[John In Cali]

Quote:

Ahh, I do know that the alkalines are much better. In my situation I'm going to get a few nimh cells 9v sized soon for portable amp use. The choice I made was when I took the photo, and didn't have enough money (3ish dollars) and had to get the crap battery, cos I needed it then 

 Being a student and not having a job means I have like, nooooo money for my hobby of electronics. I was going to get some on dx I think because It'll be cheap as hell and that's the most important factor for me.
 
I checked the link and that is a seriously ridiculous price for good alkaline batteries. I think I could make a lot of money off that here in nz. They cost 6-7 minimum here in stores, this crappy one was, I think, 5-6 dollars.
 
I need a charger chip badly, I've got a bunch of near new 2200 mah 1865 I (think is the number, they look a bit like an AA but a fair bit bigger, just scaled out) The batteries are  Li Ion and 2200 MAh and I think it could be amazing. i could have a +- 12 volts supply potentially... I'm thinking a bag mount Pimeta, semi portable, not really pocketable, maybe in a huge jacket pocket... Hmmmm. I usually have a bag with me be it backpack or courier thing, man-bag, if you wanna call it that 

 I get the feeling it could be very convenient and also sound awesome.
 
PS, speaking of diy... I got around to recabling a couple of headphones tonight.
 
my Sennheiser hd465's were starting to get crusty because I had used a cheapass jaycar plug with them. I switched it to similar jack as my other one, but 4 contacts. I grounded the mic channel. This stopped my android phone making my music stop with Google search, and drive me nuts by getting a bit of charge on the pause-play-skip-forward-and-back button contact. So far it seems effective. I spend a fair bit of time using just my phone or iPod (broken atm) when I'm out walking, don't have room for an amp in my pockets, and the wolfson chip on my nexus sounds pretty okay. I'm going to try out the in ears because I don't remember what they were like, I barely used them.
 
It's pic time! forgot to add them before so now I've gotta edit this in
 
Pics!
 
 
These ones I've been super enjoying with my amp dac setup at the moment is these Samsung ones that came with my cell phone. I'd broken the cable around the plug, which was pretty well destroyed... Anyway, replaced it with a switchcraft plug. I guess that's technically not a recabling, hahaha. The part of this that's awesome about this, is these headphones are amazing. I've never heard in ears off an amp and good source until now. for 15 buck headphones I'm shocked really. the model is http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Headphone-Handsfree-EHS44ASSBE-GH59-10443B/dp/B005FUNYV2/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top, and people do seem to like them so maybe I just got a good model for free. I'm happy for 6 bucks of plug I'm enjoying having the music literally in my head. 

 
Both of the headphones now have good connections and in the case of the 465's, much better quality. I was using the stock cable for 4-5 years now and it's gotten pretty worn out. They sound great because there's no more skipping and stuff. The cable I used was a silver-plated skinny mike cable I had laying around. I've finally got the perfect length of cable, and this one genuinely sounds better. maybe that's because something was wrong with my last one, but I'm glad any time it gets better!

 
Sweeeet! Everything I see on here keeps my motivation to finish the o2 more and more, and to make it awesome. I hope it is,. though I'm getting a second pcb (in red 

) that I'm going to build up and turn into a hardout overkill desk model. But yeah... Coming soon. I'm waiting on a few vital components, but I shall post the rest of the build in the future 

 
peace to all,
chris

Hahaha, i've been using those same earbuds for about 2 and a half years now, i put a new connector on mine as well.  I love their sound, it isn't crazy detailed or crazy bassy or anything, just right in the middle, perfectly average.

 

[RudeWolf]

My first DIY amplifier- the Dynalo!
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
The building process was quite adventurous to say the least.

 

[johnwmclean]

Nice work RW, the layouts well thought out, for a first amplifier build thats a big effort, looks a fine piece of kit.

 

[Sunshine55]

I thought long and hard about what type of cab to use. As a lover of wood, walnut and maple seemed to suit the warmth of the tubes. AS for the sound, buzzes, hummmm's etc, i would say traumatic. Using a new pair of Sony on ear phones i hooked up, plugged in,

 
and powered,,,,,, nothing. I heard the delay relay click in, still nothing. Turned vol up to 11 oclock. Still nothing. Then the CD started. After picking myself up off the floor were i landed i am now a tube lover for life.

 

[RudeWolf]

Quote:

Nice work RW, the layouts well thought out, for a first amplifier build thats a big effort, looks a fine piece of kit.

Thanks, man! Coming from you that's a lot of praise! Currently I still need to iron out a hum issue that doesn't let me use the amp with IEM's. I have a bad feeling that the relay board might be picking something up from the controller board. The anodizing already gave me trouble with grounding, but thankfully after some scraping that's over.
 
Nice case, Sunshine55! I'm still a firm believer that as far as parroting existing circuits goes, casing is by far the hardest part of the whole build.

 

[jonyoo]

wow nice! bunch of pictures of metal boxes! i like metal boxes. especially if they light up.
 
im sorry. im just jealous you guys know how these things work and know how to build em.

 

[RudeWolf]

Well, one can build these things without knowing just about anything about electronics. I almost did it, but then I accidentally wired the amp to the PSU with reversed polarity and blew all the transistors. Two weeks of troubleshooting later I knew the circuit inside out.

