My Second DIY Project

Nelson Pass DCB - 1 Preamplifier

This is a DC coupled buffer preamp based on the design by the great Mr.Nelson Pass. The PCB & Power Supply is designed by HiFiVision Forum Member Mr. Om Mishra. The device consist of a 15-0-15 R-Core Transformer, a power supply & a preamp PCB. 

The preamp has got single input & output with a stereo volume pot. All components are sourced from the finest manufacturers in the world by another HFV forum member Mr. Sachin.I have housed the electronics in a GI case. The power supply is connected with a PC socket. A cheap on/off switch with LED is used as a power switch. The RC sockets are from MX.

Costing.

Switches & Sockets - Rs.50

R Core Transformer - Rs.800/-

Power supply & Amp. PCB with stereo pot - Rs.3200/-

My brother in law helped me in soldering as i am a novice when soldering is concerned. The amp became ready in 4 hours flat & started singing immediately after that. People say that it requires at least 50 Hours break in period so i am waiting to over that.

Listening impressions.

The preamp is not completely broken in so it will be injustice to comment on that but still i will write about my initial impression.

The amp has got unity gain so i have to adjust the gain of my preamp to the fullest to hear something of the speakers. The amp is behaving nicely with good separation & tonal balance. But i am little disappointed with the sound signature. What i get out of my DAC is completely imbalanced by the preamp. due to its unity gain property. The volume level drastically comes dowm when i bring this preamp in to picture. I have to use an equiliser which incidently has got gain switch to counter that. I keep the equiliser at the flat position adjust the gain of equiliser then i can control the sound from the preamp.

In all till now it is a very big disappointment for me. But lets see how it fares after it is completely broken in.

My first DAC

 My first DAC FiiO Do3K DAC

This has been my first venture in to DAC domain. I was thinking for some weeks about having a DAC for my Music system. I use a Sony Blue ray player as a music source but some time back at a friend's place i saw a DAC used with a netbook. The DAC was an entry level USB DAC but it was producing very beautiful music with good amount of separation. I was blown away by the precision & clarity.

That was the time i decided to get a DAC for me. After a brief search on the net i settled for this product. I got this for Rs.2800/- from a direct seller of FiiO in India , Pristine Note. The DAC has got two s-pdif inputs, one digital & the other optical. It has got two line outs.There is also a switch to toggle between the two inputs.The device is USB powered. It also has one output for connecting earphones.

The device is easy to connect in fact it is plug & play. The toggle switch is little flimsy i had problems moving the switch to the right position. You cant get the feel of the right position of the switch. There is an indicator light which turn from red to blue when a specific input is selected.

Initially i connected digital output of my source to the DAC & voila! I got what i was missing these days. What a beautiful rendition of music, what a precise delivery of sound, what an amount of separation. I have started hearing the pieces of music i was missing all those days. I wonder how a song can be so different with this little box of magic. The instruments are getting their real tonality. The bass has become tight. The headroom is suddenly expanded. How can el chippo box of wonder make such a difference?

I just can not stop praising the sound signature of this DAC. If these DACs make so much of difference then why cant the Big Consumer Electronics Manufacturers add this in to their players is a big question. Further people say that this is FiiO's entry level model, if this is so then i am anxious about how the premium models of FiiO will be performing?

To sum up this is recommended for all music lovers to experience how musicians have composed the music & how the sound designer recorded the music. I am giving this product 5 Stars out of five.

Cheers!

Mod for Modern TV

RCA Theatre System Horns

RCA Theatre System Horns

Altec horns

Horns built by "Altec"

Huge Horns

One more painting by Greg Fernandes

Paintings by Greg Fernandes

These are some of the copy righted paintings by an Australian artists Mr. Greg Fernandes. See the lush strokes of colour. The artist says that he has inspired by Great Indian Artist Raja Ravi Varma.

One more Corner Horn

Spherical Corner Horn 

Again Some Horns

Music Server of Audio Tapes ?

Server of Audio Tapes

I think this player can play non stop music analogue almost for a day.

My DIY Yagi Antenna for FM Band

DIY Yagi Antenna

Since I live in Kalyan receiving clean & clear FM signals was always been a major problem to me. Therefore in spite of having many receivers I always suffered from disturbance in FM signals. Kalyan is situated around 50 Kms away from Mumbai. As per Govt. of India policy the private FM operators need to install their transmitters on Govt. towers. In Mumbai all the private FM operators have their transmitters on Mumbai Doordarshan's TV tower at Worli. I tried with many tricks from Rabbit's Ear Antenna to a long wire stretched up to the terrace to receive the clear signals. However for many years i did not get clear FM Stereo Signals. Since Kalyan is surrounded by Parseek Hills around Thane, it is very difficult to get a direct path for the radio waves.

This was until I stumbled upon a content on the Internet regarding the antenna design.The pictures are displayed below.

The dimensions are calculated taking in to consideration center frequency of 100 Mhz.

1 - director 1 120 / frequency 

A - interval betwen 1 at 260 / frequency

2 - director 2 125 / frequency 

B - interval betwen  2 at 345 / frequency

3 - director 3 130 / frequency 

C - interval betwen  3 at 430 / frequency

4 - director 4 138 / frequency 

D - interval betwen  4 at 530 / frequency

5 - Dipôle 143 / frequency 

E - interval betwen  5 at 648 / frequency

6 - reflector 150 / frequency 

The details are available on the following link.

http://radio.meteor.free.fr/us/antenna.html

http://radio.meteor.free.fr/us/yagi_fm.html

For at least an year I was planning to build one but could not get time for the build. In last week I decided to build it according to the plans depicted above.

