Beefy

HEH! There is always that. Maybe, I don't know enough to say My only experience with balanced amps is reading about DIY variants. All amps I have read about including the MMM, B22, Dynalo can be built into balanced versions with all the benefits it entails.

Don't forget that balancing doubles the slew rate and increases power output four-fold...... mediocre amps can become a lot better when you use two of them.

True, but I wasn't able to take either into any of my exams

It sounds a bit cliche, but what you describe is what I might associate with the infamous Sennheiser 'veil'.

That's an awesome textbook that got me out of many sticky situations

Congrats! FWIW, I sold a y1 DAC to a young bloke that had a mildly-modded zero DAC; he much preferred the sound of the y1. So to my mind, you don't have to go far or spend much money to improve on the zero.

I'm still a relative noob at this sort of thing, but reckon I can have a crack at it...... Do you mean C1? Looks like an input cap to block DC from 'bad' sources. It is there to buffer the output so that the OPAMP isn't driving the headphones directly. I wouldn't even bother. The design is so lacking, you should just start with a better design in the first place.

Committed to buy a Hakko 936 from a local seller, and placed an order for various bits and baubles from AMB. Mouser order will go off in the next couple of days. Can't wait to get my hands dirty again

HiFi magazines and people on Head-Fi love them Considering the huge number of good DIY amps out there, with excellent documentation and community support, why would you bother building this? Something like a CKKIII would be a much better prospect.

I am not particularly experienced with a wide range of phones like many around here, and I can't offer many points of comparison...... but something like my old combo of Audio Technica ATH-AD900 and a Corda 3Move would be a pretty good start, and a good step up from your ER-6i straight from the iPod. If you want to get adventurous, you could see what the going rate is on a y1 Lite/Mini3 combo. Should blow the 3Move out of the water......

Under the heading power supply: "The M

No, the MMM needs a single rail power supply. Everything else is catered for on-board. This is all clearly detailed on AMB's website.

For the MMM, the is no reason to use any other resource than AMB's site. Everything is detailed there as clear as day. The power to the OPAMPs is heavily isolated from the MOSFETs - that is the whole point of AMB's design.

Today's xkcd made me laugh out loud, and I don't know why......

Yes, it could. I am actually BOM'ing up a y1 USB-SPDIF right now because of my inability to get the TPA module. It comes out VERY cheap if you are going to direct wire the SPDIF to something else...... under $30. I have no idea where I am going to mount it in my case though. It is frustrating-close-but-yet-so-far-away from the standard footprint of TPA modules

Thanks. Your suggestions were very helpful for trying some different things Pffft! You know you want to......

Don't be a smart arse The Buffalo always sounded nice - considering I haven't ever heard any true high end sources though. Right now it is actually still back in Australia, but I am expecting to have it in about two weeks. Ordering all the extra bits for the upgrade will happen over the next few days, and the panels will be ordered when I have a rough ETA on my case from the HiFi2000 group buy.

Even though it seems that everybody stopped caring a long time ago, I went half-way between the two posted above to arrive at the final version, as attached. So thanks for all the help everyone, particularly Nate for doing all the measurements!

A balanced OPUS can be done very cheaply for just USB functionality. Though TPA is phasing out the USB board, has no stock, and as such it would be pretty difficult to put together

Its the sort of thing you could forgive for a total noob doing their first project...... but abso-freaking-lutely unacceptable for somebody selling it for profit Oh shit, I didn't see that. Awesome

Can you see what people are ordering?

I had a super-quick play around with moving the central text to the top left (see 'Front re-jig')...... power switch and selector switch were moved 'inward' to compensate. Any last minute thoughts or suggestions before I settle on a final version? Cheers! [EDIT] The previous 'switch centred' version is also attached for comparison.

Oh, snap!

That would require me re-doing the back panel as well. I'm not convinced I like the idea enough to bother I'll get right on it!

Shit, why didn't you suggest this from the start? Could have saved a lot of time not worrying about all of these....... sensible...... suggestions Who has the spare time to make a gif like that