Owen Y Posted January 5, 2016 Posted January 5, 2016 (edited) Hello @@andyr @@mwhouston @@awty, you Guys seem to know a bit about TT Just after a little help with a head shell mod as I am a nervous nooby. Have a nice second hand wood body Clear Audio MM Cart and head shell to add to the Micro Seiki Accessory list. The stock shure and the Clear Audio look roughly the same height and length possibly near the same weight. The Micro's tone arm has an easy height (horizontal) adjustment. The problem is I need to drill 2 x 4 mm holes in the cartridge base plate as the wood body of the new cart has threads in it necessitating mounting from the back, unlike the sure which is mounted from the front, is it "normal practice" to do this ? Is it Ok to use the 2 nylon shipping bolts (came with the new cart) to mount the Clear Audio cart, or should I use steel ones ? I can drill the holes accurately in the base plate and the heads of the bolts will fit inside the head shell Ok. No actual damage to the base plate, just 2 neat new holes where indicated next to the threaded holes. Will be able to adjust the projetction perfectly, same as the other shure cart and head shell. Any advice greatly appreciated, looking forward to testing it. Cheers This type of sliding subplate was not uncommon & can offer versatility for varying cartridges. If you can drill accurately (1/2" or 12.7mm c/c), I'd make the plate holes smaller, a tight fit even, for the M2.5mm cartr screws - to minimise chances of the cartr moving later. Nylon should be OK, anything non-magnetic ideally, SS, brass, alloy.... (Have I understood your issue here correctly?) Cheers, Owen Dark Lantern blog - http://darklanternforowen.wordpress.com/ Edited January 5, 2016 by Owen Y
mwhouston Posted January 6, 2016 Posted January 6, 2016 (edited) Just a few images of the latest La Gitana. It is for a fellow SNA member who has another of my DIY builds. It is a tube MM phono preamp with EQ. I have one but in this build I have it powered by an external 24V AC plug pack, The cct. brd. is suspended on 8 rubber grommets to absorb any resonance. A large rubber grommet is used as a dampener on both JJ 12AX7s. Here are some external images. Edited January 6, 2016 by mwhouston 3
Guest Posted January 6, 2016 Posted January 6, 2016 This type of sliding subplate was not uncommon & can offer versatility for varying cartridges. If you can drill accurately (1/2" or 12.7mm c/c), I'd make the plate holes smaller, a tight fit even, for the M2.5mm cartr screws - to minimise chances of the cartr moving later. Nylon should be OK, anything non-magnetic ideally, SS, brass, alloy.... (Have I understood your issue here correctly?) Cheers, Owen Dark Lantern blog - http://darklanternforowen.wordpress.com/ Hi Owen Thanks, and yes this will be done.
Newman Posted January 6, 2016 Posted January 6, 2016 The last thing that ever occurs to me when I am doing something DIY, is to take photos during the process of the various stages. Even though I am a keen photographer! 4
mwhouston Posted January 6, 2016 Posted January 6, 2016 The last thing that ever occurs to me when I am doing something DIY, is to take photos during the process of the various stages. Even though I am a keen photographer! Most of my builds end up on my blog. Most visitors like to see under the bonnet and the outside enclosure. If I think I'm doing a really good job at parts placement on small protype cct. brds. I take progessive snaps to remind me how to next time. Mimic, my OPAMP based phono preamp is a good example of this. I use a X3 closeup lens on my camera to get in detail. 1
mwhouston Posted January 6, 2016 Posted January 6, 2016 Here is an example. Just resistors in at this point.
Newman Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 (edited) It's a darned good idea, and makes threads like this one fantastically enjoyable to read. And I keep making mental notes to do it myself. But it never happens! The good thing is, with my humble level of DIY, you ain't missing much. Edited January 7, 2016 by Newman 1
mwhouston Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 It's a darned good idea, and makes threads like this one fantastically enjoyable to read. And I keep making mental notes to do it myself. But it never happens! The good thing is, with my humble level of DIY, you ain't missing much. Sometimes I just use my phono to take a snap. Don't always have to pullout the big guns.
Guest Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 (edited) The last thing that ever occurs to me when I am doing something DIY, is to take photos during the process of the various stages. Even though I am a keen photographer!It's good to take lots of pics.I find myself going back through old pics a lot to see "how I did that" etc. Also a good idea when pulling things apart, to know how to put it back together.......months later..... On the other end of things, I can't stand 5-minute YouTube videos where the guy (usually a guy) is holding the camera with one hand and fumbling around with the other hand trying to hold things up to the lens talking at length about which spanner he used, where he bought the parts and what he had for lunch. And don't get me started on "unboxing" videos. 10 minutes of a bloke pulling something out of a box and unwrapping everything (with one hand) "Stay tuned for the next video - plugging it in" Edited January 7, 2016 by Dirty_vinylpusher
mwhouston Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 It's good to take lots of pics. I find myself going back through old pics a lot to see "how I did that" etc. Also a good idea when pulling things apart, to know how to put it back together.......months later..... On the other end of things, I can't stand 5-minute YouTube videos where the guy (usually a guy) is holding the camera with one hand and fumbling around with the other hand trying to hold things up to the lens talking at length about which spanner he used, where he bought the parts and what he had for lunch. And don't get me started on "unboxing" videos. 10 minutes of a bloke pulling something out of a box and unwrapping everything (with one hand) "Stay tuned for the next video - plugging it in" It is because most people who attempt to produce some sort of instructional video haven't got an f'n clue how to do it. It becomes boring beyond tedium, un-instructional and uninspiring. A group of quality stills and verbal or written instruction work better. I would like to do a "how-to" for a Pass active attenuator. I have built about four and they are excellent sounding and easy to build. Or a Pass BoZ (Bride of Zen). I have built about six and you can make the best sounding ones on a tag strip. Stills and instructions. F'wits!
