Do It Yourself

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 …

GROUP BUY CLOSED! 4. november 2015 Group buy for Mundorf caps (started in the Carbon GB thread by MWL168) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GWDWwLfsIDtwn1HB-x76lS6WyWwLd5lwsORFKiUuuEQ/edit#gid=2024111922 The amounts has been locked, and participants requested to state their location: country/state/postal, in order to estimate shipping costs. Estimated delivery is 43 for the lot and 46 for the remainder. Working on getting on delivery week. /20150916 Update: "680uF caps are comming 23/10 (according to FTCap). As soon as I have got those I'll post pics, and start shipping" 17/10-2015.

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.

Anyone's got experience with this multimeter? I'm getting into DIY and I have the possibility to acquire a used unit in mint condition for 135$. From what I've read, Fluke dmm are generally a safe bet, but I was wondering if anyone had some feedback to give about this particular model.

Posted this on the other forum, but I get the feeling the audience here will probably enjoy this as well. If I'm breaking any rules by posting this here too please let me know....or just delete it. Cheers. I've started building a pair of Zaph's Bargain Mini's (ZBM) along with Zaph's SR-71. I'll be documenting my build progress in this thread with pictures and comments. Making this thread somewhat for your entertainment and for me to use it somewhat as a log of progress (or lack thereof) as these will basically be my second and third woodworking projects to date. Hope you enjoy this thread as much as I (hopefully) will enjoy the build! I'm planning on building the bo…

Hello all, I'm working on a little project with my old SRD-6 energizer and a cheapo TA2020 amp. I'm trying to put together a compact transportable setup for my SR-5s. I have done a few modifications to this box already, such as wiring the transformers directly to the speaker taps on the back of the box and directly to the Stax socket on the front, completely bypassing the bias board and the loudspeaker switch. Those mods have done great things in terms of sound quality, but what I'm interested in now is modifying the bias circuit to operate as a self biasing one. As I understand it, Stax accomplishes this by tapping some of the output signal from one of the transformers, …

So the optical in on my north star broke. The little plastic piece that swings up when you plug in the optical cable snapped off at the NYC Meet and I can't find it. So now when I plug in an optical cable, there's a lot of play in the jack. It works, but the cable can come loose very easily. What a stupid design. Has anyone had this problem before? Any suggestions how to fix it? In the alternative, if I decide to use the Coax input on the north star, I'd need something like the M-Audio transit to convert the optical out from my iMac, correct?

I have a Nice 20" Craftsman D.P. I bought recently. So I'm drilling (butchering) a computer case presently and the tapered chuck spindle keeps dropping off! I cleaned it up real well and have seated it against a blcok of wood with some pressure. Fell out pretty easy. I retracted the chuck and pounded it in with a dead blow hammer. Didn't help. Then took a small masonry hammer and some wood and pounded the crap out of it I thought. Still fell out. What's the super secret way of wedging that gadget in there!

I'm sorta intrigued by this unit: anyone know much about it? Also, anyone heard the AVC TVC units from Diy HiFi (i.e. Django, etc.) 50/50% Permalloy Core Autoformer 28 step (Pair) | Diy HiFi Supply Of course there is the S&B, Sowter, and Jensen (and probably Lundahl) .. any others to consider? This would be used in conjunction with an active preamp. What is the general consensus of TVC used in this type of situation?

Schematics and photos attached! I got my belated Christmas present from Justin the other day, a lovely KGSS amp. Finally I got to hear my new Stax 007 Mk2 (Omega 2) in all their glory. Knowing that I was going to install my own Goldpoint 1 dB/step attenuators, and a Left to mono switch (to check headphone balance), I asked Justin to agree to construct a KGSS without wiring the input connections to the back panel or installing a volume control (yes, he did test and burn in the board). Leaving me with some fun to do on my own! The first thing I discovered is that the KGSS is extremely sensitive. I judged it has at least 15 dB too much extra gain, even with consumer (nomi…

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?

Well cheap compared to all the monster amps out there So correctly done, one would do the Uberamp2-Raal edition, which results in something really big,heavy and lot of heat. And a custom and large chassis, and a pile of $$$ This is a bit cheaper and easy enough for just about anyone to do. From the Ti Opa541 datasheet, showing paralled opamps good for at least 7 amps rms of output into anything including a dead short... Designed to be mounted directly to the heatsink, amp board right angle to the heatsink. All wires to the board directly soldered, 4 oz copper highly recommended. Power supplies are a minimum of 24V at 10 amps, like this, but more …

Thanks to a person on DIYaudio.com who had a blown MOSFET on this PH12, we now have this wonderful schematic so we can all clone "the best amp in the world that's ever been built", that is if you believe dretardwells.

