[joelongwood]

JMT wrote:
Quote:

I just finished building Apheared's amp into a Penguin mint case as illustrated in Apheared's project page on HeadWize.

Well, I was the guy he was building it for.......and I gotta tell you that this is the cooooolest looking thing I've seen. It's so small that I'm amazed everything fits so perfectly. It can be seen here: http://headwize.com/projects/apheared_prj.htm Just scroll down a bit and you'll see it.

The sound is also incredible with my Grados. There actually seems to be a bit more driving power (gain?) than the other amp JMT built for me. The sound seems more dynamic and detailed as well, particularly with my SR-100s which, compared to my other Grados, seemed a bit laid back in sound. No more! They have retained their smoothness while becoming a bit more punchy in the bass and lively in the upper mids. Until I started this headphone obsession in March, I never would have believed that different amps could sound so different from each other and with different headphones.

Thanks to both JMT and Apheared for making it possible for me to experience this visual and sonic marvel.

 

[Neruda]

how many batteries does JMT's amp have?

 

[coolvij]

The picture of the "original" mint amp shows what looks like two 9V batteries.

 

[joelongwood]

It has only one 9V battery............and that's in there pretty tight! How in God's name did Apheared get TWO in that case??!!
One 9V seems to do a really fine job. I just listened to the MS-Pros and the sound is stunning. Another highly recommended amp by JMT.

 

[bootman]

That is very cool!

 

[thomas]

Does anyone know where can you buy those mints? never seen them in canada...

 

[joelongwood]

I ordered them direct. Here's the site:
http://store.yahoo.com/ifive
There also available at Thinkgeek.com

 

[thomas]

thanks...

i'm buying these just for the tin... and the caffine of course

 

[Possum]

Are these the same size as Altoids tins? I went on an Altoids craze a few months ago for using the tins in DIY projects and got hooked on the mints for a bit

 

[joelongwood]

Quote:

Originally posted by Possum Are these the same size as Altoids tins? I went on an Altoids craze a few months ago for using the tins in DIY projects and got hooked on the mints for a bit

Same size. Because of the caffeine, you really get hooked on these babies!

 

[Neruda]

I knew how many batteries the penguin amp had...I meant to ask for the number of batteries JMT's first amp had. Somehow I had gotten the impresion that apheared had made the second one for you (the penguin one).

 

[Apheared]

communications breakdown... he's sayin the 2nd amp JMT built for him is a pen-gue-win tin amp.

Thomas, just buy a few cases... sell em to your friends in .ca.... Get someone to eat 10-12 right before bedtime and they'll cuss you all night.

 

[Tim D]

I just wanted to say that I bought a nice universal wallwart with a 9V attachment and bumped up the juice as well. It is fun toggling through the voltage and watching the LED literally grow brighter or dimmer.

Mine goes up to 12V, and does a better job than one 9V which still sounds pretty good to me on the go.

There is one thing I hate about those cmoy/DIY amps....they make me realize how DIY amps are more than competitive! I had to break out my dad's cheap soldering tools to fix a tricky connection for the first time and managed to do it unscathed so maybe I should get off my ass and start diving into this DIY stuff.

 

[joelongwood]

Quote:

I just wanted to say that I bought a nice universal wallwart with a 9V attachment and bumped up the juice as well. It is fun toggling through the voltage and watching the LED literally grow brighter or dimmer.

I'm a bit unclear on this, Tim. I'd appreciate it if you could answer a few questions, please.
Does this wall wart attach to where the 9V battery would be, on those two circular contacts?
Does increasing the voltage beyond 9V damage the amp in any way?
Is there a noticeable increase in sound quality?
Where did you purchase this wall wart?

Thanks

 

[JMT]

joelongwood

The wall-wart I believe can be purchased at your local Radio Shack (I could be wrong) and comes with a direct connector to the battery snap that your 9v battery would snap to.

Quote:

Does increasing the voltage beyond 9V damage the amp in any way?

My DIY home amp runs off of 16 AAs (+/- 12v) and, no it will not damage the amp.