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Happy Birthday Al! I hope you have a great one!

Happy Birthday Colin!

I would check octopart.com and see if you can find any of the semis from a distributor. For the DN2540N3s the other part would be fine if it is the TO92 package you need, not TO220. For the MJW21194, I would look for the 21196 as well (higher rated). If you are in the US, I would use Antek transformers. Something like this: https://www.antekinc.com/as-1230-100va-30v-transformer/ Dual primaries, shielded. These work very well. They also have 28V or 24V if you want to drop that a bit. If you are in Europe, not sure what shipping would look like for these. Otherwise there are probably better options in Europe than buying transformers from Mouser.

Yes, I realized that when I looked at diya. Your screenshot was from there. I know they do have US stock on some stuff; wish they showed that more clearly.

Happy Birthday Steve!

I believe they are the cfp3smtsplit gerbers (Amp and Pre) on his site. If you read the thread, Kerry also did some spilt boards with more SMT on them (so probably smaller), but I don't think he released the Gerbers. Probably going to do a commercial product with his new company with those.

The thread for the CFA2 or 3 is here: Depending upon what you want, you could do either 4 CFA2 boards for balanced only, or do the CFA3 for the ability to run SE or balanced. For the CFA3, Kevin also did some split boards which separate the front end stuff from the amp guts and allow more flexibility in chassis layout. Personally, I have built Dynahi's and would recommend the CFA3 instead. I have only built a couple of CFA2 boards, but worked on one of Dukei's CFA3s for another HC user and really liked it. Something that was finally a bit better than my DynaFET. And done with currently available parts as well (other than Toshiba JFETs for the input).

Does the diyaudio store have the one you want? They have US stock, so should be cheaper.

Happy Birthday! Hope all is well!

RIP Raquel Welch. Damn was she hot... https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/15/entertainment/raquel-welch-death/index.html

I'd return them. Welcome to "high end" audio. I've never listened to the Atticus, or any other ZMF headphone. I know they have a good reputation, but what sounds good to one will vary for others. Don't buy expensive cables as they are generally snake oil, and as you note, no difference in sound. From your description, I don't think anything you might try (pads, cable, better amp, etc.) is going to get you where you want to go.

^ Yeah, I had thought of him as well. He hasn't been around here for quite awhile.

Wonder if the J.C. is John Curl? Have to poke around diya and see if there is anything there on this one.

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Happy Birthday Mike!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Belated Birthday Grahame!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!!

One other thing I would add to James' excellent check steps would be to check the SMD resistors to make sure they aren't shorted. I had this happen with a couple of 0805 resistors on a mini dynalo, and could not see anything under magnification (OptiVisor 10X lenses). This might not be an issue with 1206/1210 packages though, or as much of one. Mine were all hand soldered. Using paste and a stencil might make this a non-issue.

Happy belated Birthday Ric!

Happy Birthday Joachim!

Happy belated Birthday Ken!

Merry Christmas!