New! Complete CD-PRO2M Kit!

ken_diyzone.net · « **Reply #60 on:** 31 Jan 2005, 02:51 am »

rhmmmm,

Sorry for not responding, I am having a heck of a time with that email id (basiclly, can't seem to get that email server working for me!!).

Yes, I still have the CD-PRO2M kit avalible, please send me an email at Ken_m_shih@hotmail.com, I'll send you the information on the kit.

Regards,
Ken

JoshK · « **Reply #61 on:** 5 Feb 2005, 08:17 pm »

Hi Ken/Steve/Limin,

Does DIYZone offer chassis' for sale for other DIY projects to match the CD player and the upcoming Preamp? I was poking around last night on the website but I don't speak or read chinese (is it Mandarin that Taiwanese speak, can't remember?) so I found it a bit difficult to figure things out. Wondering if there were any amp chassis for sale, since I bought some UcD modules to build amps and love the chassis in the CD kit.

Thanks,
Josh

mcgsxr · « **Reply #62 on:** 5 Feb 2005, 11:54 pm »

Josh, having spent 2 years in Taipei, I can report that many of the people I met were functionally trilingual - Mandarin the official language, Taiwanese the local language, and English as a 3rd... sure there were also local dialects including Haka, Fook (actually spelled another way, but I don't want any misunderstandings...

The thing that really got me was that Cantonese and Mandarin are essentially different pronunciations of the same written word - yes, I know that the mainland uses the simplified characters etc, but to make my point - imagine two people who speak languages that are significantly different, being able to write down questions and answers for each other!

Great little country, with some of the most wonderful riding ever - along Roosevelt Rd, follow it as it turns into Hwy 9, up and out of Taipei, down towards the little coastal town of Ilan at 5:30am on my "sort of legal" Honda RS250 (OK, it is a racebike, but really, it's fine...) and strafe some corners. That road was like a fresh tarmac serpent, weaving up and down the mountains, until you reach the curvy descent to the ocean. No better way to feather the edges of your rain slicks that I have ever experienced. No frost, no frost heave, so the pavement stays that rich, sticky black texture for years... 2 stroke HEAVEN!

Ahem, I digress, and don't mean to hijack the thread, but that road makes my top 3 in the world, anyday!

JoshK · « **Reply #63 on:** 6 Feb 2005, 12:02 am »

I guess the thing that confused me was that my college roomate was from Taiwan and spoke Cantonese, so I always think Taiwan people speak Cantonese but that is the minority I hear. I don't know any chinese myself but my best friend speaks some, as his 9th language I think. Dude is unbelievable with languages. Took him 1 month to learn Portugese fluently before we went to Brazil. (French, Italian and spanish he already knew so wasn't too much of a stretch but still...Arabaic & french are his firsts). I am a stupid gringo in that sense since English is all I can speak well, German a bit and Spanish certain phrases, other than that pretty much only Japanese counting (Karate).

JoshK · « **Reply #64 on:** 6 Feb 2005, 12:22 am »

Ok, I disgressed from why I came to this thread. I wanted to comment on what I think were the hardest parts of building this kit so others can gauge whether they can do this or not themselves... I am in fact a relative novice kit builder. I know a bit about electronics, mostly text reading in the last few months or so, and I have built 5 or 6 kits before and one tube preamp from a schematic and simple instructions only (simple 5687 preamp from diyparadise.com, which is an easy build, he gives some instructions). This should give you a bit of gauge on you vs. me.

So far, and I will try to edit this post or follow up with what I feel are the most non-trivial parts of building this kit, tiangus, please follow up with your comments also.

1) mounting of the transistors on the bottom plate.

This I felt was non-trivial because even though I followed the instructions quite well to my thoughts when it came to peicing together the kit, I didn't leave enough 'slack' in the transistor leads to reach the bottom plate with the standoffs being a bit larger than the instructions spec'd.

Question: What is the sole purpose of the transistors being coupled to the bottom plate? Heat dissipation or isolation? I am not sure how much heat will be conducted through the isolation sheet, that is why I ask. Is it suppose to be Nut > Transistor > washer > sheet > bottom plate > bolt OR Nut > washer > Transistor > sheet > bottom plate > bolt ?

2) Probably the main VFD board soldering, since it required a lot of patience and a sharp soldering iron. I bought a Weller soldering station b/c I am planning to build a number of kits so I felt it worthwhile but for some thing may pose a problem. Soldering the 40 point Opamp seat requires decent soldering skills and a relative sharp iron. I didn't find this difficult but I have good tools. With a ratshack iron, might have been frustrating.

3) Drilling out the L brackets so that the slot is wider for mounting. This will pose to be non-trivial for those without the correct tools. A dremel tool or a clamp and a drill should be sufficient for most, but not quite non-trivial.

