Posted on Sunday, 30th September 2012 by Auw Jimmy

As usual, every certain period, the local DIY audio group in Indonesia will have a small gathering in Bintaro. This is one of the favorite place (there are some other smaller places, but usually the biggest gathering always held here). The house is owned by F. Didik Wiryawan, which known as ‘MOSFET lover & master’ in Indonesia.

If you have visited my blog frequently, the picture below should be familiar for you.

A pair of giant speaker, some equipments on the center, etc has become a common menu during the gathering. It has become a standard actually (more…)

Tags: Bintaro, F6, Gathering, Indonesia, MOSFET, Nelson Pass, SIT
Posted in DIY Audio, Indonesia | Comments (7)

Posted on Monday, 19th March 2012 by Auw Jimmy

As usual, local audio DIY group in Indonesia held a routine group meeting and gathering. This time, the topic is DAC. There were several contenders joined this session.

Below is the setup used on that session. CD Player was CEC. Preamp were solid state (Pumpkin-Shunty Balanced Preamp) and tube (Aikido). Power was Aleph J2 ‘clone’. Speaker was 3-way floorstander with Vifa drivers.

(more…)

Tags: AD1865, AKM, Bintaro, Blind Test, DAC, J2, Pumpkin-Shunty, TDA, Yaqin
Posted in DIY Audio, Indonesia | Comments (12)

Posted on Sunday, 26th February 2012 by Auw Jimmy

Indonesia High End Audio Club (IHEAC) arranges a ‘grand prix’ to encourage DIY community to build and show their best product. There will be several blind test and each session will have 3 winners with different points rewarded. At the end of the year, the highest point accumulated shall be the first winner, etc (just like F1 race which will have the winner at the end of season).

The first session was DAC, which quite interesting as not much DIY touched this part. Probably because it’s not too easy to play with digital circuit.

Not too much photos in this session as most of the contenders are similar (silver or black boring box, without any interesting part to be shown).

Below wass the main stage. We could see Vienna Acoustics Mozart Grand as main speaker.

(more…)

Tags: Blind Test, iheac, Indonesia
Posted in DIY Audio, Indonesia | Comments (9)

Posted on Monday, 2nd January 2012 by Auw Jimmy

Time flies… I have owned this blog for more than 5 years. Despite the fluctuation, I think the trend is quite stable and showing a positive growing up trend. I think I have to start putting more convincing article (and more quantity for sure). I wish I have more than 24 hours a day. Actually I got enough toy to be played with, but so limited time.

Anyway, Happy New Year all. All the best (health, family, career, wealth, hobby, etc) for the upcoming year (indeed, now is 2nd of January).

(more…)

Tags: blog, other, statistic
Posted in Indonesia, Personal | Comments (2)

Posted on Sunday, 30th January 2011 by Auw Jimmy

Indonesia High End Audio Club or in short, IHEAC, held an blind test (or maybe I would prefer to call them as blind scoring) for tube pre-amp. The session was  started on the afternoon, around 11am. Some equipment used shown below.

We can see some stuff like Quadral Platinum M4 speaker, Consonance Droplet CD Player, Air Tight Reference Pre-Amp ATC-3, and KT88 tube amplifier (I believe in Push Pull configuration).

(more…)

Tags: Blind Test, iheac, pre amp, Pre Amplifier, preamplifier
Posted in DIY Audio, Indonesia | Comments (3)

Posted on Wednesday, 24th February 2010 by Auw Jimmy

Last week, we held a DIY gathering. Located at Bintaro, Indonesia. The host was Mr. Didik F. Wiryawan and family. Around 30+ people were there, was one of the crowded gathering ever. Below is the picture of the stage. We held some Blind Test also. You will also see some fancy DIY creation here.

(more…)

Tags: Blind Test, DIY Audio, Indonesia
Posted in DIY Audio, Indonesia | Comments (17)

Posted on Tuesday, 18th August 2009 by Auw Jimmy

After you read this, perhaps you would expect a better system to test the capacitors. So today, I visit a friend, and test the capacitors on his system. We can call him, Mr. X. Here is some brief of Mr. X audio system.

