The foam pads in my Sennheiser HD495 cans needs replacing. I know they are old but I like them. As you can see they pads are flat. Can't find the replacements in stock anywhere, no surprise really. Any ideas? The are 90x70mm. Could I use foam for speaker grills? Does someone make headphone...

I upgraded to Windows 10 recently and my old soundcard, an Onkyo, stopped working. No drivers. On-board sound seems to be broken. I decided to get a Nobsound ES9018 / ES9023 PD01 off eBay. It's okay but sounds a bit "thin" compared to my old set up. I don't know what the issue is exactly, maybe...

Does anyone know of any under-desk hangers for headphones that don't damage the band? Most of the "clothes hook" type ones have a small contact area that is made of hard plastic, so you end up with an indent in the middle of the headphone band. They often come with adhesive pads too, which...

My Sennheiser HD 495s are worn out. The pads are crumbling and you can't get replacements anywhere, so I'm looking for replacements.   I like the 495s because they are light and open, but sound pretty good. Not expensive either. Looking at the current Sennheiser range they don't seem to do...

I have a Windows 7 PC with an Onkyo PCI soundcard, based on the Via Envy chipset. I feed it into a C.E.C. DA53 DAC via optical which I'm happy with. Problem is newer mobos are starting to ditch PCI and space is an issue, so I would like to go either PCIe or USB. One thing that annoys me with...

I have a couple of pairs of noise cancelling headphones (both Audio Technica) and find they don't work very well when I try to lie back in my seat with an inflatable pillow. One ear always ends up too near the pillow for them and they come off.   I'm not a huge fan of in-ear monitors in terms...

Evening all.   I finished the KA-10SH tube amp kit I bought from Kasuga in Tokyo earlier this year. It uses 6DJ8 tubes and is naturally 100V only so I use a step-down converter for 230V. The kit didn't take very long to assemble, it just took me a while to translate the instructions first...

I have been experimenting with different kinds of solder for use in audio. My experiments have all been on cables but presumably it affects PCBs as well.   I mostly use 60/40 leaded solder. IMHO all the lead-free stuff is crap, takes too much heat to flow properly and make a really good join...

I recently bought a Philips ear and nose hair trimmer. I don't have much ear hair (I'm only 30 and mainly got it for nose and eyebrows) but I have noticed some sonic improvement after using it. Highs sound a bit more "effortless" and airy. The mids are where the biggest improvements where...

A customer brought an ASUS Xonar soundcard in and I thought that the LED lit audio jacks looked nice: I looks much better in real life, especially with a bit less ambient light. I searched but couldn't find any examples of people doing this themselves. Unfortunately I can't open the...

I find that the film tube the PK1s came in is a bit small for carrying them. They are not easy to wedge in there. So, my question is, what do people use for travelling with them?

I have been using my Nokia N73 for listening to audio books, podcasts and the like. It's very handy because I carry my phone anyway, and sound quality does not really matter for speech. The problem is that the Nokia headphones I'm using are not easy to carry. You end up with a mess of wire in...

I need to power a PGA2311 from a single 5V source. It requires digital +5V and GND, and analogue +5V, -5V and GND. Currently I am generating the -5V with a TPS60402 which is switch mode based (250kHz). I am using the same +5V and GND for analogue and digital, but I want to make a PCB with...

I have been experimenting with analogue volume setting with digital control. The main motivation is to do Replay Gain in the analogue domain, because for whatever reason it doesn't sound as good to me in the digital domain (particularly with FLAC). My initial design is based on two DS1669...

Looking at the high prices of custom machined front panels, I was looking for an alternative and noticed laser cutting is quite cheap Laser cutting of plexiglass or other plastics is very economical, and most places accept output from free CAD/vector drawing programs. Thickness can go up to...

I want to build this circuit to run some analogue VU meters: VU And PPM Audio Metering Problem is it needs +/-15V. Short of making my own PSU or trying to do some kind of DC-DC conversion, the only simple solution I can think of is to use +/-12V instead. I think it should be fine. I...

I need to connect some non-panel mount connectors to a front panel that is 4mm thick. I'm basically making a big interface board, which will have VU meters, USB, Famicom (Nintendo NES) and various other controller ports on it. None of them are panel mountable. For the VU meters I could just...

For a project I am working on I need a chassis that can accommodate a 78mm high display PCB. Ideally I don't want it to be too wide either, because I want to stack it with an AT-HA5000 which is 270mm wide. I've been looking everywhere but can't find anything suitable. ATI Research do some...

I have been working on a PCB in Eagle, and it's all ready to go except for the silk screen layer. Some of the silk screen covers some of the pads, and part of the USB connector outline is off the board (which I want to have panelized and manufactured by Olimex). Eagle does not seem to let...

I have a 3G iPod with dock, and I want to make a line out dock for my cmoy. Looking at commercial prices though, they seem a bit high. Considering you can get really cheap iPod dock connector to 3.5mm jack connectors on eBay for a few pounds, I was wondering what justifies the difference in...

I have a Philips Ultimate Edge (Envy24 based) and want to use both the front and rear outputs at the same time. I currently have my 'phones in the standard front output jack, but also want to be able to use speakers without swapping cables or a switchbox. I was hoping to connect them to the...

Being in Japan recently I noticed that they listen to a lot of jazz, especially in audio shops I'm not sure where to start. I like the stuff they play here, usually piano based stuff, mostly instrumental but sometimes with vocals (seems to be mostly American singers but some Japanese as...

Please post your 'phone related wallpaper. +1,000,000 bonus points if it improves SQ too

I have the opportunity to buy a Black Cube Linear for a good price. I currently have a HEADFIVE and use ATH W5000s or Sennheiser 495s depending on mood. Source wise I am using a CEC DA53 DAC fed from bit-perfect FLAC. I am really happy with the HEADFIVE, but was wondering if the BCL might be...

I have been looking to get a new soundcard for a while, but I want something that copes with gaming performance as well. I only use stereo speakers so it is really just trying to keep the FPS up. On the other hand, I do listen quite seriously. Currently using a HEADFIVE with ATH W5000s out of...