[Daniel Pumphrey]

Well I finally got a page up on my website!

http://www.wilkes.net/~dwpumphery/

The photos begin with my custom set of ER4-S's using .999 Fine Pure Silver wire braided. Sounds great.
Then there is one of my first Cmoys with a lettered enclosure. This aluminum box came from an old bag phone with a new front cut from aluminum, painted and then lettered. What a job that was, then it comes off when scratched. This amp has been around and is scuffed and dirty.
My micro Cmoy "Face amp". which is now in an aluminum enclosure I bent by hand and covered with Brazillian Rosewood. Looks really nice.The enclosure is 2" X 2" as an exercise in little. The amp board is 1 1/4" square. This amp is powered by one 15V remote battery. Runs 4-6 hours. Now it has a 2134 instead of the 2228 shown. It now has a volume control on the input cable.
Next is my Szekeres on my very first etched board. This amp has nice parts including Vishay CMF and Aluminum power resistors. It now has a nice set of Cerafine caps from Apheared Audio, and Wima supply caps. I tried to get nice wide traces and a good logical layout for this amp. The blue caps are the RS 1UF which sound quite good and are I had at the time. After working so hard making the board I hate to put it in an enclosure I can't see through. The enclosure is actually a round can from perforated metal so I can see the board.
Then there is my BOBO Cat who helps with wiring.
Now I want to get more photos of recent projects and of these as finished amps.
Dan

 

[Audio Redneck]

Nice job! (envy)

 

[jude]

Nice, Daniel!

That little amp (DP Audio) is very groovy. The clincher is that custom Ety cable!

 

[sapphiremodena]

Yeah, I really like the braided Ety cord, how much did it cost for that mod?

 

[JMT]

Great work Daniel. I especially like the Szekeres and those beautiful components.

It was worth the time it took my painfully slow dial up connection to load.

 

[Daniel Pumphrey]

Thanks for the comments. I will work on the loading by further compression. Sometimes it takes forever and then it loads very quickly even though I have not been there since a restart of the computer.
I really want to get some more photos taken and posted. It is a process of taking photos in certain stages of completion.
I like the Szekeres and with these components would like the finished enclosure be semi- transparent so I can see all the work in the finished amp.
I strive for simplicity in layout which I think has an effect on sound. In particular, short traces work best and wide traces are best for high current amps.. The Szekeres instructions say that certain resistors need to be very close to the mosfet. I try to follow the a visual location of parts too. This board was carefully figured out to keep channels separated by physical locations and to keep trace distances equal for both channels.
I built three amps before finalizing this layout and this one sounds best. Then I take a piece of perfboard covered with paper on both sides and place the components where I want them. Then I have a pattern to make more boards. I used the dry transfers and an etch resist pen to mark the traces from the pattern. This is the old way to do things.
Layouts done by computer can be very confusing to trace as designers just fit components where they fit and then make the traces work for double side boards. Single side is great for an amp like this though. Nice and simple.
My next board will be for the OPA and Buf634 or other type buffered amp and I will try to work with double sided board on it.
I'm glad others appreciate the care and time involved with this type of DIY project. Carefully selecting the best parts I can find is time consuming too.
Thanks,
Dan

 

[evilcthul]

Excellent work Dan!

I love the custom Ety cables and the way you've made the Cmoy. Do you have any photos of your resistor cable mod for the Ety?

Take care...

 

[Daniel Pumphrey]

I will plan to photograph the ER4 adapters and various ones I have made, as well as photos of the tiny work required to make one. I have been thinking of a special Headphone Amp for the ER4-P which can be switched between the versions S and B and also the newer in-between response, and tailored for this headphone specifically. Not many people have heard the "B" version and I think it has it's uses, but an amp tailored for the ER4 would be a good idea with or without this provision. This will of course be an amp with high end components, but will be small and can be powered by one or two 9V batteries. There will not be a crossfeed processor as I don't think it is necessary, or that it sounds very good with these phones.
I will see how this proceeds as I have the time to work on it.
Dan

 

[J Epstein]

Nice shots. I, for one, would be very interested in DIY details on the Ety cable.

-j