The HiFi chat, build and modification thread!

[greenstiles]

I deffo think there is a market for a stand alone tone control unit like the x tone, as for a headphone amp with tone controls there are some but usually they are a bit cheap or are fitted outlike a battle ship.................but saying that Neco soundlabs has a bass boost on his..........i think people would buy a stand alone unit very easily, but would be suspicious of an amp with tone controls.........but ideally i think a lot of headphone users would love one.............but a lot i know listen to 4/5 different ones depending on their mood so a stand alone would be more practical for them.............

 

[apache]

4 or 5 different amps depending on mood?

 

[greenstiles]

yeh.... look in rockgrotto forum in the headphone amp section, lots of guys there have many or build many and several pairs of phones too...........but yer avarage joe joe might be happy with one

 

[greenstiles]

Any idea how much this will cost in parts in the end.......obviously there might be revisions you feel are needed.........it all works out and i buy it off you and you wish to try and sell more i'd be happy to give you good feedback from my 100% pos account to get the ball rolling, also chat to hi fi forum members who would either buy one or reviews it so that you get orders ?

 

[apache]

Not a clue at the moment. Single to dual rail converter power supply now working - means you can use a 'plug top' power adaptor which saves case space and means there's no mains voltage in the case (no stray field issues, and over enthusiastic 'chip changers' can play without killing themselves).

It seems to be stable now, but I'm still pondering using fet input op-amps for negligible DC offset instead of the bipolar ones and the associated coupling caps necessary to stop the pots being noisy. I'll probably try it.

Haven't considered casework, but that is usually the expensive bit. I'm thinking probably between £30 and £40 worth of parts, but don't hold me to it just yet!

Regarding reviews, not sure about that as my views on subjectivism are generally opposed to those who see listening to stuff as 'be all and end all' rather than measure and *then* listen, and opinions that seem to be built around their mood on the day. I've seen subjective reviews ruin the hope of otherwise excellent kit, and promote stuff which is ridiculously poor in terms of build quality and sensible engineering principles (naming no names, plastic cased, glued together equipment which tends to produce smoke as frequently as it produces music!)

But we'll see. If what I'm doing meets my expectations, I'll box it up and send it. Suffice to say, my pride would stop me from sending out shite

 

[greenstiles]

Sounds good.........i know the x-tone didn't seem to affect the sound at all when set to neutral piped into the system .....i think people said it added a little gain but that was it ? if that makes sense ?

 

[greenstiles]

what about this kind of thing ?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksi ... &_from=R40

 

[apache]

Rest of bits (box, knobs, sockets, switches etc) ordered. Will be moving into the music room for a listen and final tweak of turnover frequencies then.

Had a bit of spare cash in paypal so thought I'd buy another of Doug Self's series of novels about a magician who went about the audio world uncloaking heresy, and banishing the black knights.

 

[greenstiles]

Be interesting to hear what you think of it ........

 

[apache]

As yesterday was a bit crappy weather-wise, I built a headphone amp of 'slightly' unusual topography. Measured at 0.01% thd 1kHz to 20kHz (about as low as I can consistently go with my soundcard measurement system), slightly more below 50Hz. Frequency response ~5Hz to higher than I can measure within 3dB (so needs tailoring a bit at the top end to remove possibility of instability). Had a listen this morning, sounds excellent on first listen. A little more dissipation in the output stage than I would like at full volume so will drive a higher current output stage with it. So far, so good. Rather pleased given it's a first draft if you will, and took approx 8 hours from design to prototype working well.