Posted on Friday, 11th May 2012 by Auw Jimmy

During my journey in this insane DIY Audio world, I tend to revert back my taste into kind a vintage. I also don’t understand why, but those vintage item give something special. One of the example is on one of my meter collection.

There are several brand of meter manufacturer, which has been in this industry for quite some time. One of my favorite is Triplett (I also like Simpson or Weston or GE, but their design is not as ‘elegant’ as Triplett, this could be my personal preference though).

As you can see below. This 300 DC Volts meter has a classic font. The black plastic combined with white background gives a sense of simplicity yet tough. The needle itself has a sharp rounded with hole pointer, which is also another special part that hardly to be found in newer design. The sharp part could be used to improve the reading accuracy (for minor number), while the hole could be used for the major number (50, 100, 150, etc).

To be honest, most modern meter only use a simple straight needle which definitely throw away the vintage passion (I believe one who uses analog meter must have some sentimental reason – so most of the time the design itself matter, not only the function).

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Tags: Triplett, vintage meter
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Posted on Friday, 20th April 2012 by Auw Jimmy

I bought Yamamoto 9Pin socket few weeks ago and I just realize that actually I need the PCB in order to make the soldering process easier. As you also notice, the 9Pin socket has very tiny pins. Soldering them probably would not be an easy job, especially if we are playing with big AWG cable (I’m using 12 AWG or 2 mm size for filament).

As my goods have been shipped out, then I have to arrange another shipment for this PCB. I contacted Shigeki in order to get this PCB. But suddenly, I got something flashing on my head. Why shouldn’t we try to make ourselves? It wouldn’t be much cheaper, but could have some fun. Anyway, I don’t really need extra pins on the PCB like shown on Yamamoto PCB below. I would prefer to have empty hole PCB to solder my cable. That would be easier, huh?

Below is very nice PCB by Yamamoto for it’s 9Pin socket.

The after several hours playing with DipTrace (no one got default library for 9Pin Teflon tube socket, I only could find the Ceramic type which is larger in diameter) – finally I came up with a new custom library for this socket. I printed it out and checked with the real socket to see if I made a good size for the pins. Voila, it’s just perfectly nice!

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Tags: DipTrace, PCB, Teflon, Tube Socket, Yamamoto
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Posted on Sunday, 15th April 2012 by Auw Jimmy

Jensen has 4 types in their Copper Foil Paper-In-Oil line-up capacitor. Actually, they are same capacitor, but only has different chassis or enclosure. Unfortunately, the different in enclosure produces different sound (and eventually different price). I’m not saying the most expensive is the best one (at least for my ears). That’s why it’s quite interesting to try them. Jensen has 4 types of enclosure/tube: Aluminum, Paper, Copper, and Ceramic. I have tried 3 of them (Aluminum, Paper, and Copper). It’s time to get the last one, the Ceramic tube to fulfill my thirst on this ‘oily capacitor world’. Before you got disappointed, there will be no test result on this post as I must pass around 100-200 hours break-in period first.

Below are some reading which could be interesting:
Battle of 3 Capacitors
Extreme Capacitor Battle 1st Session
Extreme Capacitor Battle 2nd Session

And below is the appearance of the Jensen Ceramic tube capacitor.

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Tags: Capacitor, Ceramic, jensen
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Posted on Sunday, 15th April 2012 by Auw Jimmy

Finally after a long journey, I find few pcs of DPDT switch with center off. You might be asking why we should have a center off switch? Probably not everyone needs this kind of switch. One application crosses my mind is to measure stereo channel bias with single bias meter only. Probably due to safety and durability issue, you will not measure your bias all the time you use your system. So with this switch, you can always switch left or right to measure respective channel and put back to the center to turn the measurement off.

And this Nittei Musen brand has been in this industry more than half century ago… Welcome to the 21st century!

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Tags: Center Off, DPDT, Nittei Musen, switch
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Posted on Sunday, 8th April 2012 by Auw Jimmy

Tamura’s iron is not new kid on the block. They have been here for a quite long time. Even Westerner also admits the quality of Tamura (well, we can see some contenders from West side but hardly to beat Japanese Iron). I’m interested to try some of Tamura’s Choke. I’ve used the A-4004, which currently a top of the line Choke from Tamura (actually, Tamura doesn’t have Choke line-up as much as Hashimoto or Tango) and quite satisfy with its performace. But I was tempted to try their other two Choke line-up: The Amorphous and The Vintage series.

Amorphous currently available in 2 variants. I take the A-4006 which capable to deliver 200mA on 10H or 400mA on 2.5H. Should be enough for most of your Single Ended or Push Pull application. For the Vintage series (this is the name that I use to call, not official from Tamura), I take the A-395 which will hold 120mA on 10H.

All those three Chokes are similar in size and weight. ‘Similar’ doesn’t mean 100% exactly same, right?

