I have a front panel with 3 pre-drilled mounting holes for LEDs. They fit perfectly but are only held in by friction and I'd like to stick a dab of some adhesive / sealant around the base to ensure they can't be pushed in if pressure is applied from the front.   The panel is regular old...

I'm about to submit my first PCB for manufacture but I need to sort out some DRC errors first; everything checks out fine except for a number of "Stop Mask" errors. The picture below shows pretty well what's happening, the silkscreen layer (yellow) is overlapping the pad, but this is using...

It's the moment of truth for my Sigma22 power supply, except I can't figure out the blasted wiring from the transformer. It's a dual secondary toroid (2x 0-18v) with a black/white pair of wires from one secondary and a red/yellow pair from the other. The S22 has a four-way terminal block for...

Looks like I'm the first one back from this (I did leave a little early) so without further ado I present the UK National Head-Fi Meet Impressions Thread! I'll be sure to post impressions as they come to me and while they're still fresh in my mind. I should first of all say thanks to jr41...

Hi all, I put my iPad up on eBay to raise some funds and I listed it at a good buy-it-now price of £325. Now I expected it to sell quickly but it's sold within 6 minutes to a member with zero feedback which I find a little suspicious. In fairness they have provided a shipping address within the...

I'm looking at getting a reasonably decent multimeter to help with my Dynamid construction project; I keep borrowing a cheap DMM from the university here but I'd like one of my own. This one (http://uk.farnell.com/tenma/72-8715/dmm-bench-2000-counts/dp/1836061) I found has hFE measuring...

I've got a set of Neutrik XLR jacks that I need to mount on the back panel of my amp-to-be and I'd like them to be as unobtrusive as possible when mounted.   I notice that the HeadAmp GS-X has its XLR inputs (far left on the first image) mounted behind the panel so that only the minimum area...

As we roll firmly into Autumn it's the time of year when students across the UK are drinking heavily working hard on their dissertation research. My research this year is on drawing applications that work in true 3D (think cinema style on a small scale) and the user interfaces that we use to...

I'm lost as to what the difference is between these two specs. Both indicate dual secondaries as far as I'm aware so what's the catch?

I got my hands on the new Satch album today . Initial impressions are that this is a good return to form after the disappointing Musterion; Joe's back to an experimental style again and this album reminds me mostly of Strange Beautiful Music crossed with Is There Love in Space.   Standout...

I'm hoping someone could take a quick look over these two orders that I'm about to place on Mouser/Farnell. These are the last of the parts I need and I had to make some substitutions with the caps and LEDs - just seeking some reassurance that everything looks within spec when compared with the...

I'm an awful perfectionist and I'd like to have 0.1% matched resistors on my latest build. The spec sheet I'm following calls for 1% Vishay Dale RN60D's and I think I've found a suitable 0.1% equivalent in the same range - could someone quickly confirm that this swap will be alright?  ...

I've started work on building a Dynamid this month and I've now ordered two Dynalo PCBs from AMB which are on their way at the moment. I'll be driving this from a DAC1 so my inputs are fully balanced and I've had my 650s recabled for balanced drive so everything should be alright on the outside...

Hi everyone, This might be something of a long shot but I've been wanting to try some Grados for a while and I can't afford to buy any right now with university fees. I do have a nice pair of APS recabled 650s though that I'd be willing to trade for a week or two for some Grados. Ideally I'd...

I've just moved into university digs in Durham and today I saw a guy wearing SR60s or maybe SR80s on the science campus just outside the main library. Are there any other head-fi folk in the city? We'd only need about 10 people to set up EarSoc or something similar!

I've been looking around for a little stand to perch my DAC1 on, something like you'd get for a mini hi-fi setup, but I haven't had any luck so far. I'm not looking to spend a whole lot, and it doesn't have to be specially made for audio gear, just a few inches tall. Anyone seen something...

I need to check if I'm doing this right. I'm going to try running the 650s directly off my DAC1 from the balanced outputs. At the moment, I use a balanced -> SE adaptor but I figure it's worth seeing how the sound differs. Running directly, it's very, very quiet right now. Am I right in...

I'll be buying one of Alex's V3 cables in the next couple of days and I was wondering if it would be worth upgrading the stock Neutrik XLR plugs to Furutech FP701M. Do you think there'd be an appreciable difference? I'm inclined to think not but I'm open to opinions and I'd hate to get a great...

I begrudgingly admit that despite my best efforts to convince myself otherwise, the Zu cable really does improve the 650s. Where can I get one in the UK? The only site I found didn't have any details on price or even where to order it. If you have one to sell or you know where to get one, please...

Durham university to study software engineering! I just got my letter through this morning and I couldn't be happier (or luckier, for that matter). It's a really beautiful area and I could tell as soon as the train pulled in that I was going to like it - it just felt like home already. Take a...

My Squeezebox is currently hooked up to my DAC1. The SB can output 44.1khz and 48khz over digital coax. Anything else going into the Squeezebox is first downsampled to 48khz by SlimServer. The DAC1 then upsamples the audio from the Squeezebox to 192khz. Is it worth me getting any of the Linn...

Singletons, girlfriends and boyfriends, married couples, what are your plans for valentine's this year? Are you going to tell that special someone how you feel, drown your sorrows or just go out and have a good time?

Quick question: how easy is it to reverse the de-foaming mod (just the inside foam, not the foam under the grilles)? If it's fully reversible I'll give this a shot later on.

Apparently it's an old model but I've never seen anything like this before - an AOpen motherboard with a tube output stage for the audio. It's not as cool as a whole motherboard worth of tubes but nonetheless awesome. The reviewer seemed pretty impressed with the sound quality.

Believe me, my wallet hates that! I can't deny though that the free, 15 year old ICs that I have lying around sound better than my Cambridge Audios. With the Cambridge ICs there's more bass but it's bloated and uncontrolled, the stock ICs sound much sharper and cleaner. Neither is bad but if I...