What did you buy today? (Part 1)

Lol, Kph30i’s on the 95X energizer. Small difference in price.

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Still waiting for the box so I can finish it

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smsl sp200 amp and more amazon basics rca cables

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got the liquid carbon X amp (second hand) and have balanced cables (second hand) for my he4xx on the way

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Ooo, a SS, is it a custom design or is it based on a schematic/DIY? I’m good with tubes, not so much with Transistors, better put, I’d want something to play around with to learn Op amps and Transistors better, discrete designs, circuit requirements for SS, idk, might make a custom SS eventually to match the Tube I’m building now. (Besides learning transistors better essentially would bleed into my tube amp since I could change the power supply to use a Transistor rather than a CRCLC type design and see if I prefer that over a Huge Film Cap instead). I’ve read some stuff on transistors, but I’m more hands on, learned how to make tube amps by modding a few and gutting a few more, not so much from reading articles and books, and although reading does supplement the practice, it doesn’t replace it.

If it is a schematic (A free one I mean, if you paid for the design, I’d rather not get you in trouble for sharing it publicly), I’d be glad if you were to post a link, it’d help me learn a bit more in that area, or maybe a link to the site if it’s a paid DIY Schematic to see if I’d want to buy it eventually for some SS practice. Well either that or I might get a DIY Hybrid like the Torpedo III, since that implements Tube and SS design, so something I’m familiar with and something relatively new to me respectively.

Getting a Phonitor 2 this week (PayPal took forever to clear the payment), but I’d rather not practice SS DIY on something so expensive, well I might upgrade certain components since that’s basic enough (Not much difference in changing components out for better ones, since most of the time it’s just making sure if the components specs match via a component manual, with any improvements being basic like component lifespan and whatnot, depends on the component like better ESR on caps or faster switching speed/type of switching on Diodes, Linearity under certain conditions, etc, not so much changing the actual circuit implementation or values drastically such as capacitance, resistance, forward voltage, or Transistor hFE), albeit it does seems unnecessary at this level, seeing as the Phonitor 2 is a well regarded amp, but then again it does help that the Phonitor 2 seems easier to repair/upgrade (if it ever breaks since it is B-Stock or if better components come out) since the parts are through-hole and not Surface mount. (Getting off Topic)

Either way, the board looks immaculate to say the least, and the components are pretty high quality with the Dale Resistors and the Alps Pot (seems to be Alps at least, that blue box design tends to bring that brand to mind), I don’t see inputs or outputs though but I guess it’s single ended from the look of the pot (may be wrong, may have 4 gangs, may split phases later in the circuit, may be a true dual mono and this just half of the amp, idk). (Off Topic Again)

Still some excellent work, hope it sound as good as it looks, and pretty excited to see it in it’s case when it’s all finished.

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It’s a whammy headphone amp, designed by Wayne Colburne of pass labs.
It uses an op amp for voltage gain, and a pair of FET’s for the current gain, global feedback.
I was wondering how good the common DIY designs were, so I figured I’d build one.
It’s all dale resistors, which I hated sorting, and yes an alps pot.
COG ~$160 including the case. It’s a relatively easy build maybe 3 or 4 hours to assemble.
It’s done minus connecting the input and outputs, but I can’t practically do that until I have the case to figure out where I’m going to put them.
I’ve tested the power section and it looks pretty good, case should turn up this week, and hopefully I’ll be able to hear it.
There are a couple of other designs I’d like to try.

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finally… bought it directly from the european distributor with a 10% trade show discount

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Please let us know your thoughts. Overhyped or worthwhile? Somewhere in between?

What’s the name of the EU dist?

NT Global Distribution GmbH
Fiio starten to sell on their own too.
But I got my BTR1, Q1mkII, BTR3 from them.

Very nice people… importing a lot of good stuff from China at a good price and give warranty

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If anyone was wondering the size difference between an all in one and a separate DAC/AMP setup

PS: I really love the big knob on the K5 (ooo,errrr)

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This can also vary dependent on the units

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Good point. The K5 Pro is a bit of an absolute unit.

Oh huh, the PCB isn’t that expensive, I might buy one and build it when I have the chance, slowly buy the parts and see how it sounds.

The PCB, At least in the Pic on the shop’s site, is pretty self explanatory since the component names are written on it, I was able to find most of the parts on Digi-Key and Mouser, save for the Chassis (I could custom order a Hammond one though), and the other pics of the amp also show how to wire the pot and the HP-O, so even if it doesn’t come with a schematic/build guide like the Bottlehead Stuff, it’s not exactly too hard to figure out where stuff goes.

(Edit): NVM, the DIY store has guides and forum posts there on the amp, so that helps quite a bit. So essentially I’ll buy the PCB when I’m done with my current build, and later build it when I get the parts.

Thanks for the info, can’t wait to see how your build looks, and your impressions on the sound too.

The only part you have to be careful with on the PCB is there are 3 ways to wire the PSU regulators, so you pick one and don’t fill in all the parts. The build guide is very good in this regard.
You also don’t need the populate the 2 stabilization caps in the feedback circuit.
The MOSFET numbers on the board are out of production, so you need an alternative.
I socketed the op amp.

Outside that, pretty much it’s put the right part in the hole, you’ll probably want to test the PSU before you build the rest of it.

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Huh, well I guess I’ll just have to find the MOSFET manual (the PDF with all the values, Mouser tends to have them), see it’s values and match them to another MOSFET, although I might get lucky since sometimes if a part is out of production, Mouser tends to alert you of a possible alternative/new production.

Also yeah, I’ll test the PSU before anything, don’t want to place a capacitor incorrectly, or worse, solder the transformer incorrectly.
Might test all the components just to make sure they all work, even if they’re brand new, a bad diode/mislabeled diode in the rectifier and who knows what could happen.

Oh and an OP-Amp socket sounds like a good idea for rolling in new OP-Amps, play with the sound a bit.

Oh also, the Power supply seems to start off with a CRCRC formation, so kinda curious how it goes from there.

Thanks for the heads up on the MOSFETs btw, and the power supply wiring.

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I used the IRF610/9610 MOSFETs.
But I don’t believe the type is critical.

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Got my Hart Audio Cables…

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Can you compare the microphonics to periapt? I like the look of Hart audio cables but I’m concerned about microphonic.

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I don’t find the hart cables microphonic.

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