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Tags: Amorphous, Choke, Tamura
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Posted on Sunday, 8th April 2012 by Auw Jimmy

If you have been in this audio industry quite some time, then you might not be surprised to hear this name: Yamamoto. Yamamoto is well known for its Telfon tube socket. Although we can find other products manufactured by this brand.

To be honest, there are not much tube socket manufacturer in the world (I mean, “good” tube socket manufacturer). Off course you can always find “standard” tube socket (could be Ceramic base, Teflon, Bakelite, and other materials). The price also could vary, from less than US$ 10 a piece, to over US$ 10 to 20 a piece (usually for Teflon based).

Yamamoto holds its own class, as Japanese manufacturer with high quality construction. But the bad thing is, you have to spend more to grab his product

Despite its quality, Yamamoto also quite genius to release some dual construction tube socket. One of them which suits my need is the UX-UF socket combination. I can save space to make my system able to use two type of rectifiers: B4/UF based rectifier (RGN, what else?) and UX based rectifier (like #80 or #83 Mercury Vapor type). Actually the original idea was to use 300B and PX25, but we can always have another use, right?

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Tags: Teflon, Tube Socket, Yamamoto
Posted in Collectible Stuff | Comments (7)

Posted on Sunday, 4th March 2012 by Auw Jimmy

It comes upon a time when my DACT Stepped Attenuator needs a clean-up. Well, if you see below picture, the connectors are getting rusty. I could hear significant noise when changing the volume. Although some external cleaning spray has been used, but it seems they only solve the problem temporarily. I do need a serious overhaul on this stuff.

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Tags: DACT, Stepped Attenuator
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio | Comments (4)

Posted on Sunday, 26th February 2012 by Auw Jimmy

I never ever think what is circular connector before – and what it’s all about. But when it comes upon a time when I decide to split my power supply from my preamp, then I start to think how to connect them.

Well, we have several options, but the most common one is by using a connector which commonly called circular or cylindrical connector. I would rather say it’s similar like a DIN connector, but with a lot of option in the size and pin counts.

Before, I plan to go with Amphenol Military Grade one (with extra protection in the harsh environment). But it’s quite difficult to find as my needs is minimum 4 pins @ 2 mm diameter at least. Almost a lot of online store doesn’t have any stock – even if they have, the price is quite high.

So eventually I find this one, Nanaboshi circular, at quite reasonable price and could fill up my requirements.

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Tags: Circular Connector, Nanaboshi
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio | Comments (9)

Posted on Sunday, 12th February 2012 by Auw Jimmy

I break one of my tube (in purpose) to take this shoot. It’s an EF184 made by Philips. I don’t have any use for this tube anyway. So just enjoy the weekend shoot meanwhile I’m soldering my DAC

EF184 is a high gain pentode with frame grid. Mostly was used as IF Amplifier with high operation bandwidth up to 40 MHz in old television receiver.

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Tags: EF184, Photogenic, tube
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Posted on Monday, 9th January 2012 by Auw Jimmy

Long time I haven’t written any review about my CD collection. This time, I will write about one of the most collectible album, Amanda McBroom: Dreaming. This is one from two collectible album from Amanda. The other one is “Growing Up in Hollywood Town” which also ever reviewed somewhere around last year.

Amanda is an American singer and also a songwriter. I think most of her song was written by herself.

Around 1985, Amanda with her manager (also her husband) set up a label named Gecko Records. And this “Dreaming” was their first album under Gecko Record (on 1986). Previously, the “Growing Up in Hollywood Town” was done under Sheffield Labs label.

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Tags: Amanda McBroom, CD Audio Review, Dreaming, Gecko Records, Sheffield Labs
Posted in CD/DVD Review, Collectible Stuff | Comments (0)

Posted on Tuesday, 20th December 2011 by Auw Jimmy

Finding a good soldering iron is not an easy job. But once you find it, it will simplify the rest of your life – I mean, the rest of your soldering life

One of my preference brand is Goot from Taiyo Electric, Japan. Although there are several affordable and also durable brand, but I think I’m quite OK with this Goot soldering iron (but remember, this is not the only brand in the world and the important is the man behind the gun, I mean, the solder).

I’m quite happy with CS-30 series which I bought maybe more than 7 years ago. It’s very durable. The main reason for me to change is the screw to remove the tip has broken (so I can’t change the broken tip). The new replacement is CS-31 which carries similar spec (25W version).

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Tags: Goot, Melting Temperature, solder, Soldering Iron, WBT
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio, Measurement | Comments (6)

Posted on Tuesday, 20th December 2011 by Auw Jimmy

So far, my current reference for solder is WBT. Price and performance wise, this is one of the best from my point of view (also point of listening). But somehow someday, I was intrigued to try Mundorf top of the line solder, the MSolder Supreme Silver Gold. I know Mundorf quite well, as at some point, I used to love their capacitor (especially the Silver/Gold/Oil series).

This top of the line solder contains 88.6% Tin, 1.8% Copper, (massively) 9.5% Silver, and 0.1% Gold.

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Tags: Goot, Mundorf MSolder Silver Gold, Soldering Iron
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio | Comments (4)