Geoff Millar Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 Project update: have received the cabinets today, they look great and were very reasonably priced, considering the quality - very happy. Am busy installing the drivers, crossover etc and not too much cursing... If anyone's interested in having some nice cabinets made, please let me know and I'll pass on your details to our contact: if I could work out how to attach, I would do so! Really looking forward to testing and finishing. Geoff
thesavage Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 It is because most people who attempt to produce some sort of instructional video haven't got an f'n clue how to do it. It becomes boring beyond tedium, un-instructional and uninspiring. A group of quality stills and verbal or written instruction work better. I would like to do a "how-to" for a Pass active attenuator. I have built about four and they are excellent sounding and easy to build. Or a Pass BoZ (Bride of Zen). I have built about six and you can make the best sounding ones on a tag strip. Stills and instructions. F'wits! That would be awesome if you did produce those instructions, I'm sure there would be more than a few people who would appreciate it![emoji3] 1
mwhouston Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 That would be awesome if you did produce those instructions, I'm sure there would be more than a few people who would appreciate it![emoji3] I have already built a BoZ on a tag strip (board really). I had a single stage valve preamp I built but needed a low impedance output. I built the BoZ on a tag strip and had it in the same enclosure as the valve stage so it had to be compact. The valve stage output went into the BoZ via the volume control. This made it a hybrid, valve front end and SS backend. A friend wanted a preamp from me so he could sell and power amp. I sold him the hybrid but when he listen to it he kept it for himself. He already had one of my valve preamps and now flicks between the two.
Batty Posted January 8, 2016 Posted January 8, 2016 (edited) External views:- Power on Front view. rear view. The 5mm power LED has a 1.5mm hole drilled through the front panel and is counter bored 3mm through the 5mm front panel, so looks quite classy in my view. I should remove the lid and take another photo, but I have not tried it out yet so the internal wiring is still 'prototype' plus I'll get heaps of advice about how it should be wired and why have I not done this plus you should do that.... etc. Edited January 8, 2016 by Batty 3
Batty Posted January 8, 2016 Posted January 8, 2016 Thanks, owes me about $200 and however many hours. 2
Guest Posted January 8, 2016 Posted January 8, 2016 Made the Clear Audio mm fit, amazingly measures up well. Drilling went well. Passed set up ok on maximum extremity of the sliding adjustment to the mm. Horizontally same as the shure cart. Considerably lighter than the shure also, sounds lovely and sweet so far. Looks cool on the Arm massive upgrade. @@Batty, cool pre amp !
Batty Posted January 8, 2016 Posted January 8, 2016 THe phono has very similar aspect ratio to the Copland, so fits in well. Running the AT OC9-III through a boozehound pre pre into the Akitika MM then the Aux on the Copland, sounding pretty good but both phono stages need a bit of a run in to sound their best. Very detailed atm but a bit toppy but bass is improving by the minute. 2
mwhouston Posted January 8, 2016 Posted January 8, 2016 Made the Clear Audio mm fit, amazingly measures up well. Drilling went well. Passed set up ok on maximum extremity of the sliding adjustment to the mm. Horizontally same as the shure cart. Considerably lighter than the shure also, sounds lovely and sweet so far. Looks cool on the Arm massive upgrade. @@Batty, cool pre amp ! Looks good.
Guest Posted January 8, 2016 Posted January 8, 2016 Looks good. Yea goes well, seems to just glide and is smooth, definitely opened the sound plane up a little, more relaxed, easy listening . The shure reasonable, but projects image a little smaller and tighter, brighter and more clinical, is Ok, not going back in for a spell. New second hand cart is a winner and came with a broken spare for repair.
Batty Posted January 8, 2016 Posted January 8, 2016 Here are the innards, needs a bit more work and am open to suggestions, but nothing involving moving PCBs etc. 4
hochopeper Posted January 9, 2016 Posted January 9, 2016 (edited) Not building just yet, but a design in progress ... this afternoon's daydreaming produced this: Finally settled on an output configuration for my franken DSP project. Using the tascam pin out for DB25 connector to get up to 24ch balanced analogue outputs (could drop 4ch of analogue out and get 8ch of AES/EBU for 28ch output if I end up totally insane. EDIT: derp ... If I went to 6 x minisharcs I could get 36ch of audio out of those by making each connector 8ch digital and 4ch analogue output. But, yeah, I'm only going to do the multiplexing on the input card to support 4x minisharcs, that design is complex enough as it is. Edited January 9, 2016 by hochopeper 1
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