Jack Carver
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2010
- Posts
- 39
- Likes
- 10
Hey all!
I learned about the Starving Student a few months after getting the headphone bug in general, and knew I wanted to try a build after getting my DT880s. I read through probably 100 pages of the thread before realizing 19J6s are impossible to find these days, but I found some updated schematics thanks to Equalizer and Dsavitsk and scored some 17EW8s on the bay, so we're off and running!
I wanted to make a wooden enclosure, just for the generally cool aesthetic. Plywood it is!
Measuring the tube size, testing sockets:
No drill press... I made due.
Top board in the vice.
Top board with tube and heatsink holes.
DIY projects: always a good reason to buy new tools! (or router bits)
Mouser order.
Rear panel routed out for power and input.
Safety first. Every time!! Don't wind up like me.
Tube sockets fitted (with some help from the dremel)
boards stained, ready to assemble.
Soldering station set up (I knew it was gonna take a while!)
getting started...
not bad for my $10 el-cheapo soldering iron.
sinks mounted
getting there...
Output caps in.
First test: it works!! Very little hum too, I was impressed.
How it will look with feet (not installed permanently yet)
Oh baby. Too bad it doesn't look like this to the human eye.
with the phones
Closed in:
Done!
I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's not the prettiest thing on the block, but it's mine, and the sound is awesome. I only finished it tonight, so I don't want to give a huge review yet, but I dig.
I still may go through and organize the wiring just to make sure nothing shorts out in the future, and the feet will be added too.
Thanks to everybody who contributed and made this project possible on such a sweet budget.
Let me know what you think!
I learned about the Starving Student a few months after getting the headphone bug in general, and knew I wanted to try a build after getting my DT880s. I read through probably 100 pages of the thread before realizing 19J6s are impossible to find these days, but I found some updated schematics thanks to Equalizer and Dsavitsk and scored some 17EW8s on the bay, so we're off and running!
I wanted to make a wooden enclosure, just for the generally cool aesthetic. Plywood it is!
Measuring the tube size, testing sockets:
No drill press... I made due.
Top board in the vice.
Top board with tube and heatsink holes.
DIY projects: always a good reason to buy new tools! (or router bits)
Mouser order.
Rear panel routed out for power and input.
Safety first. Every time!! Don't wind up like me.
Tube sockets fitted (with some help from the dremel)
boards stained, ready to assemble.
Soldering station set up (I knew it was gonna take a while!)
getting started...
not bad for my $10 el-cheapo soldering iron.
sinks mounted
getting there...
Output caps in.
First test: it works!! Very little hum too, I was impressed.
How it will look with feet (not installed permanently yet)
Oh baby. Too bad it doesn't look like this to the human eye.
with the phones
Closed in:
Done!
I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's not the prettiest thing on the block, but it's mine, and the sound is awesome. I only finished it tonight, so I don't want to give a huge review yet, but I dig.
I still may go through and organize the wiring just to make sure nothing shorts out in the future, and the feet will be added too.
Thanks to everybody who contributed and made this project possible on such a sweet budget.
Let me know what you think!
