pegasus21

Yes it's actually an issue of price fixing by the manufacturer. Hence Northern Sound asks you to email or call them for the best price as they can't advertise as selling lower than the fixed price.

Have you tried both? I'll suggest going to SE since they carry both models. I haven't tried the K81 but I like my MS1. Thinking of testing the K81 soon. BTW, you're intending to ues the phones in which situation? Home or outside? If you're going to use it outside, probably the K81 insulation might make a better choice. If at home, both models should do well depending on tastes.

Thanks. I'll go check out the phones there soon.

Anyone knows anywhere that sells the K81 and roughly how much is it?

I did a check and found that the total cost for the k701, ship and gst would be about S$455. Not bad price. Wait... there's no gst charge on this since one of components in the calculation is just under the limit... so it's actually S$426. That's really nice. Register for a vpost account. Then ask northernsound to send to vpost's address. Pay vpost the amount to ship to sg. Not sure how vpost knows it's your package though... but that's roughly how it works. Oh they require you to use a certain name for the package to be sent to so as to know whose package it is.

I donno about any specific headphones or earphones. For headphones, you'll rather those that are closed back say like the Senn PX200. There are others too. For earphone... I'll probably suggest an IEM since those have insulation. Since you're playing it outside your home, you probably don't need such a good headphone or earphone.

From what I know, it is pretty much the internals of a buffer being assembled using individual components. This has the benefit of a higher current limit. I'm not sure if the distortion is lower than a BUF634. Pretty low though at 0.002% as mentioned by Walt Jung. A buffer is to give you the low output impedance as well as to give the power need to drive the stuffs connected at the output. If your signal comes out of the amplifier but doesn't have enough power to drive whatever that's connected to it, the signal voltage will drop and you thus have the situation where your load isn't driven well.

Why don't you call Jaben and ask for a quote?

Find Jaben. He has one that sells for 25 Sing.

The LDM+ battery just keeps going and going. I have yet to charge my LDM+ from the 4th MO too. I use it about 2-3 hours per day on average during the weekdays. Then for the first week I was burning it in so I was listening to it longer. About 2 weeks now. Crazy power.

It's time to get an external DAC. LOL

Thanks people for the suggestions. I'll probably go look at the places heady suggested. Farnell and RS have limited selection when it comes to certain specialised components.

Ok this may be a dumb question but where do the DIY gurus source for their audio grade components? How about Hammond casings? The shop at Berlington Square?

From what I've read about the LD2+, it does heat up some though the LD2 heats up more. Guess it's normal. Other tube amps don't heat up as much as the LD2+ based on what I've read.

Shouldn't be hard to catch him if you have the authorities to back you. lol Anyhow, it's really sad that people have to resort to tricks to 'earn' money.

Got any photos and list of the main components?

I see. Thanks for clearing it up for me. Yes IC3 is hard to get however Farnell carries IC2. I've managed to sourced IC1-3 so I'll probably build configuration 2. Digikey seems to send to SG too.

Some things I don't quite understand about the configuration selection yet. The best configuration would be a floating regulator with virtual ground right? If that's the case, can I still power it using USB or will I have to supply an external power supply?

Wah lol. Like that looks like I'll have to source for parts and pray I can find them. Thx.

So I guess knowing a friend is the best then. Anyhow, beware of paypal. Heard cases of people's accounts being closed and cleaned out... so don't leave your money in it.

How much did you pay for parts? I need to source parts for 3 sets. Any spares esp for those that require less than a set of 10 (Is that how they sell it at Farnell or RS?)

Just find a friend who has a credit card or debit card and you just reimburse them. Simple and effective.

Yea thanks goes to Clemo for oraganising the MO. Too bad he was in a hurry so didn't get to talk to him much.

That cost is for components alone. Throw in workmanship and it'll probably be 100 odd. BTW, Alien DAC requires an external amplifier unless you decide to control the volume via the mixer in the computer. (I think it should allow that in the driver) I'll be getting 3 Alien DAC boards and see what to do from there. Tried some simple surface mount stuffs before but never this many components. Hopefully it'll be ok. Gonna be tedious.

From what I gathered, the cost depends on which configuration you want the DAC. The range is SGD$50-80 with case.