AudioSector-chip amp kits, dacs, chassis

[safetyman]

Thanks your very prompt reply. Peter, do you think a beginner like me is up to attemting your Aleph 30 boards? I want to make that the next project after all of these. Will the boards still be available?

[Peter Daniel]

As long as there is a demand, those boards will be available. If you don't make a mistake while populating components, the A30 board will function properly. As an alternative, for your next project, you may choose NOS DAC

[tangen]

Originally posted by Peter Daniel
As long as there is a demand, those boards will be available. If you don't make a mistake while populating components, the A30 board will function properly. As an alternative, for your next project, you may choose NOS DAC

I have been through both the LM3875 and NOS DAC projects. Peter has been very kind and helpful. Without his assistance, the prosjects have been a lot more painful and frustrating to carry out; if I have made it at all ;-)

Regarding the NOS DAC, its is very satisfying sonically. It has been running in for a week now. And now it really sings! I'm most impressed with how it reveal differences between how cd's are produced. Some cd's are very compressed, others are made with to much sibiliance and high frequensis. Other cd's, that have been almost unlistenable throug my earlier cd player, come to life for the first time. The artistic expression is suddenly shining through. One example: Emmelou Harris "Wrecking ball" have been more in the rack than in the cd player. For the first time, I could appreciate both Emmelou's marvelous singing and artistice expression. Daniel Lanois' production was incomprehensible to me before. Now I can appreciate the rather gloomy and pessimistic athosphere of the production. In other words, this DAC transfer music the way it was intended to sound, no more - no less. It is great

And in relation to money spent: this kit is not a bargain; it is a steal

Now I am just waiting for the buffer ;-)

Jan Ove

[Hanzwillem]

Originally posted by tangen

And in relation to money spent: this kit is not a bargain; it is a steal

Yes it is. I build the DAC in april. The difference was huge compared to my sony QS player. I use it with my DVD player and computer also. The sound is just stunning. I really recommend this one. Just do not look to the signals on a scope. 44kHz is not that much...

I use it with a valve (amperex 6dj8) buffered LM3875 at the moment.

The A30 on the pic is jobless, as well as the GC next to the DAC.
I have no top on the DAC anymore, I had some metal perforated plate, but it hummed with the trafo...

[Peter Daniel]

Originally posted by tangen
The artistic expression is suddenly shining through.

Well noticed: the artistic expression was actually my main goal when voicing that DAC

[safetyman]

Peter, I know this is not be the place for this question but I know you check the posts here often. Sorry.

Damn, I just broke an M4 tap while hand tapping my enclosure. Any solutions to removing it without having to get hold of Walton's tap extractors? These tools are not available here.

Any suggestions will be most helpful. Thanks and apologies for posting this here.

[Peter Daniel]

Here is the place for any discussion, I don't mind going off topic. There are supposedly some liquids that can dissolve broken tap, but I'm not familiar with them. It's always upsetting when tap breaks, and I usually just drill another hole.

Some discussion on tap removing tecnniques was done here: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...172#post361172

Besides, the linked thread is a source of many other great tips. Whenever I tap these days, it's always with a cordless drill, equipped with a clutch.

[safetyman]

Thanks Peter. I am going to let it rest for the time being. It's 6.00am here and I stayed up all night trying to rescue the situation. I am going to bed and hope to catch a few hours of peaceful sleep and forget the whole thing. Will look at it when I get up.

The hardest thing in building the amp is the enclosure, as I am finding out now, especially if you have limited tools to work with.

[karma]

quote:

especially if you have limited tools to work with.


u never have enuff tools to work with


mind you if you had tools like peter you could build just about anything

i have seen pics on the forum in the past of the Machinery
can you say industrial

[sdedalus]

Originally posted by safetyman

The hardest thing in building the amp is the enclosure, as I am finding out now, especially if you have limited tools to work with.

Ain't that the truth. I just finished a pair of lm3875 monoblocks and I'm not sure there could be a more ghetto enclosure.
Due to my own stupidity, I bought the wrong size hammond 1441 cases and had to find another way to house the transformer. I ended up bolting the aluminum bottom of a radioshack ABS project box to the top of the hammond case and routed the wires from the transformer down into the amp housing. I guess there is an advantage in that layout as far as shielding the amp board is concerned, but it looks a lot more home made than I was going for.

At least I can say that they sound awesome, but the gain is too low for a unity gain preamp, so I'll have to swap out the feedback resistors once I get the parts together for that project.

Thanks to everybody on this forum for the information and help you've provided you've got yet another successful amp builder.