Digitally controlled preamp/headphone amp

[Russ White]

Brian is still working up the costs on parts, so check the site over the next few days, but we plan on offering the kits to the general DIY public in the very near future.

I think the plan is to sell the trafos as well. Its a wicked cool little trafo. 🙂

Cheers!
Russ

 

[jleaman]

I'm interested 😀

 

[MunkeeVegetable]

Aww damn, I just bought my trafo. 😀
Is there a good place to read up on basic stuff, or will Brian's build run-through cover all the essentials (adding fuses, wiring trafo, etc.)? (Or was that for the Mauro amp he was writing a guide for?)

As soldering on a PCB is relatively easy, but as this is my first audio project, I'm not really sure what to do with the enclosure with fuses, connectors and grounding stuff.

Any help is much appreciated,

Cheers,
--Nathan

 

[jleaman]

Aww damn, I just bought my trafo. 😀
Is there a good place to read up on basic stuff, or will Brian's build run-through cover all the essentials (adding fuses, wiring trafo, etc.)? (Or was that for the Mauro amp he was writing a guide for?)

As soldering on a PCB is relatively easy, but as this is my first audio project, I'm not really sure what to do with the enclosure with fuses, connectors and grounding stuff.

Any help is much appreciated,

Cheers,
--Nathan

We can all help with this. 😀.. I can too 😀

 

[MunkeeVegetable]

Yay! I can't wait till we can buy the kits now. As soon as exams are over I'm pouncing on this project, probably literally.

I have at the moment:
* Allen Bradley 10K Stereo Pots
* 240 to 12-0-12V 30VA Toroidal
* Heatsinks for TO-220s
* Filtered IEC Plug for 240V In
* Weird Aluminium enclosure I got for cheap. (Probably too small)

What else do I need?
Fuseholder, 0.5A Fast-blow fuse? (It says on the trafo 0.5A Primary Fuse required), RCAs and things (are XLR plugs any good?).

What do you guys use for safety around the live 240/115V wires?

--Nathan

 

[jleaman]

Yay! I can't wait till we can buy the kits now. As soon as exams are over I'm pouncing on this project, probably literally.

I have at the moment:
* Allen Bradley 10K Stereo Pots
* 240 to 12-0-12V 30VA Toroidal
* Heatsinks for TO-220s
* Filtered IEC Plug for 240V In
* Weird Aluminium enclosure I got for cheap. (Probably too small)

What else do I need?
Fuseholder, 0.5A Fast-blow fuse? (It says on the trafo 0.5A Primary Fuse required), RCAs and things (are XLR plugs any good?).

What do you guys use for safety around the live 240/115V wires?

--Nathan

a 0.5 amp fuse would work perfect.. i would install a fuse in any thing you build. Never opt one out 😀 it can save the house or equipment 😀

J'

 

[BrianDonegan]

So, just an FYI. All (well, both right now) of out kits include standoffs and mounting screws, PCB pin headers and the plugs to connect to them. The pre kit includes to-220 heatsinks, thermal pads, shoulder washers and nuts.

Basically, we try to include the little parts that are a PITA to buy, especially when you only need a few of them.

I am putting together a photo build guide for the pre as well. It will include the basics of connecting the RCAs and trafo to the board, but case/fuse/etc mounting will be up to you, as it will be different for everyone.

For example, I have my pre wired directly to my RevC (I'll show how to do that as well).

 

[VT67]

Brian, Russ

Look what the postman brought today

Now that I have it physically in my hands I can (must) say that this PCB looks darn good Russ.

Also a big thumbs up for you Brian. The way it was packed and labeled is a fine example of how it should be done, even for a "beta" product.

A first glance at the board brings up the idea to solder the decoupling caps on the bottom side of the board. Why I hear you say, well by doing so there is more room around the AD8620's if there's a need to desolder them if necessary. I'm also not quite sure whether I will need both of them (input and output).

O.K. I'm gonna dive into my cupboard now and see what I have on resistors and voltage regulators.

Regards

 

[Russ White]

Thanks GeWa,

Enjoy it! Good idea and putting the caps on the bottom.

Brian does an absolutely fabulous job on the kits. He is wayyyyyy underpaid. 😀

Cheers!
Russ

 

[BrianDonegan]

Phew! I was freaking out for a second there. I didn't see the bad of resistors and vRegs, etc, but then I remembered you didn;t want those in your kit. I thought I messed up. Phew.

Okay, calming down now...

 

[VT67]

Relax my good friend, the kit is exactly as I wanted it. 😀

Cheers

 

[BrianDonegan]

A couple pics for the beta builders...

Here's the input buffer section bypassed by the 0-ohm jumpers:

 

[BrianDonegan]

another angle

 

[BrianDonegan]

And a shot of the board fully stuffed... All parts shown are part of the kit.

EDIT: Except the AD8620B. The kit includes the AD8620A. That was a sample I got.

 

[matjans]

has anyone compared a kookaburra with other preamps yet?

I'd be very interested in your experiences with these. I've recently moved to a new house and in my new bedroom/study I can't place my current surround setup so i was thinking about a my_ref combined with a kookaburra...

I've recently seen a kit for the revC myref and I must say it's the best and most complete kit i've ever seen!
Keep up tghe good work!

Matt

-- my aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa is stuck!

 

[bender460]

Well I need a little help posting a pic. Kinda new to this. Anyhow I've resised to 640x480 jpeg and still the file is to big? Any help would be great.🙂

 

[maf_au]

Well I need a little help posting a pic. Kinda new to this. Anyhow I've resised to 640x480 jpeg and still the file is to big? Any help would be great.🙂

If you send it to me, I'll size it and post it for you. I'll drop you an email with my address in it.

Michael

 

[maf_au]

Here you go, Bender.

Nice looking setup, too!

 

[bender460]

Thanks for posting the pic. Just a test rig till my chassis is done.

 

[bender460]

Ok another pic. Lets see how my first posted pic turns out. 😀