Do It Yourself

Dunno if anyone here might want to say something in this thread: http://www.head-fi.org/t/707823/intellectual-property-giveaway-on-the-discovery-of-terminal-illness#post_10316570 But I will certainly miss him.

Hi: I am organizing a mini group buy of HGSSHV PCB boards. I intend to move very fast so please read this post carefully if you are interested. I'll be using the kgsshvampv16mini.zip for the amp boards and kgsshvpsminifinalstn9360.zip for the PSU boards. The amp boards are the one-board-per-channel, off-board heatsink version. Both amp and PSU boards have provisions for current production parts. See here for the Gerber files and the KGSSHV thread for more information. I plan to use SeeedStudio to fabricate the PCB boards. The boards will be 2 layer, 1.6mm thickness, 2oz copper, HASL surface finish and standard green color PCB. Each set of the boards includes …

Below is -=Germania=-'s handy work for your viewing pleasure. The unit is an opus dac with usb receiver and a 41hz amp 6 t-amp. The big pictures are of the power supply to the amp that is now making a ticking sound. The front LED is no longer being powered. There is also a low hum from the unit, but I can't tell which board it is coming from. I have a multimeter and soldering iron, so if theres something uncomplicated to try, I am game. I built my power conditioner, so I'm not a total noob, but I never learned how to read circuits. Biggie.

For the dynahi I am building (in the builds thread), I would like to use one of the vandal switches (like a Bulgin) in blue ring. What would you recommend, and if it needs anything to run it (SS relay, E24 board or whatever) note any recommendations there also. Not sure I want to mess with another transformer/PCB, but will if it is worth it. Case is a hifi2000 Pessante Dis. I have both silver and black faceplates, but was leaning towards black for this one. I will have the faceplate done by either FPE or the other place on the east coast (if I can figure their S/W out Thanks for any thoughts.

I think that I'd like to get some flux to make things like tinning wires (in a solder pot) and soldering to connectors, etc. more easy. So could you please answer the following questions: 1. Do you use flux? 2. If so, in what form factor? Paste? Pen? Other? Thanks for putting up with my total DIY ignorance and for helping me out.

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

Any progress?

My DAC has only one dual RCA output. I would like to use it with both of my speakers and headphones amp (but not at the same time), and don't want to disconnect and reconnect the RCA cables. If I add another dual RCA output by connecting them parallel to the existing RCA output. Would it be any problem?

I've agreed to build some Sennheiser open wood cups, and I'm wondering if anyone has a good source for stainless steel mesh? I'm thinking of using #12 mesh, and only need a small amount, about 1 sq. ft.

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 ?

Received my RS-2 a few days back, the previous owner used GS1000 big bowls with them which fit very tightly and left an annoying residue around the inside edging of both cups. It's a very minor concern, but I was wondering what I should use to get rid of the black gunk? Muchos Gracias.

Hey guys, I finally found a good home in a small space for the Moth Cicadas I purchased many moons ago, and the room is conducive enough that I can really notice a bit of variance in the drivers. I have a set of unused spare drivers I'd like to sub in, to see if they are more to my liking. The only trouble is, I have no clue how to remove the old drivers. The cicada enclosure is ported, but the port is too small to fit a hand in, so I can't push the driver out from the back. It fits in the cabinet pretty snugly, so I don't have enough room to fit a spudger in around the edge and pry it up. Furthermore, being paper cones, I run the risk of damaging the old driver is I …

folks, if i wanna build a single ended amp (amp for headphones, but not electrostatic amp), which model(s) is the best choice?

So as to stop spamming the stax thread, and get everything in one place. I recently got a ripping great deal on an SRA-3S in unknown condition. And since all of these are at least 50 years old, there is much to go through. There are some existing resources to link, and I will come back and add more as i scrape 'em together: It's a shame there are no component designations on the boards or schematic, so we'll go ahead and muddle through without them. Maybe I'll annotate some images. The area in the red box is the phono preamp. It's not much of a preamp. I hear you can pull the board and leave it out. An enterprising nerd could b…

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

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...

