Those wires with the fibres in them are super hard to solder for some reason.  I struggled with my westone UM2s for a long time.

Incredible.  Serious props, that's awesome.

Tube amps are relatively simple, but more reliant on parts. If you build a transformer coupled design, be prepared to shell out for nice trafos to get the best sound. Cap coupled designs like Bijou require nice caps at the output. If you're willing to consider electrostatics, the blue hawaii...

lots of flux, problem solved

Get it working first, then heatshrink. Brushless ESC's used in RC cars/planes are built like this. example: HobbyKing Online R/C Hobby Store : Hobbyking SS Heli Series 70-80A ESC w/UBEC $20.41

Quote: Originally Posted by linuxworks often times, keeping the board is worth more than the part. so I cut parts off if I really have to. just hate it when I ruin/lift a trace! not only is the board, then, mostly ruined but you lost your time and effort on THAT board. double loss...

Quote: Originally Posted by nate911 So for most of the work I'm planning to do I would be fine with a pencil iron? Would it be easier with the 936 or not really? What about building a bantamDAC? Hmm... Everything I've built has been with a $10 iron - including 2 tube amps, a...

Piano finish is a LOT of work, and you would have wanted to wet-sand between each of your 5 coats. That said you could still go for it, just need a sanding block and a lot of elbow grease, and a clear glossy automotive lacquer for the topcoat.

Seems like a bad choice for making cable sleeving. Carbon fibres are kinda brittle when not resinated, and super stiff when they are.

Why go to 120VAC when none of the equipment you want to run uses that?

Gonna be honest, I agree with this thread. Why does pcx get to charge $16.77 for this order when some guy on ebay would have charged $2.93, probably with free shipping? Furthermore, they don't tell you what the bill will be until AFTER it's charged to your credit card? How many sites still...

ClassT T-AMP TA2024 Audio Amplifier Board SMT 2X15 Watt - eBay (item 330396864601 end time Jan-21-10 21:00:09 PST)

christ, $25000 speaker cables. unreal.

tbh if you're just exercising I don't see why you need an amp. You're only half paying attention to the music anyway. To each his own, I guess.

Quote: Originally Posted by amb Drilling and tapping the heatsinks will be very tricky if you want blind holes like I have (i.e., the hole doesn't go all the way through). I ended up sending my heatsinks to FPE to have them do this for me on their CNC. Maybe you could ask around your...