Do It Yourself

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.

I'm looking to build a DIY tube amplifier (for low impedance cans) for about $500 (excluding enclosure and tubes) that can match or beat the performance of my PPX3 SLAM 6SN7. Any ideas?

Anyone want to help this guy out? I'll send him here as well.

Anyone here gander a guess (or someone that's built one) how difficult it is to build (battery version)? I wrote off getting one since I didn't want to wait for the Digikey order and the order from Hagerman but someone is selling complete kits on ebay so I'm thinking I might as well do it. And it might just outperform the NAD PP-2 for less.

I am looking for a nice metal enclosure for a summer tube amp project. The requirements: Size: Approx 12 X 12 X 3. This is a bit flexible, and it can be oddlong as well. Material: Metal Color: I would prefer black Cost: I'd like to keep it about $50-$75. more toward the low end, though.

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.

see title. ^^ Biggie.

Looking to buy one of these: Hakko 936-12 ESD or Weller WES51 Any comments on pros/cons for each model? Has anyone got experience with both? Thanks Pete

I have all my parts and finally have some free time to balance the HD650 stock cable with 2 female XLR connectors. I have done some searching and these two threads in particular were the most helpful: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=205655 http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=89411 My knowledge of balanced configurations is limited so I'll try and compile all the information I've gathered tonight:

I saw this in a post somewhere and assumed it was a typo, but it is in fact real. Here's a linky to the page: http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/opa827.html. Aparently an upgrade to the 627. I'm a big fan of the 627 (I know, it's just an opamp, discrete rules, yadda yadda), so I'm quite anxious to hear what this new flagship is all about.

I know almost nothing about capacitors, but have it on fairly good authority that the frequency correction network on my old ESL63's uses an old Electrolytic-type capacitor which is not particularly good for this function, and should be replaced with a Polypropylene version at the same capacitance (220uF). Excepting the vast difference in size between these two types, what brands am I looking for? This cap is in the signal path, so quality is of the utmost importance. Voltage rating shouldn't be lower than 250V. It doesn't necessarily have to be a single 220uF cap - two 100uF caps will do the trick, and might be easier to place in the housing. Thanks for your help …

I just bought some copper tape off ebay. Soooo...what should I tape with it? Biggie.

My P/S caps are 220mFd electrolytics. My unterstanding is that the higher the value, the greater the storage capacity... increasing the amps bass performance. If so, what value should I stop at? I.E. How high is "too high"? Do cap brands really make a sonic difference? My power supply is two 9V cells, with virtual ground between the two 9V batteries.... Similar to the RA1, however the RA1 doesn't use electrolytic capacitors in its power scheme. Are the P/S caps even necessary in the above schematic?

What is the best way to break one? Thanks, Biggie.

Hi guys I opened my 313 to see what was needed and as you know there are two sets of RCA inputs but one is supposed to be a "Tape out" They are paralleled and have two little resistors between the connectors. What are these for? can anyone post a pic if they rewired to better chasis mount RCA inputs? Thanks

I will have a stock HD650 cable in a week which I was going to use for the connectors. I was going to make a 2.5 meter cable terminated in 2 female XLR plugs. And I was thinking of using silver plated copper, which is pretty easy to find on ebay for cheap in long runs. What I'm concerned about is what gauge should I get? I don't mind a stiff cable as I'm sitting in one spot when I listen, but a bit of flexibility is good too. I was thinking 26 or 28 AWG? In a litz braid up to the Y split

I've recently committed to being a DIYer and am now looking forward to building a DAC. I currently have a Fubar II DAC (PCM2702) and wish to improve upon that. For the DIY people out there, what DIY DAC options out there (with available PCBs) are available for me? Or should I just stay with my Fubar II DAC? Cheers and thanks, Nanoha

With all those new balanced amplifiers around I can't really resist and I want at least to have a taste of that heaven with a balanced 650, so, what is the most beautiful sounding but also simple DIY balanced amplifier in your opinion?

Anyone here built a Faraday cage? Strikes me as pretty easy. I've got some sort of RF source in my vicinity here at work, and am tempted to build one for my audio equipment. Basically, it needs to be (a) made of conducting metal, ( continuous (all conducting materials must touch each other) and © ventilated (so heat doesn't build up). Does it need to be grounded? I am not sure I understand why if it does.

So I've been on vacation for the last few days and decided to go play with my tube amp since I had nothing better to do. After reading a whole bunch of stuff on the diyaudio forums I got a bunch of stuff together and played around with various power supplies for the heaters in my tubes. First off was a generic DC power supply I got as a kit in the local electronics store way back when. It sounds decent, with Grados there's more background hiss than I'd like but other than that I didn't notice anything wrong with it until I got the good stuff. Next was a benchtop power supply I found in the surplus shop. This is the quietest power supply, with Grados there's just the…

Can the popular replacement cables be reterminated to balanced, (i.e are they 4 condutor all the way to the plug)? Like Equinox, Blue/Silver Dragon, Zu mobius, Cardas etc? Cheers Pete

I have two OBH-11SE's. One of them is broken -- it's mono; other than that, it sounds fine. I got it used. I suspect the previous owner was messing with it. There appears to be an additional jumper from Q9 to Q11 (similar to the one from Q5 to Q6) -- could this be the cause? Or is it a red herring, some sort of tuning thing? I don't see a stray dollop of solder anywhere, but I could be blind. Does anyone have any ideas? Does anyone have a schematic of the thing? Tell me what to measure and where, and I will.

Greetings. I recently bought a used Sennheiser HD600 from a friend for practically nothing more than a song, knowing it had problems with the cable on the right side. There is intermittent continuity, so the audio keeps cutting out if the cable is moved just so. I know there are several manufacturers that make replacement cables such as Clou and Cardas, but I don't feel like spending CAD$200 on -wire- right now. (yes, some of you will call me insane for not immediately picking up the Cardas or Clou cable. Well to that I say phthptftphfftt!!! ) Anyways, I was wondering if anyone knows where to get the seemingly proprietary connectors that Sennheiser uses in their headphon…

I just happened upon this site, their cases are awesome, and they have a cool power distributor case thing too. http://www.hexateq-av.com/products.html

Thinking about recalbing my K701s... Any suggestions for a good 4-condutor cable? \ I will be running it balanced. How does Mogami 2534 rate? Thanks Pete