Anyone out there an audiophile or audio geek?

[jamilm9]

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14823
go to the white version and read the reviews.
My sister got this for my brother when he goes to university.shhhhhhhhhh.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200242207216

 

[rkcstr]

JBL stuff?  niiice  ;D  That and the Crown amps, you've got a lot of money in that stuff.  I have an old Crown Micro-Tech 1200 amp that looks beat up and very old, but still works great, and weighs over 50lbs!

@jamilm9:
looks like a cool little headphone amp, but I'm not a big headphone junkie... I like the music to be blasted at me and loud enough to feel it (and maybe my neighbors feel it too)  ;D

 

[wicked1]

Just found this thread..

I built a 300b single ended triode (tube) amp, and a pair of high efficiency back loaded horn speakers last winter. It's amazing! I've regained the same appreciation I had for music 15 years ago. Life's been better ever since

For those who only know tube amps along the lines of guitar amps, this is a completely different thing. Those introduce and exaggerate tube distortion as much as possible. This has none. (ok, it probably measurably has some, but nothing you can hear at any volume level)

 

[rkcstr]

sweet... I don't have the money to afford any major project like that. Tube stuff can get SUPER expensive (well, I guess any audio stuff can). I have some random really old electronic parts from the tube era that my girlfriend's dad gave me from HIS dad's stuff from the 50s/60s. Doesn't really look like much in there that I could built anything substantial with though... plenty of paper caps, randoms tubes, some other random parts and what looked like an old tube-based power supply.

But, give me ~5-6 years, I'll be making plenty of money and then maybe I can afford those expensive projects

 

[wicked1]

Well, rkcstr, if I had to guess, I'd say you're a "do it yourself" kind of person, so  build your own.  Out of all the electronics projects I've had, I'd say the amp was one of the most simple.  Yes, it was expensive, the tubes, caps, and transformers for hi-fi aren't cheap.  But then also, don't get caught up in the hype.  Basically for someone getting started, mid level tube audio stuff (tubes, caps, transformers) will probably sound better than anything you've heard before (did for me).  So, don't worry about making the jump to purchasing the most high end components you can.  But yeah, I guess I paid about $300 for the tubes, and about that much for the transformers.  Then the few audio caps I needed probably only cost about $50 all together.  The rest was just random other caps and resistors and sockets.  

Whew.. I guess I did spend more than I originally wanted to.  But, I'll probably have the thing for the rest of my life.  And, like I said in the last post, it has seriously made my life better!  i just didn't care about music anymore, and so watched tv instead of listened to music, which leads to being lazy.   Now I turn on my amp every day instead of the tv, and am motivated to get things done!  

One more thing about building it, not only are amps super simple circuits, the components are all extremely forgiving!!  No worries about static..  no real worries about hooking something up improperly when you're experimenting.  Components don't just up and die, like silicon IC's.  They sit there and slowly get hot, or Ive even had a tube spark internally when I did something stupid.  I corrected my mistake, and everything was fine. I guess I should also mention that the amp has 500 volts running through it so while the components are forgiving, the human body might not be so much if you touch the wrong thing!

 

[tomcat]

my tubeamp is mostly silicon and uses a brick sized transformer from a old washing machine that has a 240v - 530v line on it and some low power lines for other bits of the amp, only the main amp switches and the tubes are mounted in holders not soldered and i have about 10 in a box in my attic for when they blow from leakage (about once every 3-4 years) i can tell because the red glow of the argon/neon fill goes more pink then purple and nitrogen + oxygen is getting in and ionising then they suddenly become much less effective as all the metal in there gets oxidised the pressure in not as vacuum

 

[laserrod]

Yea Parts Express!

I run power mosfet amps (Kyrocera & Hafler )and Berringer 8024 EQ  Dayton 8", silk dome tweet and lots of Piez Horn.
I use massive aircoils to the drivers to save HF energy for the Tweets

200 disk Pioneer CD changer.  if sheeple still use such media

Nothing fancy but very direct and clean sounding

 

[rkcstr]

Zombie thread! LOL

I had a Hafler amp a few years back... bought it for cheap on Ebay and fixed it up and sold it for about twice as much

Very nice sounded amp! I love my Tripath amp that I have now, though.

 

[john_lawson]

deja- :-?vu

 

[Flow]

Just finished building my first DIY headphone amplifier (CMoy) and it suprisingly works! Now I can damage my hearing with greater volume.