n_maher

Got one of the four power supplies I'm working on done last night... It's a sigma11 in a Hammond box but has a custom paint job. I'd never tried that before and decided I was sick of anodized finishes so I gave it a whirl. Came out more than decent, I think. More pics and info to come in the other DIY build thread.

Let me know if you want a couple of back up batteries, I've got some other stuff from when my D70 went tits up that wont work with my D80. Oh and the last thing that I bought was a bunch of lumber (2x8s, 1x6 decking, 4x4 posts, associated hardware) to put an addition onto my back deck. Been working on it the past two days with pops, should be able to finish it up today.

I feel like I have to put this out there, if you're going to buy a DIY amp that you didn't build yourself be careful who you buy from. Make sure they have at least some established record of building gear (not necessarily for sale) so that you get something that's going to last. Both amps in question are relatively complicated (although the M? is a bit easier) so be sure to know what you're getting before you agree to buy. Last comment, at $200 you're going to have a tough time finding what you're looking for, especially a good M? which is slightly more expensive to build than a PPA. Feel free to post examples of what you're looking at, between a few of us around here we should be able to offer a fairly complete critique. [edit]Mods/Admin - any idea why the superscript text (the 3) doesn't show up here? It shows up when I type the post but turns into a '?' when I submit the post.

Seems like a decent price to me considering the extra pads and all.

Do my HD580s count? \

Happy Birthday!

Large Coffee from my local Turkish Coffee shop along with a Cinnamon Coffeecake muffin. Although newegg does have a ripping HTPC setup sitting in my shopping cart...

Heh, if I could just get a couple things wrapped up I'd be on a selling spree.

Yeah, for the DIY crowd we can save quite a bit on portables. I see a singlebox mini3/Alien combo in my future for the office. I miss the PIMETA that I had built like that.

I'm with you. Whenever I'm on the move listening it's hardly focused or concentrated enough to be worthy of some $400 portable amp. Don't get me wrong, I can see the point for having a small, easily transportable amp but I think my budget would be under $200 for something like that.

Happy Birthday!

I know, I know, ancient topic but I've got news... I decided to take one for the team and order some of the bulk anticables speaker wire. At $1.25/ft it's pretty impossible to beat for high quality 12ga copper and he'll also sell you the spades and heatshrink to go with them. Based on my emails with him Paul seems like a genuinely decent guy and is actually quite the DIY electronics enthusiast. Color me gullible but most DIY guys I know are more skeptical than your average "audiophile" when it comes to the typical snake-oil type stuff. Heck at $100 for a 10' pair of speaker cables he's probably not charging enough.

Here's another deal that someone might be interested in and strikes me as one of those opportunities that might not present itself again for a long time. Mark levinson MODEl 36 dac For the banned among us here's the Agon link.

The DAC is nearly done, and I'm taking a bit of a gamble selling the SE beta this early but the opportunity to sell the amp presented itself in my favorite way, that being that someone I'm friendly with was looking for one and the deal worked well for both of us. It won't be leaving the Headcase family. And until the DAC is up and running I'm going to keep mum on the source. By all reports it should be friggen killer. Six, since I'm clearly unbalanced as well. Yeah, my first beta was my quickest build ever from start to at least sort of completed. I'm hoping the same holds true for the balanced version but holy mother of pearl there are a lot of parts to solder...

Well, with the sale of my single-ended Beta today I will be officially launching into balanced-beta land shortly. My wallet weeps.

I'm certainly no authority on this as honestly I've never tried to roll ground channel opamps to see if there was a difference. Based on what I've read there is good motivation to use as good an opamp (if not better actually) in the ground channel. There are some interesting discussions on the three channel topology at Headwize if you're looking to learn more. In short, my advice, use the 627. If you don't have one post a WTB thread at Head-fi, you can usually pick one up for about 50% of retail without too much difficulty.

You rock, Salty.

Please, please, please someone submit this to the headphone price guide on Head-Fi.

I spent about 3 months with an HA-1 MKII at work alongside a tricked out PIMETA and preferred the PIMETA by a fair margin. If you're ever wanting an amp like that again I'd see if you can't get MisterX to build you a PIMETA/Alien DAC combo. I seriously miss having that setup at work and will probably build another one like it one of these days.

Yup, just tried to head over there and send someone a PM with a progress report. The Fi no worky.

One other thing worth noting, the money you spend on mods is likely money that you'll have a pretty hard time recouping later on where something like a DAC is going to maintain much better value. Not that you ever buy equipment with the idea of selling it but it's not something that I ignore either unless I'm comfortable with the loss.

Just one alternate suggestion, why not upgrade the DAC to something like a DA220 and have the option of going balanced? I don't know about any one else but I find myself listening to less and less redbook stuff and using my squeezebox or PC as my source. What can I say, I'm lazy but if I were spending money it'd be focused or more flexibility. That's just me though.

Just in case anyone didn't see this elsewhere: I'm currently running a group buy for the e22 backplane pcb's that can be used with a beta build. See Headwize or "that other headphone site" if you'd like more info. And I'd third the recommendation of the Mogami cable, I've used it for all my current interconnects as well as a few recables and have no complaints. Well, it is a bit stiff for headphone cable but strip the jacket and shield and it works ok.

Reks, FTW!

sniff sniff Do I smell the next Head-Fi sponsor?