[dsavitsk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by busta Hey guys, I have a quick question that I'm sure has been asked many times before, but I have not seen an answer to. If someone could please roughball an answer as to how much a Millet would cost to build with standard parts (not really premium grade stuff), what would be the figure? I need to do a Senior project for school and I'm debating as to whether I want to build the PPA or the Millet. I would really like to hear the warm sound of the tubes for myself but I want to save money while doing so. Thanks!

About $100 - 150 for standard stuff.

 

[busta]

Wow!! Definately cheaper than I expected. Is it safe to say that $250 would be sufficient to buy parts to build a "very nice" Millet?

Thanks for the reply by the way!

 

[n_maher]

Quote:

Originally Posted by busta Wow!! Definately cheaper than I expected. Is it safe to say that $250 would be sufficient to buy parts to build a "very nice" Millet?

That sounds about right, depending on what very nice means to you. Populating the board will run around $80-$90 with decent stuff + the cost of the baord ($20ish or you could point to point wire it) + a power supply ($30-$100) + case, jacks, knobs, blah blah blah ($100ish). So sure, it could be done for $250, browse around the forums and you'll find examples of many Milletts.

Best of luck,

Nate

 

[busta]

Thanks a lot Nate. I'm going through the DIYForums right now, there sure is a lot of information there. I see that you've even created a Bill of Materials to make this process easier for the DIY noobs like me.

Thanks!

 

[Blooze]

Busta - over at the DIYForum you can see a pic of my Millett. I used Cerafines as output caps, Alps Blue Velvet, and a Tread from Tangent. I used standard BOM stuff for populating the board for everything else except for Kiwame resistors. The case I have is a bamboo storage box from Bed, Bath, and Beyond and the wood is zebra wood from woodcraft. I spent right at $200 for everything for mine. About $175 for all the electronics parts.

"Bloozestringer" over at DIYForums.

 

[busta]

Wow Blooze, that is some case-work you did there! Would you say that the $175 spent on parts was sufficient to build something that to your ears sounds amazing?

To give you guys a little info on this "Senior Project", it's a nice little thing that my high-school put together for Senior's as a part of our graduation experience. In May, we basically get out of school for a month before the rest of the under classmen. During that month, each student is required to complete a project that he/she decided on earlier in the year. The project requires 100 hours put in over the span of the month off. The project is also monitored by someone that they call a "Sponsor", in my case it will be my Electronics teacher at the Vocational School that I attend. At the end of the month, each student is to come in on the day and time that they are assigned to present their project to a class of their peers and teachers, which will be chosen by the student. The presentations are 15-minutes long, and require complete explanation of how exactly you spent your time off.

In my case, I would like to build a headphone amplifier that I can then present to the class. Not only would I simply show them the amplifier and let them demo it, but I would also explain the schematic and the theory behind it. One thing that I am really looking forward to discussing is how transistor and tube amps differ in operation to provide unique sound. I'm sure that they'll all get a kick out of the Millett being a "Hybrid" amplifier being that they are definately familiar with Hybrid cars, which would make explaining things that much easier.

Anyway, money isn't really an object as I maintain a job along with school and my parents would be happy to cooperate in any way they can to fund my learning experience. The only thing that I didn't tell them was that I was going to have a great time building it, and that it won't even feel like a school assigned project at all

Anyway, I'm thinking about getting a little head-start on the project. Maybe if I finish my Millett early I can start on the PPA that I wanted to build so I would have even more to show for the presentation.

As always, I appreciate your guys' input. I didn't mean to de-rail this thread with my childhood story, sorry!

 

[dsavitsk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by busta To give you guys a little info on this "Senior Project", it's a nice little thing that my high-school put together for Senior's as a part of our graduation experience.

Neat project. Some background reading that might be helpful to understand what is going on with this circuit are the NEETS manual (http://www.tpub.com/content/neets/14178/) which gives the background on vacuum tubes and pete millett's low mu preamp article from audio express (http://www.pmillett.com/file%20downloadss/ax_lowmu.pdf) as it covers some of the theory of constant current source plate loads.

 

[Blooze]

Quote:

Originally Posted by busta Wow Blooze, that is some case-work you did there! Would you say that the $175 spent on parts was sufficient to build something that to your ears sounds amazing?

