I was originally considering purchasing the Autocostruire kit but have been put off by the use of through hole components for 'all' the parts...I feel (with my admittedly limited knowledge) that the 'house keeping' elements of the design in a switching amplifier are far more suited to SMD components...surely (on through hole components) the size of the parts and leads coming from them must be susceptible to noise pick up...?
But the thought of soldering all these SMD parts (as per 41Hz) isn’t to appealing either…!
Another part of the Autocostruire kit which concerns me is the air core inductors...surely (and again my limited knowledge comes into play) a 10µH air cored inductor should look more like a doughnut...? The ones being offered by Autocostruire are barley any bigger than the standard ‘cored’ ones on the Sonic Impact…or am I getting my m’s and µ’s mixed up again…?
I think the ideal is a partially built kit with all the SMD components being pre-assembled...and the item (directly) in the signal path being left as through hole, allowing people to 'tune' the sound using their favourite boutique components.
I'm sure it won’t be long until this daisy pops up...but who can wait...the DIY Paradise kit appears the closest to my ideal at the present time…and with a little work (winding some better inductors etc) will be as close as I can expect for £50.00.
But the thought of soldering all these SMD parts (as per 41Hz) isn’t to appealing either…!
Another part of the Autocostruire kit which concerns me is the air core inductors...surely (and again my limited knowledge comes into play) a 10µH air cored inductor should look more like a doughnut...? The ones being offered by Autocostruire are barley any bigger than the standard ‘cored’ ones on the Sonic Impact…or am I getting my m’s and µ’s mixed up again…?
I think the ideal is a partially built kit with all the SMD components being pre-assembled...and the item (directly) in the signal path being left as through hole, allowing people to 'tune' the sound using their favourite boutique components.
I'm sure it won’t be long until this daisy pops up...but who can wait...the DIY Paradise kit appears the closest to my ideal at the present time…and with a little work (winding some better inductors etc) will be as close as I can expect for £50.00.
I'm currently using one of NUUKs SMPS to power my Amp3.
I've also used 12v 7ah/20k caps and a LM338 regulated supply.
For me NUUKs SMPS was the best, its also very compact
The hardest thing for me regarding the Amp3 kit was soldering the actual Tripath chip, one of those special smd I/C bits for the iron would have helped.
The only other thing is if you want to upgrade the components, I don't think something like Caddocks for the fb resistors would be possible
It is a good sounding Amp though especially for the price
I've also used 12v 7ah/20k caps and a LM338 regulated supply.
For me NUUKs SMPS was the best, its also very compact
The hardest thing for me regarding the Amp3 kit was soldering the actual Tripath chip, one of those special smd I/C bits for the iron would have helped.
The only other thing is if you want to upgrade the components, I don't think something like Caddocks for the fb resistors would be possible
It is a good sounding Amp though especially for the price
The way I have always soldered IC's like the Tripath chip is to first, make sure the pins are lined up with the pads, then completely cover all the pins with solder.
After they are covered it should look like two long solder strips, one on each side.
Now take some solder wick and pick up all the extra solder on top of the pins. If done correclty the IC will be left with just the right amount of solder under each pin.
vt4c said:
Hi,
any good words about DIY Paradise ?
I just looked at some images of the setup he used to listen to the amp1. It's hard to think that a amp can be tested with speakers located on some PVC chairs.
A descent installation is something needed. Am I the only one concern about this
Maybe it's just a temporary setup and he have a good one for the real thing
Regards,
Daniel
kanaddict said:
Hi,
any good words about DIY Paradise ?
I just looked at some images of the setup he used to listen to the amp1. It's hard to think that a amp can be tested with speakers located on some PVC chairs.
A descent installation is something needed. Am I the only one concern about this
Maybe it's just a temporary setup and he have a good one for the real thing
Regards,
Daniel
Well it looks like somebody shops at Tesco's
Its nice to see that not all amps have to be used in the optimal set-up/enviroment to get good results
Whats wrong?
kanaddict said:
Hi,
any good words about DIY Paradise ?
I just looked at some images of the setup he used to listen to the amp1. It's hard to think that a amp can be tested with speakers located on some PVC chairs.
A descent installation is something needed. Am I the only one concern about this
Maybe it's just a temporary setup and he have a good one for the real thing
Regards,
I have purchased from Yeo, a Monica II. It worked perfectly, and was a great value. He is very honest, and can be trusted.
As far as his set-up, looks nicer than mine. Love the speaker stands. His speaker wires are better than mine too.
George
Daniel
Nuuk said:Daniel, I don't think that you should read anything into that picture, other than that like most of us, when you can't wait to try out something new, that sort of set-up is often the first step!
I'm quite happy to see that sort of picture as it says to me that he has nothing to hide!
Thanks Nuuk,
you are right about our urgent need to listen to what we build. Last april I went to a friend house to compare my GC to his Arcam and the GC case was not finish. No face plate with the Pot temporary fixed to one size....nothing very appealing...but the GC sounded better
Real music!
Guys,
None of the cosmetics matter! As long as he has high enough resolution to actually reproduce differences and uses good scientific procedures in his testing he can reach some accurate conclusions. The only proviso being colorations as these could really mess things up and give confusing results. I have seen this time and time again. This could be having a real tizzy sounding CD player and compensating for it with cables that roll off the high end. A whole system tuned this way can sound ok but will not be right. Any substitutions into this system will kill the original sonic balance no matter how good the component being put in is. There are no easy solutions for this. The only accurate reference we can compare to is live acoustic music and this is a little hard to do in ones home. I once had a violin played in my music room and was astounded at what it told me! Obviously we can’t all do this but there are other possibilities, a small cymbal or drum should work. Have someone else between your speakers make the sounds and you sit in your normal position. A real eye opener!
Let’s not loose track of the goal here, great, moving and inspiring music complete with goose bumps! If you can’t read the emotion in it, it isn’t good enough! Even some boom boxes can do this, shouldn’t we strive for more?
Roger
Guys,
None of the cosmetics matter! As long as he has high enough resolution to actually reproduce differences and uses good scientific procedures in his testing he can reach some accurate conclusions. The only proviso being colorations as these could really mess things up and give confusing results. I have seen this time and time again. This could be having a real tizzy sounding CD player and compensating for it with cables that roll off the high end. A whole system tuned this way can sound ok but will not be right. Any substitutions into this system will kill the original sonic balance no matter how good the component being put in is. There are no easy solutions for this. The only accurate reference we can compare to is live acoustic music and this is a little hard to do in ones home. I once had a violin played in my music room and was astounded at what it told me! Obviously we can’t all do this but there are other possibilities, a small cymbal or drum should work. Have someone else between your speakers make the sounds and you sit in your normal position. A real eye opener!
Let’s not loose track of the goal here, great, moving and inspiring music complete with goose bumps! If you can’t read the emotion in it, it isn’t good enough! Even some boom boxes can do this, shouldn’t we strive for more?
Roger
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