Below is the power amplifier. Powered with RS241, RE604,and 6J5. Rectifier is RGN 2504 (later we try Klangfilm RGN 4004). OT is Tango. Currently powered with Jensen Copper Foil Capacitor and old NOS Western Electric capacitors. FYI, RS241 is claimed by most audiophiles as best sounding tube amplifier (forget 300B or 2A3) – and it’s really proven, if you have chance to hear it. This is an ultimate Single Ended tube amplifier (if you really know what do RS241, RE604, and 6J5 really mean to an audiophile).

(more…)

Tags: Capacitor, Duelund, jensen, mundorf, tube
Posted in DIY Audio, Indonesia | Comments (42)

Posted on Sunday, 16th August 2009 by Auw Jimmy

Just what I’ve promised before, finally today I do the most awaited Capacitors Battle. Actually the “real battle” will be done within next few days. Let’s say, this is as first impression to “hear” how good they would sound

I use ELMA Switch (2 poles, 6 positions). Click here for details. The connection in details also explained there.

Here is the appearance of my jig. It’s an Aikido Pre-Amplifier. Powered with 6N1P tube in front connected to 6N6P tube as buffer stage. Rectifier is RGN 1054. The capacitor used as output coupling. Each channel has it’s own ELMA Switch. Please remember the selection is made in “perfect” mode (read here for details). Oh, I use empty CD holder as base for my ELMA

(more…)

Tags: Capacitor, Duelund, ELMA, jensen, VCap
Posted in DIY Audio, Indonesia | Comments (20)

Posted on Sunday, 6th July 2008 by Auw Jimmy

My custom power transformers have just arrived. Like on my previous post, I plan to use 4 power transformer for my next Aikido project (two Heaters and two High Voltage). So here is the stuff

The first line above is the High Voltage power transformer (primary on 220V, secondary on 200V, 220V, 230V, 250V, 5V , and 7.5V). I have extra heater’s secondary in case I don’t want to use the additional transformer. The High Voltage itself rated at 200mA, while the 5V/7.5V rated at 3A.

The second line above is the Heater power transformer (primary on 220V, secondary at 5 and 7.5V). Rated at 3A. So, I completely separate the Heater and High Voltage power transformer, resulted in 4 power transformer for this project. (more…)

Tags: B+ supply, DIY-Audio, heater supply, transformer
Posted in Collectible Stuff, Indonesia, Personal | Comments (9)

Posted on Sunday, 11th May 2008 by Auw Jimmy

Sekitar bulan Maret lalu, gue ada pergi ke Shanghai (transit di Hong Kong). For some reason, gue beli SIM Card di sana juga (cuman ada dua pilihan, China Mobile atau China Unicom – dan gue beli China Mobile yang merupakan operator besar di Cina). Tapi seperti biasa, SIM Card Satelindo Matrix tetep gue nyalain, in case ada telepon penting yang masuk. Gue juga pernah mencatat biaya roaming di beberapa negara lain yang kebetulan gue kunjungi. Silakan liat di sini.

Berikut kita liat biaya roamingnya…

Untuk mengirim SMS, biaya yang dikenakan masih cukup wajar yaitu sekitar Rp 3.388 (dengan China Unicom) atau Rp 2.954 (dengan China Telecom) per SMS.

Selanjutnya kita liat biaya untuk menerima panggilan…

(more…)

Posted in Indonesia, IT/Gadget, Personal | Comments (5)

Posted on Monday, 3rd March 2008 by Auw Jimmy

Saya memang bukan tipe orang yang gemar shopping. Oleh karena itu, ketika berpergian ke luar negeri pun, saya jarang bawa uang cash banyak-banyak. Buat apa? Pikir saya. Toh hari gini jaman sudah modern. Pasti toko pada punya mesin gesek alias mesin kartu kredit.

