THE ORRONOCO AUDIO DIY

The only reason why I am building this DAC is because it is simple without additional op-amp required for the output.  I should admit at the first time, I not sure the sound quality of this TDA1543. I am afraid the sound are far from my expectation. But my thought is changed after I read the review from the 47 labs 4515 DAC online. They using the similar IC and the review is very promising.

Do you curious on how simple DAC would perform? From my previous post, I'm already fall in love with the sound from my Meridian 203. The ESS Sabre 9018 also sound very good to me but for some reason, not to engaging for me. So I think I will build my personal DAC to compete with them.

Bang & Olufsen is well known for t he lifestyle audio product. They are focusing on the style and design without sacrifice the sound quality. No exception for this old CD Player. This is Beogram CDX is build around 80's. At that time, the feature such as motorized CD lit with the disc platter is very high class and stylish. I could imagine this CDP is just like automatic gull-wing door in luxury car.

Somehow the most glorious DAC chips is only produced by Phillips on late 80's. Named it such as TDA series or SAA series like on this  Meridian 203 DAC. They offering very musical sound and they are only 14 bit sampling. Unfortunately for those chips are already discontinued since long time ago. Right now, most consumer want the DAC that can support higher resolution. 24 bit is now very advance in my opinion. But somehow I think do the consumer drive the chip producer to make higher rate or the producer drive the market to consume higher rate music? Whatever it is, lets have some comparison between the old and new DAC here.

Continue to my restoration process of this Quad 405 amplifier in  part 1  &  part 2 , I found that this little amplifier is a very good sounding amplifier. I should tell you this amplifier rival, also my previous reference amplifier is the Adcom GFA-535II is easily beaten by this Quad 405 in term of everything! Don't believe that? Me either! After I completely restored this amplifier to it's potential, then I am speechless with the result.  I think the last upgrade right now is changing the op-amp to the famous OPA627 from Burr-Brown. Let's check it out.

Adcom GFA-555 II is one of good amplifier you can buy. Just like many others amplifier designed by Nelson Pass, this amp deliver high power output on class A and the sound is clean, natural, yet dynamic. This amp is built around 90's and you still can find them in mint condition. The services that you should do at the first place is only adjusting the bias. We want this amp running optimal while still maintaining the heat on proper level.

The electric outlet in the United States are 110 volt and bring their domestic product to my country which is 220 volt is require the step down transformer, which somehow more complicated and dangerous if you accidentally plug in directly to the wall outlet. Luckily most of the product are compatible with 220 volt, but need some modification for this voltage conversion. And this is how I do it on the Counterpoint SA-2000 pre-amplifier.

IHEAC is a yearly hi-end audio show in Jakarta. In this year and mostly like yester-years, this event is held at Menara Peninsula, Jakarta on 17-20 Nov 2016. Most of the time I missed to come to this events due to lack of promotion and information from the event organizer itself. But this year, Someone told me about this events and I have to come.

Continuing from the  part 1 , now this amplifier will be assembly with the boards and rewiring the power supply cables. Let's take a look on the progress.

My friend ask me to restore his Quad 405 amplifier and make some modification to improve the sound. This amplifier is the early generation Qad 405 built in 1976, I am not even born yet at that year. So let's begin this project.

Meridian is one of the best audio company and very famous in 90's. They build in the USA and for sure the voltage input required is 110 volt. Unfortunately in my country, which is provide the 220 volt for the mains is not suitable for this Meridian. Using an external step down transformer gives me  worries of miss-plugging the AC input. It even can degrading the sound quality by using low quality step-down transformer. So I will convert this Meridian to accept 220 volt instead. And of course with high quality transformer.

I recall my memory from my teenager age, when I was looking at the MIT cable advertisement in the Stereophile magazine, I believe it was mid 90's, the mysterious box is in line with the cables that makes me curious about the purpose of that box. I was thinking it should be some magic or top-secret tuning equipment from the MIT engineer for speaker cables. My curiosity keeps rolling through my head until today, I have a chance to have it. So let's take a look closer and let's find out the magic.

