[DanielC]

Here are some pics of my first-ever electronics project -- a fairly vanilla CMOY. After having seen several completed projects in Altoids and Penguin containers, I couldn't resist putting mine in one too. I still think the container is one its best features!

This project took me a little longer to complete than some others who have posted here (3 long nights of work), but mostly because of all of the mistakes I made along the way. I had to desolder and resolder parts a number of times because of an initial careless placement. This was also the first time I had held a soldering iron in my hands, so the soldering process took longer than it should have. Despite my all-thumbs approach to the project, it has really turned out well in terms of performance. With the volume cranked, this amp produces NO audible hiss, and is powerful enough to drive my Senn HD-600's quite satisfactorily.

More importantly, though, is the distinct improvement in the sound quality I'm experiencing. It's not night and day, but there's no question that my music enjoyment has increased considerably since finishing this amp. The CMOY itself may be simple and inexpensive, but sonically it is a considerable improvement over no amp at all. Plugged into the Cmoy, I perceive a greater impact to the percussion, a louder, more solid bass, and greater separation between instruments. I'm hearing details I never previously noticed in CD's that I've had for years (using a PC and PCDP as sources).

I'd like to thank Tangent for his great website, which was invaluable to me in completing the project. Now, on to the META42!

 

[scottder]

Looks great, congrats!

 

[Voodoochile]

It looks nice! I'm glad you are liking the sound as well. Even though I've built maybe nine amps now, I still like my first cmoy, too.

Dealing with casing up in a mint tin is nothing to take lightly, either. People who have not done it assume it's easy because of the light gauge metal, but I think it's actually a bit harder due to that fact, and also it's harder to have a solid backer when drilling holes.

Nice work!

 

[sTaTIx]

Quote:

Originally posted by Voodoochile Dealing with casing up in a mint tin is nothing to take lightly, either. People who have not done it assume it's easy because of the light gauge metal, but I think it's actually a bit harder due to that fact, and also it's harder to have a solid backer when drilling holes.

I agree with Voodoochile, the Altoids tin is actually harder to properly drill through than thicker metals; you did a surprisingly nice job drilling the Altoids tin all neat-like. The amp looks sweet, I really like how you put your red LED on the side of the tin. I guess, from visiting Tangent's Audiologica site so much, I'm used to seeing the LED planted on top. IMO, your placement is a lot cooler because it allows the LED's glow to shine more in the shade.

GOOD ****!

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Great job on your first DIY project. The amp looks great. I always liked that particular case with the Penguin on it. Let us know more as you take on more and more complex DIY projects in the future.

 

[was ist los?]

what volume pot is that and how did you wire it?

 

[DanielC]

Thank you for the encouraging words. Drilling the tin was harder than I expected, although I got progressively better at it (the final version was my fourth). I was eating caffeinated mints from cans with strange holes in them for awhile there

.

Quote:

Originally posted by was ist los? what volume pot is that and how did you wire it?

I used the Panasonic EVJ-Y10 for the volume pot. I found the drawing and schematic from the original CMOY article on Headwize to be a good guide for figuring out the wiring, along with some previous posts (pin-by-pin descriptions) in this forum and at Headwize. When in doubt, I checked out the connections with a multimeter (ohmmeter). Yeah, I went totally overboard on reading up on the wiring of the pot, but there's lots of good advice in the archives, and that advice allowed me to get it right the first time.