A quick divergence from DIY electrostatic projects... working on making a DIY stereo smyth realiser (couldn't care less about any more than 2 channels, only listen to music - can get by with a lot less DSP than the 8-channel realiser needs).     Currently my hardware is a Digilent Nexys 4...

I'm wondering why the T2 is better than the BH. I fully understand both schematics, although I'm not at a level to say that one particular aspect will make or break the sound quality.    As far as I'm seeing it, the only significant difference is that the T2 has an extra +-100V of swing, a...

The name was inspired by the fact that I have half a dozen abandoned DACs in my projects folder from the last 3 years, and this was just yet another DAC.   I've been messing with DAC designs on and off for the last few years, and finally got serious about it a few weeks ago. Here's what I've...

Does anyone know what the material typically used as the foam in headphone earpads is, or where to buy it? Replacement pads themselves are all over the place, but I want a chunk of the foam to cut my own earpads, and google searches have not yielded anyone selling that. So I guess I need to know...

Put together this schematic this morning since I was bored. It is an I-V stage with no signal capacitors.    T2 forms a 5mA current source, which sums with I_in into T1. T2 is present to provide some bias current to help stabilize the voltage seen at the input thus decreasing the input...

I'm well on my way to completing a blue hawaii build. I have both channels built and am testing them. They are built according to the original schematic, with the change of using a depletion-mode FET current source. The board is approximately the same layout as the board files posted to Kevin...

I've been looking at various electrostatic amplifiers. Upon looking into the blue hawaii amp and considering alternatives to the costly 2SA1968 source, I figured I would need to design an 800V current source if I want to make this amplifier on a budget, which is not terribly trivial since PNP...

I built dsavitsk's 6-tube amp (ecp.cc) about a year ago and it has been sounding great ever since. Recently, however, someone has asked me to record some records for them which I started doing yesterday. The recordings sound great, however since this person will be checking the waveforms for...

For the last month I've noticed that my left and right channels haven't been very equal in volume (left was always louder regardless of which way the cables were plugged in). A few days ago the left channel went super quiet and tinny at about 10% volume with nothing below 1khz. I hit it a little...

Not exactly an audio device, but I figured it is essentially a really high power amplifier and I knew it would require tubes for this voltage, so why not ask here. I'm looking to create a modulator that will take a -50kV negative input and modulate it to up to 100mhz from a wave-form generator...

I can't find any information about the phase of the transformer in the documentation on the sigma-22. I'm ready to hook mine up and am wondering about the secondaries and their phase. I attached a picture of how the two phases could be wired, would I want option A or B? I think option A...

My HD600 cable's are worn out and come in and out. I'm debating between a Cardas cable or a stock 650 replacement. Is the price tag of a Cardas really justifyable? Also the other thing is I would be running this through a generic RCA cable from my source or phono stage to my head-amp. Would...

I just built a phono amp and it had a 60 hz square wave ripple that was very loud on the output. If I disconnected the heater wire with the rest powered up the sound immediately went away so I believe it has to do with the heater supply. It is a 10V-AC trans through a 4A bridge rectifier, into a...

I'm working on building a 150V supply for an amp and have an isolation transformer. I also have 1N5062 diodes to use in the rectifier design. Right now I have build a full wave rectifier with 2 diodes, positives connected to the AC terminals with the center-tap ground. I get nothing out of...

I have a 10 volt hammond transformer that puts out about 11.5 volts AC without load on my meter. I was originally going to rectify it voltage doubling, then feed it into a 10,000uF capacitor, then run it into an LM317 voltage regulator. I believe I burned out the regulator, and it also got...

I ordered from Diyhifisupply last week and it was shipped $7 HK Post which turns to USPS in USA. It has been in Status: Foreign International Dispatch all week, which I assume is customs. How long should I expect it to be in this situation? Weeks?

I'm planning on building this amp (ecp.cc) however I will need a 150v supply. I know the basic design of a supply and how to use PSU designer software, but I need the base transformer. Do I need a 75-0-75 transformer as this would tap to 150v? I believe there is significant voltage drop in a...

The three caps I've found in this similar mid-price range are the Obbligato Gold Premium Caps, Obbligato Copper Caps, and Sonicaps. What would you suggest out of these three? Or any other brands in a mid-price range.

I'm not sure I can expect to find this, but does anyone have a declicker schematic for vinyl? Something like this... ELP declicker: remove clicks and pops from vinyl records Without spending $2800. Digital/software solutions aren't really an option here because I want to keep an analog...

Does anyone have a good well-documented and tested phono preamp (preferably with tubes)? I can't find many that have any sort of guides just schematics in other languages. Thanks

Will a cheap used DJ mixer be a good quality phono stage and preamp for my new SL-1200? The reason I want to use that is I would like to do a little scratching on the side, but the main purpose is hi-fi listening. How will a $60 used DJ mixer compare to a dedicated phono stage?

I'm new to vinyl, and considering a used SL1300. I read that I need a phono preamp, but I'm wondering if I need this. I have a tube head-phone amp so can I just plug RCA out of the player straight into this? Also saw something about a phono RIAA eq or something, not sure do I need one of...

I got an AT-LP2D USB player for christmas, and I'm thinking of returning it and getting a different model. I don't really want USB because I have a $200 studio card for recordings, and I also want to do some live playing. Now this does have RCA output, but I'm thinking the quality will be...

I have a DIY Strain amp with $11 output caps from mouser 935C2W10K-F Would it be worth upgrading those to say, 15uf 200v sonicaps for a total of $50? Seems like a lot of money for two capacitors. Will I actually notice a difference? Listening on HD600's and in the process of building a gamma 1

I'd like to build an external DAC for my computer, I've never done one though and there are quite a few designs online. I'd like to keep it to the $100-150 price range at the max, and have it sound absolutely as best as possible. An amp is not needed in the circuit because I have built a strain...