First DIY Project

[Jameschoi]

Hi all members

I just want to start my first DIY project with PASS Circuit, but there is many circuit and I have no experience.

Please recommend what circuit is good for first DIY project.

Thanks,

James

[Magura]

The Zen is a good starting point. It offers a lot of satisfaction, and little risk of grief.
There are boards available, and it requires no matching of components.
Besides that it not all that component choice sensitive, meaning that just about any type of component will do.


Magura

[hifimaker]

Just in case you have not seen it, checkout Nelson Pass's www.passdiy.com website. He has posted all the schematics for the Zen series and many of the articles have PCB diagrams as well.

-David

[Babowana]

Hi James,

If you want to get good lesson and experience about audio, I recommend to start with the projects in Passdiy as commented by Magura and David.

Meanwhile, if you want a nice audio system in your room right away, I highly recommend to try B1 buffer and F5 power amp . In my opinion, both projects are easy to build and great amps.

If you have any further questions, just write down your questions here in this PassLabs forum. Even Papa directly helps us . . .

Cheers,

>><<

[Jameschoi]

Thanks Magura, David and Bobowana,

Now I review some information from PASS DIY and first watts.

My serious concern is chassis and PCBs.

It is difficult to make PCBs by myself. How did you prepare PCBs?

To Bobowana,

How to buy component in Korea? Did you order to oversea?

Thanks in advance and best regards

[hifimaker]

James,

Have a look in the group buy forum for boards. If what you are looking for is not there, place a WTB (Want To Buy) post in the Trading Post forum. Usually someone has boards they decided not to build.

Most of the amps are pretty easy to wire point-to-point with a proto board or perf board as well.

-David

[Babowana]

Originally posted by Jameschoi

How to buy component in Korea? Did you order to oversea?

In general I can buy all in Korea. But, some of my components are bought in China when I stayed in Shanghai. Particularly, I bought most of my transformers in China--of course, cheap and good quality products.

For few special things, I ordered from Digi-key Korean distributer and Farnell Korean distributer


>><<

[enzedone]

Babo,,,


Where in Shanghai did you go. I bought some transformers a couple of years back there. I will go over again next year for the world expo and a big trip. But wouldn't mind getting some parts as well.

Brett

[Babowana]

Originally posted by enzedone

Where in Shanghai did you go.

I hope your wife reads Chinese . . .

They almost always don't have the sizes we want in the shop. So, we have to give our specification in advance, e.g. one week notice.

>><<

[metalman]

With regards to the issue surrouding making PCB's, I want to second hifimaker's comments about using point to point construction with perfboard. With the Aleph-X pcb's from the group buy many had problems eliminating unwanted oscillations in the circuit. I built my Aleph-X monoblocks with perfboard and didn't have a single problem in constuction or start up, and they sound fabulous.

Long story short, you can actually build fairly complex circuits on perfboard successfully, and I did my first several projects that way. Don't be afraid to jump in, you'll learn a lot along the way, and there are many here willing to help you get your first couple projects off the ground. We were all nubies at some point!

Cheers, Terry