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One of the tweakier things I've done. My twin brother is back in the states for a month and brought a couple of pairs of KZ ZS-6s with him that he has had for awhile. He had previously talked me into buying a pair of KZ ZS-10s, but I found them unlistenable due to their excessive high end. A few months ago, I had run across a post on diyhifi from Thorsten Loech (aka, Kuei Yang Wang) regarding some mods he had done to these. These are apparently a clone (looks-wise) of Campfire Audio Andromedas, which he apparently liked. Patrick (EUVL) on diyaudio also did this and seemed to like them, so WTF. Like I need something else to do right now. I sent a link to this to my brother, and hence, here I am trying to solder shit much smaller than I am comfortable with So after some fun, I got both pairs of them done, and surprise, they are actually quite listenable for me! I really kind of like them, but still need to tame the high end a bit. At least my brother told me if I did this, I could have one pair of them. Listening to some Catherine Wheel Chrome right now (still one of my favs... those guys were fucking good!). Stock, they are like this: After removing a miniscule cap and resistor (102? barely the size of the end of my tweezers), and rewiring the balanced armature (BA) tweeters from parallel to serial, and replacing the resistor with a 7.5ohm MELF and the cap with a reasonably sized Panasonic ECP-U, they look like this: Sorry for the fuzzy iPhoneXR pics, but best I could do this time of night...

Happy Birthday Stretch!

That guy was a total asshole... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Regarding the "old design" thoughts, at least on the front end side, you cannot get the great parts today that the old designs are built upon. Other that some of the modern SIC output devices available now, I don't think you should be concerning yourself with that, as any of these amps will be light years beyond what you have experienced.

Happy Birthday John! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The hardest part for me in DIY is the casework. With your experience making knives, you will probably have a leg up on many of us for that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I just use Logitech m325 mice on all of my Macs... cheap (none of this silly $50 for a mouse), works great, bullet proof. It does take an AA battery but they last a long time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Another mini, and hopefully the last that I build (#5), this time for me. I accordingly did some things a bit differently... Headers and shunts instead of the 0R resistors... And as earlier threatened: MPSW thru-hole output transistors. A bit painful to do, but not so bad once I got going. Temps seem lower; 71°C is the highest I have measured so far. IIRC the PZTAs were often in the 80°C range. After casing it, etc. I'll report back. I have PZTAs so can go back to those if warranted.

I would center the trimpots on that board and start comparing voltages in the front end circuitry between the two boards. You do have the inputs shorted? Post detailed pics of the boards as well; maybe one of us will spot something.

Yep, wasn't aware the 2nd season was on now. Thanks!

You still have to drill and tap the heat sink (preferably blind holes) to mount the angle to it. The mount directly to the sink method would work well for the least thermal resistance IF you are good at drilling fairly precisely AND you aren’t prone to breaking taps. Something like the Shars drill guide helps as well (though I haven’t used mine yet.) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Has it really been that long? Seems like just yesterday when I first met him an talked 2-3 time with him at Chicago can jam. Miss him a lot!

True. That still doesn't make the message any more valid though. If you have the education and skill set these days, though, the opportunities available seem to dwarf those I saw when I got out of school with the US just coming out of a recession.

Fuck this guy... I did that 4 years ago... no mental breakdown. Fucking twat...

Happy Birthday Ian!

Damn... yeah 79 is a pretty good ride. This shit is starting to hit too close to home. RIP Peter...

Another one lives... this one is sbeylos. Haven't listened to it yet. I was doing current draw testing here. Without heatsinks: 275mA AC. With heatsinks: 249mA AC. Bias was around 15mA (~300mV across the 20R). Heatsinks should keep that in check.

Regarding the diodes, the pinout is the same... seems like it should be superior to the STTH512 and work? I didn't think the Toshiba 2SK389BL was available in SMT? Only thru hole. The Linear Systems replacement K389 is available as an SOIC8, but aren't marked like that. Where did you get these?

A 27V transformer is awfully high for generating 22V DC (raw dc after the rectifiers would be ~36.7V). That has to run hot! I don’t know that this would be causing your problem however. I’m also not sure how good of substitute your input FETs are. The BOM I have calls for 2SK389/LSK389 or 2x2SK170BL. Are the other semis per the BOM (MPSA06/56, MJF15030/31? Are they genuine? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

While they are correct that essentially any transmission is an analog carrier with a payload (analog or digital) on top of it, I’m not sure I buy the rest of it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Man, that's some quality shit there Nice solder blob on the left side. Thinker: Excellent built. Cue up some Talking Heads - Burning Down The House...

Did you check Idss on them? I assume they are BL grade, which from memory should be between 6-12mA? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Happy Birthday Todd!

You don’t like reading threads, do you? If you had read post #21, 3 posts before yours, I think the answer is pretty clear... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mini's are fairly easy to put drives and memory in, so don't pay a premium for any of that shit. IFixIt has a decent dual drive kit for the mini (to put an SSD and the internal HD in it), or just get an SSD for it. I have the stock 1TB HDD and a 500G Samsung Evo 850 SSD in my 2011 i7 Mini. Initially I had problems with the order I had put the drives in (HDD rattling or something, senior moment... can't remember exactly what the problem was) and had to rip it apart to swap them which ended the problem. On the 2011, 16GB is the max ram, and is what I have in mine. Very easy to change out ram in these.