[IpsilonSound]

PPA maxed out version with built-in battery/charger board. It uses 4 buffer chips per channel and will be upgraded to LaRocco DDB pretty soon. Elna Cerafine power caps, AD8610 opamps, Vishay/Dale 0.1% precision resistors, Wima caps, solid-core teflon-insulated 22g silver interconnects, Cardas rhodium-plated RCAs and Switchcraft mini jack for portable, uses 12 Kodak 750mAh cells.

 

[Jesse Galliers]

What kind of wood is that? It looks great.

 

[KYTGuy]

I am in process of building two PPAs with battery boards...yours looks great, and I am getting impatient...

Congrats...

Did you use standard parts, or unobtanium parts??

How does it sound with the ETYs?

Big Ugly Guy

 

[IpsilonSound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jesse Galliers What kind of wood is that? It looks great.

The front panel is 9mm thick and made from Cocobola wood, which is really dense and fun to work with. It really feels solid, heavy than regular wood and is suitable for such tasks. Cocobola wood is often used to make knife handles, pens, exquisite cigar boxes. I chose it for a front panel after comparing about a dozen of different sorts of wood in the specialty hardware store, including mahogany, rosewood, etc. Haven't regretted it. It's not polished, except for the sides, but I plan to make the front panel shape a little different and polished for the next PPA. Will keep it posted.

 

[IpsilonSound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KYTGuy I am in process of building two PPAs with battery boards...yours looks great, and I am getting impatient... Congrats... Did you use standard parts, or unobtanium parts?? How does it sound with the ETYs?

I took it to work with me today to listen with Etys while working and it's great!!! One word for sound- precision. Its extremely detailed, fast and cleanly sounding piece of audio. Some find this level of details a bit fatiguing ,and would prefer 637 chip to 8610. I think, I cannot be happier with 8610. It gives plenty of bass to Etymotics to actually feel it at times, no kidding. I also tried it with Grado-SR80, which are a bit on the bright side, but they sound very well too with the PPA, giving spacious soundstage and presence levels.
I think, during building and listening tests it's important to try different gain values(R4). I use 3.32k for it, where the recommended is 10k because I'm going to primarily use it with Etys and Grados and they are easy driven even by portables. Haven't tried it with hi-impedeance Senns yet, but more gain would probably be better for them, don't know.

 

[Kenny12]

wow that is nice!

 

[IpsilonSound]

board picture:

front panel after special polishing treatment:

my new DIY workshop in the basement of the house:

 

[ProParadox]

Looks great. My only personal preference would be to ditch the purple anodized screws for blacks. Would look better with the wood.

Great job!

 

[seiko_citizen]

you should really countersick the screws