Some DIY home builds

[pulsestudio]

Thank you Mike, there is a great place Italy where, before the weak £ were very reasonable and superb quality, it's here;

http://www.autocostruire.com/catalog...16993dfcd105a2

or here:

http://www.modushop.biz/

and they are both very helpful
Paul

[Mike]

Thanks Paul, I've not seen the second one before. If I have I'd forgot!

I've used Autocostruire before... http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...?t=360&page=12

Cheers...

[pulsestudio]

Hi Mike
Just had a looksy at your phono stage build, very, very impressive, nice work but why do you still use veroboard for the PSU regulator circuits, surely it would be better to buy a few sheets of single sided copper board, scribble the circuit with one of the special etch resist pens and place in some etching solution, that's what I do and the results although not perfect do have a better chance of minimal shorts and broken tracks.

I did notice a lot of issues regarding the surge brightness from the heater filament, this is quite normal as someone suggested and not to cause alarm, I have tested literally hundreds of valves, some do and some don't exhibit this strange behaviour, but assured it is nothing to do with the regulators, in many of my valve guitar amps where there could be 6 double triodes a couple may show this occurance, swap them around and it stays with the valve.

What phono circuit did you use for the phono head amp Mike, or is that your secret ?
I have often considered building a valve pre-amp ( not phono stage ) as I have quite a large selection of NOS Brimars, Telefunk's and Mules that I have gathered over the years, before they were $1000 each, a few Toroids, E and C core traffos that would do the job too, just never gotton round to it, maybe a project for the long hot summer we will have this year, any suggestions for a circuit ??
I currently power my Naim 323 boards from 4x 12V Lead acid cells, I have tried all manner of super regs and keep coming back to the SLA's, there is just something about the scale and presentation using this source of PSU.
Paul

[Mike]

why do you still use veroboard for the PSU regulator circuits

That was early stage stuff, the whole PSU got rebuilt onto tag strips (or is that what you meant?) like this:


By shian7, shot with u30D,S410D,u410D at 2008-08-21

The actual Phono stage is built on a WD PhonoIII cct board with my own choice of components.

[pulsestudio]

Hi Mike, sorry I didn't see the tagstrip PSU I looked at the veroboard earlier version.
so is the WD Phono III a well documented and public domain circuit ?? or is this in kit form ? and can you recommend any line level pre-amps to attempt with a shit hot spec and to die for sound ?? you have got my juices flowing for the warmth of something valve again
Paul

[Mike]

The WD Phono III is a currently available commercial design available built or as a kit. The circuit is 'out there' if you know where to look, PM me.

They also do a first class Pre, same applies. This is more or less a single ended triode power amp in miniature! Transformer coupled and everything!

Have surf around here: http://wduk.worldomain.net/acatalog/index.html

All of their gear punches WELL above it's weight in price terms.

[pulsestudio]

A few Reel 2 Reel machines I have, only started the collection a few months back although the Tandberg has been with me for a few years now, a car boot find for a few quid.

Tandberg 64X all valve and full of Telefunken double triodes, and yes it works



Akai GX635D in mint condition, brought this from AudioJumble along with 150 reels of tape, quality is not in the same league as the Technics RS1500 but a lovely machine none the less



And finally my prized pocession a simply gorgeous Technics RS1500, had a fair bit of work to do to get this baby up to spec but well worth the time and little cost



I also have a Tascam 34 which is a 4 track studio machine in reality, a friend of mine had owned it for many years and decided he was going the digital recording route so I have inherited it, needs a small amount of work to get the spooling sorted out as it needs a helpig gentle shuv to get the thing into FF or REW, no big deal to fix, I hope

[Mike]

Beechy will no doubt be along shortly!

[symon]

Beechy will no doubt be along shortly!

That's just what I was thinking!

All this talk of reel to reels. Makes me want to get one just to see what all the fuss is about...

[pulsestudio]

Beechy will no doubt be along shortly!

he already has Mike, in fact on my first day of joining the forum we shared many exchanges, mutual gratification
Paul