Posted on Tuesday, 24th January 2012 by Auw Jimmy

It’s been a while since my last capacitor comparison review was done. Not much changes actually (not much new ‘interesting’ products also I think). But I was quite tempted to try the Alexander series from Duelund. The reason was simple, it’s quite affordable but having Duelund popularity on it. We’ll see if it’s worth to try.

As usual, I put one of my favorite ‘affordable’ reference capacitor, the Jensen Paper Tube and the ‘premium’ reference capacitor, the Duelund CAST Cu. I kept my ‘ultimate’ reference capacitor, the Duelund CAST Ag, as this was a different beast.

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Tags: Alexander, CAST Cu, Duelund, ELMA, jensen, mundorf
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Posted on Saturday, 7th January 2012 by Auw Jimmy

After the Part I has been done, now I continue to the Part II. On this 2nd part, I will see what’s wrong with the Marantz PM400AVK.

Simple testing method is to try it on other speaker. Initial diagnosis is the volume control problem, as I could hear some cracking and intermittent no sound on the speaker. But sometime the problem could be solved after turning the volume up and down. Definitely, initial problem is on the volume control. So let’s take a look inside.

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Tags: ALPS, Capacitor, Fake Capacitor, Marantz, potentiometer
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (0)

Posted on Wednesday, 4th January 2012 by Auw Jimmy

If you have read this previous article, probably you got my point when reading this one. Now, I’m doing the modification for the speaker. After several serious examination (well, you know me, I can’t be more serious than this time), it seems that there is no hope for the tweeter. So let’s find a good replacement. After googling around for several hours, I stick to the Vifa XT25SC90 tweeter. I use the ‘older’ brother XT25TG30 on my other DIY speaker and quite convinced with its sonic quality (despite its poor off axis performance). Price wise, you can get a pair less than $50. What a bargain?

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Tags: Bennic, Cable, inductor, Mission 762, Siemens, speaker, Tweeter, XT25
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (7)

Posted on Monday, 2nd January 2012 by Auw Jimmy

My wife knows and supports my hobby in audio. I think she even knows almost all of my expenses. Well, ‘almost’ means maybe there are some that she doesn’t care or aware of – not my intention to hide from her .

Once upon a time, when we were on her mother’s living room, I stumbled upon an audio system used there. It was quite old and sounded ‘ultimately’ bad. She jokingly asked me how do I rate this system. Honestly I said, maybe around 20 from 100 scale. Well, it’s true. Even maybe 20 was still slightly over rated. Then she challenged to improve it. After checking them for few minutes, I decided to give further examination as the condition was ‘terrible’. OK, I could bring this home for some new year’s fun. Then the adventure begun…

Now, let’s start with the speaker. The speaker is Mission 762. Quite good on its era (20 years back). But now, it sounds so bad. The woofer seems fine, but the tweeter I think already running out of his life. Too much noises and ‘too smooth’ (means no treble or detail) .

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Tags: Marantz PM400AVK, Marantz Receiver, Mission 762, Mission Speaker
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Posted on Monday, 26th December 2011 by Auw Jimmy

For most of my soldering life, I still use what we call as ‘Flux’ or ‘Soldering Paste’ (or also known as ‘Lotfett’). Although some people say that the use of Flux for soldering is for newbie work , but I don’t really care actually. What I do want is a perfect soldering quality.

Below is the frequently used Flux. It’s cheap (indeed, very cheap) and enough for most of us. I bought this long-long time ago and never can finish it although has been used hundred (if not thousand) times.

But few weeks ago, I started to think a better replacement. I saw a Rosin Flux made by Cardas (to be honest, not many brand makes such Flux any longer as most of the newer solder already incorporates Flux inside to simplify our soldering job). But again, in most of the time, a separate Flux still needed. As the price was quite reasonable (though still multiple times compared to the Lotfett), I decided to grab one.

