Do It Yourself

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.

Anyone knows a source for Sanyo Oscon capacitors (SMD type) in the US who sells to individuals? So far I found Newark/Farnell (very expensive because of 15$ for shipping from UK) and BD Enterprise (who do not have in stock, what I need). Any other US retailers?

I was thinking of getting some to case up my b22. Mailed perforate.com a hell lot of times and still no reply. anyone know where to get them?

Looking for DIY amp cases that resemble the ARC amps. So must be silver and the love handles are a nice touch Needs to be around 16" length along the front of the case. Thanks guys!

Is there a general preference?

Hey- Roundabouts how much would a balanced b22 cost to have built (by someone else, not me)? just a range, thanks.

I'm building a couple of cables for a friend and he'd like them to be made of solid silver. My first thought was to buy some of Homegrown Audio's prebraided silver wire. It's not the cheapest but it is the easiest route to good looking silver cables in my opinion. And for what's it worth I've done the google thing and seen some stuff like VH Audio offers which is actually more than HGA. The first couple of pages of links that I found yielded nothing useful so here at am, at the mercy of your help. My only other experience buying bulk silver wire (from a GB on head-fi) wasn't particularly good so I'm wondering if any one wants to point me in the direction of a good suppli…

Well its done K701 recabled with Mogami 2534 Neglex Copper Quad Mic Cable. Nate had a supply of it, along with the black 3/16" Nylon Multifilament techflex, so I asked him if he could strip the jacket and shield off the Mogami, and feed it through the techflex, which he graciously did Here are some pics (some not so good) of the job: Stock cable Mogami laid into the K701 frame Preparing the 4-pin XLR end of the cable A happy ending On the other ear phone there are two small wires which I have not replaced, but I may leave them for now.

This is something I've been playing with for a while, in short, I can change my K340 from sealed to vented so I have more range for tuning the bass. This picture shows how it's done. Sealed the back with a piece of plastic and taped it in good with electrical tape, but first I put a couple holes in it which I've highlighted with the arrows. How does it work? Well, you can plug one, both, or none of the holes with a small piece of blu-tack, and that'll change how the bass sounds. With the holes open there's more bass but it isn't as tight, you get a bass hump but it doesn't really go any deeper. Close up both holes and the bass gets tight, maybe a bit too tight so i…

I'm probably going to get in on the H2 + TR2 (xlr version) group buy over at the other place, so I figured now would be the time to start researching a speaker amp build. My F2 clone is almost done, but I was wondering what other options were out there.

Ill be making a balanced ckkIII with usb opus dac in one chassis: ati 737-u I have drills and tools but can only do so much. The aluminum front panel is very thick and I won't be able to make indents for the two volume knobs, or even drill two basic holes for the neutrik combos. If anyone has tools to do this stuff, I would be willing to ship the case over. Ill discuss the actual details and sizes etc and the work to be done by aim or whatever. Besides the aluminum, I will have an acrylic sheet of similar thickness and two pieces of carbon fiber sandwitched together. Whatever is drilled on the aluminum will be done the same on the acrylic. The reason is, f…

Toying with the idea for my Dynamite. Anyone hear the Goldpoint smd design vs the Dact? How about feel? Just put in a 4-ch Alps blue velvet pot, to replace a cheapo I had. I also put in pre-attenuation resistors cause I had the old pot turned to almost off for the levels to be right. Much better.

Hi everyone! I had a quick question regarding buying a wall plug power supply. I lost the power supply of a small amplifier that I have. The back of the amplifier says that the power requirements are 12 volts DC and 4 watts. I tried looking around on Mouser but couldn't find a power supply with those exact ratings (basically 12 volts dc, 0.33 amps, 5 watts I believe). I did however find a power supply rated at 12 volts DC and 5 watts. Is the watt rating the maximum or should I not play around and instead try to find a power supply with the exact ratings that are required? Do you guys have any suggestions as to what other sites I should look on for wall plug or desktop …

hello people, i wanna build myself a decent headphone amp. so i thought maybe of building a supra. it uses 3 6sn7 or 6 (if you wanna do it balanced) did anyone do this before ? what are the costs ? does anyone has the schematics ? does anyone know a better amp for that price ? i know it is otl, and some are for otl, some are for trannies. i just don't know what i'm up to. i would use it on a akg 701 which i still have to buy. i need help guys, thanx a lot

Or is there a replacement for it now?

I'd love to hear your impressions it's not every day that a different crossfeed circuit comes about but, when it does, it's worth trying. Unfortunately I don't have any 18K resistors to hand (everything else but ) have ordered some and they will be here Tuesday...... in the meantime if any of you finger on the iron fast guns feel like trying it out and giving feedback it would be appreciated. Feedback in this thread here please, my joint couldn't handle the bandwith, Just thought I'd put this by you guys and trust you'll appreciate it. Pinkie.

For those who haven't been browsing HF: This is some amazing work! http://www.mundohi-fi.com/portal/index.php?module=pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=8&pid=8&page=1

How would you make your own resistor of any arbitrary value? What natural material works well? I've made my own inductors out of tin foil, then capacitors out of mineral oil, and would like to move on to resistors. Any advice would be grateful.

Standalone HDCD decoder? digital in and out, nothing fancy. PMD100 chip inside. Any thoughts? Maybe even an upsampler too as another function...

Is this really news around here? I don't really follow specs...but I have to admit to being curious.

Any preferrences on these? Biggie.

I was wondering if anyone knows what type of material is used for the inside tube of the z-sleeve? The outside looks like a giant piece of heatshrink. And the inside is some type of tube, but what kind of material and where could I buy tubing like this? http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/zcable1/sleeve.html Thank you, Biggie

When I found out that amb had designed a single-rail version of the σ22 power supply I thought it sounded just about perfect for my Squeezebox3 power supply project. Here are the preliminary results. This PS is actually for a friend but mine will be very similar with just tweaked casework. If you want more info on this PS have a look here. I did just a little testing tonight and the new PS definitely seems to have helped the anemic base that the SB3 DAC has with the stock PS. More on that later when I can back to back it with the DAC I'm currently using.

I'm quite excited about the new updates regarding the Mini? portable amplifier. http://headwize.com/ubb/showpage.php?fnum=3&tid=6936 Specs and technicalities aside (which appear positive), I'm quite surprised by the size of the amplifier. Quite small and cute if you ask me.

Anybody know what votage the Mapletree Ear+ runs at?