My first DIY Audio Project

[gurusan]

Just built my first CMOY headphone amp. Had a few hiccups but got through them and now it sounds brilliant! My HD 580s are 300 ohms so they needed some more power, and now they really shine!

My cmoy is not portable, it's powered through a 12.8V wallwart supply...and I changed the power caps to Sanyo WG 1500uF which seemed to tighten up the bass at high volumes. Currently using an OPA2132PA opamp, going to try an OPA2142 in a bit and maybe a few others. I was expecting some background noise because it's running from the line-out on my onboard P5Q deluxe sound but there really is none at all!

My next project is getting a DIY DAC up and running, then I'll be building a Millet Starving Student hybrid tube amp

Quite pleased for my very first DIY project I did mess up on the LED hole though, made it too big. I might look for a larger LED to fill the hole up some more.

 

[TimBlanchard]

nice.

 

[Preacher]

So what does this do ?

 

[Crysalis]

Nice job.

 

[EricB]

Nice job.

ditto

class t amp?

 

[TimBlanchard]

So what does this do ?

used to amplify high impendance headphones, improving sound quality.

 

[gurusan]

^exactly. My HD 580s are 300 ohm which is fairly high impedance....they did not get very loud just via the headphone out on my onboard sound....and now they get to ear splitting volumes :/ The sound is also much more accurate, detailed, and much fuller and tighter bass.

 

[gurusan]

just another update....I bought an assembled DIY DAC kit off the bay for about 36quid.

Being fed over ASIO then optical out straight to the DAC so the digital signal is untouched til I gets to the DAC

I threw a LM4562 opamp in there and it really sounded much better, but then I bypassed the entire output stage completely and sent the analogue signal to my headphone amp and now this thing sounds seriously good! I used to have a X-FI with a bunch of mods which sounded pretty decent but this certainly beats it, and best of all it's cheap! Listening to a few different FLAC rips and there are all sorts of intricacies in the music that are much more audible now

This DAC certainly gets my recommendation!!

 

[gurusan]

another update.

Got everything stuffed into the case with some ventilation. Casework is much harder than I thought! Couldn't get things to line up properly and I got fed up after awhile... now its good enough for me, even though the rear of the case is a bit rough, lol.

 

[veg1992]

So are you selling your X-Fi Modded Card then?