Somehow, as an audiophile, my satisfaction is when setting up the equipment for cheap but the result are beyond expectation. This phenomenal is first came on late 90's when the retail electronic store in the United States sell the in-house brand portable CD player, the Radio Shack CD-3400, resulting this cheap portable CD player (actually it is sold at US$ 179 at that time) play CD audio in very good sound quality. I don't have one but after that phenomenon, is there any others audio components that have high quality audio while they are actually sells as a general consumer product? Let's find out.

My F5 amplifier already sold last week. The buyer really happy with it. He said to me that the Cyrus amplifier he have could not even match in the term of sound quality to this F5. For sure, he is not average audiophile. One of his speakers is using the Audio Note and most of his gear are vacuum tube based amplifier. His cables prices are certainly more than my F5 amplifier. Not really surprise for me that the F5 amplifier designer is a master and nothing you could do more to make it even better. Sadly now I don't have any amplifier in my system yet. The reason I sold it just because I cannot stand with the heat of class A amplifier.  That is why, this Tripath amplifier will become my experimental project.

For months I'm playing a lot with  this  tiny amplifier. It is 12 volt capable, low watt, yet ultra efficient power amplifier that very suitable for car audio application. It producing high quality audio with flea watt that most any mid-range or full-range speakers can accept. Previously, this auto power-on amplifier is controlled by using a mechanical relay. It is okay and not any single problem occurs. But to make it less mechanical things, I built the simple solid state relay in it.

While for most of home audio people really know well that the car is the worst place for audio, thus listening music in car is unavoidable. The situation for my daily driving activity is about at least 2 hours minimum per day. Compare how much I spending time while listening music at home it quite similar. But when I am stuck in traffic jam, it can double the time. So, you will never want to accompany in the traffic with a bad audio system on car don't you?

My previous post about buying the Vifa drivers from online store  here , you will notice that I also bought several items including the mini sub-woofer. It is Tang Band W3-1876S, a 3 inch sub-woofer for about $34. How it's perform compare to larger diameter sub? I will find it out!

I mostly build my own audio connector and I always using the Canare cable. They are cheap, high quality and overall sound for me is natural and minimum in sound coloration. About a month ago, my friend come to my house and we have a little chat about audio cables. He offering me to test this cable and review about it, and I replied, why not?!

It is been a long time I using Vifa TG9 here  on my living room. I personally like the character of this driver playing simple music. The TG9 is a bamboo cone with 4 ohm impedance, while this TC9 is a paper cone with 8 ohm impedance.

The Sony Playstation SCPH-1002 is become my main CD player for almost 10 years. Sadly but truth, I cannot find any audio source on the range of US$99 that could match the sound quality to this SCPH-1002. The optical kit of this SCPH-1002 is KSM-440ACM which is become problematic by ages especially when reading the CD's. The optical kit replacement from China is not a good solution. They are not so smooth in CD's playback. Other solution is using others original KSM optical from Playstation scrap which is the best but not an easy solution. The last solution I could bear is finding the complete unit model SCPH-5500 which originally have improved on optical placement and still using the same DAC chip like the SCPH-1002.

This post is an introduction to the hi-end audio. Average people will stare with straight face when they looking at the price tag of this expensive audio system. This hi-end audio brands has small popularity but the price are ultimately higher than most commercial brand, let's say like the Sony, Technics, Denon, or Pioneer.  Although some of those popular commercial audio brands also have their hi-end audio line up, for example the Pioneer have the ELITE series, Sony has the ES series, and Technics has the Esoteric,  but most of their products are targeting to average consumer market. The hi-end audio brands are nowhere heard from those average consumer. The brands such as Audio Note, Mark Levinson, Krell, Pass Labs, which intended in hi-end audio are definitely they never heard about them.

Yesterday, I had a chance to cleaning up my Sony Playstation SCPH-1002. As you know this PS1 already become my reference CD Player since around 6 years ago and today I open it up again just to checking and make some adjustment, especially on the switch mode power supply.

