DIY audio: what are you building?

[BLAH BLAH]

On 26/12/2023 at 10:29 AM, RankStranger said:

 

I’ve completed the third and final (Ha! As if ) iteration of my Wayne Colburn BA2018 linestage preamp. I'm starting to feel like Marge Simpson with her Chanel suit but I've had three or four other pretty good preamps in the system and I'm yet to hear one I like more. 
 

 

The biggest change is that, after years of anxiously futzing about with balanced connections, cables and converters, I've allowed myself to become completely unbalanced (lol) and feel 100% better for it.

 

 

To some of you this box probably looks like an hilarious Rube Goldberg machine of redundant complications. I'm ok with that. This is just how I could do the things I wanted to do without four years of trade school and/or forty years of field experience. I've tried to use what I do know to have a bit of fun without causing any sonic degradation and, as far as I can hear, I've been successful in that. 

  

Here's where I've ended up:

- A Schurter filtered AC inlet
- a 50VA triad magnetics medical-grade (to utterly misquote Mr Pass, if it's good enough for dialysis it's good enough for music) toroidal transformer
- a Glassware bipolar lv-reg PSU
- An EIZZ 4-way input selector
- a DACT-style smd 21-stepped attenuator
- Duelund 26GA tinned solid copper wire in cotton and oil for audio signals
- Multicomp gold-plated, pure copper rca sockets that @andyr mentioned somewhere on the forum
- half of a Rod Elliot P05 PSU with a discrete 10VA transformer, which drives:
- an LED input indicator
- LM3914-based LED volume-level indicators
- an AliExpress VU meter driver-board and VU meters, the signal wires of which are galvanically-isolated from the audio circuit with the redundant bal-SE converter transformers
- A slightly-modified/butchered 320mm aluminium enclosure from AliExpress

 

 

I was worried about potential interference from the VUs and LEDs (I worry a lot about interference. Can you tell?) so I put in a defeat switch for the P05, just in case any of it was audible. I don’t think it is, at least in my current system configuration. I still have an earth leak or some grounding issue somewhere. It's not bothering me enough to chase down at the moment but I'll need to address it at some point. 

That brown thing is an organic, dielectronic, cryometrically-isolated quantum-state resonator and definitely not a bit of decking off-cut I jammed in there because my sticky came unstuck. No siree. Nope. 

 

So, to sum up, I've ended up where I wanted to - insofar as the operation and "features" go - and it certainly sounds superb (which I can’t really take credit for. But I didn’t F it up, which is something). It's not as elegant as I imagined, either in an aesthetic or tactile sense but it's not bad for a (mostly) first go.

 

I've become distracted from my planned Altec rebuild by an idea for a hifi rack which won’t leave me alone so that's next. 

WOW...now that is a loverly piece of work...Art gar funkel like...hello darkness my old friend!

Gee just lacks a few glowing bottles to tempt me into purchase! 

[RankStranger]

10 minutes ago, BLAH BLAH said:

WOW...now that is a loverly piece of work...Art gar funkel like...hello darkness my old friend!

Gee just lacks a few glowing bottles to tempt me into purchase! 

Thanks, man. I’m not quite up to bottles yet but I hope to get there before too long  

[mwhouston]

Talk about retro, when I can’t access Tydal, in planes etc, this retro Cowon S9 delivers lossless MP3s. I use LAME to produce the MP3s. Still works and sounds good through my DIY “Blue Wave” OPA2134 HP portable amp and Beyerdynamic phones. 

[andyr]

Building a low-gain 'Paris' head amp, for a couple of 'special' uses that someone has contacted me about:

1. the output from a WinLabs strain guage cart's 'source module' (which plugs into an 'Aux' input on a preamp/integrated) is much too low, relative to the sensitivity of an Aux input in his integrated.  So a "5x Paris" will sit between the WinLabs source module and the Aux input.
2. the 0.25mV output of a DL-103R is too low for the 52dB gain of the integrated's MC phono stage; the 5x Paris will sit between the DL-103R and the MC phono stage.  (This only 'works' because he's able to select 47k loading on his integrated's MC phono stage, to provide sufficiet Zin for the head amp's Zout.)

 

IE. this is a simple gain-stage lifting the input signal level by ~5x.

 

 

 

The SLAs are 12v/1.2ah.  Two of them in parallel deliver 2 benefits:

 

1.  they double the 'play' time before charging is needed

 

but they also

 

2.  halve the output impedance (Zout) of the SLAs - improving transient response.

 

A very interesting extension from the 'normal' use of a head amp.  

 

Edited March 14, 2024 by andyr

[bob_m_54]

7 hours ago, mwhouston said:

lossless MP3s

hehe, that's a bit of a contradiction...

[mwhouston]

1 hour ago, bob_m_54 said:

hehe, that's a bit of a contradiction...

Don’t burst my bubble.

[Mendes]

20 minutes ago, mwhouston said:

Don’t burst my bubble.

You can download your Tidal music for such occasions, I did it when I flew last year.

