For this short post I thought I’d just show the setup I’m using for the spare bedroom now that both Idiot Children have left home. The room still has a bed but I’ve managed to have a desk for my electronics.
Category: DIY Audio

CMoy Mark IV – preamplifier
Whilst many modern sources provide enough voltage to feed a reasonable signal to amplifiers, some, such as the Pass ACA, may benefit from a boost in gain, particularly if paired with inefficient speakers. As I had most of the parts, I thought I would try a variation of the CMoy headphone amplifier as a preamplifier…

Quick speaker build project
I’ve been thinking of building some speakers for a while now, and with the imminent departure of Idiot Child No.2 to university, an excuse has arisen – that being a simple audio set-up for her room. The project had to be relatively cheap as I don’t have much spare cash for the next few months….

Attack of the Clones
What does a $3300 amplifier sound like? I suppose I’ll find out soon when I finish building a Gainclone amplifier. A Gainclone, as its name suggests, is a clone of an amplifier which first appeared in 1999, the Gaincard built by 47Labs. Heralded for its sound by Stereophile magazine, people were nonetheless surprised to discover…

CMoy headphone amplifier version 3
After building my Mark II CMoy headphone amplifier I decided to make a version which resembled more of a desktop model.

Nelson Pass ACA v1.5 DIY build
When I first started searching online for information about DIY audio, I came across the DIYAudio forum, as I expect most people do. Feeling bewildered, I clicked through to the store and saw what seemed to be the answer to my problems, the Amp Camp Amplifier, designed by Nelson Pass. This is a complete kit…

CMoy Headphone amplifier version 2
After building my first CMoy amplifier, I wanted to have another go and correct some of the problems I had with the first build. Specifically, I wanted to see if I could get rid of the hum and find a better case.

Building the Objective 2 headphone amplifier
Anybody who looks into building their own headphone amplifier will come across the Objective 2 at some point. It was designed by the anonymous electrical engineer known as NwAvGuy as an experiment in high quality, well designed and engineered equipment, but crucially at low cost.

Streaming music around the house with a Raspberry Pi 3
There appears to be a proliferation of streaming devices coming to the market, catering for all price-points. It was, however, the Chromecast that really brought this technology to the mass market, providing a simple setup with acceptable audio sound quality at £30 or cheaper with one of the regular sales. It really is hard to…

CMoy – A beginner’s headphone amp
After assembling a couple of kit amps with differing results I decided to have a go at a ‘proper’ DIY amp, built from scratch on a prototype board.