Do It Yourself

I've posted this already on another well-known headphone forum, here however I see DIY is more prominent. I'm thinking about bying an used pair of ESP 950s and seriously modding them. I've considered making a totally DIY ESL headphone, but making the headband and enclosures for them is too much for my limited skills. Kosses though seem to be a fine ESL headphone as they are, and from pictures of their insides on Wikiphonia it seems that there are some mods easily possible. 1) Removing damping and maybe adding 'phase corrector' like on old Fostex T50 - a felt ring which suppresses high frequencies coming from outer parts of their drivers to even out phase and f…

I purchased this DAC from another HC'er in Canada down to the states but it looks like maybe he didn't get around to testing it out before selling it to me as it locks onto digital signals but provides no useful output otherwise. I only have a glimpse of the history of this thing but it's lived a rough life. I am positive old forum favorite NoNoNoNoNoNo is the previous previous owner and the work here is very very bad. Lots of WTF and cold solder joints everywhere and bonus scorch marks on some box caps, that odd white wire is a jumper used after he lifted a pcb trace... As a novice I have since cleaned this thing up as far as I can get it, at least at my skil…

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

A friend asked me to come up with a phono stage that is of reasonable quality but not too over the top. Here's my first go. Basically, it is a hybrid cascode gain stage followed by a passive RIAA filter and a cathode follower. The idea is that the single gain stage should not only provide enough gain, but it should be reasonably quiet. The Zout is also governed by the plate resistor which keeps the filter stable even as tubes age. In a sense, it is much like Pete's pentode phono, other than that the cascode should be a bit quieter than a pentode. That's a lot of should's, so it remains to be seen whether it actually works. The only really tricky part I anticipate is se…

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.

Well, it took me a bit longer than I expected, but I finally finished my second TNT Flexy-based rack, this time going for a Double Flexy. Some pics, and as usual, they're pretty bad. I may try to take better pics during the day with better lighting. Few things to note after building two racks based on TNT Flexy design- At least in my area, Home Depot carries better quality MDF than Lowes. Lowes do, however, carry bigger sheet of MDF, making it cheaper (and easier) if you need to get many shelves, which I did for the Double Flexy. Having built both 4-legs and 3-legs version, 3-legs version is much easier to build. Also, 3-legs version is so much easier to…

I'm getting ready to build up one of Colin's tooleaudio I/V stages to put into my Rotel RCD-991. This is a dual PCM-63P player with pcm100 filter. I have currently been listening to it modded with THS4031s for the I/V stage and AD8599s doing the buffer/bal conversion. stock output stage: U302 is the single I/V opamp, U306 is the buffer/conversion opamp (dual) and U304 is an anti-aliasing opamp (socketed now, but not populated. I am trying to decide whether to Retain the AD8599s as buffers/conversion Replace the AD8599s with different opamps Use transformers? If so what? Other? I want to retain the muting relay functiona…

So i just build a crack /w speedball and it all went well and it is sounding great. Except that the stock pot is pretty shit and i wouldn't mind a remote control. After some searching i came across this one: http://www.tentlabs.com/Components/page31/page31.html Some specs: Input impedance: > 40 k-ohm (actual value depends on volume setting) Output impedance: < 8 k-ohm (actual value depends on volume setting) Power: AC or DC, 6 to 10V max, current max 150mA DC, 225mA AC (power connector supplied with module) Volume setting: 64 steps of 1.0 dB Channel imbalance: < 0.15 dB Inputs: 4 Input / Output connectors: Cinch / RCA (can be supplied without conne…

So for a little while now my Sony DAS-R1 has had a problem with the left channel cutting out. It used to get better by itself after a minute or so, then it needed longer. Now I have the lid unscrewed all the time and give it a wee tap. While this cures the symptom it doesn't cure the disease and the wee tap is now turning into a prod, before I know it, I'll be using a frame hammer. I'd like to fix this myself however I only just know which end of a soldering iron plugs into the mains and which end you use to burn your fingers touch against things to heat them up. I've looked under the board and I cannot see any obviously broken connections. I am fairly certain that …

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

Tonight, I'll be making some new ear pads for my new vintage electrets. The electret arrived with ruined pleather pads. No pleather left, only uncomfortable fabric. As a downside, the fabric ruins all the deep bass. My first attempt to restore the pads wasn't a success. They ended up a bit too small for the baffle. I'll be making them (or try to make them) with a bit bigger diameter, to reach further out on the baffle. They are to fit onto here: And the old pads measure like this:

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...