Has anyone here built a line-filter/power-conditioner kind of thing using RFI suppression capacitors? K Works makes something like that, the K Works Silencers, but I discovered that they don't use X2/Y2 rated safety capacitors, which you need if you don't want to kill someone via electric shock or fire. I want to build my own using safety capacitors. For "across the line" capacitors you need X2 class. This will not catch fire and generally will just trip a fuse if they fail. For "hot to ground" and "neutral to ground" you need Y2 class. These are guaranteed not to short. They are self-healing and will open if they completely fail. One might like to use a…

So I've been looking at a bunch of tube/solid state hybrid dynamic amp schematics, and every one of them is some form of bad, or really bad. (one person/ex company in particular) Low voltage plate, capacitve coupling of a high impedance source into a low impedance, poor balance etc. There had to be a better way. true balanced input. dc coupling. low impedance output. no feedback. proper use of a tube (pure transconducance) etc so I came up with this, work in progress. 4 x 3 inches ubaltobaltubeschem.PDF

I and a few others have decided to get the new bipolar version of Blue Hawaii PCB made by PCBnet in US. I used PCBnet for the Carbon GB in 2015 (and other occasions). Their price is higher but we’ve had great experience with their board quality. The boards will be 2mm thick and 4oz copper, green solder mask and white silkscreen in leaded finish. The cost of boards is $30 USD for a set (two PCBs) if we can get 15 sets made. You’ll need to add shipping from me to you for the total cost. Kevin released this latest version of Blue Hawaii in early 2016. I worked with Kevin to trace the board and at least one headcaser has built one working amp with them. This …

^ the big round one 30mm diameter x 36mm length with M8 thread I'm going to be ordering these but there is a huge min quantity. Maybe there is interest in a group buy? Likely, $1/piece is enough to cover the cost + share of shipping charges from China, and also some hex nuts. If there is interest the minimum would probably be about 16 pieces or shipping would get too crazy for just a couple.

A few of us over at another thread started by Blueman2 are contemplating getting SRX Plus PCBs fabricated. See this thread: http://www.head-case.org/forums/topic/12445-plan-to-build-srx-where-to-find-bom-boards/ Discussion of the SRX Plus design can be found here: http://www.head-case.org/forums/topic/11996-srx-revisited/ I've checked with PCBNET and we can get the cost the amp board to $25 if we order at least 15 boards. The board will be 2mm thick with 3 oz copper, the board size is 9.35" x 6.85" ( 2 channels on one board ). Kevin has recently updated the board with teardrops enabled. We have not decided on the PS to use yet. The SRX Plus needs a +/- 340VDC a…

Hello everyone, I had started to post my attempts to build a modified KSA-5 klone over in the "krell ksa5 klone" thread, when I realized that I should create an own topic because my build would not be an exact clone... so this here is then exactly that. I will copy the previous posts here and delete there! Cheers, Alex. Hey folks, here is a first view on my take of this amplifier. I want to be able to attach the power transistors on one side via an L-bracket to a single heat sink. The power distribution sequence layout was kept in place but of course I had to do a little re-arranging. The original input stage is more or less unchanged. Both t…

I'm looking to do a group run of the KGST boards, please followup on this thread if interested. Thanks -

I would like to thank "DefectiveAudioComponent" for his excellent DIY tutorial I did the same as 'practice' for an old pair of Sony and got ok results. Recently, I have gotten into headphones in a big (but somewhat cheapskate) way...I now own two pair of older Stax Lambda (one normal, one Pro). While all seems to be in good shape, save wear especially on the head band, I thought it would be nice to have real leather pads. I know that real ones can be had via Stax (Ebay) but pricey ... around $100 or so. After finding the above tutorial, I said, why not try it on the cheap? Liek the original author, for this 2nd project, I got scrap leather off Ebay (black, …

after all these years we have finally found a solution for the power supply modules at a rational price. which means we can make a transportable electrostatic amplifier. similar to srmxh,srm252,srm270 etc. 3 times the power, +/-400v power supplys, no obsolete components etc. designed to be mounted to the bottom as a heatsink with silicone thermal sheet in between. should be about $250 in parts unless you go nuts with the volume pot. not sure of casing yet.

Hi All, I would like to mod my SRM007Tii so that it can use 6S4A tubes. However I am almost new in messing around with electronics circuit. Need some guidance from you all. Pictures below show my 007Tii board with re-routing & termination labels (Incomplete). I took quite sometimes to compare snapshots available online posted by Spritzer & Justin. All of them have slightly different wirings. The one I understand the most is the one Spritzer posted for the first time, so my preliminary outcome is similar to his one although it is still incomplete. Therefore I would like to clear my doubts before I start messing around with the PCB. This i…

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:

Hello My little amplifier for my Stax headphones. First stage is based on ECC82. One triode per channel as cathodyne phase inverter. The second stage is 6N1P-EW with CCS, and power stage is with E80CC with CCS too. It was designed to work with my PC to drive Lambda Pro. So output voltage is not so big 308 V peak-peak, but it is enough for Lambda Pro.