n_maher

Thanks guys, so far so good. No real trick other than using a drill press, drilling the appropriate pilot hole, using the right speed and holding the material tightly in place. I've got a bench-top drill press that makes things pretty easy and I built an over-sized table for it so that it fully supports even stuff as large as this chassis. I'll try and remember to post a picture of it. Heh, I'm quite sure that my workshop and KG's are world's apart when it comes to goodies laying around. I had originally bought this chassis for my Aikido project but have since sold those parts and the buyer didn't want the chassis. It worked out quite well really and the amp will be going in a matching 17 x 12 x 3 chassis. Neither really needs to be that big but I'd rather have room to spare when it comes to routing wires and the inevitable probing during troubling shooting. Cramped space + high voltage = not good for Nate's health.

I'm going to create a thread for this amp since it is my intention at the end of the build to publish the schematic and any relevant details so that anyone who's crazy enough can build this amp. So for now this (and the amp) are a work in progress and just somewhere where I can share pictures. Actual information will come later. Night #0 of PS chassis fabrication: I did a preliminary layout of all of the parts on a large 17" x 14" x 4" Hammond Steel chassis that I happened to have laying around. It seemed big enough so I took rough measurements of where everything was located so that I could tweak them later for better alignment and symmetry. I'm not all that concerned about everything being dead-nuts accurate for this amp build. The look is going to be decidedly industrial, frills need not apply. Night #1 of chassis fabrication for the power supply: I got all of the hole centers marked and drilled a majority of the small diameter mounting holes. Both the transformer and the chokes are mounted on vibration isolating grommets, not strictly necessary but they can't hurt. Came home early the next day from work to break out the 2" hole saw to cut holes for the large motor-run caps and drill the associated mounting holes. Night #2 of PS fab: not much time tonight, drilled a few of the larger holes for wire penetrations in the chassis and installed insulating grommets to prevent wire wear and shorts. Also test fit the caps and small chokes. I erroneously bought a 2-1/16" hole saw so the cap holes are slightly oversized, oh well, there are worse things. I'll pick up the proper saw for the remaining 2, 2" diameter caps in the amp section. Night #3 of PS fab: drilled the remainder of the wire routing holes in the chassis so that I could do a fairly complete mock-up of the iron and caps. All seems to fit well but holy hell this thing is heavy. Tomorrow I'll pick up the remaining bits and parts that I need to complete the PS fab, all that I really need is a 1-1/8" bit for the tub sockets. I could use a stepped bit that I have but even with the drill press that bit gets unwieldy and I'd rather not trash the chassis at this stage.

I'm with you mulveling, I am not a fan of the LOK RCA connectors. I used them once early in my career, never again.

Well, it's not going to be the sexiest thing you've ever seen but should be pretty clean and tidy. It just didn't seem to make much sense to try and make a sledgehammer look like a delicate piece of artwork. And at this stage I'm pretty much planning on having to tear it back down after CanJam to make adjustments and tweaks so the goal right now is to just get it working in time for Florida in a state of build that will not be a complete embarrassment.

I have a majority of the chassis fabrication done for the power supply and started mounting parts last night. I'll be at it again tomorrow night and I'm probably going to take the second half of tomorrow off to work on it. How's that for dedication!?!??! I hope to have the PS done by end the end of the weekend and start the amp next week.

NO EXCUSES!!!

Impressions plskthxby!

Take a minute and stop posting just to post and you might just work out fine. Keep up the general trend you've started and I'll unleash the full wrath of on you. And you don't want that.

Hey look everyone, it's the new forum asshat, soundfreq.

You're on the path to an ass kicking.

I agree, jackass.

I'm with Vicki, if when Senn replaces the 650 it won't be with a less expensive headphone. I'd wager it'll be a lot more $$, not that I know anything...

I haven't heard the 601s for more than 10 minutes but I did own the 501s at one point and they left me wanting in a big way.

Call me crazy but I think that was the one purchased that started this whole conversation, no?

http://bathyswatch.com/main.php?link=auto_mens_100fathomblackdial

Thanks guys, more importantly it sounds great. Glad to hear it, I'm still enjoying the music you sent me as well.

Is that $3k for 5.1? or for just the front 2?

Well, I figured enough was enough and that it was time I got my own Senn cable.

Happy Birthday to the both of you!

That's just the wires themselves. Highly unlikely, there isn't much space if any and I'm not sure if putting a sink on the end of the pin would really help all that much.

Good points. Of course I use both a vise and a helping hands tool. You need four or five hands to do this right.

It is somewhat of a delicate dance. Basically I strip enough wire so that there is a good amount exposed wire to set the iron on so that the heat is applied directly to the wire, not the pin. I use my Hakko 936 with the stock screwdriver type tip, it's a tight fit in there but I've been able to do it without melting the connector so far. I then flow just a bit of solder to allow some conduction between the wire and pin and then apply a bit more solder to facilitate the connection. That all takes about 3 seconds I'd say, if it starts taking longer I stop and wait for things to cool down before trying again. It usually works the first time and I haven't had it take more than 2 to get a good connection. I also then fill the remaining cavity in the Cardas connector with hot glue to try and take as much strain off of the soldered connection as possible. I also use a layer of adhesive-lined heat shrink between the connector's strain relief and the exposed wires with the same idea in mind. Then I wrap the whole business in on final layer of non-adhesive shrink to finish it off. Bottom line, it's really not that hard but you do have to have the right tools and supplies.

That's 24ga Neotech UP-OCC copper. I wanted to try it vs. the 22ga that I used on Ryan's cable. It is a bit more flexible and perhaps more importantly (for the postjack acceptance factor) not flesh toned. Wow, that's crazy, I don't think I've ever seen a Stefan cable before. [edit] I take that back, I just hadn't seen their K1K cables before. But, given that they state they're using OCC copper it's highly likely that this is in fact a very similar cable. And I guess that Vicki can feel like she got a pretty good deal since the 10' K1K cable w/ 1/4" termination runs $349 and the similar Senn cable $319.

Depending on what you like to watch a RS account might be an easy way around ratios and you'd probably get better download speeds as well.

I ended up turning down my invitation (maybe you got mine???) but I'll still be curious to see how it goes for you. Seemed like their forums were pretty full of glitch threads which scared me off plenty given that my D-link is still working just fine.