Akitika PhonoZ build

[MKG]

I think the mistakes teach me more than anything.

I’ve always worked with small scale stuff- r/c airplanes and helicopters and slot cars and the like when I was younger. I have dreams of doing something larger like rebuilding a motorcycle or building a hot rod, but honestly, I get frustrated just trying to remove bolts when I’m working on my vehicles. There’s always that one bolt rusted in place in an impossible to reach area.

These kits are my therapy. I have an incredibly stressful job- I’ve found that when I have a soldering iron in my hand I have to focus on what I’m doing rather than think about work.

I’ve got one last place to try for thermal paste. I’ve got some coming from amazon on Monday, but I don’t want to wait that long.

 

[DaaDaa]

by looking at your board i realized that have C21 wrong and C51 missing

edit: i dont mean that the kit was wrong or had missing items i just mean that i made a mistake. easy enough to remedy but if it wasnt for your picture i wouldnt have realized until i fired it up. that stout Guiness got me good lol

 

[MKG]

I actually managed to find thermal paste from some hole in the wall computer shop that I didn’t know existed. He also sells used audio gear but I didn’t see anything special.

Power supply is done. Wood board is temporary, as is the crimped on connectors on the umbilical cable.

I realized that I have a transformer shield from a previous build that I didn’t use- which means I can actually put this thing in a single case. Ima buy a smaller one that matches my preamp case and put it in that.

I’m currently listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival through it.

It’s dead quite. I love it.
Once again, I’m horrible at this reviewing thing.
To my ear it does exactly what I want a phono preamp to do- it cleanly brings a phono level up to line level without any noise and without coloring the sound at all.

Not really sure what else I can say about it. It blows my ear834 build out of the water. I think I’ll be cannibalizing the ear834 and using the tubes & transformer & choke & caps for a future project cause I don’t have any desire to listen to it anymore.

I’m looking forward to playing with the cartridge loading settings to see if I can get anything more out of my cart.

I’m not sure what my next build will be, but I’d like it to be a tube amp. Maybe the @Kegger 6LU8 amp. I’d like to bi-amp my system.

There’s a ham radio swap meet in July that I’ll be dropping by. I stopped in last year and picked up my first Hafler dh-200. This time around I’ll be looking for an oscilloscope & a frequency generator, as well as any tubes that I can use for audio. Whatever I pick up will probably determine my next project.

 

[MKG]

by looking at your board i realized that have C21 wrong and C51 missing

Glad I could help keep you from potential disaster.

Below is my drink of choice for the night. (Well... my sipping drink of choice. There’s a few shots of Jameson in me as well.)

 

[DaaDaa]

done and ready to test

 

[MKG]

A q-tip or small cheap foam makeup brush & rubbing alcohol will clean all of that rosin off nicely.

I’m looking forward to hearing your impressions of it!

 

[DaaDaa]

I listened to the best of David Bowie and Adele's 21 (not a very good pressing unfortunately). it is very quiet (not noisy)
compared to what I have owned before (cheap phono stages and the ones in my vintage integrated amps) it is on top.

 

[DaaDaa]

the ground connector was not in the kit, was it?

 

[MKG]

No, I stole one from a cheap $20 phono preamp that I had. I’m either going to order a knurled nut or do what I did on a previous build and use a gold plated screw down speaker post jack thingy.

 

[DaaDaa]

well honestly my new orbit special turntable doesnt even have a ground connection so I guess my phono stage also wont have one

/////////////////

 

[MKG]

That works. You can always add ground point in the future if you need it.
Tell me about your power supply? I’m intrigued.

 

[DaaDaa]

That works. You can always add ground point in the future if you need it.
Tell me about your power supply? I’m intrigued.

This is the Salas Ultra BiB shunt regulated power supply
designed by user salas on DIYaudio
[URL]https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/power-supplies/322411-salas-sslv1-3-ultrabib-shunt-regulator.html[/URL]

it is a bipolar power supply and you can set it for any output voltage from 7 to 15 by choosing the correct value for R1 and then fine tune with the trim pot

it is very stable and also flexible. the schematic and manual in the link.

