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Way cool, willco007! A few questions come to mind. First, did you have to countersink holes in the wood from the inside to accomodate the panel mount components? Seems to me there is a thickness issue you would have needed to tackle to make this work. How did you approach the problem?
Second, most amps appear to be housed in enclosures that often are made fully or partially in metal. Do you have an noise issues with your build? I am interested if the mahogany box provides adequate isolation from external EMI sources.
The way I got around the thickness issue is I used a router to hollow out the inside of the block of wood, so the edges are only about 1/8-1/4 of an inch thick in places. For the DAC with the super tiny USB output lead, I did have to bevel the hole on the outside for the USB plug which I did with a palm sander and manual sanding. I could post a pict of that if you're interested.
As for noise, I bought non-conductive EMI foil to line the inside of the enclosure to reduce interference.
Here's my second build which I though was worthy of posting here. It's a modified CMOY design and an Alien DAC to top it off. Both are wrapped in Mahogany enclosures (inspired by the Grado RA1). I also custom built silver RCA interconnects because why not? I must say, none of this would be possible without head-fi; so thank you all.
Here's my second build which I though was worthy of posting here. It's a modified CMOY design and an Alien DAC to top it off. Both are wrapped in Mahogany enclosures (inspired by the Grado RA1)
Cool. Don't know if you ever saw this project, but this was my "modified" RA-1. The amp was a Pimeta, the DAC was the Guzzler DAC which was the predecessor to the Alien, and the other box was a PS for the Pimeta. The Pimeta was pulled out, cased up and sold off a long time ago and was replaced by a Pint, which was also removed and sold. The DAC was replaced by my NOS USB DAC. So, the RA-1 box (as well as the PS box which was gutted for some reason I no longer remember) sits empty waiting for something else. I think the DAC probably still works, but it hasn't been on in a while. I guess one day I'll get inspired to do something with them again ...
Cool. Don't know if you ever saw this project, but this was my "modified" RA-1. The amp was a Pimeta, the DAC was the Guzzler DAC which was the predecessor to the Alien, and the other box was a PS for the Pimeta. The Pimeta was pulled out, cased up and sold off a long time ago and was replaced by a Pint, which was also removed and sold. The DAC was replaced by my NOS USB DAC. So, the RA-1 box (as well as the PS box which was gutted for some reason I no longer remember) sits empty waiting for something else. I think the DAC probably still works, but it hasn't been on in a while. I guess one day I'll get inspired to do something with them again ...
dsavitsk, I had seen your project and I was like, if he can do it, I can do it. My amp is just a lowly CMOY (which I beefed up a bit - and sounds really quite good) but how's your custom built NOS DAC compare to the Alien?
Here's my second build which I though was worthy of posting here. It's a modified CMOY design and an Alien DAC to top it off. Both are wrapped in Mahogany enclosures (inspired by the Grado RA1). I also custom built silver RCA interconnects because why not? I must say, none of this would be possible without head-fi; so thank you all.
The amps I build for myself have a tendency to not ever end up in a case. Alas, since I have no current electronics DIY projects running, I took it upon myself to crate up one of my favorite amps. The wood is all solid maple with a nice figuring, though it doesn't show that well in photos. The finish is olympic plantation pecan with god only knows how many coats of minwax wipe on poly. The view slots have glass in them and the top is brushed aluminum.
beautiful amp wow.
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It's a modified CMOY design and an Alien DAC to top it off. Both are wrapped in Mahogany enclosures (inspired by the Grado RA1). I also custom built silver RCA interconnects because why not? 
I must say, none of this would be possible without head-fi; so thank you all.
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