As several people have asked for the PSU boards, and some whether caps are available lets probe the interest. Group Buy moving ahead - collecting payments, and then ordering. Please bear in mind that lead time is 12 weeks ... edit: added: "Group Buy moving ahead - collecting payments, and then ordering.", and price confirmation.

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.

Any easy way to remove the magnets from speakers? I have some little 4 and 5" drivers I replaced in one of my cars and would love to keep the magnets.

So...Black Gate, no more, alas. I noticed in the current issue of AudioXpress that ModWright now has their own line of caps (pdf download). And there were, of course, others -- ClarityCap, Jantzen, Mundorf, Authenticaps (askjanfirst.com?), Auricap (of course). Are any of these any good? Considering how highly ModWright is thought of in the modded source market, I was wondering if anyone has tried their caps yet? I've had vintage gear modified, and happened to have chosen black gates for it, and was quite happy with the results. Were I to do it again (and I probably will), what should be on my short list of caps to try? There is also the old stand-bys -- Panason…

I know some of the newer and cheaper Chinese digital scopes are all the rage (Keysight, etc.) I am toying with buying a refurbed Tek 2465A, completely working, for a decent price. I know these have a proprietary IC in them, that if it fails, turns these into a doorstop (though I seem to recall this IC being available now...). Good idea or bad? For some reason, I've always wanted one of these... Flail away.

I need help putting together a simple TTL converter circuit to raise three DSD / SPDIF3 signals up to TTL level. I'm tapping the lines off a TI DSD1608. Here's what I have so far. Specifically, I was looking at a single TI SN74HCU04D for all three signals. Any recommendations on the cap here? I was thinking all surface mount here, but whatever the consensus is for the caps, I'm fine with. I'm thinking of adding a regulator as well nearby, like a National LP2985 5V regulator, or similar. Currently, these SPDIF3 lines won't leave the single box player, but perhaps down the line I'd route them to an external box via BNC cables. Either way, I'm assuming a single buffer…

Hi new to the forum and I am interested in building a kgsshv or kgsshv carbon. I have done other projects from amb.org built a beta22 / lcdduino / volume control system. I am unaware if there are any guides or published places to get information on where to start these builds / parts lists? I have found the circuit board gerber files and I am guessing I have to send those to get my pcbs manufactured? But I am a bit confused as there are many versions and variations of build files. For example I see Kgsshvcarbon v1-6 and along eith them left / right / servo / ground. Any advice would be appreciated.

Does anyone have or know where I can find a board that would let me mount a single or side by side Amveco PC mount low profile toroidial transformers? I'm just looking for a board that would have AC in and out going to terminal blocks and allow the use of standoffs. Amveco PC mount low profile 50VA toroidial transformers https://talema.com/wp-content/uploads/datasheets/70000K-72400K.pdf If not, I'd gladly pay someone for their time to lay out a board for me. Something like the pic in here

Thread for discussion of the Shiguraki clone "Shigaclone" CD transport I have a couple at my friends place in Canada I should get them shipped sometime...

Apologies if this thread already exists. I wonder if there are any experienced builders here, who would like to build an amp for me - for a good fee of course? I live in Finland, so EU location would be prefered. I am thinking about the current feedback amp, because I need to keep the physical size of the amp smallish.

heh, but seriously. If you only have room for a single jack, and want to support balanced (4-channel bridged) and single ended cans, what do you do? Two options as I see it. Use 4-pin jack and tie ground to the shell and/or case or use a 5-pin jack and have a dedicated pin for ground. If the first case, I'm not sure if there are 4-pin female jacks where the where the "shell connection" can be isolated from the case. If this isn't possible, then is 5-pin the only real option? I cannot believe this hasn't come up before. Thoughts?

Yet another stax project soon. A lot of people are going to want this i think. Birgir knows what it is, and had better not drop any hints hint: diffuse field.

This might be of interest to some here: Audio Origami - ReWires I will try this project sometime in the next two months or so, after I have played enough with the Thorens I just got to start my 1st vinyl rig. Just wanted to throw this out there for those of you who are itching to try something new. I have also read up on the DIY Altmann TT, but I'm guessing that's been discussed here before: The Altmann DIY Turntable And then there is the HDD mixing turntable: HDDJ: Turning an old hard disk drive into a rotary input device Well, plenty of projects to choose from!