It is hard to be true that a short length power cord between amplifier to wall socket could make a significant difference in audio. Honestly I never believe that until I did the test from cheap power cord compare to the DIY Furutech - Belden power cord from my friend. It really sound different! The price for making it is reach US$ 200! Hmn... expensive. Let me show you the comparable power cord, yet affordable and cheap. Take a look!

Perhaps the great life formula for me is simple. I love to listen great music with the best audio equipment possible. Especially when they are build by myself, It is become my self satisfaction to listening from it. I am working quite hard to save some money for this hobbies, which is DIY audio is never be cheaper than buying branded audio gear. And for some reason, I love to have a routine gateway. Not often and never should be fancy, but at least it can refreshing myself with a new places, great food, and some local live music or perhaps the music that I can carried while traveling.

Flashing back to my teenage era, I have built many audio project. Many of them are only for the experimental purpose. But there is one project that stays quite long on my listening room and I could say this speakers is the most successful project I've ever built. I still have it right now and if I am not mistaken, the last service of those speakers are about 8 years ago. It is still a beautiful speakers and working like charm until today:)

This F5 amplifier is using for my daily amplifier yet also as my reference. I am really enjoying the music from this the F5 amplifier. They are pure, dynamic and detail. So I guess no others amplifier on my DIY journey can make the sound as good like this. Seriously, I only have several amplifier that blown my mind, one of them is Elector Mini-Crescendo back on 90's. I often play the bias and the difference between low bias and high bias are day and night. But for this F5 amplifier, how much differences for the low and high bias? Is it acceptable or trash? Let's find out.

The class D amplifier are now very popular due to it's power efficiency, good sounding, and ultra cheap kit available. Mostly they are comes in the small modules which most of the user will consider them to use for multimedia or PC sound amplifier. They are built for it, but I will consider to put them on the higher class. They will put on my audio system on my living room with proper listening placement, good audio source. Then I will comparing them one to another.

My previous project using Tripath amplifier  here  is give a big smile on my face. The single rail voltage amplifier could produce seductive and sweet vocal which mostly we only can find on more expensive audio system, let's say a tube amplifier. The power output from this amplifier is quite small for a solid state, but this amplifier could drive my stereo speaker with ease. So, I try to figuring out if  this amplifier could become my car audio amplifier.

The most popular choice for regulated power supply are using 78xx series which simple yet considerably good. If want more advance to against the ripple, using LM317 is the best choice. The LM317 is also voltage regulator with the voltage output that can be adjust based on the need. They are both good regulator but very limited to the output ampere. Less than 1 ampere I believe. This low ampere is not a problem with small device such as pre-amplifier but you cannot going any further such as power amplifier. Of course you can add to the circuit a high ampere transistor to rise the current but it make the circuit more complicated. That is why this LT1083 will took the place for the high ampere regulated power supply IC.

What are you expecting when install a big sub-woofer on your trunk? For me, I want to hear a deep loud bass with the timing that coherence with the overall music. The bass should penetrate to the music and to the room very well. I personally do not need sub-woofer. But it is different to my friend. He come to me and ask for my help, why don't we build one giant sub-woofer box that not just sound loud, but it will sound much deeper. So let's this project begin.

OEM car speakers are comes with many size. They often using their own plastic enclosure unify with the speaker basket itself. Some of them are great and mostly are crap. When it is time to change the speakers, special treatment need to be done to achieve maximum performance of the speakers itself. The goal is to minimized the sound cancellation. In this project, I am using and testing 4 inch speakers from RCF.

From my very first post about Stereophile magazine quote , is the fear for future audiophile is become in a chip. In fact, it is no longer to wait. All of audiophile dedication in discrete components that aim for lowest distortion and better sounding seems become a desperate goals achievements. While many modern and hi-tech chip manufacture are also design the small high performance chip that match the performance with a discrete components amplifier that we have pride in it for many years. Lets be honest. I am a general person who looking for the best audio amplifier. Not to speak about what topology are them, if they are good then I will say so.