Tiangus or others who have built this kit, anything to add?

I wanted for people who are interested but want to gauge their skills to see if it is doable for them to understand the hardest points about construction of this kit and above is what I feel to be the hardest or least trivial points thus far. By and large this kit is 98% model building in terms of difficulty. Need patience, need a bit of soldering practice (you can practice soldering pieces of wire together prior if you haven't before).

kelvincoq · « **Reply #65 on:** 10 Feb 2005, 02:09 am »

Hi All,

I am new to this forum. Came by when I was serfing the net about the Bent TVA and found this CD-drive kit very interesting and that I should be able to build.

Best thing is that the complete kit is ready to ship in Americas. I was able to read the comments from other builders when waiting for the arrival of the kit. This helped me map the areas that need special attention.

Bet I spent more time than most builders in this project - 5 evenings and over 18 hours. I tried to be very patient and careful all the way. From my experience probing a problem took more time than assembly work.

The unit fired up on first hookup. Only one problem (an excellent record for me) encountered - the 'Stop' and 'Start' buttons on the front panel did not work - the remote control works fine. Ken was prompt in telling me that the L-bracket would have in contact with the pcb. I found the electric tape which was used to isolate the bracket rolled back as I tightened the bracket onto the VFD board. I still have some micas square sheets (used for isolating LM317 from a heatsink) in the tool box. This is perfect for this job as it has a mounting hole.

Just received the pulse transformers from Ken so I will work on the kit again this weekend.

I have the following comments on building this kit:

1. No washers came with the bolts/nuts. Suggest washers for the L-brackets (these help secure them to the bottom plate & VFD board)

2. Re the button rods: The two in the middle ('Backward' & 'Start') cannot be tightened by hex-key, can only be done by fingers.

3. To move the VFD forward for better VFD display and wider sensor angle. The button rods are too long in this case. Have anyone tried to cut short these button rods and hot-glue them to the buttons?

4. I have twisted all transformer wires (primary & secondaries) to avoid possible humming. The primary wires from the right side transformer was routed to the back panel and then across to the power switch. I used some hot glue to keep the wires at the corner of bottom plate and side/back panels.

5. Wonder any need to hook up the 'earth' pin at power socket to the chassis?

6. Anyone knows all the functions of the buttons on the remote control? At the same time I have no clue about the 3 labels 'DAC', ‘INPUT’ & ‘OUTPUT’ below the 4 grey square buttons.

7. There is some free-play on my CD door. Am I the only one? Do you know how to tackle it - to eliminate rattling noise when kids run around on the suspended floor?

8. Use a good soldering gun with a sharp tip. Weller solder station is a good one.

rmihai0 · « **Reply #66 on:** 11 Feb 2005, 09:36 pm »

Anyone interested to put togheter this transport for me?

ken_diyzone.net · « **Reply #67 on:** 28 Feb 2005, 02:33 pm »

Hi,

Today is Feb 28th, lst day for the CD-PRO2 kit at $699. Will increase to $799 tomorrow.

Thanks
Ken

Elso Kwak · « **Reply #68 on:** 30 Mar 2005, 07:40 am »

Hi Ken,
The case looks wonderful but the the toroids are a wrong design choice I feel, passing HF crap easily.

zemtex · « **Reply #69 on:** 2 May 2005, 09:46 am »

The CDpro2 kit threads have been quite for some time now

I am planning to buy at kit myself, but can't afford it right now(still in school...).

There where once talk about a dac in a design-matching case... any news on that one?

Regards Kai

ken_diyzone.net · « **Reply #70 on:** 6 May 2005, 01:10 am »

Hi zemtex,

Yes, the DAC is coming. We are ready to release our De-Jitter in the next couple of weeks, and then the internal I2S DAC will be released.

The external DAC, the one with Tube I/V and Output buffer, will be ready in the fall.

BTW, we are going to have a couple of tube amp kits coming out soon too. One is EL34 PP amp, and a 300B amp -- both within a student's budget.

Thanks
Ken

zemtex · « **Reply #71 on:** 7 May 2005, 07:19 pm »

Quote from: ken_diyzone.net

Hi zemtex,

Yes, the DAC is coming. We are ready to release our De-Jitter in the next couple of weeks, and then the internal I2S DAC will be released.

The external DAC, the one with Tube I/V and Output buffer, will be ready in the fall.

BTW, we are going to have a couple of tube amp kits coming out soon too. One is EL34 PP amp, and a 300B amp -- both within a student's budget.

Thanks
Ken

Hi Ken

This sounds great!

The De-Jitter, is this gonna be a option (addon) for the CDpro2 kit?

