Do It Yourself

It happened finally. Something killed the power supply on my apogee ensemble. No scorch marks visible, no fuse i can find, it just doesn't power up anymore. I've emailed apogee, but they stopped supporting these a few years ago. I just don't have thunderbolt on my mac pro, and really don't want to go through all that. So I'm torn between replacing it with another one, finding someone to repair it, or getting a metric halo.

Anyone have a minijack (3.5mm stereo, panel mountable) that they like? I am having problems with a flaky Switchcraft 35RAP whatever they are, and need to replace. I have some Kobicon that I have used with no problems so far, but looking for any other suggestions.

Received this kit a few weeks ago and after working with it on and off i have the board populated. before i actually start the casework, if anyone has any comments/concerns/suggestions regarding just the soldering portion or anything else for that matter please feel free to post them. i have very unsteady hands so some of the pictures might be out of focus. my apologies. anyhow here are some pictures. the output transformers are allegedly custom wound for decware. thats about all i know about them. no clue as to the output impedance and what not. el cheapo el 84's from leeds radio in nyc. didnt want to use any expensive stuff while the amp is still in the testing stag…

In Netherland there's not much people interested in headphones, but thank god, I've found three persons in my building and I successfully persuaded them to build the 8 EML tubes fully dc coupled DHT amp. They're speaker guys, anyway since their children are too young and the wives want to keep the family quiet, they agreed to try headphones. We will do it toghter, one person alone couldn't afford it. We want to build it, yes, 120% sure

My apologies if this is in the wrong forum. Years ago I came under the possession of a beat up pair of Realistic Nova Pro headphones at a garage sale for two dollars. Not in the best condition, but serviceable enough for use. For a while now in the absence of speakers and disposable funding, they've served not only as my main choice for computer audio but also the headphones I carry with me to provide personal audio on the go. In the past two months alone, I have opened them up multiple times to replace oxidized connections, resoldering almost every connection in the left can alone, to maintain their functionality. Yeah, even though they're collector's items of sort…

Check it out - it even has pics of the populated board at the end of the PDF, hehe! http://www.eserviceinfo.com/downloadsm/21578/Melos_Melos%20Sha%20Gold.html

Is this the new product for high voltage transistors ofr electrostatic headphone amplifiers? https://www.akhansemi.com/company.html

Hey guys, My friend is looking into doing some recordings. He asked me if there is a difference between the XLR Microphone cables and XLR balanced audio interconnects. I didn't know the answer to that. Can someone offer some guidance in this matter? Thanks!!

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.

Like i don't have enough projects going on at once I'm tired of waiting for someone to release boards that do this right. so here is mine in progress http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/attenuator2.jpg Because i don't like any standing power on the relays, and i don't like the resistive drive either, this had to be a bit bigger. board is 3.4 x 10 inches. stereo single board, or two for balanced.

I enjoy thinking about different ways to accomplish the often-overlapping electromechanical goals of audio devices. Every few years I get to considering electrostatic headphone connectors, and every time I end up finding the same collection of vintage part numbers, shared experiences, and a few useful drawings that can be put together to probably lead to a functional socket or plug, if you want to make one yourself. I appreciate and have used that information, and now I'd like to consolidate it and create some actual specifications to help anyone trying to make a plug or socket. The most useful thing to start with would be plug specs. Pin diameter, length, pin circl…

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 was looking for sth DC coupled hybrid power amp for desktop speaker with no caps or transformers on either input or output. While searching on google, I wanted to find jfet/tube differential, tube voltage gain, MOSFET/BJT current gain design. Then I find this. http://tavishdesign.com/pages/direct-coupled-tube-headphone-amp any opinion? Though there's a cap on the input. Any other SE or balanced configuration will be welcome.

So a couple of people have asked for a discussion of the design elements of the T2, and any observations and improvements that are possible. So as not to polute the T2 build thread, which is already seriously poluted, the discussion of T2 design elements, including kerry's dynamic amp should go here. doug wadsworth (wadia) should be stopping by soon Actually, a moderator change the thread title to discussion of the T2, and other circuitry as we see fit including but not limited to my other designs and shunt regulators and stuff like that etc...

Just got a chance to pull apart a pair of beyer T1 - a bit scary but pretty straight forward apart from the fact that the cable does not seem to be removable - had to cut it inside the cup to get it out. Here is a vid - may be handy if you are thinking of recabling or just fancy a peek inside Any questions - just ask http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC72mCFOIWo

Since I discovered electrostatic headphones two years ago, I have been wanting to build a Blue Hawaii. Thanks to the generosity of Head-Casers Nattonrice and Wink, I've got my chance. They supplied the board sets FOR FREE! I am so stoked, I cant thank you guys enough. For whatever reason, I enjoy doing quirky builds. Aesthetics have never been my thing. (prolly because I'm a cheap bastard) I like to instill some sentimental value in my creations along the way. This KGBH isnt going to win any "best of show" awards. It will fulfill three of my objectives: 1) Be totally encased / covered. My listening space, the living room is also shared by two rowdy teenagers …

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

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

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…

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

I did search but I couldn't find a dedicated thread about DIY electrostatics so in the spirit of getting the discussion started, here is something I've been working on. Well over a decade ago I bought up all the spare Sennheiser HE60 parts to assemble new headphones. The first thing to go out of stock was the main housing so to assemble the last pair, I had to adept a HD650 housing to take the HE60 drivers. Ever since then it has stuck in my head to make my own drivers for those housings and well... here is version 2.0: I bought a ratty old HD650 and completely stripped it apart. Headpad, earpads and cable went into the trash while the rest went for a l…

I have a spare cable for the Omega 2, which had broken close to an end to the phone, and I would like to make an extension cable with it. I also have a spare Pro bias female connector, which I had taken out of my SRM-727A when adding a normal bias out on it. I was wondering, how difficult would it be to use such connector on the spare cable, to make the extension cable I need? Should I use any particular care (with solder, for example) on it? Will it supposedly sound as good as the Stax 'official' one? Thank you!

So I hate 99.9% of headsets on the market because the headphone portion is always uncomfortable as all hell, and the ones that aren't uncomfortable are huge HD650 style. So I have an uncomfortable ass folding headset thing from Plantronics and a pair of PortaPros I plan on combining. I've done some work so far but this seems like it will be almost too simple of a mod. The PortaPros have that random screw hole that does nothing on the left side and the Plantronics mic is on the left side of that headset with a pivot point. So far I demolished the Plantronics headset and got the mic out of it unscathed. I took the tiny screw out of the side of the PortaPros …

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, …

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…