 

[tomb]

Quote:

I thought long and hard about what type of cab to use. As a lover of wood, walnut and maple seemed to suit the warmth of the tubes. AS for the sound, buzzes, hummmm's etc, i would say traumatic. Using a new pair of Sony on ear phones i hooked up, plugged in,

 
and powered,,,,,, nothing. I heard the delay relay click in, still nothing. Turned vol up to 11 oclock. Still nothing. Then the CD started. After picking myself up off the floor were i landed i am now a tube lover for life.

Very nice MOSFET-MAX and very cool case!
 
P.S. Just curious - but what are the yellow bypass caps and the yellow relay?  I've never seen them in that color.

 

[crispchicken]

Quote:

I thought long and hard about what type of cab to use. As a lover of wood, walnut and maple seemed to suit the warmth of the tubes. AS for the sound, buzzes, hummmm's etc, i would say traumatic. Using a new pair of Sony on ear phones i hooked up, plugged in,

 
and powered,,,,,, nothing. I heard the delay relay click in, still nothing. Turned vol up to 11 oclock. Still nothing. Then the CD started. After picking myself up off the floor were i landed i am now a tube lover for life.

 
I really like this wooden enclosure man. Well done. Unlike most I've seen, it looks sturdy and you're got the joints really nice and tight. The cooling grilles and two-tone look is a good one, very professional.
 
I'm very tempted to attempt a wooden case for my next project, I'm thinking maybe Rimu, since it's pretty common here in NZ, and very very tough and durable. I'm considering adding light maple or maybe dark accents. Did you cut the vents holes with a router?
 
Whats the general consensus on finishes for wooden amps? Would polyester or polyurethane be a good choice? I'm not all that fond of oiled finishes, but I think a satin or semi glossy clear coat could look really amazing. Hopefully I'll be able to sort this out, my only experience with woodwork was in construction and repairs on houses, which operate at much larger tolerances than you'd need for an amp enclosure, so it's going to be a whole new thing. Does anyone have any good literature on construction techniques, or shall I just keep looking at other's work for my ideas...
 
peace
chris

 

[Zigis]

My version of a Super-Simple 6DJ8 headphone Amp.
Enclosure powder coated aluminum and oak side panels, linseed oil finishing.
 
 

 

 
This one is with lin out, parallel to headphone jack:
 

 

 
Inside - my own PCB, Alps RK27, PanasonicFM 1000uf power and output caps, 1% metal film resistors. Photo from another, early made amp, without lin out.
 

 

[DudeMyCans]

Very nice Zigis.

 

[Zigis]

Thanks, DudeMyCans!

 

[Sunshine55]

The yellow caps are generic film caps. The relay is from off shore i believe (Japan). Definatly not PB or Omron. I bought at local store in Vamcouver. Even though not much is wow audiophil the sound is better than anything i have heard so far. I have read many threads here with people asking the difference of dedicated amps vr phones outs on system amps and i would say there is a world of difference  between the two. Noise with a beat for phones out compared to music with dedicated amps. Definatly worth every penny spent. (Dedicated amps have their outs made for phones were as system outs are scalled down for phones.)
  The parts you enquired about are very resonable (1/4 and 1/2 price) Yet very good quality. The owner of store is trying to serve the audio comunity best he can. Family busness now run by son. Web sight has long way to go but is slowly getting there. Have a look.http://www.leeselectronic.com/index.php Raymond is a wonderful guy to deal with.
  After a time of listening i may try some high end caps to compare but for now the difference is noticable enough to please me over systen outs.

 

[Sunshine55]

Well Chris. First off it's miss. Don't apologize it happens all the time. The air vents i cut using a router bit in a drill press after making a wooden jig to move the board. Not the preferred method but as you can see works. I have a full set of pics of the build inside and out but just wanted to put up my first amp. I'm terrible at pics (and spelling) so just put up the finished ones. Either of the two caps types would work but i know people have their preferences. The ones i used in the signal chain i bought from Tom at Beezer (vitaminQ). The board is the latest (red) and is perfect for the longer caps so they lay down tight on the board.
  I used a screen from an old set of cheep spkrs to cover vents and used a 1" Forsner bit to inlay the slots so screen is close to the surface from outside look. Finish is Minwax wax polish and turned out beautiful. The important thing about finishing with hard woods is sanding sanding and more sanding.Most should be done with 220 grit then 400 and maybe even 600 to finish. I hope this helps and thank you for the complement. Happy building.

 

[crispchicken]

Hey everyone, I was hoping I could get some advice on parts selection in my o2 build... Its almost finished, but I'm stuck on this and could do with some input.
 
I haven't had any replies to my topic on diyaudio so I figured I'd post here where a lot of people read in hopes someone could clear this up for me.
 
Now, the BOM states that I should be using a matched pair of MOSFETs. Here is the part listed on the BOM, and the one I bought instead was this. The part it goes with is this.
 
I don't really know much about selecting discretes, and have zero experience with mosfets in any form. Would the two that I have be apropriate to use together or do I need to buy the other part to go with the one I have already?
 
peace
chris