Blue Hawaii Special Edition

[guzziguy]

...

 

You are more than welcome to use the design of my audio rack guzziguy, but you might want to wait until Tuesday when I'll be getting my new audio rack where I'll be posting some photos.

 

Oops, I completely misunderstood your design.  I thought it was all wood and didn't realize that it had metal legs and frames with wooden shelves fitting inside the metal frames.  I'm building an all wood stand as this is a project for a woodworking class.  So it looks like I won't be borrowing your design ideas for this stand.

 

How about one of these?

 

http://www.timbernation.com/Highendaudiorack_PopUp.cfm

 

This is how I thought Dave's design worked, all wood with shelves let into dados and rabbets (top shelf).  I'll talk it over with my instructor but I'm inclined to use this design instead of my original idea.  I'd glue it all together rather than bolting it though.

 

After seeing the price of these stands, I now don't feel so bad about how much money I have invested in the lumber I bought and had milled. If I do a decent job with the stand, I'll have quite the bargain.

 

Also, I need some reasonable level adjusters to use for feet.  Does anybody have recommendations?  The feet used on this Timbernation stand look interesting.  Does anybody know what they are?

 

Edited November 10, 2014 by guzziguy

[Dave R]

Because I did Carpentry / Joinery at college [ along time ago ] I could've built an all wood audio rack if I'd had the tools, but I just prefer the security with the strength of a metal frame rack.

However supposing I was to have built an audio rack from wood, I'd have still had the legs on the outside of the shelves, but I'd have used metal rods going through the legs and shelves.

The only problem with doing that is the shelves would need to be thickish.

[guzziguy]

I understand.  My shelves will be 2 to 2 1/8" in thickness and 29" by 19" in area.  The legs will be about 2.5" square.  The stand is made from 6/4 S2S white oak (1.5" surfaced two sides).  I don't think that lack of sturdiness will be an issue.

 

My class is done.  I'll take it again next session, which starts in mid-January.  I have to wait until then to have the proper tools to continue.  That gives me a lot of time to change my mind on the design.

Edited November 10, 2014 by guzziguy

[Dave R]

I've done the shelves for my new audio rack, so with the rack complete here are some photos.

 

The first photo is of my old audio rack showing how I had my headphone system positioned.

 

 

Here are the photo's of my new rack starting with just the frame.

 

 

 

Now with the shelves which are MDF covered in carbon fibre wrapping.

 

 

The next is with my headphone system.

 

 

Sorry about the poor quality of the photo's, but at the moment I've only got a cheap camera.

 

Because I wanted the BHSE's amp section to be a little higher on the shelf, I had a local metal engineer to alter 4 support feet I already had, so my isolation cones would fit in them which can be seen in the photo below.

 

 

 

Like with the BHSE's amp section, I want all the units on the rack to be lifted so I'm going to have a few more of the supporting feet made. 

 

 

As can be made out, some marks on the wall to the right of the photo's are where I've been painting that wall.

 

Because the paint was still wet, in the last photo I couldn't put the rack as far back as I wanted because I didn't want paint to get on the power cords and interconnects, so in the photo below the rack is away from the wall.

When the paint's dry, the rack will go closer to the wall and when that happens the stand at the side of my old rack in the first photo, will be showing, with photo's of the new rack it can't be seen because it's behind and to the right of that rack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[muskyhuntr]

Excellent work!

 

Me

[Ali-Pacha]

Esoteric are massive beasts, indeed.

 

Ali

Edited November 12, 2014 by Ali-Pacha

[Cucera]

Beautiful I envy you.

[HeadphoneAddict]

Is that a recliner?

[shellylh]

I got my Bourns H-90 trimmer adjustment tool today.  It has a blade on both ends.  I am assuming that these blades are not attached, correct?  (I see that in Justin's video, he is touching one of the blades with his hand while the other is inside the amp which seems like it would be quite dangerous if the blade went all the way through the tool.)  

[Dave R]

Is that a recliner?

 

Yes.