Namun pada kunjungan saya ke Taipei tahun lalu, saya akhirnya kena batunya juga. Saya mengunjungi sebuah toko CD dan Piringan Hitam bekas. Setelah memilih beberapa CD dan PH, akhirnya saya baru nyadar yang toko tersebut hanya menerima cash alias uang tunai. Haiya… mana uang di dompet tinggal beberapa ratus NT$ saja. Mana cukup?

Bermodal nekad dan “bahasa tubuh” untuk menanyakan ATM terdekat, akhirnya saya menemukan dua buah ATM. Lokasinya hanya sekitar 5 menit jalan kaki dari toko tempat saya berbelanja. Hmm… Kebetulan saya hanya ngantongin satu ATM, yaitu BCA. Semoga bank lokal yang biasanya cukup melelahkan untuk urusan antri-mengantrinya ini tidak mengecewakan saya.

ATM yang saya kunjungi adalah milik Hua Nan Commercial Bank Ltd. Nekad aja masukkin ATM BCA saya, pilih Bahasa English, dan masukkan jumlah yang yang mau saya tarik. Eh bisa ternyata hehehe… *Norak Mode ON* Sepertinya Bank Hua Nan ini menggunakan jaringan Cirrus (terlihat di receipt-nya). Hebatnya lagi, sisa duit saya di BCA pun otomatis dikonversi dan ditampilkan pada receipt. Kurs-nya pun sangat bagus (saya lupa pastinya, yang pasti selisihnya sangat tidak signifikan dibandingkan kurs di valuta asing waktu saya beli NT$ di Indonesia).

Kehebatan lainnya adalah ATM di sini bisa keluarin dua pecahan mata uang. At least dari yang saya coba, dia bisa keluarin NT$ 1000 dan 500. Gak kaya ATM di Indo yang masih fix pecahannya Rp 100.000 atau Rp 50.000.

Cuman ya kena “ongkos” aja sekitar Rp 20.000-25.000 sekali tarik.

(more…)

Posted in Indonesia, Personal | Comments (15)

Posted on Sunday, 20th January 2008 by Auw Jimmy

Well, I just couldn’t be more proud than this. Finally, a high end speaker driver brand from Indonesia. Call it SB Acoustics!

According to Stereophile, the Scandinavian Audio Research (ScAR) has annouced SB Acoustic. The people behind all of this are famous person in its world. Check the names below:
- Lars Goller (former directing engineer at Danish Sound Technology)
- Ulrik Schmidt (former ScanSpeak senior engineer)
- Frank Neilsen (former DST senior mechanical engineer)
- Benny Frank Pedersen (former ScanSpeak engineer)
- Alan Hydel Jensen (former ScanSpeak engineer)
- Torben Sondergaard (former ScanSpeak president)
- David A. Stephens (former vice-president of VIFA)

Maybe just former Peerless person is not on the list DST, Vifa, and ScanSpeak are there.

According to David A. Stephens:
“Lars and I are still dedicated to the system approach to hi-fi—to controlling the signal from its recovery to the time it leaves the drivers, but we felt a real void in our lives after Tymphany’s merger with DST. Deep down in our hearts, we’re old-school OEM guys and we missed that vigorous collaboration with manufacturers and the thrill of shepherding a product from conception to production. We’re problem solvers and, God help us, we actually thrive on deadlines, so we felt it was time to take all of the talent and experience we collectively have and find new challenges.

Manufacturers who can supply such challenges can reach Stephens at david@sbacostics.com or (262) 784-7852. The new drivers will be on display at CES 2008.“

A challenge from Stephens?

As you may also have heard the news our there. After Tymphany took over the Peerles, Vifa, Logic, and ScanSpeak, many good drivers have been discontinued. Many good products have been phased out (like Vifa brand which changed to Peerless V-Series. But then due to some reason, Tymphany changed it back to Vifa again). This produced a lot of disappointment from customers (and also from the people who worked behind those famous brand).

So, finally the SB Acoustic was born. From the screen shot below (taken from Solen.ca), SB Acoustics is made in Indonesia.

(more…)

Posted in DIY Audio, Indonesia | Comments (11)