[solbergg]

Hey all,

I thought I would make a blog style of thread that details my experience in learning diy hifi. I am actually mimicking this idea from Alwayswantedmore, who has a great thread going of his journey through headphone hifi. I will add updates on my projects and general wherewithall within the hobby. Feel free to add any comments you might have along the way. I'm not sure if I will ask questions in this thread, or make new threads for my questions. I'll just have to figure it out and see what works best.

I guess the best place to start is to give my background and what I am planning on building first. My experience is somewhat limited, although I do have some electrical experience that should help me. The only time I have ever messed with a pcb is when I modded my original Sony Playstation back in high school. It wasn't an entirely complicated procedure, but at least I know how a soldering iron works. I have been building my computers for quite some time, but that seems relatively simple to me, and I doubt much of that knowledge translates to this hobby. The big bonus that I have going for me is that I am a certified marine electrician. I have done a lot of stripping and crimping of power cables to wire up boating projects, but power conductors are much more simplier to wire, it seems. I am familiar with schematics though, so I am not too worried about understanding them.

My first project will be a cmoy, due to the great site created by tangent, and the fact that it is considered noob-friendly. I am also going to start replacing my interconnects in my stereo system. The ICs seem like they won't be too hard to build once I have it figured out, but the aesthetics might be tricky. I'm not sure what my next project will be after the CMOY. It could be a more complicated amp, like the Pimeta or PPA. I am trying to build up enough technical confidence to take on the DDDac project. I am told that this requires an expert DIYer, so it might be awhile before I start that.

So far I have ordered all of the tools from the midlevel list from Tangent's site. I already have a really nice Fluke multimeter from my technician traning, as well as a nice crimper and die set. I am going to attempt two methods of terminating the interconnects. The first will be the most popular method around here - soldering. Since I have the correct die set for canare already, I will also try crimping as well, and compare the two in order to figure out which I prefer.

So that's it for now. I ordered most of my parts this weekend, and a few more today, so now I wait until the mail comes in. Thanks for reading, and I will post more when I have something to share.

 

[NeilR]

I saw your other post regarding soldering vs crimping... if you need a litttle courage to buck the trend and crimp, read Canare's info. They claim their crimps are more reliable and electrically more sound than soldering. I have no opinion myself, but I found their discussion interesting. If I were doing a lot of cables, say an entire HT system, I would crimp because otherwise I would never get the job done

I think the blog is a neat idea. Keep it up as you go along. The way things usually work around here, everything is fractured into dozens of threads.

Build a Pimeta or Millet next, then an M3 when you are ready to do the amp to end all amps.

Regards,
Neil

 

[solbergg]

Thanks for the words of encouragement, NeilR. You also served to remind me that I will be working on the Cross-1 as well, once I feel capable. I am pretty lost on what parts I should be looking for that, but hopefully I will know more after my cmoy experiment.

 

[NeilR]

I am about to order the Cross-1 parts. I was too busy with the cases to worry about the parts. I think the BOM is pretty stable now; I'll know more in a few weeks after my parts come in and I do some trial fittings.

The Cmoy is actually harder than many of the PCB based projects but I think it makes a good learning tool. The Cross-1 may not be a good learning tool since it is not as well documented as some of the other projects...

 

[Polaris111688]

PIMETA's an easy one to build too. The board's a joy to solder, even with SO-8 components.

 

[solbergg]

Well, I was trying to decide what coax cable to purchase for the crimping style, but it seems that all of the Canare coaxes are meant for video transfer or digital audio. This is a bit of a wrench in the works. Anyone have any more information on this?

 

[NeilR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by solbergg Well, I was trying to decide what coax cable to purchase for the crimping style, but it seems that all of the Canare coaxes are meant for video transfer or digital audio. This is a bit of a wrench in the works. Anyone have any more information on this?

