LR 11-15-2012 Gadgets

Hi all.

I would like to thank everyone who particpates and leads in the LR duties.
Over the past year I have learned quite a bit and always like to learn more.
It has been my honor to do the LR this week.
If you never hosted a LR, please sign up. It is quite easy

Lunch: Ham


Gadgets I have built over the past year
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First up, is my DAC. Plugged into computer. Now when I listen to youtube or any other videos, the sound goes through my DAC
And I have to say, this little thing is absolutely wonderful. It is another DIY project, and I burned a few
boards before I got it right, and I never really finished it. But it is worth it. There is a sound quality difference between a really good sound card and this DAC. DAC all the way!

http://tinyurl.com/2bxaa7c

The build was bumpy. I consider myself pretty good with the soldering iron, but this required to solder SMD chips on the PCB.
Being new to that, I made some errors and had to re-do the project over and over until I got it right. Never got the part II, y2, working. Maybe in the future.


What soundcard/dac do you listen through on your PC?


Next up are my amplifiers.
The EL84 20 Watt power amplifier. Last year at this time, I was here

Today., I have the thing up and running. Couple more parts to add and I'll be done.

It has 2 EL84 tubes to run at 20Watts. A switch to go between Fixed and Cathode Bias, another switch for Pentode, Triode, Ulta Linear output. A Master Volume. It doesn't have the londonpower Power Scaling yet, but it will.
Power Scaling enable you to turn the volume down and still have a sound like it is being cranked.
The two toroidal covers are pots I bought for a buck at one of those dollar store. Works for me.
If you are interested to know more. Check out this video.
[youtube]MNSjJhz6a_Q[/youtube]


Now to my Bass amp.
Here is the pre-amp. 1 channel

And my 50 Watt bass amplifier in it's early stages.


I get all my amp stuff from http://tinyurl.com/c9kb5os

I also built from a kit some nearfield monitor speakers from http://tinyurl.com/5u7u99and http://tinyurl.com/8994hr8.

Why do I build DIY projects?
- fun
- educational
- end product is usually better than what you can get at the store.


G&L question:
Do you like your luthier?

If you asked me that question last year, I would have said 'no'.
This year I found this guy
http://tinyurl.com/c6rr7n7

Apparently, he worked for G&L and Leo back when he was still alive.
He also had Shur work under him for a time.
I sent him 3 of my G&Ls to do a setup. He did an excellent job.
Does anyone know this guy?

Thanks everyone. Have a great weekend.

Last edited by meowmix on Fri Nov 16, 2012 1:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Great projects and work this week. I used to put together RadioShack projects and an early N64 disc drive copy hack. Although I'm getting into using solid-state, computers & fluid power for simple robotics. To be continued...

That luthier's work looks amazing. The lefty posted on his home page has my interest. Don't know of prices, but will find out.


Cheers,

Will

* I cannot believe all the spam on here today. Does that form of "advertising" get results? Or is the goal to infect you w/ a virus and steal your bank/CC info? Hmmmmmmm.

* I cannot believe all the spam on here today. Does that form of "advertising" get results? Or is the goal to infect you w/ a virus and steal your bank/CC info? Hmmmmmmm.

Will, I don't look at it as spam. If I quote something from a book, I usually put down what book it was and page number. Is that considered advertising?
When I do a project, I tell you where I got it and the name. How else am I to give them credit? It would only be spam if I sent it to your email address.

Never heard of getting a virus or having CC info stolen by posting a URL.

* I cannot believe all the spam on here today. Does that form of "advertising" get results? Or is the goal to infect you w/ a virus and steal your bank/CC info? Hmmmmmmm.

Will, I don't look at it as spam. If I quote something from a book, I usually put down what book it was and page number. Is that considered advertising?
When I do a project, I tell you where I got it and the name. How else am I to give them credit? It would only be spam if I sent it to your email address.

Never heard of getting a virus or having CC info stolen by posting a URL.

He's not referring to anything you posted as spam--the reference is to the hundreds of advertising posts on the forum starting sometime last night.

I have always wondered the same thing--what is the purpose of these posts? I can't believe they have any positive effect to garner sales for the products. Other than being a pain in the ass, I don't get it.

