I've just discovered DIYAudio a few months ago, and am catching up on the threads.
I know just enough about electronics to be dangerous, but never studied it formally. (My college degree is in Math, and I have a M.S. in Computer Science). Have a 'Scope and basic test equipment, I can read a schematic, do basic debugging, and I can solder pretty well.
When I was a kid in the 70s (I'm 51 now), I was very into amateur radio, and radio in general, but I haven't touched a "ham radio" in 30+ years.
But, for some reason, when I turned 50 last year, I longed for TUBES again! So I got myself a tube headphone amp (Schiit Valhalla) , and a pair of higher-end headphones (Grado RS1i).
Now I want to build things!
The first thing I want to do is to make proper balanced outputs one one of those $50 S/PDIF surround decoders to better drive the studio monitors in my office. (I'm picking up hum on the unbalanced cable I'm using).
Then I think I'll try a tube phono preamp....
I'd love to build a little music "wall box" with one of those RaspberryPi DACs, and a headphone amp, controlled by a touch screen or remote via iPhone app, so I can have reasonably hi-fi without taking up any more floor space.
I know just enough about electronics to be dangerous, but never studied it formally. (My college degree is in Math, and I have a M.S. in Computer Science). Have a 'Scope and basic test equipment, I can read a schematic, do basic debugging, and I can solder pretty well.
When I was a kid in the 70s (I'm 51 now), I was very into amateur radio, and radio in general, but I haven't touched a "ham radio" in 30+ years.
But, for some reason, when I turned 50 last year, I longed for TUBES again! So I got myself a tube headphone amp (Schiit Valhalla) , and a pair of higher-end headphones (Grado RS1i).
Now I want to build things!
The first thing I want to do is to make proper balanced outputs one one of those $50 S/PDIF surround decoders to better drive the studio monitors in my office. (I'm picking up hum on the unbalanced cable I'm using).
Then I think I'll try a tube phono preamp....
I'd love to build a little music "wall box" with one of those RaspberryPi DACs, and a headphone amp, controlled by a touch screen or remote via iPhone app, so I can have reasonably hi-fi without taking up any more floor space.
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I don't even care how they sound--the 4 tubes in my Schiit Valhalla keep me nice and warm during this cold spell. I'm the "old coot" in the office with his tubes.
I think my next tube device would be a phono pre-amplifier. I grew up with that sound with hand-me-down Hi-Fi equipment, so it will be nice and comforting to have it again. Of course, my ears aren't what they used to be.
Howdy neighbor! I think you'll find that your CS background will come in mighty handy when you're designing/sizing/building a phono cartridge preamp that implements the RIAA disc equalization curve. Ever used the Excel "solver"? It'll probably be a crucial piece of your effort here. Or if your Huevos are truly Grande, you can implement the Nelder Mead algorithm in C++ or num.py, and get John Curl-like RIAA accuracy from lowly fire-bottles with <65dB of open loop gain. It's a mere matter of software. Less than 150 lines of code, including blank lines, #define #include #macro lines, block-ending lines with just-the-right-number of tabs and a "}" curly brace, and comment lines.
Maybe you know Nelder Mead by its "Numerical Recipes" moniker: amoeba. It's nonlinear optimization without calculation of derivatives. Or as they call such things in applied-math departments: "blasphemy, heresy, ugliness, and vulgarity". Wikipedia Article
Me, I'm a 650 dweller. Elevation = 40 feet; never been flooded even when the San Francisquito Creek overflowed its banks HARD.
Maybe you know Nelder Mead by its "Numerical Recipes" moniker: amoeba. It's nonlinear optimization without calculation of derivatives. Or as they call such things in applied-math departments: "blasphemy, heresy, ugliness, and vulgarity". Wikipedia Article
Me, I'm a 650 dweller. Elevation = 40 feet; never been flooded even when the San Francisquito Creek overflowed its banks HARD.
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