Posted on Monday, 9th January 2012 by Auw Jimmy

Let’s forget a little bit about audio and move a little bit to another hobby of me: photography.

Recently, I rarely bring my camera during short trip. Why? Because mostly I visit a similar place which no longer interesting. If you have been there to a place multiple times, then the rest would become a boring day. Agree?

By the way, before continuing this, I have to admit that I’m not a professional photographer – not even close. My gear mostly an obsolete one (now I’m using Canon SX10 IS for my daily photography needs). I own several cameras before, including DSLR. But due to less used, compared to my audio gear, then I decide to sell them – mostly. Only keep some simple gear, means no DLSR, welcome Prosumer grade camera.

When I first time got the Nokia Lumia 800, I’m quite impressed with the camera quality. I think it can compete with most smartphone on its class. Not to mention the f/2.2 Carl Zeiss Tessar lens could give you better capture.

(more…)

Tags: Lumia 800, Nokia, Windows Phone
Posted in IT/Gadget, Personal | Comments (1)

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.

(more…)

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?

(more…)

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) .

(more…)

Tags: Marantz PM400AVK, Marantz Receiver, Mission 762, Mission Speaker
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (5)

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 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.

(more…)

Tags: Cardas, lotfett, rosin flux, soldering paste
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (11)

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 (16)

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!

(more…)

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

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.

(more…)

Tags: DACT, Duelund, Musicsnap, tweak, Vifa
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (5)

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).

(more…)

Tags: LED, LM317, Luxeon
Posted in Personal | Comments (0)

Posted on Thursday, 20th May 2010 by Auw Jimmy

In just few days, world lost two big guys, well known in the audio/music world.

First was Gesang Martohartono (1 October 1917 – 20 May 2010), a renowned Indonesia singer and songwriter, especially in kroncong style. He was famous throughout Asia, not just in his own country, Indonesia. His most famous song was Bengawan Solo. One of his best recording was recorded by JVC Japan here.

The other was Dr. Fritz Sennheiser (9 May 1912 – 17 May 2010), founder of Sennheiser, well known as professional microphone and headphone manufacturer. Sennheiser has become a respected brand in current audio world.

Good bye to both of you.

God bless!

Tags: fritz sennheiser, gesang martohartono
Posted in Personal | Comments (1)