Then you have a reference so you can compare how VFET render this.
It must be a challenge to perform Harpsichord recordings as well as "real" pianos as recordings differs a lot in quality. Some recordings are very "thin" while others have too much "mechanical" sounds of the internal of the instrument etc.
I think for those that have the kit hold up in customs for a long time call them and ask so you ensure they don't return the kit because customs fee should be paid.
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Who is "them"? Where do I call? The tracking number I have does not work. I have no clue where my parts kit is. I am sure it must at least be very thirsty and hungry by now. I hope it's still alive!
For any shipping or tracking issues please contact the store helpdesk at contact@diyaudiostore.com.
You need to know tracking no. and carrier to be able to call them and get any help. Hope DiyAudio Store can sort it out for you.
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#45 build update - I just finished cleaning up my wiring... not as pretty as some, but much cleaner than before...
- on the main VFET boards, I rewired all the lines to come in from the bottom so they won’t be cooked as much by floating above the board components so much.
- then, I rotated the FE boards so that the signal lines don’t cross the power lines so much
- also, I moved the V+ lines of the FE boards to tie into the PSU filter board instead of routing through the main VFET boards... I trust that this shouldn’t change the original design at all?
It still sounds great, so I don’t think did too much damage de-soldering/re-soldering all the lines, lol. Here are the before and after photos.
- on the main VFET boards, I rewired all the lines to come in from the bottom so they won’t be cooked as much by floating above the board components so much.
- then, I rotated the FE boards so that the signal lines don’t cross the power lines so much
- also, I moved the V+ lines of the FE boards to tie into the PSU filter board instead of routing through the main VFET boards... I trust that this shouldn’t change the original design at all?
It still sounds great, so I don’t think did too much damage de-soldering/re-soldering all the lines, lol. Here are the before and after photos.
Attachments
About various people with shipping issues... I don't like to comment on specific cases because each case is always unique and trying to do so will clutter up this thread, but I think it's worth making some general comments.
Short version
We have sent mbrennwa a working tracking link, and his shipment is exhibiting normal behaviour within specification. In general terms that might be useful for others to know, the last known activity is "Processing completed at origin" which means in the origin country (the USA) the package has completed everything it needed to do, and is now somewhere between (or in) that last port in the USA and the first port it will arrive in the EU. This is the time a package "goes dark" and is unheard of for a while until it pops up again on the other side of the world. It might get there by a plane, an ocean liner, or a canoe. There isn't any way to tell. There is about an 80% chance it will show up in the next 2 weeks, 15% chance in the next month, 5% chance next 2 months.
TLDR; Long version
The shipping method for this shipment was DHL eCommerce Parcel Standard. This is an affordable service, with a decent-but-slow-and-sometimes-unpredictable service level. We currently offer it to DIYers to get stuff worldwide for a lot less money than an express service. Particularly great for PCBs and cheap stuff. Not that great for people who don't like to see things "go dark" for several weeks, or want a higher level of service. Along with DHL eCommerce Paket, it's cheap, has tracking all the way, uses a courier for last mile delivery, but it slow and has a certain % total failure rate (about 1 in 50). The "last mile" couriers really suck in the UK and NL, so much so that we actually put a warning in the checkout for people from the UK and NL, but they are acceptable in most other countries.
DHL eCommerce (which is a totally different company to DHL Express) has three service levels we use to ship around the world: Paket, Parcel Standard, and a higher service level Parcel Direct. Many countries due to COVID now cannot use 1 or more of these 3 services. DHL eCommerce specializes in and excels in delivery of affordable, reasonably-reliable, tracked-to-almost-the-delivery-address services. But to do this and be able to achieve the very low prices they offer they do what is known as "bulk consolidation". As in, your package is consolidated with lots of other ones and sits around waiting for a whole lot to be shipped at the same time.
Pre-COVID, they used to buy the excess baggage space in passenger planes and put consolidations in there. Quick and cheap, with the last mile being delivered by (and switching tracking to) a courier. You'd be looking at 2-3 weeks for US to EU (or Switzerland).
In the first few months of COVID, when there were almost no passenger planes and any spare space was being given priority to and could be purchased for higher prices by express services, there were simply no planes to put stuff on. After a few weeks they started putting consolidations onto ships, and the sea travel time combined with port loading and unloading blew shipping times into the 1-4 months range.
The main problem is that it was very unpredictable. 80% of shipments would take 1 month. The next 15% would take 2 months. The next 5% would take 3-4 months. No rhyme or reason, just luck of the draw. Almost no packages during that time were lost, but many were delayed 80 days, even some arriving at 120 days. During that time we changed out "lost package" policy to ask people to wait 100 days before we sent a replacement. Murphy's law dictated that as soon as we sent a replacement the original turned up in the next few days, and it often did.
