DIY Audio or OCD to the next level

Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Still waiting on parts for the PSU for the audio server, the transformer is in, chokes should be built......the rest is already waiting to be used.
 
finally, progress can be made...but first, a lead and tin feast:

IMG-20211207-WA0003.jpeg
 
Toroidy in Poland, Chokes for version 1 by Lundahl (next version is going to be a custom job in HiB cut core by my transformer guy)

From the look of it the power supply is going to be quite a bit larger than the whole motherboard plus paraphernalia. Guess the enclosure is going to be big.
 
Last edited:
so stage 1 of the prototype is done;
steady 36V to feed the ATX module....
 

Attachments

  • IMG-20211209-WA0024.jpeg
    IMG-20211209-WA0024.jpeg
    63.8 KB · Views: 16
Is that a Hypex soft start module I see? You may not be a lost cause after all..!
 
And there is Lift off.....no critical listening as I'm as deaf as can be in one ear (with a nice 3Khz squeek) due to a cold, but I hope my audio buddies will tell me how it sounds tonight
 
So between the 4 of us in our little audio tinker group we did some serious listening, the unanimous vote was that digital now sounded different than high end Vinyl but better in many aspects...A bit weird to have to rely on others to tell me how the server sounds, I'm still too deaf to hear anything other than hints (and those sound pretty nice), Even the neighbours must have liked the sound as they probably enjoyed our music until they asked if we could turn the volume a bit down at 02:00 :eek: (I truthfully claimed I'm deaf)

The rig consisted of the server, an Audio Note 300B amp (nice amp but not stellar) and 2 KL405 VAC in large open baffles.

Burn in is under way, and will likely take a few weeks....
 
I sent my Hafler xl280 in to Musical Concepts and got it back a couple of weeks ago now. I ran it 24/7 until yesterday and had a good listen last night. Man O man does it sound good! It’s a major upgrade that John Hillig does and it’s basically not the same amp anymore but I am very impressed with his work. The sound stage is huge and on some songs it was wrapping around the wall to straight off my shoulders. I’ve never heard my open baffle speakers coming that far into the room and to the sides of me. Normally the sound covers the entire front wall and up the side walls a couple of feet in front of the speakers but never to straight across from me. Of course not all music does this and much of it just sounds glorious covering the front wall. I’m wondering how much improvement I would get from adding a power supply to my macmini music server at this point. The sound right now is really special but on some vocals I still hear just a bit of an edge but that may very well be the recording. Nothing like my class D 1200as2 based amp though. The clarity is similar but with a lot more edge or harshness at the edges. Also the sound stage is way smaller and the instruments and vocals sound thinner some how. All and all I’m very impressed so far. All of the crystal clarity of class D but with the huge sound stage and fullness of the instruments and vocals. I think it’s going to be hard to beat and perhaps only by a really good tube amp.
 
What did he do to the amp?

Digital music is as much a rabbit's hole as Vinyl...for sure your Macmini will fare better with a nice LPSU, the problem is that tackling the PSU is mainly 'cosmetics'. If you can find a Taiko dealer near you just ask if you can listen to the Extreme to hear how digital can sound.
 
I’m not privy to the fine details of the upgrade. I know that he uses the original mosfets which my amp has 8 per side. He also uses the original transformers which are supposed to be very good. The caps in the power supply section are upgraded to high end (fancy) types but after that I’m a little vague about the new boards. He calls it an upgrade but in many ways it’s a brand new amplifier.
 
Pretty much that is the case. What is really impressive is the clarity that the amp brings to the table without the harshness that often accompanies that aspect of reproduction. I am truly impressed at this moment but time will tell if that changes for me with long term listening.
 
Holy smoke, my ear is finally clearing up so serious listening can begin...

This thing is GOOD! Great dynamics without compression, no harshness, effortless flowing musicality, very good definition in all frequencies, nice colors in overtones etc.

the only drawback so far is that listening sessions tend to end very LATE.
 
