Posted on Sunday, 29th June 2008 by Jimmy Auw

Due to parts shortage on some components, I can’t complete the assembly of my DIY project. So I just write down the idea on my scratch book. Here is the plan.

For the filament/heater supply, I plan to use LT1083 regulator. It is a good regulator for audio compared with the LM (78xx) or LM 3xx series. The first capacitor should be NOS Elna Silmic 2200uF (should be 4 or 5 in parallel). Then, a 1 Ohm/10W resistor should be place in series. Then another parallel filter with BlackGate F Series 680uF. At the end, LT1083 will do the final regulation to provide exact 6-6.3 VDC (depends on my divider resistor).

I use dual mono design for filament and also dual mono for high tension (B+). For each channel, I need around 1.6 Ampere filament power. I use custom power transformer rated at 7.5 VAC and 3 Ampere.

For high tension B+ voltage. I will have two versions.

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Tags: B+ supply, DIY-Audio, heater supply, power supply, regulator, transformer, tube
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (2)

Posted on Saturday, 28th June 2008 by Jimmy Auw

Hmm.. Today I receive some components which I’ve been waiting for

Can’t wait to assembly it… BlackGate, Orange Drop, Sprague, Mallory, Wima FKP, Riken RMG, Vishay L6C, and Kiwame. Some Teflon also have arrived on previous day. Some M-Lytic should be on the way, while some custom made special order metal foil resistor still on progress (2-3 weeks lead time, since this is special “made-by-order” things).

Wish I have 26 hours every day (2 hours extra for my DIY project).

Now I just can see it first. Assembly it later.

Tags: Capacitor, Component, DIY-Audio, resistor
Posted in DIY Audio | Comments (8)

Posted on Monday, 23rd June 2008 by Jimmy Auw

Well, this is a surprise news for me (at first). A “Made in America” PCB? Seriously?

Few months ago, my friend introduced me to TubeCAD (and finally led me to John Broskie). Actually, I knew his TubeCAD Journal and even his famous TubeCAD software 1-2 years ago (or more). But at that time, I didn’t have any interest on such technical things (like Broskie’s journals). Until finally, I heard his Aikido pre-amplifier and quite stunned how come a simple pre-amplifier (with cheap components) could lead into magical sound! Then I changed my mind and started to read some of Mr. Broskie’s journal.

My interest in some of his articles led me into a personal communications via e-mail (well, I do enjoy the modern technology, I wonder if I should send him an ordinary air mail to ask about his article - it will take years before I can get myself answered! With e-mail, within a night - due to different time zone, almost all of my questions could get the answers).

Finally, I decided to order his Aikido 9pin Mono PCB. John sent the package via express mail. It arrived around 2 days but due to custom issue, I accepted in around 5-6 days. Still quite a fast delivery

Here is the PCB. Dual sides, plated-through 2 oz copper traces. Don’t forget that both sides are silk-screened.

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Tags: 9pin, Aikido, DIY-Audio, PCB, Pre Amplifier, tube
Posted in Collectible Stuff, Personal | Comments (9)

Posted on Sunday, 8th June 2008 by Jimmy Auw

European Triode Festival (ETF) has been a yearly event for several years (since 2000, I think). It’s an event where (most likely) all vacuum tube lover will gather from around the world. And off course, all are DIY product, from amplifier to speaker (even turntable also).

Beside listening music, they also held some seminars. You can see, hear, and meet famous name like Jean Hiraga, Morgan Jones, Lynn Olson, Per Lundahl (Lundahl Transformers), Brian Sowther (Sowther Transformers), Steve Bench, Guido Tent (Tentlabs), Allen Wright (VSE), Peter van Willenswaard (Stereophile), Pieter Treurniet (Tribute Transformers), Tim de Paravicini (EAR/YOSHINO) and John Boskie (TubeCAD).

DHTRob has a very nice shoot. I Googled around and I picked some photos from ETF 2007 and published here. Please visit his site to see more or Google around to find more.

1 KiloWatt (1000 Watt) Push Pull Amplifier by Andre Klein (4 x 100TH as driver, 4 x 380Tube as power), special Output Transformer made by STS Millerioux (France). B+ is set at 5000 Volt (as shown on the photo below)!!! Totally crazy!

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Tags: DIY-Audio, Festival, tube
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Posted on Friday, 6th June 2008 by Jimmy Auw

I was involved in the discussion about “Good PC Power Supply“. Then, I suggested a small trick to wrap the power supply cable with aluminum foil (you can find it a local food store, usually to wrap food on the microwave).

After wrapping it with aluminum foil, I suggested to use heatshrink to wrap all the cable (and make it looked good and professional). One of my friend, Bang Rossi, tried this method on his PC. Below is the photo (hope you didn’t mind I put the photo here;). Thank you for the sharing, man!

A little bit messy (because he didn’t use heatshrink), but according to him, it worked good. Good dynamic and better sound stage. Wanna try yourself?

Tags: DIY-Audio, PC, power supply
Posted in DIY Audio | Comments (2)