 

[DaaDaa]

ok. now I want to put the DAC next to it and use this box as a source, maybe even add a Raspberry pi and turn it into a streamer.

 

[MKG]

Looks like you have plenty of room.
Maybe get a shield for that transformer.

 

[MKG]

Finally put my moving magnet phono preamp into a proper case. I went with one that matched the case for my preamp, but I didn’t measure first so I ended up having to mount the transformer and power supply vertically on the front panel. I really need to research and purchase the tools I need to properly cleanly cut and drill into steel sheet metal and aluminum so I’m not hacking into **** with air tools and snips. I don’t know if I need a proper water table or a basic cnc machine.
@physicist my builds aren’t nearly as pretty/professional looking as yours, but someday they will be.

 

[Lavane]

I actually managed to find thermal paste from some hole in the wall computer shop that I didn’t know existed. He also sells used audio gear but I didn’t see anything special.

Power supply is done. Wood board is temporary, as is the crimped on connectors on the umbilical cable.

I realized that I have a transformer shield from a previous build that I didn’t use- which means I can actually put this thing in a single case. Ima buy a smaller one that matches my preamp case and put it in that.

I’m currently listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival through it.

It’s dead quite. I love it.
Once again, I’m horrible at this reviewing thing.
To my ear it does exactly what I want a phono preamp to do- it cleanly brings a phono level up to line level without any noise and without coloring the sound at all.

Not really sure what else I can say about it. It blows my ear834 build out of the water. I think I’ll be cannibalizing the ear834 and using the tubes & transformer & choke & caps for a future project cause I don’t have any desire to listen to it anymore.

I’m looking forward to playing with the cartridge loading settings to see if I can get anything more out of my cart.

I’m not sure what my next build will be, but I’d like it to be a tube amp. Maybe the @Kegger 6LU8 amp. I’d like to bi-amp my system.

There’s a ham radio swap meet in July that I’ll be dropping by. I stopped in last year and picked up my first Hafler dh-200. This time around I’ll be looking for an oscilloscope & a frequency generator, as well as any tubes that I can use for audio. Whatever I pick up will probably determine my next project.
View attachment 1549542 View attachment 1549543 View attachment 1549544 View attachment 1549545 View attachment 1549546

I think you would like the 6LU8 amp. I built an amp using a similar tube, the 6LR8. 5.5wpc goodness. These sweep tubes can really sound great.
I use this Spud amp a lot. Very well balanced top to bottom. Pete Mellett sells a board for a PP amp using TV sweep tubes for 20wpc.
Here is my little Spud amp.

 

[Lavane]

Finally put my moving magnet phono preamp into a proper case. I went with one that matched the case for my preamp, but I didn’t measure first so I ended up having to mount the transformer and power supply vertically on the front panel. I really need to research and purchase the tools I need to properly cleanly cut and drill into steel sheet metal and aluminum so I’m not hacking into **** with air tools and snips. I don’t know if I need a proper water table or a basic cnc machine.
@physicist my builds aren’t nearly as pretty/professional looking as yours, but someday they will be.
View attachment 1761016 View attachment 1761019 View attachment 1761020 View attachment 1761021

Nice! Now you have a matching set. You gonna build an amp to match also?

 

[MKG]

Definitely, I just haven’t decided which/what type.

 

[DaaDaa]

Finally put my moving magnet phono preamp into a proper case. I went with one that matched the case for my preamp, but I didn’t measure first so I ended up having to mount the transformer and power supply vertically on the front panel. I really need to research and purchase the tools I need to properly cleanly cut and drill into steel sheet metal and aluminum so I’m not hacking into **** with air tools and snips. I don’t know if I need a proper water table or a basic cnc machine.
@physicist my builds aren’t nearly as pretty/professional looking as yours, but someday they will be.
View attachment 1761016 View attachment 1761019 View attachment 1761020 View attachment 1761021

Gorgeous. I love the idea of potting the transformer. The construction is excellent. I had so many rookie mistakes in my original build, I'm on version 5 and most of the improvements I learned from you or got inspired by you.