That’s great news and what we all try to achieve. I’ve been doing the same thing with my newly upgraded Hafler amp. It’s hard to stop listening because I’m constantly trying out different music to hear what I hadn’t heard before. I’m very happy for you and it’s too bad we live so incredibly far away from each other. If you ever come to Seattle let me know. My audio room is a separate building from our house and has a full kitchen and bath to boot. By the way, Merry Christmas!
 
when I'm reasonably close I'll for sure stop by, that is IF travel ever gets back to normal....

I have swapped the laser modules for the fiberoptic stretch of my network for SFP+ datacenter modules with low latency and even higher bandwidth (the previous ones already outperformed any audio data requirement by far)

Very nice improvement that translates into cleaner backgrounds and faster transients and more detail texture and 'color', next stop is to add another 8pin EPS cable to feed the CPU and tinker with bypass caps for the PSU.
 
Last edited:
It is going to take some time before we can travel at will. When I retired I thought that I would be traveling the world. The truth is that I haven’t gone anywhere at all and my world feels smaller than ever.

If you are able to make it here you will have a free place to stay. Before Covid I had people come from Oregon and Idaho for listening get togethers and then stay in the audio building over night. It’s a studio but has a nice pullout bed. It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait until we can start up again.

There is a company that has come out with a new fiber hdmi cable that has apparently won some awards. If I come across it again I’ll post what it is.
 
The second 8pin EPS cable is added, and does do it's job to improve Sq a tick, I'm now auditioning bypass caps to add to the EPS 12V, stil in prototyping. First up is a Duelund tinned copper CAST.

20220109_195006.jpg
 
The verdict is: the Duelund is not staying, I have better caps for this purpose...and BOY do they make a difference in a place where you'd not expect them to.
 
it appears I have my next project lined up, refurbishing a '30ies RCA70A 16" Broadcast Transcription Turntable :cool:
Not sure yet where I will put that beast but that will not make me forego on it. Did I say I'm stoked?
 
it appears I have my next project lined up, refurbishing a '30ies RCA70A 16" Broadcast Transcription Turntable :cool:
Not sure yet where I will put that beast but that will not make me forego on it. Did I say I'm stoked?
We are going to needs pictures…

…lots of pictures…
 
We are going to needs pictures…

…lots of pictures…
I promise to upload loads of pics when the beast arrives...it's a huge cabinet weighing a LOT so getting it home is a project in itself. First thing to do is to discuss (and negotiate) a bit about that beauty and some paraphernalia like a Gray Arm and a Fairchild 225a or similar, and a few rare records...I cannot believe it yet...
Many years ago the mono seed was planted, hearing a good TT with a good cartridge and a single speaker in an old School Gym....recently I heard mono again...and was blown away by its energy, directness and musicality, one less hurdle sound MUSIC does not have to overcome...
 
Last edited:
I used to have a beautiful Joule Electra preamp that had a mono button. I couldn’t believe how good some old mono recordings sound. It was also really good for testing in that you could a/b easily between channels. And yes, keep us informed on your progress.
 
yeah mono on two speakers is something different but it can still be lightyears ahead of stereo, yet when stereo is made into mono the final result depends a lot on HOW the transformation is done....my best mono experiences have been with true mono recordings being played back on either one or two speakers.
 
Mono on two speakers is just that. Mono on two speakers. When converting stereo to mono you are just summing l+r. Woodoo and room modes aside it should fine 🤷‍♂️
 
Not sure, IME there is more to it than just summing up L+R when converting stereo to mono...I have heard several different methods of converting stereo into mono side by side with a true mono recording and the result was (more or less depending on what method) markedly different than a true mono recording being played back.

There is a phase shift on which stereo relies that you cannot make go away when adding up signals.

Anyway,
A second tone arm and cartridge for the odd stereo record will be added.
 
Back
Top