Do It Yourself

I need to place an order to Farnell through Newark for some parts I cannot get here in the US (an Euro footprint PCB mount transformer). They have a $20 surcharge for this service. Would anyone else like some parts? I'm going to be ordering in the next day or so, so this will be quick. Some particularly worthwhile gems at Farnell are: LCR Components EXFS/HR box polystyrene caps, Newark part number 73K0558 ROE MKP1837 caps, Newark part number 26M1608 Just let me know here in this thread and we can work payment details out later...

I want to shoot the audio out of the USB port on my Apple Express instead of the optical out. You tell me how. And none of this "it can't be done" nonsense. Thank you for your assistance.

Memory Distortion Philosophies I have no idea what he's talking about... but the way his design blatantly goes against all "audiophile design philosophy" is rather intriguing

So as most people know, the Qualia 010 Medium-sized headband is actually too big for most people. I have the M-sized headband myself and have been struggling to get a nice fit with it. At first I was using a folded-up linen to close up the space between the headband and the top of my head but it always felt ridiculous (and looked ridiculous too) so the other day I began looking for a better solution and one day while doing some routine cleaning, I realized I could use a sponge! Yes, a sponge, and it ended up being perfect - just the right amount of leverage and comfortable too. There was only one last issue, how to attach the sponge to the headband without causing any dam…

Now for the dumb questions. I've never built a speaker cable. I want to do something quick and easy to test my AE2 speakers to see if the stock cable is picking up RF. Can I just use two separate runs of Mogami, using all four conductors? I won't be terminating at this point, just twisting the strands. Is this basic premise correct?

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

Standard build with AD8620 for LR and 8610 for G, class A bias with JFETs, LMH6321 buffers, unity gain, 24V AC adapter. The AD8610 in the ground channel gets burning hot, and I was measuring something... DC? from power to V- or V+ of one of the leads of the 8610 and it was going back and forth. Also, the LED (this) doesn't even light up. RLED is 7.68k. I'm new to this whole thing so I'm not sure what I should be measuring and what they mean... if anyone can help I'd be forever grateful.

i just found out there's a lot of similarities between this expensive amp and my 32 dollar headamp kits i built recently my question is: who copy who or it's just a Coincident ?

Thread for discussion of the Shiguraki clone "Shigaclone" CD transport I have a couple at my friends place in Canada I should get them shipped sometime...

So this is the time of the year from thanksgiving to new years where i have the time to do extraordinary projects. This year is no exception. So i delivered the hydrogen torch preamp prototype to a person in chicago that happens to own a ctc blowtorch with great success. (hearafter just refered to as just hydrogen)(a hydrogen torch is at least twice the temperature of a blowtorch) But this year i wanted to do something extremely over the top just for me. And while it is not done yet, enough of it is done for a couple of pictures. So I hereby present the $5000 hammer. (in fact its going to cost way more than that) http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/hammer1…

I've been playing around with vinyl rigs again for a while now. Some of you will remember that I was going to build a custom plinth for a Mitsubishi LT-30 a while back, but ended up just overlaying the plinth with Wenge. Well with my greatest resource at hand (luvdunhill) I opted for a completely custom table a while back. I purchased most of the parts earlier, but am just now finding a little free time to build the plinth. I went back and forth on the design several times, and almost ended up using some soapstone slabs. But in the end I decided on wood. Specifically the core of the plinth will be alternating layers of 3/4" MDF and Baltic Birch plywood. 6 layers to …

Well as a natural progression in this hobby, I find myself with more gear than power cords. In the past I have built power cords with 12 GA wire from Ram Electronics and VH Audio but the ones I have built are too damn stiff. All of my gear sits fairly close to the wall so I need a flexible medium weight cable for my power cord builds. I looked at the bulk cable offered at Take Five and Sonic Craft but they are a little on the expensive side and too heavy to stay properly seated in the IEC. Any recommendations for bulk cable would be appreciated.

So, I have never really found a good quick connect that I like... I used to buy some insulated parts and stick them on the end of an old power inlet that uses quick connects and try and pull the plastic part away quick enough to separate the metal from the plastic, then feed the wire through and solder then reattach the plastic and heat shrink the thing... that's not working with the last few ones I've tried. So, any recommendations? I'd really prefer solder types to crimp and they must be insulated. Thanks guys!

OK, so every year about this time, i decide to do something silly and over the top. Last year was the titanium hammer. I need ideas for this year. Has to involve computer controlled machine tools. Has to involve expensive raw materials... Obviously it has to be practically useless.

my GF and I want to build a ferrofluid sculpture. We'll need a pretty damn powerful electromagnet to make it work. The problem is where the hell do we get a powerful but inexpensive electromagnet. I'm hoping that we can build one. Is this something that a total amature can pull off?

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?

Is it too ambitious of a beginner project to try and do like, a BantamDAC and Mini^3 or Pimeta in a single enclosure? Note that my experience with casework and surface mount soldering is zero, not even having made either standalone. I think the casework is going to be the hardest part of this, based on what I've read from past DIY stuff, and I guess the question boils down to "is the casework for two-in-one a bad idea to do before doing a single?" if I'm not mistaken.

I have an XP portable amp from MisterX that I got a while ago. It's set at a gain of 2 (I think) and its not powerful enough to listen to classical music with the im716s. Can anyone change the gain for me?

6moons just put up a review of the Kondo Gakuoh amps with an internal picture. All that Tango iron sure is nice with silver windings but it is still a lot of money...

Hey, I was thinking about using the 220 taps on the primary side here in the US in order to half the voltage on the secondary side of a transformer. Can anyone think of any reason not to do this?

Partsconnexion: 15% off all film caps until Oct. 31st (20% off Jensens?) Soniccraft: 15% off everything (in stock only, check Specials page for a few exceptions)

Anyone willing to make a Xhadow XLR chassis mount for me ? I am thinking of an aluminium plate (the depth of a gender modules' thread), A threaded tunnel in its? centre to accept the gender module and two or more bolt/screw holes near the edge to allow attachment to a chassis. a disassembled XLR connector is shown http://www.takefiveaudio.com/mall/images/zoom/601_2.jpg the shiny piece with the white core and gold screws in the back of it is a gender module. If anyone spots a design flaw please point it out. I?ve e-mailed Chris Sommovigo at Xhadow and the edited highlights of his reply were : I?d like to get 4 of these mounts so I can have Xhadow XLR c…

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)

For the last few months I've lost all my motivation for DIY. I have parts to complete quite a few projects but all my motivation is gone... I haven't been listening alot of music too... I haven't fired the soldering iron probably in 6 months... Any ideas to help me get back DIYing? I'm sure some of you had this problem! Thanks in advance! Manuel

Porn and the Art of Vacuum TubeFabrication - Weblog - Mxrk Now that's what I call DIY