I took this a good chance to tinker with an F5 and help a friend out since this amp will be returned to Scotland in fully working condition later on. Now onto what awaited me in that 13kg box from Scotland. Parts …

That they might want to sell? I'm about to place an order at Parts Connexion, but they don't carry nylon sheath. I don't want to place an order at Take Five for four feet of braid (I'd probably end up buying a set of WBT plugs or something, too.) I need about 4 feet of 1/2 inch (this stuff: Take Five Audio - Canada's Online Source For High-End Audio, Parts and Accessories - Nylon Expandable Cable Sleeve ) for a half meter pair of interconnects. It doesn't have to black. Some other color or a cool pattern would be fine (or better) If anybody needs something from Parts Connexion that's not worth the shipping, holler and I'll add it to my order.

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

I had the fuse in my Klipsch iFi subwoofer blow. It's a 2A 125V slow blow fuse. Went to a couple Radioshacks and they only carry a 2A 250V fuse. Is it okay use that as a replacement? At the first the lady said, "Probably, but I wouldn't bet my life on it." Second store guy said "You only have to worry about over-wattage." My concern is that if something hits say... 200V and the fuse doesn't blow, will I end up damaging other components downstream?

Anyone have about qty 16 1/8watt 10 ohm 1% resistors and qty 6 1/8watt 5 ohm 1% resistors RN55D or other metal film should work let me know if you have them Thanks, Pete

I've been thinking about opening the earcups of the MS1i and dampening the back of the drivers like Grado does with it's higher end cans presumably to eliminate any resonance that might occur in the metal back that houses the magnet. The only thing is that I'm not to sure what material I should use. Does anybody here have any experience with doing anything like this? If not I'll probably just use a little bit of silicon gel.

The mains cable (crappy 2-wire zip cord) on my SRD-Pro is a bit old and warn, and seems way too long. I would like to replace it with something that's of better quality. Of all the better (google results) power cable I've seen, it's all three wire, some shielded and some not. One article on Belden's three-wire shielded (#83803) mention constructing so that at the plug end, the shield wrap and the the ground wire are connected to the wall plug. At the component end, leave the shield floating; use the shield to capture interference traveling through the cable (in or out) and to ground them to earth so they do not cause any unwanted noise. My question is, if I choose a…