TLDR: I am very new and looking for a gift for my father that I could have ready in the next 2 weeks.
Hi there - super excited to meet the community here,
I am a newbie when it comes to DIY Audio, I do have some limited experience with soldering and 3d printing. My background is heavy in the computing world both from hardware and software (Windows & Linux), but custom writing drivers/firmware would be a line I don't cross. As for audio, I certainly appreciate great quality sound, but I have never worked with custom builds or mods anything. A few examples of what I run at home (nothing really super unique - mostly mainstream):
As for 3d printing, I have yet to really make any successful print, but I think I overlooked the simplest area and spent too much time (and money) on trying to upgrade/fix known issues with this cheap FDM printer that I bought. I'm think my prints were mostly getting a lot of issues simply due to it not being on a sturdy surface and I took it one step further by using some isoaccoustic pads that I was no longer using (never thought I would find another use for them besides vibration dampening for speakers!), but have yet to go through the setup checklist of Klipper yet to see what kind of a difference these upgrades have made.
Now, here's the thing...I have been casually thinking about a gift for my father for the past 6 months and I know he was very fortunate to have some commercial grade tube amp from his employment back in the early 70s. He nearly cried when he pulled it out to "upgrade" to a Denon for 5.1. This was many years ago. Sorry I don't know the make and model, but I'll try to find out for anyone who might be curious. Initially, I came across these forums as I thought...hey I have a lot of bits and pieces of knowledge to maybe build a tube amp as a birthday gift. However, I have been getting overwhelmed and have no idea where to start + I think this would be something after a number of projects once I have built up skills and saved up money. I have lowered my expectations, but I am still a little lost as to where to proceed or what might be something a little quicker/cheaper to do while still showing that I have put a lot of thought into this. Now, I also got some hard to swallow news yesterday and it's made me bump this up in priority (sorry being vague here, but I am sure some of you can read between the lines).
I'd like to try and have something for him in the next 2 weeks. I live in Toronto, Canada, so here are my loose thoughts and I am totally open to suggestions:
I have a raspberry pi 5 sitting around doing nothing, so perhaps some components from iancanada and some sort of 3d printed case (I don't see any links on iancanada's sites for and models though?) or failing that, I could build something out of wood as my skills with 3d modelling software are 100% limited to very quick remixes and not anything from scratch. Thoughts?
Thanks in advance everyone! Also, please ask me any questions if you need more details to help me out.
Hi there - super excited to meet the community here,
I am a newbie when it comes to DIY Audio, I do have some limited experience with soldering and 3d printing. My background is heavy in the computing world both from hardware and software (Windows & Linux), but custom writing drivers/firmware would be a line I don't cross. As for audio, I certainly appreciate great quality sound, but I have never worked with custom builds or mods anything. A few examples of what I run at home (nothing really super unique - mostly mainstream):
- Living Room:
- Receiver: Onkyo tx-nr696
- Front: R600F
- Center: R50C
- Rear: R40M
- Sub: R120-SWI
- Computer (used for DJ, Streaming, Production
- Focusrite 4th gen 4i4
- JBL 305P MKII Monitors
- Shure SM7DB
As for 3d printing, I have yet to really make any successful print, but I think I overlooked the simplest area and spent too much time (and money) on trying to upgrade/fix known issues with this cheap FDM printer that I bought. I'm think my prints were mostly getting a lot of issues simply due to it not being on a sturdy surface and I took it one step further by using some isoaccoustic pads that I was no longer using (never thought I would find another use for them besides vibration dampening for speakers!), but have yet to go through the setup checklist of Klipper yet to see what kind of a difference these upgrades have made.
Now, here's the thing...I have been casually thinking about a gift for my father for the past 6 months and I know he was very fortunate to have some commercial grade tube amp from his employment back in the early 70s. He nearly cried when he pulled it out to "upgrade" to a Denon for 5.1. This was many years ago. Sorry I don't know the make and model, but I'll try to find out for anyone who might be curious. Initially, I came across these forums as I thought...hey I have a lot of bits and pieces of knowledge to maybe build a tube amp as a birthday gift. However, I have been getting overwhelmed and have no idea where to start + I think this would be something after a number of projects once I have built up skills and saved up money. I have lowered my expectations, but I am still a little lost as to where to proceed or what might be something a little quicker/cheaper to do while still showing that I have put a lot of thought into this. Now, I also got some hard to swallow news yesterday and it's made me bump this up in priority (sorry being vague here, but I am sure some of you can read between the lines).
I'd like to try and have something for him in the next 2 weeks. I live in Toronto, Canada, so here are my loose thoughts and I am totally open to suggestions:
I have a raspberry pi 5 sitting around doing nothing, so perhaps some components from iancanada and some sort of 3d printed case (I don't see any links on iancanada's sites for and models though?) or failing that, I could build something out of wood as my skills with 3d modelling software are 100% limited to very quick remixes and not anything from scratch. Thoughts?
Thanks in advance everyone! Also, please ask me any questions if you need more details to help me out.
Two weeks might be a bit tight with shipping, but have a look at the tube amplifier kits Victor Kung in Vancouver sells (vkmusic.ca). A TU-8400 might be nice, and you can hook up a Raspberry Pi streamer to the input. Seems a better match, if your father liked tube amps, than what I see at iancanada.com.
You could even build it together with your father, if you can visit him for two or three days.
You could even build it together with your father, if you can visit him for two or three days.
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