Whilst there is a proliferation of DIY audio PCBs available through sites such as Ebay and the many other Chinese based sites, there appears to be a relative dearth of suppliers of DIY kits and boards with accompanying support. For those with a little experience, a PCB with accompanying schematic is all that is required…
An unresolved problem with Audioquest Dragonfly
UPDATE 19/10/2019: The situation with Audioquest has been resolved and details can be found in this post. I’m using this post to send a word of warning to anyone who may have dealings with Audioquest and Superfi. I bought a Dragonfly Black just under a couple of years ago for mobile usage and I quite…
All together now….building an integrated DAC/streamer.
A while ago, when building my friend’s chipamp, I had the intention of incorporating an internal DAC and streaming capabilities into the enclosure. Nothing special, just a Pi Zero and DAC HAT. Noise problems that I didn’t have the time (or knowledge) to troubleshoot meant the amp was just built as standard. The idea of…
Akitika 1kHz Oscillator
In a previous post I detailed the setup I’ve begun to use to learn about measuring the distortion of some of my amplifiers. Acknowledging this setup is rudimentary, for those wishing to tinker further there are of course many options. As ever, improvements can be made by the utilisation of better (read more expensive) equipment…
A DIY approach to distortion measurements for audio amplifiers
I imagine I am typical of many DIY audio enthusiasts in that I build something and hope that subjectively it sounds good. However, I am also curious about the objective measurements of the equipment. I thought this level of analysis would be beyond my ability and budget, but an interesting thread appeared on DIYAudio.com recently,…
Rod Elliott ESP P88 Pre-amplifier
I’ve been impressed by the ESP projects by Rod Elliott, they work well, are simple for novices but with plenty of scope for modifications. The projects come with extensive documentation, including construction advice if you buy the PCBs. I decided to try his well regarded Project 88 preamplifier to go with my Nelson Pass ACA….
Ray Samuels Audio XP-7 Headphone Amplifier clone
I bought a mixed bag of boards recently and came across this one knowing nothing about it, apart from it appearing to be a headphone amp. I finally found out that it is a clone of a commercial project – the Emmeline XP-7 which has been around for a number of years. A cursory search…
Public Domain Audio Project PCBs
This page is a repository for build files which are considered public domain. It is hoped that by distributing these files widely, they remain visible to DIY enthusiasts looking for free projects that do not infringe on the copyright or intellectual property of the designer. You can download these projects, modify them as you wish…
An open source LM3886 chip amplifier.
I decided to build an amplifier for a friend. There are a number of good chips for amplifiers and I managed to purchase a pair of LM3886 opamps new for £5 from a seller on DIYAudio a few months ago. With the chip decided upon, a suitable layout was sought. As much as I would…
Grounding resources
It seems that grounding and safety earth is one of the most confusing aspects of this hobby for beginners like me.Here are some resources that I have found useful. I will add more as I come across them. https://hifisonix.com/ground-loops/ http://sound-au.com/earthing.htm https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/solid-state/324413-dozens-schemes-wire-amp.html