Materials Required.

1) 8 mm Aluminium Tubing.

2) Wooden strip 1"x 1.5" x 7' size.

3) Small PVC pipe & a Tee Joint.

4) GI Pipe 1" x 6' Long

5) Twin Lead Wire.

Cost Involved

1) Aluminium Tubing - Rs.480/-

2) Wooden Mast - Rs.30/-

3) GI Pipe  - Rs.300/-

4) PVC fitting - Rs.30/-

5) Twin Lead Wire - Rs.50/-

6) Most Important  - Angry stares from Wifey.

Total - Rs.890/-

It was very difficult to find aluminium tubing locally. Finally I got it in Metal Market at Kalbadevi. The tubes I got were of 12' long & it was very difficult to transport these to Kalyan in tact. Ultimately I cut all the tubes to size in my Parent's home in Lalbaug. 

The most difficult part was to make a dipole as it involved bending of the tube. I tried every trick but I did not suceed in making exactly parallel U bends in one plane. Ultimately I settled for cut GI cloth hanger & got inserted in to the tube. So now my antenna is made up of composite material. The construction though looks simple, it is very difficult to fabricate it without proper tools. The photos of my antenna are attached below. 

Since my receiver accepts 300 Ohm unbalanced antenna, I did not go for a balun and a coaxial wire. I used twin lead wire for the connection.

Its been 12 Hours now & I am getting clean & clear FM stereo signals from 8 out of 9 FM Radio Stations. The only remaining station too i am getting in Mono.

Hope this post encourages other people to build one.

I am welcome to your queries. So dont hesitate. 

Some More Horn speakers

Beautiful Horn speaker

Beautiful Horn speaker

See the nature of craftsmanship in building this horn speaker

Voigt Corner Horns

Beautiful Voigt Corner Horn

My first DIY attempt in to electronics

I have ordered a Pass DCB1 kit from one of the FM of HFV with a power supply and a volume control pot. I will have to source for a 15-0-15 R-Core transformer & a cabinet. Once the kit arrives I will look for the transformer & the cabinet. This is a photo of the build by the FM. I will post the photos of the progress once I get all the materials.

Horns Made in Serbia

These are the most beautiful horns I have seen, that too from a country like Serbia which is not famous for this kind of business.

Big Size Horns

I always wonder what kind of bass these kind of horns will be generating. The horns costed $ 20000 in 1952. Surprising isn't it?

Weird sense of humour

What will you call it ? Weird sense of humour ?

पाहतो जेव्हा खिडकीत तुला मी

पाहतो जेव्हा खिडकीत तुला

पाहतो जेव्हा खिडकीत तुला मी वाढते श्वासांच्या पेक्षा निःश्वासांची संख्या,

अचानक वाटते ह्रदयाच्या ठोक्यांना लाभला संगीताचा बाज नवा.

लाजुन हासतेस जेव्हा तु वाटतो उधळला शुभ्र मोतीयांचा अनमोल खजिना,

वाढते तापमान शरीरातले जसा शिशिरातही येतो अनुभव ग्रीष्माचा.

अवतरतो अवचित वसंत जेव्हा माळतेस तु केसांत गजरा मोग-याचा,

मोकळ्या केसांत तुझिया मग अडकतो जीव माझा होउन पिसासारखा.

सावरतेस जेव्हा तु ओढणी तुझी उलगडत जातो भरदिवसाही चित्रपट स्वप्नांचा,

कृष्णधवल आयुष्यात माझ्या मग होतो आपसुक वर्षाव इंद्रधनुषी रंगांचा.

पाहतेस जेव्हा तु वळुनी माझ्याकडे जातो शिखरास मनोरथांचा धावा,

अंतरीच्या हाकांना तेव्हा वाटतो द्यावा प्रतिसाद तोडुनी रितीभातींच्या श्रृंखला.

गुंफतेस जेव्हा तु बोटांत बोटे उजळतात लाखो दिपज्योती मनातल्या,

नकळत गुंफला जातो मग स्पंदनांत माझ्या तुझिया स्पंदनांचा मेळा.

संकोचत जेव्हा तु टाकतेस गळ्यात माझ्या करकमलांच्या तुझिया माळा,

धुंदावुनी जातो तेव्हा मी वाटतो लिहावा इतिहास सारा पुन्हा एकदा.

                                                                               प्रसाद कर्पे 

Butterfly Horns

Butterfly Horns.

Two 15" woofers mounted in a unique enclosure deliver bass that no high end design using small woofers can even hope to match. 104db efficiency (1w/1m) means any low powered tube amplifier can drive the Monarch. Large solid wood baffles help load the woofers and make room placement far less demanding. OMA's proprietary cast aluminum alloy horn and compression driver cover the midrange and high frequencies, with superb integration due to a simple crossover network.

Western Electric Horn Speakers

Horn Speakers built by Western Speakers

Massive Horns

Is it for real? This person must have made an arrangement for a separate house to keep these kind of Massive Horns.

See the amount of wood used for the construction. In India you can built a small house with that much material.

Mobile Horns

Truck mounted Horn Speakers

Horn speakers by Technics

Technics Horn loaded Sub Sat System

Horns on the "Thames"

Horn PA system being played in Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant Parade on account of Diamond Jubilee Celebration of Queen Elizabeth II in June 2012