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Try Well Audio for the chassis. They have a range of chassis from LiTe, so should be able to find the DAC-AH one. I've not seen RCA sockets which mount from the outside, most of them have the mounting nut inside the chassis. Regards CK

Output from the Monica is very low, even with the SS I/V stage (still lower than a typical CDP output), so don't think it'll drive headphones directly. Regards CK

Hi, Anybody know how much AHFArtAudio is selling the CDPro2M Kit? Too paiseh to call them up to ask price then don't buy Regards CK

I was thinking of one, but not sure how much a CD-Pro2M costs. I am guessing it's not going to be cheap. Regards CK

Well, sometimes the mastering isn't done properly, so it end result sounds bad. What you are doing is remastering the CD with some tender loving care There's also some debate as to whether the black CD-Rs sound better, haven't tried it, so I don't know. Yeah, remastering your entire CD collection is way too much work. I'd rather just enjoy the music. Regards CK heheh, my Monica 2 is still naked, cannot see the world yet. Regards CK

This is correct. But cheaper transports probably are not as stable, and thus generate more read errors, etc which kicks in the error correction resulting in not-so-good sound. Whether you can hear that or not, is another story. Regards CK

Casework is not my forte either And not having the right equipment makes things worse. Monica 2 is very "hot", it gets out of stock pretty quickly. Must grab the moment you see that there's stock. Regards CK

You can get a prebuilt Monica from DIYParadise as well. Regards CK

Don't have to be sorry. I was just curious. You can probably use them for other purposes. As long as the thing works, it'll be ok. Can't see the 12 LEDs inside the case anyway. heh Actually, for most hifi setups, getting it to sound good at low levels is much harder. Regards CK

Hi, Wow, messy wiring! Indeed, I am enjoying my Monica 2 as well. Haven't got the time to case it yet, so it's now "naked". Compared to the output of my Rotel RCD-02 (modded with the effective audio mod clock and Black Gate caps), the Monica 2 output is lower even with the SS I/V stage so I have to turn up the volume. But what it lacks in quantity, it gains in quality. Playback through the Monica 2 is much more enjoyable. Music just flows. It is also not as "digital" sounding. After listening to this, I hardly want to listen to the CDP output now. Never mind losing the HDCD capability. I see you are using different LEDs? Not the red ones I helped you get? Regards CK

Hi, I don't have a hum on the transformer, but it does produce a big "crunch" from the steel casing sometimes during power up. Dunno how to prevent that though. If I had the opportunity, I'll get a 22-0-22V toroidal to replace it. Regards CK

Hi, Don't worry too much about that. Most commercial amps are like that anyway, there is no discernable quality drop. The AC 50Hz interference is hardly enough to interfere with the much higher level speaker outputs. For your layout, I recommend that you rotate the PCB 90 deg counter clockwise so that the power supply/speaker out side of the PCB faces your transformer. Then move your RCA/speaker outs to the top/back of the casing. That will minimize wire length. Here is mine, before I changed all the wiring and tidied them up. Regards CK

Hi, I use the wires from some spare Canare 4S11 that I had to wire from the PCB to the speaker terminals. For the line input from the RCA, I used the 14awg UPOCC copper wires from AHFartaudio. Both are twisted. Regards CK

Sway is orginally by Dean Martin. A lot of singers also perform it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sway_%28song%29 Regards CK

The Sony Walkman phones uses something similar to the EX71/51 and possibly performs the same. I compared a pair of Sony EX71 in-ear earphones with the Creative EP630, the EP630 is miles better with a fuller sound and deeper bass. The EX71 sounds thinner by comparison. You might want to give the EP630 a try. Regards CK

Currently LM4562 is only available as free samples from National Semiconductor. You can do a sample request on their web site (but don't abuse it ). Regards CK

Of those I borrowed from a friend, the HDCD appears to be for real as it lights up the HDCD LED of my Rotel CDP. Interestingly the "rest of the world"/US/etc version does not have HDCD but the China one does... Regards CK

Also a good way to "try out" an album without having to spend too much money or downloading from you-know-where. Regards CK

Most of the time, these are parallel imports. The CDs (and DVDs are appearing too) are meant for the China market and not meant to be sold outside China. Sometimes you can see a label indicating so. Some of them has gross misspellings and funny Chinglish translations (both ways) of song titles too I bought the China version of this CD from "Audiophile Haven", a Sembawang Music spinoff many months ago and realised it's missing the song "Mack the Knife". Besides missing a song, the sound quality is also not as good as the US pressing I ordered from amazon.com. Having said that, the differences are very small and without comparing them side by side, you probably won't notice anything. Regards CK

The Monica 2 costs around RMB 315, so it's $150+ here. AHFartaudio also has a non-oversampling DAC kit for just $160. It has both tube output and op-amp outputs. Now I dunno which way to go. You might want to get one of these and integrate a headphone amp into it... might be interesting. Yeah, that's the trouble. Too many things to build, too little time. I had wanted to build a PPA before, but no time. Wanted to start a SOHA to try something tube-based but no time too, and now this DAC thing is tempting me. I have a cased AMP3 and an uncased MINT lying around META42 is still getting active use. Regards CK

I am not sure, I have not tried yet. The Non-oversampling DAC is supposed to sound very analog and smooth compared to the single-bit (Sigma Delta) DACs used in most of the new players. Wah, 2 headamps liao still building more? Try something different lah. Regards CK

kross, finish the AMP5 first. For me, thinking of building the Monica 2 Non-oversampling DAC. Regards CK

Yes. And it's from the Ming Ge album. Regards CK

Anyone knows what's the big diff between all the various docks? e.g. Apple's, Belkin's and those by the Hifi makers like Denon, etc? Regards CK

A regular drill should be able to drill up to 10mm or so. Anything bigger may require a reamer or panel punch if you want clean holes. The latter is available from Farnell - Something like this. Regards CK