[mwhouston]

7 minutes ago, Mendes said:

You can download your Tidal music for such occasions, I did it when I flew last year.

Sometimes its just nice to go retro. I was aware if that but this gives me a chance to listen to music I may not have heard for years or re-visit infrequently.

[mwhouston]

10 hours ago, mwhouston said:

Sometimes its just nice to go retro. I was aware if that but this gives me a chance to listen to music I may not have heard for years or re-visit infrequently.

Don’t care what the hipsters say, no way to compact cassette. Its a format I will never go back into my system. Rumour is they are being reproduced by the thousands a day. I have seen advertising for new players also - NO! 

[Grimmie]

I agree @mwhouston just no need for cassette replay these days except..... nostalgia?..... and I do have quite a few tapes I'd love to listen to again, even though I know they'd sound crappy. Don't have a player so no way, and all the ones I see around have hard and broken belts. That era's gone.

[mwhouston]

Good bye ruby Tuesday. 

[muon*]

@mwhouston wrong thread.

[mwhouston]

Too many whiskeys. Forgive me this time. 

[BLAH BLAH]

Just now, mwhouston said:

Too many whiskeys. Forgive me this time. 

Irish then?!?

[mwhouston]

Yes but blended. Its all I can afford on a pension. 

[bob_m_54]

On 23/03/2024 at 9:04 PM, BLAH BLAH said:

Irish then?!?

Irish is whiskey, as opposed to whisky....

[BLAH BLAH]

5 hours ago, bob_m_54 said:

Irish is whiskey, as opposed to whisky....

You Sir are posting to an Irish Whiskey fan and drinker...and one who is also well aware of the subtleties in the spelling of the word "Whiskey" and "Whisky"...fair play to you for bringing it up and having a decent craic at me to be sure! 

"Whiskey" for the Irish.

"Whisky" for the Scot and elsewhere.

An old rule/joke went something like this: if the country has an “e” — namely, Ireland and the United States — its spelling of whiskey does, too; if the country lacks an “e” — namely, Scotland, Canada, Australia and Japan — its spelling of whisky does, too.

Some say that the added E was a way of distinguishing the product between the Irish and Scot...

The Scots say that they only need to Pot Still their whisky once/twice to get it right, while the Irish needed to Pot Still their Whiskey thrice to get it right!

The Irish retort that the parsimonious Scot Printers saved on spending money by deleting the E word from their spelling of Whisky!

Nevertheless I did manage to celebrate St Patrick's Day with choice Irish Whiskeys without my head experiencing too savage a poit! And speaking of Irish Whiskey, I would love to try their home made Poitin/Poteen/Potcheen...

A big shout out to Blindboy for his Podcast and Book in bringing the world of Poitin to my attention...

[wasabijim]

takes me back to working the village pub up in nth west england. sweet old lady asked for a whiskey, Dalwhinnie I think. I asked if she wanted a splash of water, ice, or soda.... "good heavens son, the only thing you should ever put into a good whiskey is another one!"

[mwhouston]

7 minutes ago, wasabijim said:

takes me back to working the village pub up in nth west england. sweet old lady asked for a whiskey, Dalwhinnie I think. I asked if she wanted a splash of water, ice, or soda.... "good heavens son, the only thing you should ever put into a good whiskey is another one!"

I don’t put ice in my whiskey but have glasses with heavy bottoms in the freezer with two soap stone cubes. The icy cold from the heavy glass and cubes chills the whiskey but doesn’t water it down. Always two glasses in the freezer so each drink is from is chilled glass. 

[wasabijim]

maybe different story if it's blowing a wet 3 degrees all week   

[RankStranger]

 

new diy rack, started just before xmas and finished yesterday, filled this evening. Frame is Blackwood finished in Tung oil and shelves are 24mm birch ply finished in poly. Shelf under the AN dac is temporary until I luck upon some more big-enough 24mm birch ply off-cuts. Interface between the shelves and frame is an unholy cocktail of poorly-grasped acoustic isolation principles.

 

[robmid]

Lovely workmanship Simon!

 

DIY is a great topic and mainly electronic. It would be great to see more projects that add the finishing touch and earn WAF points. 

 

Where did you find the birch ply?

 

Cheers, Rob

[RankStranger]

1 hour ago, robmid said:

Lovely workmanship Simon!

 

DIY is a great topic and mainly electronic. It would be great to see more projects that add the finishing touch and earn WAF points. 

 

Where did you find the birch ply?

 

Cheers, Rob

thanks, Rob. There’s a place in Fairfield called Plyco and I drop past to have a dig through their off-cuts bay whenever I’m in the area. They occasionally have some real gems. The Blackwood is from Fair Woods nearby who specialise in reclaimed and sustainably-sourced timber 

[robmid]

Thanks Simon.

 

I still have relatives in Melbourne so I will call on them If I need anything.

[bob_m_54]

9 hours ago, robmid said:

It would be great to see more projects that add the finishing touch and earn WAF points. 

WAF points?