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.

Question regarding Diptrace. I decided to try this because I was laying out a board that was way outside of Eagle's capabilities (free version). This is a vertical backplane board housing 6 pairs of XLRs and 6 pairs of RCAs, some relays, etc. Do you guys trust the autorouter? I manually placed the jacks on 1: x and 1.5: y grid, and locked them. I then manually placed the relays in the best spot (I think), locked them, then let it place the rest of the components. I adjusted some net trace widths, but let it autoroute. Seemed OK once I did a few tweaks to it, but just wanted to get some input, as I normally wouldn't trust an autorouter in a non-commercial package.

I decided to recase my original dynahi. I wired the ac inlet, then hooked up the transformer primaries (Avel Lindberg transformer) gray and bown wires went to hot, blue and violet went to neutral. I got correct voltage on the primaries and secondaries when I threw the power switch. I mounted the original psu in the case. This is the board http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/dynahipsbig.bmp I connected one pair of secondary wires to AC1 and the other pair to AC2. The order went 1 to orange, 2 to yellow, 3 to black, 4 to red. I threw the switch and the fuse blew. Now the transformer primaries and secondaries are shorted when checked with a meter out of the cir…

Background: Just for fun, I'm going to build an energizer using a small Class-D power amplifier and a transformer. The inspiration was that I'm basically junking my recently-purchased and rejected Topping EHA5 and O can use the chassis and connectors. The rest I plan to junk. I bought a high voltage DC-DC converter for the bias voltage and a pair of toroidal transformers meant for a tube amplifier. The transformers are so big I may have to mount them on top of the Topping Chassis! For the amp I'm hoping that the Texas instruments TPA3116d2 Class D chip will do a good job. If I don't like the soun of this chip, I'm only out $10 for a populated board from Amazon!!! OK…

Saw some talk about this and decided to make a new version. use either the tube unbal/bal to bal board, or the solid state version result is about 125 watts rms into 8 ohms at thd of .005% will definitely drive 4 ohms with suitably large power supplies. transistors are standard pinout, so pick your favorite output transistors. the to220 transistors are mje15034/mje15035 perfect for so many things, including esl boost transformers. pioneera09.pdf

I do not remember I ever started a topic but I am here for a decade or more. I am playing with google AI for a time and I like it. I left out chatgpt so this is new for me. I liked to think I am good to search info from the internet but this thing is so much better. Specifications, go not go situations with some equipment so much easier to resolve. I was curious I asked to design a opa548 virtual ground circuit for me ( this is why diy) and I built it. Not so complicated circuit, I built it and almost worked. The problem maybe was the messy breadboard not the AI, a pin had to be grounded to stabilize the opa. I was a software developer, supporter all my time so I know thi…

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.

Hello everyone, hope everything doing very well today. Few days ago I found two transformers in my dungeon, which named by my wife. I mentioned it has 16V out and double 110V in, so I guess perhaps could make something like stax srd-7. Then I made a pcb and give most places to voltage doubling rectifier, as same as srd-7, and... it works. Well somehow the bias unable to reach 580V, only around 490V, the sound quality, of course, bass section bit weak, so I have to turn the EQ on, then everything fantastic. BOM: 2 30W transformers 110-0-110 in 16V out, 1 50W transformer 220V in 110V out. 1 fuse @200ma 6 0.1uf 630…

Well, Pars once said that finding connectors it the (one of the) most boring part of DIY. Well, I can only say that finding a suitable multi-conductor cable might be a very close second. Here's what I'm looking for: total diameter 0.195" - 0.265" 6 conductor 400V will be the maximum potential carried, so I suppose 200V jacket is fine. I'm not sure the maximum conductor diameter, as I cannot find this stated specifically for the Switchcraft EN3 series Here's the "datasheet", perhaps someone else can find it. Switchcraft The funny thing is that they give 14awg ratings here: http://www.alliedelec.com/Images/Products/Datasheets/BM/SWITCHCRAFT/SWITCHCR…