More than sufficent for me. I've never heard a PPA or an M3, but I'm assuming they are very nice to listen to. I've just become facinated with tubes and the Millett seemed liked a logical first step (I've got a SOHA off of Headwize breadboarded up that I'm working on now=little step up in voltage). I don't know if amazing is the right word, but I am very, very pleased

with the stock result and can listen to it for hours with no problems. Building on the board that Drewd, Nate, and others designed is a breeze and couldn't be simpler to put together. The casework was more difficult for me than the board build because I changed my mind about 1/2 dozen times.

About the parts on the BOM. I personally have never been able to hear a big difference in caps, resistors, and such. I did put Kiwames in mine after populating with metal film first and I think the Kiwames made it sound a little smoother to me. But that's a personal preference and may just be my imagination. My recommendation would be to scan through the Millett threads and put high quality parts where they really matter in the circuit and get the good quality BOM parts for the rest. Unless you have something to compare to I would think putting boutique parts everywhere would be money wasted. You can always change parts later and see if the difference was worth the money.

 

[Voodoochile]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blooze The casework was more difficult for me than the board build because I changed my mind about 1/2 dozen times.

Isn't that just the name of the game? I have a love/hate relationship with casework!

[size=xx-small]BTW, love the avatar.

[/size]

 

[Predator88]

While casework is being mentioned, anyone have any tips for how I can sort of mimic jhawk22's dynalo http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=142271
Yea i should come up with my own design but I love this thing. Basically what sort of confuses me is how to cut the front panel to form fit the neutrik jack, and how or where to buy the tint for the top....or even how ot make that kind of top really (of course with two holes for tubes). Its for sale again on the forums......someone offer to buy the amp board so i can buy the enclosure.......thatd be a miracle (actually i don't even know if thats the right size enclosure or not.)

 

[Blooze]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Predator88 While casework is being mentioned, anyone have any tips for how I can sort of mimic jhawk22's dynalo http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=142271 Yea i should come up with my own design but I love this thing. Basically what sort of confuses me is how to cut the front panel to form fit the neutrik jack, and how or where to buy the tint for the top....or even how ot make that kind of top really (of course with two holes for tubes). Its for sale again on the forums......someone offer to buy the amp board so i can buy the enclosure.......thatd be a miracle (actually i don't even know if thats the right size enclosure or not.)

If he's using smoked acrylic (Plexiglass) you can get that about anywhere. Best way to drill the holes for it is using a stepped bit, but I've used a hole saw and smoothed it with a dremel. The square hole for the top plate wouldn't be too bad to do if you had the right equipment or access to somebody with metalworking tools (or is it plastic? that'd make it very easy). You could do it by hand with a dremel and a file if you were very patient. Are you sure that's a Neutrik jack? I've never seen a round one before. I know there are other companies that make a locking jack that is similiar.

 

[rjkdivin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Predator88 While casework is being mentioned, anyone have any tips for how I can sort of mimic jhawk22's dynalo http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=142271 Basically what sort of confuses me is how to cut the front panel to form fit the neutrik jack, and how or where to buy the tint for the top....or even how ot make that kind of top really

Predator88,

Check out this link for plastics in Buffalo.....it looks similar to retail plastics outlets we have here on the west coast.

http://www.greatlakesplastic.com/

Generally, these type of retailers will cut to your desired thickness, size and color of plastic. For drilling round holes in plastic, the best bits I have found are called Brad Point bits....they cut around the edge ahead of the center, and this seems to help pevent cracking. Go slow.

The 1/4 inch headphone jack shown sure looks like a Neutrik, but mounted from the inside...probably with glue since no screws are visible. The diameter of the hole would be very close to 15/16 inch. A stepped drill bit works fairly well for this size hole, but the best way to do it is with a chassis punch. You can find all sizes of chassis punch on ebay. The round part of the Neutrik jack protrudes from the mounting plate by 1/4 inch....just enough to stick throught the front panel as shown.

Robert

 

[Predator88]

excellent tips guys, thanks.

 

[busta]

I ordered myself a board today, and I should be ordering my parts this weekend.

Can't wait

 

[Blooze]

Quote:

Originally Posted by busta I ordered myself a board today, and I should be ordering my parts this weekend. Can't wait

Great! Keep us updated on how it goes.