Now there are more planes in the sky, and things are returning to normal. But there is still unpredictability with these bulk consolidation services. So unfortunately still "most" packages will arrive in a normal amount of time, and a small percentage will get delayed a few weeks or even months longer than normal. It's unpredictable.
We used to offer USPS International as a premium international service, but since COVID and since the defunding of USPS I can safely say their service has gone to pot, but their prices are still high. You used to "get what you pay for" with this service but now I don't think the price is commensurate with the service level.
So... where does that leave us? And in particular with the EU going the route that UK did Jan 1st 2021, and starting to block all shipments under a threshold value (GBP135/EUR200) from July 1st 2021 unless the shipper is paying EU taxes?
We have invested a lot of time over the last few months looking to build a good relationship with a premium carrier for international shipments (FedEx, DHL Express, UPS), that can offer DDP (delivered duty paid). This is so we can (a) offer a "time definite" service that is not as unpredictable as DHL eCommerce, and (b) offer DDP so we can keep shipping to the EU after July 1st 2021. We've also sought counsel from EU tax professionals about the new EU IOSS.
So far we seem to be progressing on a good track with DHL Express (DHL Express and DHL eCommerce are not the same company, they are different companies with very different service levels) and being able to offer all shipments using DDP. I hope to be able to make an announcement about that in the next few weeks, very-hopefully before July 1st.
We have done the calculations, and while it will be a bit more expensive, the service level should be much higher (days instead of weeks or months) and allow our international DIY brothers and sisters a faster, less angsty experience. And with DDP there will be no "box opening fees", the full price including customs and duty will be known from the start.
In summary - if you have a problem with your shipment (tracking not working, unsure where it is, anything), please email the helpdesk at contact@diyaudiostore.com. As you might glean from the above over-sharing, we do know this stuff pretty well by now. It has been a trial by fire over the years! Each shipment is unique and it doesn't really make sense to offer shipment specific support in this thread.
We've always worked real hard to support the international community, and will continue to strive to find the best carriers, the service levels people want, and at the most affordable rates. A lot is going to change for EU citizens in regards to ordering things from outside of the EU after July 1st 2021, and we're doing our best to be ready for it.
Short version
We have sent mbrennwa a working tracking link, and his shipment is exhibiting normal behaviour within specification. In general terms that might be useful for others to know, the last known activity is "Processing completed at origin" which means in the origin country (the USA) the package has completed everything it needed to do, and is now somewhere between (or in) that last port in the USA and the first port it will arrive in the EU. This is the time a package "goes dark" and is unheard of for a while until it pops up again on the other side of the world. It might get there by a plane, an ocean liner, or a canoe. There isn't any way to tell. There is about an 80% chance it will show up in the next 2 weeks, 15% chance in the next month, 5% chance next 2 months.
TLDR; Long version
The shipping method for this shipment was DHL eCommerce Parcel Standard. This is an affordable service, with a decent-but-slow-and-sometimes-unpredictable service level. We currently offer it to DIYers to get stuff worldwide for a lot less money than an express service. Particularly great for PCBs and cheap stuff. Not that great for people who don't like to see things "go dark" for several weeks, or want a higher level of service. Along with DHL eCommerce Paket, it's cheap, has tracking all the way, uses a courier for last mile delivery, but it slow and has a certain % total failure rate (about 1 in 50). The "last mile" couriers really suck in the UK and NL, so much so that we actually put a warning in the checkout for people from the UK and NL, but they are acceptable in most other countries.
DHL eCommerce (which is a totally different company to DHL Express) has three service levels we use to ship around the world: Paket, Parcel Standard, and a higher service level Parcel Direct. Many countries due to COVID now cannot use 1 or more of these 3 services. DHL eCommerce specializes in and excels in delivery of affordable, reasonably-reliable, tracked-to-almost-the-delivery-address services. But to do this and be able to achieve the very low prices they offer they do what is known as "bulk consolidation". As in, your package is consolidated with lots of other ones and sits around waiting for a whole lot to be shipped at the same time.
Pre-COVID, they used to buy the excess baggage space in passenger planes and put consolidations in there. Quick and cheap, with the last mile being delivered by (and switching tracking to) a courier. You'd be looking at 2-3 weeks for US to EU (or Switzerland).
In the first few months of COVID, when there were almost no passenger planes and any spare space was being given priority to and could be purchased for higher prices by express services, there were simply no planes to put stuff on. After a few weeks they started putting consolidations onto ships, and the sea travel time combined with port loading and unloading blew shipping times into the 1-4 months range.
