Do It Yourself

cable talk, how do we react when we facing cable?

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.

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

What's the polarity of the Turbulent Labs driver? Is the green dot + or - ?

Looking forward to someday having one of these built.

I want to make a couple sets using different coax cable available on the net. I want to use solder connectors not compression. I'm looking for something flexible. I've ordered Belden GS-4 and some 26 AWG shielded silver plated from navships. Anybody used Belden 1505F?

I built my original Dynahi 8 years ago and I'm going to re-case it to match my other builds and to fix some hum because the transformer is in the same case. I built a stereo version with two one channel boards powered by one PSU. I do not remember how I arrived at the value of the transformer I have now but I think it's 160 VA. The original BOM for the PSU says 250VA. Should I go up to the 250 VA spec'd in the BOM? Or is the 160 VA enough? I was thinking of trying to reduce the size of the transformer because of the hum but now I see I may have undersized it.

Here is one of the many projects I'm working on and it is intended as the last stand for the classic BH design. The back story ties in with the whole T2 project and that Torpedo was invaluable in acquiring the amp for me. Now we started talking about building a Blue Hawaii for him using the pile of boards I have here and to cut a long story his friend Paxti got involved as well which is a is a good thing since he owns a machine shop. We all had the same vision which is to go stark raving mad with this project using the best parts and not to cut any corners. Now the ultimate chassis has to be something milled out of solid aluminum and that's exactly what we decided to …

Or is there a replacement for it now?

Well OK this one may be tamed, but it is indeed beautiful to behold. Naaman's casework (and all around attention to detail) sets him apart, along with a handful of amazing builders we have in our group. But this one in particular really hit a chord with me. Simple but eye catching at the same time. I've had my sights set on this DAC for some time now, as it seemed a natural progression from the Epic Opus ( Opus DAC w/Zapfilter output stage) I had from the Twisted Pear line. And this DAC had a surprise for me. Naaman built in a Mini³ amp into the case, so that it could be used as a stand alone system if wanted. That would be nice for desktop use, meets and for me a reason…

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?

Trying to make some DIY USB cable, but I cannot seem to find USB 2.0 type B male plugs anywhere in USA, only some from China on eBay with long shipping estimates. Found some type A plugs on Amazon. For type B, looking for something like these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/170578212079?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Hi all, First of all let me begin to say i am a beginner wit some detailed instuction and BOM i come pretty far. Just finished my O2 and ready for a new challange. I have a new DAP on the way with balanced output so i thought a Balanced in to out would be a great additition. So i have a few options which i cant decide which one to build. -Krell KSA5 Clone -Audiotechnica AT-HA5000 clone - "The Wire" bal-bal amplifier OR the Dynalo which is pretty hard to research because his website is down. This link for instance http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/boards/ My headphones are Audeze Sine and HD650. So not that much dem…

I see that Panavises are highly recommended by a number of you. What base/head combination would you suggest as an initial purchase? The circuit board holder looks great, but there doesn't seem to be much expandability. I was thinking the model 350 (tray base, wide jaws) might be a better option because it can take a wire holder. Do the wide jaws work well for PCBs? Is the soldering station useful? Thanks for suggestions!

I'd appreciate some advice here. My mini-dacs' xlr output volume is too high for comfortable listening. I intend to make use of attenuators/voltage dividers of type U (shown below) to manage the volume to a comfortable level. That I've seen here I've done some testing and the value of resistance that works best for me is an attenuation of 30dB (68K ohm on both pin 2 and 3 (the R1 positions)). The value of resistance I measure between pin 2 and 3 on my mini-dac when it's unpowered is 4450 ohm. I am presuming this is the source impedance and should be matched by the shunt resistance (shown as R2). My 4-channel rockhopper beta22 is fitted with two dact CT2 atten…

I'm about to give my M^3 a major overhaul - new enclosure, sigma 11 to replace the current tread power supply, and a possible cap upgrade. I've never found myself using the bass control much and am considering removing it. It's removal would seem to remove 1 pot and a few caps from the signal path, which might be a good thing to do, especially if you don't see the need for constant bass adjustment.

Hi everyone, I really admire Dr. Gilmore's work, and ready to build the Krell Klone. I'm preparing for nearly a month. But my son (who is studying Shakespeare in the college), after Googling, told me, we can't just "see" the PCB and make a clone of it. (Cos the PCB has many layers, ususlly 2-4, diffrent layers has totally circuit, those copper layers are very well designed. And then he doubts Mr. Gilmore's Klone PCB image-files was drawn up on the computer after "eyeseeing".) In order to make a clone, we must destroy the PCB completely. He again told me: we have to remove all the components first and drop the PCB in a machine (can't remeber its name) and boil off the…

I'm building a pair of the rev2 dynahi boards and a pair of Sigma22's and I wanted everyone's opinion on weather or not boutique capacitors make a difference in those boards. Since there's no electrolytics in the signal path (correct me if I'm wrong) I'm not so sure they would make a difference. And I think I remember somewhere that the boutique capacitors often have a negative effect when placed in those positions. My other option would be just to use Panasonic FC's

will there be another run of the dynahi and psu boards? im in the market for a bablanced set

I was wondering if anyone had contacts to wire manufacturers? Thanks, Biggie.

I started this chat for us general wood monkeys in the hope of getting some good tips on finishing wood. I've managed to get my stuff to a decent level of smoothness and nicely sanded without too many blemishes but some woods have a honking big and deep grain. What is a good method of filling grain to get a very smooth surface without the filler looking artificial? I've tried wetting the wood to raise the grain and smooth it down, then using wet sanding to help fill the grain with it's own sawdust. That's not too bad on the finer grain woods, the coarser stuff is still problematic. I tried some various generic wood fillers with little success, so any hints as to what i…

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

I think there are enough woodworkers on HC to warrant a thread now. Between Myself, Milo (AKA Al, AKA DOTU), Naaman, Doug, Jeff, Marc and I know there are others. I thought it might be nice to have a thread to keep up to date on various projects, new tools, new accessories and new enovations. For example: A new enovation I find very interesting, is a new blade stop safety system from The Felder Group. Like the system from SawStop, it's immediate, and it drops the blade out of the way before any damage to digits can be done. Unlike the SawStop system, it doesn't use a sacrificial cartridge to stop the blade. Don't get me wrong, the SawStop system was nothing short of …

so, I'm working on a rear panel for a preamp. I'm going to use the high-density Neutrik XLR connectors and some nice compact RCA connectors. So, what do you think so far? (rename the .txt to .fpd to see the entire panel, not just the subsection that the .jpg is zoomed in on) I still need to add a umbilical cable connector (6 conductor) and a barrel jack and tidy things up a bit... Opinions? Preamp-Rear.txt

BASS CAPACITOR Ok, someone explain what a digital capacitor is? Thanks.