Posted on Wednesday, 22nd September 2010 by Auw Jimmy

I’m about to finalize this sound card mod. The output now is taken directly from the WM8770IFT, coupled with Jensen Copper Foil Paper Tube Capacitor (before it was Mundorf Silver/Gold/Oil). The sound improves quite a lot.

Soon, I will add an SRPP (tube output) in order to make this mod more compatible with most preamp or amp connected to it. After that, well, I think I will have an adequate digital player as source to replace my CD Player. Probably. Not so sure though

Tags: aureon, Digital Player, jensen, sound card, SRPP
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (20)

Posted on Sunday, 19th September 2010 by Auw Jimmy

I’m thinking to create a first gift for my newborn (ooopsss… he is not yet here, just about to). A small MP3 Player with tiny amplifier to drive a small speaker should be a nice idea. I will introduce him to music as early as I can. So this could be the right time.

After searching around, I finally find a small chip amplifier, TBA820. It’s a small, 8-pins DIP type, low power at 2 Watt maximum on B-Class. Not a bad as a start. I don’t play with A or AB-Class due to heat issue. The goal is small design, almost no heat, and could be powered with battery when needed. This TBA820 chip amp should be excellent stuff.

The finished kit shown as below. With around 5 VDC power from battery, it could drive my tiny 2″ mini speaker at quite loud volume. Nice!

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Tags: Amplifier, oscilloscope, TBA820, Tiny Amplifier
Posted in DIY Audio, Measurement, Personal | Comments (5)

Posted on Monday, 13th September 2010 by Auw Jimmy

Some of the readers mailed to me and asked, why do I digitalize my collections? The reason is as below.

I found at least one of my CD has a serious unrecoverable error. The outer circle has black stain on the inside layer. The track from #8 to end, definitely not readable, even with my laptop and Exact Audio Copy. The CD was “Carmen Meets Kharma”, STS SACD – The Essence of Music series (STS 611126). Was one of my really favorite collection

The surprising this was, this CD was not cheap. I’ve seen such phenomena on cheap-pirated-not so well manufactured CD. But rarely on fabricated one and with such rare usage (this CD condition was very good, almost no scratch and played less than 50 times in the 3 years period after I bought it).

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Tags: CD Audio
Posted in Collectible Stuff | Comments (14)

Posted on Sunday, 12th September 2010 by Auw Jimmy

After a disappointing thing happens this morning (later I will discuss), I decide to make a digital backup of almost all (at least my favorites) Audio CD collection.

The best tool for this job is Exact Audio Copy (EAC). I will need around 7-10 minutes for each CD, and at least 50-100 of my favorites urgently need to be backed-up. This gonna be a long day… Well, we have to start it somehow.

Tags: Backup, CD Audio, EAC
Posted in Personal | Comments (5)

Posted on Friday, 10th September 2010 by Auw Jimmy

On our last local DIY Audio gathering, we were provided with a free complimentary set of a new tweaking stuff. It was called Musicsnap.

On my imagination, this kind of tweaking stuff is similar with VTS Marigo Dot or something. Not so sure though, until we can have a further check.

According to the person distributes this free complimentary sample, the Musicsnap is based on the MDI (Micro Discharge Interface) distortion theory by Pierre Johannet. Although this theory receives many debates and controversies (due to most people current limited knowledge to prove it scientifically), many audio manufacturer actually already implement similar approach with MDI. Perhaps they don’t speak MDI directly, because most of the time, people would call you retarded if you are talking about something which you can’t scientifically prove (or only based on common audiophile geeks amazing word, “Oh, I hear the different!”).

But what they have done (and maybe after serious long listening test), proves that this kind of MDI approaches does make some different and significant improvement to the audio system. We leave the question “why and how” to the people who is interested (you can easily find those article – mostly in French – with “MDI” and “Pierre Johannet” keywords).

The manufacturer says that this Musicsnap best used on non-soldering join, like RCA connection, front face of speaker driver, volume control, etc. But it’s time for me (and most of the visitor of the gathering who received the sample) to check if there is really a significant improvement elsewhere.

Musicsnap has two sides: black side and the white side which has sticky tape on it.

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Tags: DACT, Duelund, Musicsnap, tweak, Vifa
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Posted on Friday, 10th September 2010 by Auw Jimmy

On this long holiday, I dig one of my old abandoned project box and find my old Luxeon project. This was my old project. A pair of Luxeon III Star which could emits around 100 Lumens each, driven by LM317 dual stage regulator (as current and voltage regulator). I must check more detail how many current could be pumped on this circuit, but the maximum voltage is around 3.2V (although this Luxeon could be driven even more). I plan to make another driver to explore the maximum potential of this old Luxeon. We’ll see later.

Below is both Luxeon at maximum setting allowed by my LM317 driver (if I remember correctly, due to safety reason of limited heatsink used, I limit the maximum at 60% from the Luxeon allowed rating). I use 12 VDC / 2A from external switching adapter.

Taken at F/5, 1/5 sec, around 4.5x zoom (distance to object around 1 meter or less).

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Tags: LED, LM317, Luxeon
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Posted on Friday, 10th September 2010 by Auw Jimmy

I have received some emails asking about “what is this Jensen 4-pole” and “what makes it different from other”. I will write down short explanation about it.

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Tags: 4-pole, Capacitor, jensen
Posted in DIY Audio | Comments (2)