jtfoo

This is the sound generator I use to create the 1khz wave file. http://www.nch.com.au/tonegen/index.html

. In this case, wouldn't the shield still "pollute" the ground still since it's connected?

For the shied to be effective, it has to be ground. If it's not ground, it does not have any shielding capabilities to channel RFI to ground. Connecting the shield at both end is alright, but some audiophile prefer to terminate just the source end, as already mentioned.

That's what I did for my zen. I used NCHT sound generator to generate a 1 khz sine wave. Burnt it into CDR and played it via my cdplayer. Most decent digital multimeter set at AC voltage is able to measure the voltage. I'm using the Sanwa CD8000.

 

Anyway, wat's the advantage that stepped attenuators have over pots?

As mentioned, Stepped attenuator has extremely good traking between left/right, depending which type of resistor you used 1% to 0.1% error.

Blue Alps are normal carbon pot, the cheapest type, errors can be as bad as 20%...

Also with stepped attenuator you can choose to use metal film resistors (who wouldn't), lower noise, better stability wrt to temp than carbon.

A good article to read on pots, though he missed out on the attenuator. http://sound.westhost.com/pots.htm . This site also contains alot of other articles when I learned most of my stuff.

They are just different type of volume pot. The blue alps is decent for most cases, esp when you're on the budget. I used them alot since the other alternatives are much expensive. But if digi01 can get the stepped attenuator cheaply, then got for it. I have no experience with china's stepped attenuator, but some I heard some are those 'break before make' type, the downside is you'll hear 'pop' evertime you turned the volume knob. The expensive one e.g DACT. are 'make before break', so no 'pop' sound. Maybe Huangyong or others can comment on the china attenuator whether they are which type.

Never tried black gates, coz they are too expensive for me and for what I read, they takes along time to break in. But many swear by it.

digi01 workmanship is top notch..Good quality pcb, layout and beautiful casing.... unlike mine... I would highly recommend him for the service

If you do engage someone local to do for you, take note, good quality caps are critical,especially those along the signal path. For me, I used silmic for most of the elco caps. esp C4 & C5 from the schematic. And the DC blocking cap C2, at least try to use polypropylene caps. I used the solen becoz it's cheaper, but you could invest a little more here.

As for mosfet IRF610, try to get those from farnell, by International Rectifier. The ones I got from SLT are from fairchild, and they die easily. Don't know if I have bought fake ones then. In the end waste money and bought from farnell. I have some left overs that are matched, which I'm able to sell off if you're interested.

Thanks HY for the info. For the price, I'm very tempted, but have to put on hold everything. Need to tome down on DIY and spend more time with my kid and wife..

Actually the best deal is to swap between a few pairs of very high quality holco resistors to get the volume u want... considering the $$$ vs sound hehe.

Wah, good idea. To add on for little flexibility, you could just get a 2 way 3 position selector switch, solder the predetermine resistors values for Low, med, High volume.

Sorry, don't read chinese too well, especially the taiwanese traditional chinese. Is this a headamp? HOw does is sound. From the price listed, it's really value for money. Does it comes with all the components, i.e. caps and transistors? And most importantly are the transistorss matched.

Tried a few amps (cmoy, meta42, PPA)on the Grado 125 and more recently 325i. imho, the zen amp is really designed for the grados. Only problem, you'll need to diy. I come from a person who dislike the grados initally and had regrets in purhcasing it, this mostly due to mismatched amps, like the cmoy(horrible, no current to drive), meta42.

Things got better with the PPA, very shiok. But when I finally tried it with the Zen, the Grados has become my favourite headdphones. Haven't touched the Beyer DT880 for a long time since.

I think you'll get better chance of someone helping you with the PPA, then the zen amp.

USe Iso Propyl Alcohol. It cleans, dry fast and does not leave residual of its own. Those celaning solution would would some sort of their own residual.

That uncle is fugged up. I always wait for auntie to charge. the uncle always find ways to cheat $$ one

Auntie nowadays no diff.. She just add sweeteners, like says she give special price, so secretly tell you don't let uncle know about it. In fact her price not much diff from uncle. She will also tell you all these are highly sought after audiophile caps, so her price is very cheap and tells you how someone has already make a huge order of it, like in 100s. Their other stuffs are rather standard price, it's the caps that really scary. I think some audiophile might have spoilt them into thinking how much we're willing to pay to get exotic caps... Well if it's not Mudorf, Rel, I'm not paying premium for any other brands, even the wima(according to koba, they are premium).

Just went Koba today to look for polyproplyene caps. Now even Poly* caps are expensive. That uncle want $2 apiece for a 0.22uf wima... They really think audiophile diyers are carrot heads.. Now all wimas he's putting a premium on it even the lousy mks.. I'm settlling for the rifa-evox commonly found in SLT.

jt:

 

Apparently I said I went to SLT, those are no "audiophile shops"...

 

So WHERE exactly can I find nice knobs...

 

So my question hangs...

There's already a thread on audiophile shops somewhere here. But I don't recall seeing any nice knobs at these places. For standard decent looking audio gear type of knobs, you can try koba at peoples park complex.

But the type of knobs that I like are not meant for audio gears but instead for musical instruments like the electic guitar. You's looking for shiny knob, the chrome plating type for a Fender tele has that classic look. Those speed knobs for Gibson also looks fantastic.Then there's those custom made with heavy metal imagery. I'm still looking for the elusive knob that goes all the way to 11.

Where are those Audiophile DIY shops?

You didn't read me properly. I don't get knobs from audiophile shops. COz the good lookings ones I found are not meant for hifi products.

Some of the best looking knobs are not found in Audiophile DIY shops...

Didnt realise that. Then, SLT which shop to get caps?

If you want audiophile caps, then no choice have to go to koba or any of diy audio shops like LArry or well audio..

If you're willing to settle for non-audiophile caps, plenty of shops in SLT.

You guys took interest too late. I sold off my 20 yrs old slightly spoilt (contact problem easily solve with basic diy skill)A1 cheaply at $80 abt a month ago. It was a classic then, but when compared to amps nowadays, really cmi..

Well, the only reason I have currently to visit Federal is the Farnell catalogue book. The only place else I can see one is at my poly. BTW, does anyone else find it hard to find stuff on their online catalogue?

Farnell on-line catalogue has improve alot. It's much easier to find what you want. Use to prefer RS-component, but now Farnell is better. And you get their latest price on line. The new hardcopy catalogue do not has prices on them anymore.

Her E-caps getting more expensive these days.. Nowadays I'm buying to non-audiophile e-caps from SLT.

I'd like to join for 2 pieces.. Thanks.

Using the Grado outdoor can be annoying to other commuters. Not the sight, but the sound leakage. Everyone on the bus will look at that fellow, cause of the little irritating noise it producing. And somemore the environment noise leaking in, it won't sound optimal.

That custom chassis is really impressive.

HuangYong, $480 for the CDpro2 is really a good price. I think AHF Art sells them for around that price, maybe it's from there. Does your friend have nice chassis for amplifier?

How much and where you got your CD PRo2??

Thanks jtfoo.

 

Or better still, you can get non-polarized elec cap. Don't know where got sell though...

Larry Hifi got BlackGate bipolar cap, but very expensive. Koba also have cheaper brands.