Do It Yourself

What is it that generates a pop/crackle sound when a stepped attenuator traverses steps ? this is happening with my left channel goldpoint stereo volume attenuator, the matching right attennuator in the same amp is unafflicted by this odd effect. One differance I can see between the two attenuators is that the unaffected one has wires linking to chassis ground (xlr pin1) other wise they seem to be wired the same. left -pop/crackle right - no pop/crackle n.b. the loudness of the pop/crackle generated when traversing steps increases as the attenuator knob is turned further clockwise. While on a step both attenuators perform the same. The actual volum…

It seems you bastards have finally led me to a trail of misery and pain and I feel I should repay you with dumb questions. I plan on this thread growing as my dumbness expands into more areas. I'll start with one question that's been bugging me for a little while.. Resistors. Does the power rating matter as long as they're not underrated for any particular circuit? I've seen 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 watt and so on. Does it matter as far as performance/sound goes?

Yes, I know I have it backwards, but that's intentional -- and the question. Is there a way to modify the ER4s to give it ER4p capability? Say perhaps by splicing it above the resistor and having two plugs, one of 100 ohms, the other of 27 ohms? Or perhaps by putting a resistor in parallel instead of in series? (Not sure why you would do this, unless you really didn't want to throw away that resistor.) And then it would be what, 37 ohms, right? Yes, I am looking at Fitz' ad.

So who is going to be building one of THESE new Buffalo DACS using the ESS ES9018 Sabre32 DAC Chip? This may just be the DAC I have been looking for as it can take PCM up to 32bits and 192kHz as well as DSD. This may just get me back into some DIY.

Received my RS-2 a few days back, the previous owner used GS1000 big bowls with them which fit very tightly and left an annoying residue around the inside edging of both cups. It's a very minor concern, but I was wondering what I should use to get rid of the black gunk? Muchos Gracias.

I was impressed to see the great work done on these two sets of Stax Lambda Pro drives by Jazz over at Head Fi that I thought that his post should be duplicated here for members to see. Don't know how many times I played with my Lambda phones on my head to see if I could simulate Sigma style sound. Kudos to Jazz for two jobs well done. See JaZZ's custom made Stax Phones here...Homemade Headphones? - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio Jazz's comments below..... The idea of making my own housings for Stax drivers was born out of my experience with the Lambda and the Sigma Pro. Whereas the Lambda sounded too shrill (with the SRM-1 [?]) -- and …

Looks Like I'm gonna have to have a dig around in there to see if I can tell what's wrong and try to fix it. I hope it's simple like the jack connection. I'll pop it open and post some gratuitous pics in a bit...

I have a couple of DIY questions: This one is pretty basic. I need an easy to use, lead-free solder. I'm guessing a lead-free eutectic solder is what I'm looking for. Is this correct and do you have any recommendations. Also, please recommend a source for it. Not that I'll be needing this information in the near future, but I have a question about Magnequest. I see a lot of other brands talked about here and almost no mention of this one. Are Magnequest not great transformers? Or maybe there is some other problem with them or the company? Or lastly, maybe nobody here uses them due to habit? I'm just curious as I know that Bottlehead likes and uses them.

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…

I was hunting around in the garage last night and came across an old t-amp I put together many moons ago and it has a TKD pot attached, I bought it quite a while ago and don't recall where from. Are these any good? It's 50k so I figured it'd probably be ok for either the SS I'm about to start or maybe even the Dyna. I can't find too much info on it and nobody mentions them. looks the same as this which is listed as a Ko-on. Anyone familiar with these?

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

Are the connectors Etymotic uses to attach the cables to the pods of the ER4 custom? I'm thinking of building a cable for them and would hate to splice the original connectors.

Don't be fucking wit sharp toos when you're tired, especially only 10 minutes after the wife says 'should you be doing that when you're so tired' ouch! ` That's gonna leave a mark...

As stated in title, if I can build an interconnect, can I make a power cable? Anything special I need to know so that I don't burst into flames?

Recently I purchased a B22 from Spritzer. The unit was built by Nate, so it's a nice Nugget Audio 3 boards + 1 Sigma 22, single ended, 8x gain unit, made to work on 230VAC. Apart from exquisite care to avoid hum and lower the noise floor, it features a dual input to select from two sources from a rear switch. Spritzer had changed this feature to a loop, so the switch was disabled and while one of the inputs is used, the other one works as an output. I point this because that switch resulted a handy addition. The amp works very well and sounds great with all of my cans, but as time living with it passed, I started to feel annoyed for the fact that being my so…

Per subject, I see that Soniccraft has a 20% off everything sale going on. It doesn't list dates, so I assume for February? Sonic Craft Specials

I realize this isn't audio related, but I'm in the process of rewiring a bunch of antique lamps. I could use a 50' or 100' spool of lamp 18ga 2-conductor lamp cord. The local hardware store charges 40-80 cents a foot. Any suggestions where I should look online for lamp cord and other parts?

I'm looking for something that adds basic control functionality to a computer IDE drive (pause, previous track etc). The front buttons are just eject and play/next track. Is there a simple solution for this?

I've started up this thread to give folks a place to offer their time/parts/labor whatever to help Icarium get his SP amp up and running and with a little luck maybe even sounding good. Hopefully this thread will to organize the effort that I'm sure has already begun via PM's. If your unaware of Dan's situation:

So, I'm working on a pair of monoblocks. swt61 has seen these monster heat sinks. 12.2" wide x 12" tall with 2.925" fins and 0.326" base, weight is 13 pounds... and I got four. I've done some thermal plots of 6 devices per heatsink on a small PCB. Each device is dissipating 14.8W x 6 devices x 4 channels ~ 350W. I'm wondering how much further I can push the devices. The sim data is very close to actual temperatures and since I don't want to drill holes under the devices for thermal probes, the simulator will be gospel. I don't really want to move the devices apart anymore, as I have a PCB in mind I'd like to accommodate, plus a design of my own. Datasheets for devices:…

Just curious, does anyone happen to have a variac I could borrow for a bit? If not, I suppose I could go ghetto...

I thought it might be kind of helpful to have a thread of your least favorite parts so everyone else can avoid them. For me, right now it's the Switchcraft TA3F mini 3-pin XLR connector for AKG headphones. Piece of crap is made of metal and bad plastic and is breaking/falling apart on me. But there's no alternative available

I'm looking for suggestions of interesting DAC designs and/or PCBs/kits. I guess I'm shooting for the higher end of things, and PCM1704-based stuff has gotten my attention. So far I've found the Hagerman Chime and TentLabs kit. Any opinions on these? Anything else I should consider? Also, are there any standalone USB-I2S or analog output stage kits worth looking at? Thanks!

Here's the APC H15 I got recently: I wanted black, but I got the silver for $200 less. Is there an easy way to paint it black? The face plate is some sort of metal. Any ideas about how to make it, well, less silvery?

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.