It is a not normal for an inch driver to become a full-range. I am skeptic about how good this full-range driver deliver the music as I wanted. In my opinion, this is a bad driver. But I am trying to be fair and judge it wisely. The price point for this driver is very affordable. Let's see how it work.

Most of my posting in this blog is about capacitors. Let's say Wima, Nichicon and ELNA Silmic. That is my choice for best performance to price ratio for audio application caps. Wima it self come with many size. The MKP is the best one for the audio signal. They are offering natural sound and slightly thin to the mid range frequency. Elna is also good at it. Especially the Elna Silmic, it is small size electrolytic caps which offering warm and natural sound. Both Wima and Elna Silmic caps have small size. If the capacitor placement is not an issue at all, then look no other than the paper in oil capacitor. Frankly speaking, this is the best capacitor I've ever use for the audio signal. The sound-stage is wider, the layer sound is separate nicely and the sound is smooth and natural.

As an audio reference, I often do a listening session with my friends in my home audio system. Most of them are shocked about how could a small full-range can produce marvelous mid-range without compromising the low and high frequency. I often told them about this Vifa TG9 is superior. I had do comparison the sound quality with the larger driver from Visaton here , and no luck for Visaton to beat this TG9 at all. Another day, another chance to open up the battle again. This time the contender is coming from SB Acoustic 2.5 inch full-range drivers, SB65WBAC15-4 versus TG9-FSD10-04 install in the car audio system.

It is been awhile that I am not posting anything in this blog. Not because I am super busy with my daily life, or I am super lazy for even write down a word for full-filling my blog and pretending that: "this blog is still alive" But more than that, I am preparing something that could replace my reference audio source. Something that the audio player I am comfortable with and of course with the sound that I could smile every time I turn on my system.

One thing that I loved about a good full-range drivers is I don't have to calculate and experiment the cross-over values. But in most cases, the one pair full range speaker cannot give fuller frequency band. Especially for the car audio system, in this listening space, it is require multi driver to reach the full band audio frequency. As you may have the same experience like I did, designing the cross-over in multi way speaker system may takes so much time and money. This is including trial and error from different value of components and hear the effect to the sound. I used to experimented the parallel  cross-over  configuration for long time. This parallel cross-over means each driver has the same input from the amplifier, configures in parallel. It  is more difficult to design, especially if it set into higher order frequency slope. The most problem with this parallel  cross-over is the  frequency response between the drivers is hard to blend each other ...

Inspired by the great looking of Pioneer Carrozeria RD-7X, I would like to build this power line filter by myself. This power line is usually for clean up the ripple cause from the alternator of the car. Main purpose for this unit is for cleaner power line to the car's head unit. Since this is very simple project,  I could dig all the components from my bin and the cost for building this is almost nothing.

This F5 project is continued once my order of 2SJ74 from Spancer arrived last week. As you can read from  part 1 ,  part 2 , and  part 3  this F5 amp is almost finish. I have tested one channel and working very well. This amp works without hum, noise, or any pop noise. I can say it is a dead quiet amp.

The first production of the original Elna Silmic capacitor is offer a giant size diameter. When I compare them with the same value with others capacitors, it is just like elephant and ant. Look at this 1 uF value Elna Silmic! I have ultra cheap 1000 uF with almost the same size like this one. This project is an update of the half-gain headphone amp which is describe  here

This is an experimental headphone amp using dual op-amp IC. The goal is for better design of headphone amp compares to the Cmoy amp. I am dig out any possibility to improve the typical headphone amp like  RA1 clone ,  Cmoy LME , or tiny Cmoy amp like  this  and  this . And here is the final layout, I named it the half gain amp. The IC that I use in this project is AD823 from Analog Device.

Welcome to the year 2016. I have a lot of time during this holiday and my itchy hands ask me to doing something with the power supply of Sony Playstation SCPH-1002. This is my following upgrade which previously I had replace the caps with the better ESR rating.