[maxpudding]

I had zero skills in soldering too, and then I bought the S.E.X kit from bottlehead and learned tons of new things, and still learning! Challenge yourself and dont be afraid to make mistakes

 

[roadcykler]

I built the Crack amp and everything worked with no smoke and I had very minimal soldering experience and none with the small parts. With that info, would this be doable by someone with that experience?

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Hi L0rdGwyn
This looks very interesting also when I now is deep in the ZMF swamp.. I also done 2 diy tube projects and had a lot of fun doing so.
Will it be possible to buy the PCB from Sweden and will there be instructions how to make it 230v?
Also a suggestion; some sort of power state lamp like the one on the Eufonika amp, off/on/ready would be wonderful..

Sorry, I am not taking feature requests, the amplifier design is done. For those outside of the USA, it would be best to order the PCBs directly from China as opposed to my shipping them internationally. The 230V question was already addressed, please read the thread.

Well, I have to do a complete mea culpa: I humbly need to apologize as I have commented elsewhere in Head-Fi some grumbling and frustration that this was a DIY project and not an amp that would be commercially available. Just my lack of any soldering experience, so really I was voicing my personal limitations. Anyway, after going all in with purchasing a different amp to pair with my ZMF’s, I’m just too intrigued about learning/trying this despite my concern about my building limitations.

If there’s a signup process bedsides just following this thread, I’d love to be added, a complete 180 of how I was thinking about this only weeks ago.

There is no sign up, just follow the thread.

My original end of January timeline was too optimistic with recent travel, a job change, and the holidays coming up, I am going to have to leave the timeline fluid.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

I built the Crack amp and everything worked with no smoke and I had very minimal soldering experience and none with the small parts. With that info, would this be doable by someone with that experience?

Yes, having built a DIY kit before will put you ahead of the curve, that experience will definitely help.

 

[whirlwind]

Hope you enjoyed your recent travel.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Hope you enjoyed your recent travel.

Thanks Joe, it was great, spent a week in LA visiting a friend. Ate tons of great food, saw the LA Philharmonic, visited some choice museums (the Getty Center and Getty Villa), my favorite botanical garden in the USA (the Huntington), hiked in the Santa Monica mountains, visited some great vinyl shops, couldn't have asked for a better trip.

Here's a panorama I took near the highest point in the Santa Monica mountains.

 

[whirlwind]

Thanks Joe, it was great, spent a week in LA visiting a friend. Ate tons of great food, saw the LA Philharmonic, visited some choice museums (the Getty Center and Getty Villa), my favorite botanical garden in the USA (the Huntington), hiked in the Santa Monica mountains, visited some great vinyl shops, couldn't have asked for a better trip.

Here's a panorama I took near the highest point in the Santa Monica mountains.

Very nice pic.

 

[Monsterzero]

it was great, spent a week in LA visiting a friend

I see you're not still stuck in traffic. Impressive.

 

[bcowen]

For those that would like to learn how to build a kit first.
Bottlehead would be my recommendation (there’s a sale this Friday and Monday!)
The Crack is the kit to start with for high impedance headphones.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/crack-bottlehead-otl.476650/page-787#post-17256495

There are also some very inexpensive kits for learning how to solder or practice soldering various components to a PCB. I bought my son a couple of these last year, and the first one he did was, well, his first one. The second one looked much better and actually worked.

Just a couple examples:

https://www.amazon.com/Soldering-Projects-DIY-Electronics-Kits/dp/B095Y2LLR2/ref=sr_1_7?crid=38CUULI5IPOEE&keywords=soldering+practice+kit&qid=1669396841&sprefix=soldering+practice+kit,aps,99&sr=8-7

https://www.amazon.com/Gikfun-Elect...sprefix=soldering+practice+kit,aps,99&sr=8-16

 

[L0rdGwyn]

I see you're not still stuck in traffic. Impressive.

The joy of visiting a friend in LA is...I don't have to drive

 

[Monsterzero]

The joy of visiting a friend in LA is...I don't have to drive

Mexican food and weather are literally the only two things I miss about L.A.
EDIT: ooops, I forgot Pho in Little Saigon.

 

[analogTubeSound]

I am excited for this project l0rd! I do a lot of kits to see if they are on par with real designs and i also have done my own stuff. Electrical engineering background. Please let me know if i can help with documentation/schematics/whatever.


I am in the middle of a 'literal' breadbasket prototype kit i found on ebay of the Marantz 7 Preamp clone. I have it running genalex gold lions right and upon first impressions tonight i am very satisfied! After some more experimenting with this (tonight is night 1) i will probably make a thread for this because on the first few songs it is sounding great! Pretty shocked considering it is a chinese clone.

 

[Henrim]

Any more teaser shots? Work in progress shots would be fun

 

[heliosphann]

Used my Verite Open's with the AEGIS today. Quite the combo and probably the best I've heard the VO on except my GOTL (and a custom tube roll). Even with my Glenn, you can't come close to matching the AEGIS' soundstage.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Any more teaser shots? Work in progress shots would be fun

Sorry, I've mostly been working on the paperwork side, I'll post some work-in-progress stuff when the more fun parts of the circuit are being worked on. Started a new job this week so that's eating my time, I'll get more done in week or so.