Last edited by suave eddie on Fri Nov 16, 2012 1:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

* I cannot believe all the spam on here today. Does that form of "advertising" get results? Or is the goal to infect you w/ a virus and steal your bank/CC info? Hmmmmmmm.

Will, I don't look at it as spam. If I quote something from a book, I usually put down what book it was and page number. Is that considered advertising?
When I do a project, I tell you where I got it and the name. How else am I to give them credit? It would only be spam if I sent it to your email address.

Never heard of getting a virus or having CC info stolen by posting a URL.

He's not referring to anything you posted as spam--the reference is to the hundreds of advertising posts on the forum starting sometime last night.

I have always wondered the same thing--what is the purpose of these posts? I can't believe they have any positive effect to garner sales for the products. Other that being a pain in the ass, I don't get it.

oh, I thought he was referring to my post. My apologies Will. I did not see these advertisements.

Those spam posts are still appearing almost once every minute.

Those spam posts are still appearing almost once every minute.

craig's gonna have a helluva job cleaning up. this is scripted, done with bots, i don't know how they got passed the membership process, but craig is definitely gonna be a busy guy.

There is a special place in hell for these people.

Maybe it's time to require a Captcha for all posts.

* I cannot believe all the spam on here today. Does that form of "advertising" get results? Or is the goal to infect you w/ a virus and steal your bank/CC info? Hmmmmmmm.

Will, I don't look at it as spam. If I quote something from a book, I usually put down what book it was and page number. Is that considered advertising?
When I do a project, I tell you where I got it and the name. How else am I to give them credit? It would only be spam if I sent it to your email address.

Never heard of getting a virus or having CC info stolen by posting a URL.

I'm not referring to your use of "tinyurl" for your own personal tracking. However, you could just post the actual links instead of the URL shortened ones. You have as much space as you want to post; this isn't Twitter...

Now, some of those links to Viagra stores could inject viruses via vscript/JavaScript if you click on a link and visit the destination page. That was my footnote. Not, tinyurl or bit.ly, etc...


Cheers,

Will

* I sent an email to Craig this morning. I understand he is very busy and maybe G&L should step in during his absence.

I had the same thing happen to my phpBB blog. I got invaded by Eastern Europe. This went on for quite awhile. I finally got tired of creating new rules and Capchas(s?) & just took the board down.. However, the G&L is much more important!
So, good luck Craig!, we're counting on you..

What soundcard/dac do you listen through on your PC?

Whatever is onboard on my system. The last card I put in a system was a SoundBlaster 16, and that was from the old days of no reasonable onboard sound. I had a SoundBlaster 8 before the 16, and had a Gravis Ultrasound that was buggy so it was shipped back (whether that was the card, third party software, or my fault I don't recall). The money back guarantee helped them get the sale but sure didn't help them keep it! Wish it would have lived up to the hope. Non-FM modulation... ...ooooh!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravis_Ultrasound

Apparently my six monitor workstation has a Realtek HD Audio ALC 892 chip. That wasn't a notable consideration when I bought it. I was concerned about spacing for the three graphics cards on the board, and wanting reasonable bus speed to all three.

i guess my luthier would be g&l, so yes i like them as far as the guitars. my tech is the best in the business. i have heard about carruthers. mostly good. i would never send my guitars for a setup. i wouldn't even let a guitar be shipped to me. g&l's i'll pick up at the factory. ron kirn would be a major exception, and that is one of the main things holding me back from him.
i would never consider using the soundcard from a computer to listen to music. i/o interface. going firewire for now, until a usb3 or thunderbolt comes in that i like. i am very happy with my current presonus. everything is going through it right now, tv, bluray, 3d, computer, music etc. the best i get is a 1.5ms latency at 96 khz 24 bit.

meow, i don't think anyone would consider anything from any of the regulars spam, so if a comment sounds out of place, check first. thank you for an interesting week, enjoyed it, and i love to see your enthusiasm about dyi projects, it inspires me.

Brock, you have quite a setup. 6 monitors. Wow!
I assume that is mostly for the DAW. Very cool, I have a hard enough time with a dual monitor.

Louis: I had the PreSonus Firestudio mobile as my DAC. Sound quality was not even close to the gamma1. Sold the Firestudio. The major obstacle of gamma1 is soldering the SMD chips.