The main problem is that it was very unpredictable. 80% of shipments would take 1 month. The next 15% would take 2 months. The next 5% would take 3-4 months. No rhyme or reason, just luck of the draw. Almost no packages during that time were lost, but many were delayed 80 days, even some arriving at 120 days. During that time we changed out "lost package" policy to ask people to wait 100 days before we sent a replacement. Murphy's law dictated that as soon as we sent a replacement the original turned up in the next few days, and it often did.
Now there are more planes in the sky, and things are returning to normal. But there is still unpredictability with these bulk consolidation services. So unfortunately still "most" packages will arrive in a normal amount of time, and a small percentage will get delayed a few weeks or even months longer than normal. It's unpredictable.
We used to offer USPS International as a premium international service, but since COVID and since the defunding of USPS I can safely say their service has gone to pot, but their prices are still high. You used to "get what you pay for" with this service but now I don't think the price is commensurate with the service level.
So... where does that leave us? And in particular with the EU going the route that UK did Jan 1st 2021, and starting to block all shipments under a threshold value (GBP135/EUR200) from July 1st 2021 unless the shipper is paying EU taxes?
We have invested a lot of time over the last few months looking to build a good relationship with a premium carrier for international shipments (FedEx, DHL Express, UPS), that can offer DDP (delivered duty paid). This is so we can (a) offer a "time definite" service that is not as unpredictable as DHL eCommerce, and (b) offer DDP so we can keep shipping to the EU after July 1st 2021. We've also sought counsel from EU tax professionals about the new EU IOSS.
So far we seem to be progressing on a good track with DHL Express (DHL Express and DHL eCommerce are not the same company, they are different companies with very different service levels) and being able to offer all shipments using DDP. I hope to be able to make an announcement about that in the next few weeks, very-hopefully before July 1st.
We have done the calculations, and while it will be a bit more expensive, the service level should be much higher (days instead of weeks or months) and allow our international DIY brothers and sisters a faster, less angsty experience. And with DDP there will be no "box opening fees", the full price including customs and duty will be known from the start.
In summary - if you have a problem with your shipment (tracking not working, unsure where it is, anything), please email the helpdesk at contact@diyaudiostore.com. As you might glean from the above over-sharing, we do know this stuff pretty well by now. It has been a trial by fire over the years! Each shipment is unique and it doesn't really make sense to offer shipment specific support in this thread.
We've always worked real hard to support the international community, and will continue to strive to find the best carriers, the service levels people want, and at the most affordable rates. A lot is going to change for EU citizens in regards to ordering things from outside of the EU after July 1st 2021, and we're doing our best to be ready for it.
Last edited:
Beware don't try this at home (or anywhere ZM could see it )
Frugly I will do better
if I will win Pa honeybut is a must earing Pa original recipe ..can I have two pcb
?@buckaroo2 tnx great review !!
Beware don't try this at home (or anywhere ZM could see it )
if you use your own brain with your wit with your gut with your wallet, ZM can't complain
Progress to date...
The quality of this kit is magnificent and so is the quality of Jim’s assembly guide. My build is stock and uses all and only the provided components, except for some very minor additions: (a) heat shrink for LED, (b) lock washers for mounting T-Bars to heatsinks, (c) washers for mounting back panel and for shimming between bracket and back panel (see Post #845), and (d) locktite / thread locker for chassis screws. That’s it.
On the heat sink, I chose to locate the output stage as per Jim’s guide, that is close to the edge of the front panel. I chose to flip the front-end PCB 180 degrees so the input pads are closest to the RCA connectors on the rear panel.
Noting that for this very specific design connecting the chassis to earth is unnecessary, I elected to leave chassis referenced to ground only as per Jim’s guide.
Remaining: connect the input RCAs, adjust the supply voltage, close the chassis and listen.
The quality of this kit is magnificent and so is the quality of Jim’s assembly guide. My build is stock and uses all and only the provided components, except for some very minor additions: (a) heat shrink for LED, (b) lock washers for mounting T-Bars to heatsinks, (c) washers for mounting back panel and for shimming between bracket and back panel (see Post #845), and (d) locktite / thread locker for chassis screws. That’s it.
On the heat sink, I chose to locate the output stage as per Jim’s guide, that is close to the edge of the front panel. I chose to flip the front-end PCB 180 degrees so the input pads are closest to the RCA connectors on the rear panel.
Noting that for this very specific design connecting the chassis to earth is unnecessary, I elected to leave chassis referenced to ground only as per Jim’s guide.
Remaining: connect the input RCAs, adjust the supply voltage, close the chassis and listen.
Attachments
Beware don't try this at home (or anywhere ZM could see it )
What kind of caps are those red box?