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Tags: Cardas, lotfett, rosin flux, soldering paste
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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 (0)

Posted on Monday, 12th December 2011 by Auw Jimmy

I was quite surprised to hear this email below few days ago. Yes I knew that some Cardas SRCA has Cardas logo, found on their reference or factory terminated cable – but I didn’t know (or didn’t realize) if their separate selling of the SRCA (plug only) shouldn’t have this logo.

According to Josh Meredith, the SRCA with Cardas logo is a fake or counterfeit one. Except if you buy a factory terminated cable.

Should I say I’m lucky or not? That I have both type of SRCA on hand… >.<

I bought the ‘considered fake one’ on the common public online marketplace ‘where you can buy almost everything’  – I do hope you got my clue. I bought at similar price with common retailer like PCX. The reason for me to buy from that marketplace was the delivery time was faster as the seller was from Asia, instead of – let’s say PCX – which located on Canada. And that kind of shortcut leaded me into throwing money into garbage bin. Since it’s already happened, there is no reason to cry. Let’s see what is the different from the physical side between those two.

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Tags: Cardas, Counterfeit, Fake Cardas, Fake SRCA, SRCA
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio | Comments (2)

Posted on Tuesday, 15th November 2011 by Auw Jimmy

So far, Auricap is one of my trusted capacitor brand – in power supply section. I still remember ‘few’ years back (when using this capacitor for the very first time) and comparing with Solen, Hovland, and Bennic XPP in my very first DIY speaker. Sounds familiar – if you were ever there.

Now, time has changed, but Auricap remains there. Affordable and sounds quite natural capacitor. I receive information from my colleague that Auricap releases latest type, the XO series. Not quite sure why Auricap uses XO as their new model. Probably as this new capacitor also available in very larger version (100 uF++, if I’m not mistaken).

Auricap is still my favorite in power supply section, after Solen. Well, so far if you are thinking a full film capacitor power supply, then Solen is a nice and realistic choice, as they are available in large capacitance, adequate 400-630 VDC, and definitely affordable price. Now, with the arrival of Auricap XO, which also offers large capacitance and high voltage, then the different is all about money (and performance to justify the cost).

I order 0.1 uF / 400 VDC and plan to use them in power supply section of my new Aikido Preamp.

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Tags: auricap, Auricap XO, Capacitor, preamp
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio | Comments (2)

Posted on Sunday, 13th November 2011 by Auw Jimmy

During the upgrading process, the old Ceramic tube socket also got new replacement to the Teflon one. The problem is, the process to remove the old tube socket will not be an easy job, as removing other parts. Why? Because as other part usually only has 2 leads, the tube socket got 9 points to be removed.

Actually if you really want to re-use the old socket, you have to use hot air solder to remove the perfectly. But I don’t really have the need to re-use the old socket. So I cut them directly.

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Tags: Aikido, preamp, solder, Teflon, Tube Socket, WBT
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Posted on Monday, 7th November 2011 by Auw Jimmy

As I’m about to move my Aikido Preamp to a new ‘home’ (I mean, new chassis), then it’s time to fix all the components used there. Before, I have tested several components on different section and later then I got final conclusion to put what on where, etc. Below you can see one of the original parts used during my earlier testing stage. Now it’s time to finalize?

One most difficult thing is to unsolder all the components first. As you can see below, most of the parts are not yet fixed (long leads, hanging here hanging there, etc etc). Unsoldering them definitely would not be a nice evening job.

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Tags: Aikido, preamp, TX2575, Z201
Posted in DIY Audio | Comments (6)

Posted on Wednesday, 12th October 2011 by Auw Jimmy

Still remember the first chapter here? I have transferred the paper mockup into digital format. It didn’t take long time to do that

Just need to send (or print) this format and send to the manufacturer. I’m quite sure they can make one for me.

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Tags: Aikido, power supply, preamp, Prototype
Posted in DIY Audio | Comments (3)