 

Esoteric are massive beasts, indeed.

 

Ali

 

As you say, Esoteric's are beasts, which is one of the reasons why I went for another welded frame audio rack because I've no fear of it collapsing through the K-01's weight.

 

Beautiful I envy you.

 

Thank you.

[Dusty Chalk]

Can we move the rack talk to the rack thread, please?

[johnwmclean]

I got my Bourns H-90 trimmer adjustment tool today.  It has a blade on both ends.  I am assuming that these blades are not attached, correct?  (I see that in Justin's video, he is touching one of the blades with his hand while the other is inside the amp which seems like it would be quite dangerous if the blade went all the way through the tool.)  

 

The blades are not connected.

[Dave R]

Although I can still get to my BHSE's volume knob where it now is, to get to it I'd have to stretch a bit while sat in the recliner,  however if I wanted to be lazy I could use my sources remote control.

All I'd need to do is put the BHSE's volume to full, turn on my sources Attenuator, which would then enable me to use it's remote control.

[spritzer]

The blades are not connected.

 

Indeed and I for one always remove the metal clip on these.  Not a problem on the BHSE but the other amps have the trimpots on the inside and that useless clip can cause a lot of damage... 

[shellylh]

Good idea - I don't need the clip.  I just realize that I could have used a multimeter to test for connectivity.  

[johnwmclean]

Although I can still get to my BHSE's volume knob where it now is, to get to it I'd have to stretch a bit while sat in the recliner,  however if I wanted to be lazy I could use my sources remote control.

All I'd need to do is put the BHSE's volume to full, turn on my sources Attenuator, which would then enable me to use it's remote control.

 

Dam shame to see a ALPS RK50 put out to pasture.

[Dave R]

Dam shame to see a ALPS RK50 put out to pasture.

 

After the paint dried, I moved the new rack closer to the wall, and in doing so it made me able to get to the BHSE's volume knob without much stretching.

So I'll be using it's ALPS RK50 most if not all of the time.

Using my sources remote control though is an option, which I'd use if I decided to listen to my 009's well away from the BHSE.

With me having a SRE-950S I'd be able to do that, although I very rarely use that extension cable.

[Laowei]

With me having a SRE-950S I'd be able to do that, although I very rarely use that extension cable.

Just wondering if you noticed a change in SQ when using the Stax extention.

[Dave R]

Just wondering if you noticed a change in SQ when using the Stax extention.

None at all.

[Cucera]

My Mjölnir Audio BHSE has landed and first impression: Audio heaven!

Thank you Birgir.

[spritzer]

[songmic]

My Mjölnir Audio BHSE has landed and first impression: Audio heaven!

Thank you Birgir.

 

Is that a BHSE in a single chassis without a separate PSU? Seems like the only explanation as the power LED is lit...

[spritzer]

Indeed it is.  I'm not too keen on external PSU's if I can skip them. 

[shellylh]

Question about biasing:

When I first put the tubes in the BHSE, I tested the DC offset using a multimeter. Tubes of the tubes measured 0V and two measured +-3V. I stupidly switched the ones that were +-3V (one of the left and one on the right). Then the next time I used the amp, one of the tubes I had switched was now measuring +-8V. I then had a trimmer adjuster tool so I biased all the tubes to 0V (the amp was one for about 2 hours at this point). The next time I turn on the amp, after around 10 minutes, I measured the DC offset and the 2 left back tubes were at 0V and the 2 right front tubes were around +-28V. After a couple of hours, they were close to 0V (I think around +-3V).

Does it matter if the tubes measure close to 0V when first turned on? I think in the instructions, Justin says to bias it after 5 minutes and then again after 2 hours. Since these are fairly new tubes (stock tubes), I have read that they will drift a lot. How often should I bias the amp or check the DC offset?

Edited November 17, 2014 by shellylh

[justin]

measuring between + and - on a channel should always be close to 0, however, measuring between + and ground will start out negative and increase as the amp warms up

 

i have checked an amp after someone used it for a couple years and it didnt need any adjustment