In general, polyester caps are not as good as polypropylene with respect to things like linearity, temperature stability, etc.  Go to Walt Jung's site and read his classic "Picking Capacitors" articles: http://waltjung.org/Classic_Articles.html   Now, you don't always need the "best"...

I don't understand why those output caps are so large in the schematic.  Are you going to go directly into headphones?  If you are going to plug into any kind of amp, you can certainly go with a smaller value as you figured out from the guidelines on dsavitsk's site that you've mentioned...

You really need to learn to use Google and/or the search function.

Who supplies dry-transfer lettering? It sounds like a good option. For wet-transfer decals, you really do need some kind of clear coat to keep them from coming off. Think about all of the curled-up decals from your old model airplanes

Another, equally depressing possibility is your laser assembly is going out. In my experience, early vintage Sony PCDPs are particularly susceptible to this. Some (D-303 comes to mind) are worse than others. There is a thread on "fixing" the laser on these, but that is often just a temporary...

Quote: Originally Posted by MASantos I read through amb's website and couldn't find what parts associated with the y1's dac can be ommited. Also, since local LDO regulators are use, does it make sence to use the o11 to power these, as compared to an o25? Cost will increase quite a...

AMB doesn't sell kits. To me, that makes a difference. Your opinion may differ.

Quote: Originally Posted by johnwmclean I’m not jumping on this bandwagon, I’d be happy to re-build another unit every 3 or so years, it’s probably much wiser waiting for AMB to come to the party with a reference DAC a company I’d much rather deal with. I understand where you...

Quote: Originally Posted by tomb I've never been impressed. They're a low grade electrolytic. Their specs are atrocious compared to our standard choice around here - Nichicon UPW, UHE, and Panasonic FC, FM. Let's take a typical example, say a 470uf 35V cap - UPW: 0.052 ESR 1220 ma...

Maybe this? Welborne Labs CATO Vacuumt Tube Linestage

Quote: Originally Posted by vixr I still have the original 5 boards I bought from the first GB...is there a finalized BOM? I would like to try it out. All of the info on the original board (including a BOM) is available at: PPAS (PPA v1 I agree it's an awesome amplifier. I...

Quote: Originally Posted by peranders R3 must be of 1200 volt type, not the usual 0,6 W metall film which only can take 300 V. You could also take two metal film in series. It's possible to break the resistor with transients. Quote: Originally Posted by steinba Me and a...

A few more PS noise measurements for fun. They are all 5V supplies except the YJPS, which is 12V. These were done using a 10X amplifier (very much like this one - Buffer Hardware for xoscope, but using NE5532 fed by a dual supply from a TLE2426) into an Emu 0404USB. Nothing is calibrated, so the...

Well, after a stupid, stupid mistake (frying my WM8741 by soldering it in the wrong orientation ), my gamma-2 is alive and well. To satisfy the DIYer need to "make it my own," I decided to change a few of the capacitors. I have some through-hole 0.1 uF C0G ceramic caps that are small enough to...

^^^ I completely agree: Lower voltage transformer or a railsplitter would be the ideal way to go.

Quote: Originally Posted by wap32 That would actually be a pretty creative solution, but wouldn't the bulbs dissipate a quite a bit of heat as well? Sure, but light bulbs can handle the heat You could also drop some volts with resistors. They'll have to be pretty big ones...

Quote: Originally Posted by 4season I thought the stock setup of 22uf electrolytic bypassed with 1uf film cap seemed to have plenty of air and top-end sparkle, but maybe not as much lower-frequency weight as I might like. I felt that removing the film cap reduced some of the high...

Quote: Originally Posted by cobaltmute Remember in you search that you're dealing with the PSRR of the regulators and then how much noise the regulator itself generates. You could drive yourself nuts to get an ultra quiet supply only to be adding noise with the TPS reg. True, but...

For drill bits, I've been very pleased with this cobalt set: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/ProductDi...atalogId=12605 I can't believe how much faster it seems than the highspeed bits I was using before (perhaps they wore out too quickly).

When you say the transformer hums, do you mean a mechanical hum, or one that you can hear through the headphones? If it's mechanical, I'm not sure that a different/separate enclosure will help, unless there is something wrong with how the transformer is currently mounted. To me, it sounds like...

Quote: Originally Posted by nightanole Ill just leave this here Box Enclosures B2-080BK Enclosure Nice deal on the enclosure! Thanks for the link.

Quote: Originally Posted by linuxworks I just can't find good selections of anything over than dual 'same' windings on secondaries. I often need a 5v winding for digital things, a 10 or 12v winding for things and maybe a dual rail 12 or 15 for analog things. can't find such toroids very...

Since there are on-board regulators, could a 6V regulated supply work with the gamma-1?

Quote: Originally Posted by Kuze So true, i love it. Anyways i just downloaded Adobe Audition what button do i press man to find out if it's fake. Oh and what about Audio Identifier, i saw it on What.cd but did'nt come around to giving it a try, does it do any good ? Man...

Jan Meier has some partial kits for his Porta Corda III: Meier-Audio (click on Specials on the left side) It'll probably not be much different in price with the Mini3, but it does include a USB DAC as well. I never had the DAC version, but I thought the amp was pretty nice, particularly...