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ckng

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Posts posted by ckng

  1. Posted · Report reply

    Hi guys.. Anyone got any good place to get female RCA (chassis mount)? I'm looking for those that mounts from the inside out. means the nut is screwed from the outside of the chassis. budget abt 5$ a pair.

     

    And also the chassis itself.. aluminium or steel is OK. don't need to be too big. slighlty bigger then a DAC-AH would be good. More or less looking for a chassis like that of DAC-AH. anyone.

     

    Cheers, thanks

     

    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

  2. Posted · Report reply

    Hi guys, are u able to drive your headphones directly with Monica? Wish to get a USB Monica as well :D Thanks!

     

    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

  5. Posted · Report reply

    If one have nothing to compare to, then we just blame bad recording/mastering. :P Recently I have an original CD start giving trouble, skips and stops. It is more than 20 years old. I copied the files off the CD and burn a new one. Surprisingly, the new self-burned CD sounds a lot better than the original. Now I understand why at one time Wilson promotes doing this to all CDs. Aiyah, lazy man, too much work. :ppth::))

     

    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 :P 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

     

    This shouts mini-meet!! :grin:

     

    heheh, my Monica 2 is still naked, cannot see the world yet. :P

     

    Regards

    CK

  6. Posted · Report reply

    Btw, correct me if I am wrong Heady. My idea of using a dac is that it takes over the job of the cdp dac. so in this case, whatever raw data read from the cd is passed straight to the Monica for processing, instead of using the cdp own dac. Am I right? So will I make any difference in using my cd6000 as the source or a cheap discman or whatever with an digital out as a source? Right now, I got a feeling that i am under-utilizing my cd6000 by taking away half of its job...lol

    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. :P

     

    Regards

    CK

  7. Posted · Report reply

    The reason for the breadboard was to make things a little neater. There were 3 separate boards and if I mounted them on the box directly, there will be 12 holes. This way, there are only 4 holes at the bottom. That's the only reason. And no, I am not so skilled, you only saw the photos, if you see the casing in closeup, you will see the imperfections. Casework is not easy for me. :o

    No stock!! I was thinking of getting the USB Monica.

     

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

     

    Regards

    CK

  9. Posted · Report reply

    Hi CK, I agree, the wiring is messy. Too many flying leads. I don't want to tie them down yet, as I haven't put in the final LED indicators. Anyway, the sound more important than looks. :))

     

    I didn't use the LEDs you gave me, sorry, I like the way this LEDs looked better. Clear but red when lit. :)

    Don't have to be sorry. I was just curious. :P 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

     

     

    I found the music from Monica is very listenable even at low volume. I can hear each note without straining. I always laugh at hifi salesmen when they demo, they turn on music so loud. Of course you can hear everything but can you listen at that level at home? Unless stay in bungalow.

     

    Thanks again for your help. Saved me a lot of puzzling over the transistors.

    Actually, for most hifi setups, getting it to sound good at low levels is much harder. ;)

     

     

    Regards

    CK

  10. Posted · Report reply

    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". :P

     

    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

  11. Posted · Report reply

    Thx, Ck.

     

    I will try to relocate my board soon.. ,

     

    by the way I am using the same transformer and casing as you.

    I noticed that the transformer generate a Electromagnetic Force on the case, which cause case to produce a low hum. What i did was to placed some cupboard below the transformer reduce the low hum.

     

    Pretty hard to describe, got to let you see some photos. will take some time though, haven't got access to a digital camera.

     

    Cheers,

    zhiyao

     

    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

  12. Posted · Report reply

    Hi,

     

    Thx for the input..

    Probably.. got to try both methods and see whether there is a difference in them. :sweat:

     

    but for amp 5.. power line from the transformer is connect close to the speaker out wire..

    I am not sure whether the power line AC 60hz would affect the speaker out wire...

    think the shielded wire might be better.. :think:

     

    IPB Image

     

    Cheers,

    zonoyono

     

    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.

     

    IPB Image

     

    Regards

    CK

  16. Posted · Report reply

    Hi. Probably the easiest parts of the CMOY2 to tweak will be the opamps and the power capacitors. Opamps are plenty out there and there's even a killer thread by bpribadi about the flavours of opamps in this forum (http://www.sgheadphones.net/index.php?showtopic=2628). I recently heard LM4562 and they were quite good too but I don't know where to buy them.

     

    As for the capacitors, there isn't many 1000uF caps out there which will fit on the pcb. One which I recently used on the CMOY2 was the Panasonic FC series 1000uF 16V. This series is very well received by the DIY community although not considered a "boutique" (meaning expensive) brand. You can get get them from Koba or order from Farnell.

     

    HTH.

     

    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 :P).

     

    Regards

    CK

  17. Posted · Report reply

    Hey nakedtoes, care to share which are your trusted few chinese companies?? ya, i agree that the quality is getting better over the years. some even come labelled as HDCD..:)

     

    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

  18. Posted · Report reply

    meant for chinese market, and those people make money by parallel importing and selling them here.

    quality wise no big difference especially for pop music. Most of the time they're the way to go especially if one's tight on vitamin M :D

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

     

    Regards

    CK

  19. Posted · Report reply

    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 :P

     

    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".

     

    IPB Image

     

    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

  20. Posted · Edited by ckng · Report reply

    haha...ya lor...so trying SS instead of tube ma..something different still right..haha..

    hmmm..just lazy to check it up...how much does the non-oversampling DAC cost?? from diyparadise is it?? I kind of like that website..have many interesting stuff...

     

     

    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. :P

     

    You might want to get one of these and integrate a headphone amp into it... might be interesting.

     

     

     

    That's the problem with this hobby. The building is so fun, continue to built whether need amp or not. And what to do with the amps after you built them? Hmm... I am thinking of selling my PPA liao. Dunno whether got interest or not.

     

    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. :P

     

    I have a cased AMP3 and an uncased MINT lying around :P META42 is still getting active use. :cans:

     

    Regards

    CK

  21. Posted · Report reply

    i want to finish up the AMP 5...i bought it because I am thinking of getting speakers..but right now I got no space for speakers leh..so I should be taking my very own sweet time to get it done...lol

     

    I am considering the CKIII because I want to try some SS amps since I already have the SOHA and the MHHA already....so what you guys think??

     

    CK, is that DAC superior to what I have inside my Marantz CD6000??

     

    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. :P

     

    Regards

    CK

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