When I looked at this issue years ago, I came to the conclusion that the main mechanical/electrical difference between "audio" and "video" coax is that video cable is 100% foil shielded around the copper braid, which is usually ~91% shielded. Video, needing multi-Mhz bandwidth is a lot more sensitive than audio. Canare markets some of their crimp cross-referenced cable as audio or video, such as LV-77S, which is not foil shielded.

Some people think foil shielded coax doesn't sound as good (in analog applications), others might disagree. Before you scrap the idea you might want to try to source enough to make up a couple interconnects and see how they sound to you. I don't think it is a black and white issue. In the analog domain, the signal mainly cares about interference, resistance, inductance and capacitance in a cable. Coax is inherently low interference, relatively high capacitance. The foil doesn't significantly change those basic characteristics.

 

[solbergg]

Alright, I have decided how I will attempt my comparison. I found a very informative website on diy coax interconnects:

http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/i1.htm

In it, the author gives high praises to Belden 89259. Unfortunately, this can only be purchased in 100 ft lengths, and I don't want to put that much investment into a prototype. So, I am going to follow the instructions to build video cables, as provided by this guide:

http://revision3.com/systm/avcabling/

The 1694a cables are supposed to be very versatile for both audio and video applications, so it should serve as a good comparison versus my soldered cable build. Now I have to do a lot of research to figure out what type of cable I want to use for the soldered connection. Starquad seems to be popular, but whenever I read up on it, it appears to be for balanced connections. Homegrown offers a good solution for getting all of the parts in one place, but it costs more than I would like to spend. I'll try to add more info on this if I find something.

 

[NeilR]

Jon Risch is really into Teflon cable. I used some 1506A, I think it is, for a digital cable after reading Risch's page many years ago. Nice cable but it is VERY stiff. Depending on your physical layout, it may or may not work very well. It doesn't really bend, it bows. The 89259 is relatively very expensive and very hard to source. I think he likes it because it is impossible to buy

Markertek is a good source for cable, but they only carry 89259 in 500 foot rolls. I've seen it somewhere by the foot; if I ever remember where I'll post back here.

 

[Icehawk]

I might need to hook up with you once you get these going

 

[solbergg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icehawk I might need to hook up with you once you get these going

No prob, Jaime. It's quite an investment in tools, so I will definitely want to get as much use out of them as I can.

 

[solbergg]

In case any other neophyte DIYers are reading this thread, here are my sources of information on the CMOY:

http://tangentsoft.net/audio/ - The grandaddy of tutorials to begin diy. There are a couple of areas that I think I will need more information on, but on a whole it is an amazing resource.

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=176097 - I wasn't sure what gauge wire to use with the CMOY, so I inquired about it in this thread.

Also, I have found that multiple different stores are useful for gathering parts. So far I have utilized Markertek, Parts Express, and Digi-Key.

 

[solbergg]

My parts from Digi-Key arrived yesterday, but unfortunately my tools from Contact East have yet to arrive, so i am staring at a pile of little electronic parts. I also have to wait for the protoboard to arrive, and Radioshack has been slow to ship in the past, so I might have to wait until next week for that. I ended up ordering a serpac case, but I am starting to wonder if that was a bad decision. I starting installing the panel items, and I dont have enough room for my potentiometer! I'm trying to decide if I should bend the parts on the pot to make it fit, or place the pot in an odd spot on the case, such as the top.

 

[Samgotit]

No Radioshack in South Beach?

 

[NeilR]

I put a Pimeta in a Serpac H-67 (the taller case) - matter of fact I am listening to it as I type). I like that case for portable use and I think you should try to make a go of it.

The Alps97 is probably easier to fit into that or just about any other case because it has a low profile. It sounds like you ordered a Panasonic pot, or some similar pot that has 6 pins sticking straight up? If so, you can carefully bend them at a 90 degree angle. I did that with my Pimeta because I added a bass boost and had to use a Panasonic pot due to a space conflict with my input jack.

Here are some images of my Pimeta; it may help you to proceed. If you are using the H65, then my example may not help because of the lesser working height.