But to cut to the case, the real reson I'd ask about the DIY dac kit, is mainly the box for this dac. I think I remember someting about this will use a box that has the same design as the CDpro2 kit... and I have had å few ideas about having this kit professionaly modded. This mod wil increase the power supply a LOT, and I don't think it will be enough space inside the CDpro2 kit box. Therefore I came to think about the dac box, an maybee (and only maybee) I could buy the box and have the power supply buildt in the dac box... These at only ideas in my head, and I think it could work, but it all depends if the box for the dac can be purchased alone...

BTW: keep up the good work making cool DIY stuff! ! ! !

Regards Kai

JoshK · « **Reply #72 on:** 21 Jun 2005, 02:22 pm »

Just a little update since I first announced that I would build CDPro2 kit. Well as these things go, my schedule was more booked that it appeared and the kit building took longer than expected so I didn't get through very many.

So here is what I propose. If anyone is still interested in this kit, but is fearful of the complexity of the kit, I can help out. There is basically 7 PCB boards that need to be stuffed. Of these only one is all that challenging, the VFD display board. It isn't super difficult but it isn't LEGOs either.

My proposal is that I will build the VFD board on consignment for those willing to embark on the rest of the project. I spoke with Ken about this and he said he would be willing to ship the VFD board and parts to me and the rest to you and I would then ship the VFD board complete to you when done. I can usually do the VFD board in a day.

Putting the case together and wiring it up is pretty straight forward, almost trivial but is very time consuming. It also is a pain to receive the whole package, unpack the appropriate parts, then package it back up and ship the whole thing to you. This way should cut down shipping costs quite a bit too.

I may be be persuaded to stuff some of the other boards or all the boards for those who are afraid of solder, but the PSU boards and digital output boards are really very easy as far as soldering goes.

ken_diyzone.net · « **Reply #73 on:** 21 Jun 2005, 02:41 pm »

Thanks for this excellent idea Josh.

The most challenging part of building CD-PRO2 is definitely the VFD board, those tiny little solder points really need sharp eyes and steady hands to put together.

Gordy · « **Reply #74 on:** 21 Jun 2005, 03:54 pm »

I can most certainly vouch for Josh's work, he built my VFD board for me and it's a beauty! As mentioned before, the remaining boards are a snap, they basically go together as fast as you can stuff 'em. Even after completing the other boards, looking at the VFD is, for me, rather daunting

gordf · « **Reply #75 on:** 21 Jun 2005, 07:55 pm »

with the kit from Ken just sounds marvelous. Thanks again Josh and Ken, I think I'll have to try soldering a kit....but for now, just trying to insert the tube dac into the cd transport....

ken_diyzone.net · « **Reply #76 on:** 21 Jun 2005, 08:10 pm »

Hi gordf,

Glad you are enjoying the player.

BTW, which tube DAC are you installing? Does it fit inside the chassis? Can't imagine you want to cut through the top plate.

Bill Baker · « **Reply #77 on:** 22 Jun 2005, 01:12 am »

I'd like to jump in here if I could. I also have listened to this player as Ken was kind enough to send me his demo unit for evaluation. After spending only 2 days with it, I can honestly say that it is a substancial value. Where else are you going to get an aluminum cased CD player/transport for under a grand?

I have also been working with Ken on a few other ideas. One will be to make available assembled units for those who are not into the soldering of DIY. Yes, I do realize most DIY'ers and Circle members will not find this a useful or needed service but there are many others out there that would enjoy this unit with no interest of assembling it themselves.

Another venture in the works is an enhanced version of this player to be released under our Musica Bella series. There will be some very unique features incorperated into the player that will allow it to stand apart from the standard unit. Some of these ideas, to my knowledge, have never been done in the past in a CD player. I am not permited to give away too much at this point but hope to have some updated information very shortly. In all honesty, my goal is to compete with $4k-$6k players for under $2k.

That aside, this player is a tremendous unit for the money.

JoshK · « **Reply #78 on:** 22 Jun 2005, 01:44 pm »

Hi Bill,

I agree it offers amazing value and a super solid platform for the incessant tweaker/modder/diyer or to build an uber player from. I had some ideas for spring boarding when I was building the transport kits for others. If I finally get my platter clear enough to take on building one for myself I think I will put it into action.

Keep us informed of your ideas and progress on your project!

Cheers,

ken_diyzone.net · « **Reply #79 on:** 24 Jun 2005, 03:25 pm »

Hi,

An offer to Audio Circle readers.

I am getting a new shipment of CD-PRO2 kit from oversea soon. The new set:

1. The VFD display moved forward and buttons shortened.
2. The three transformers inside now has a cover.

I still have one Black and one Silver kit left without the changes stated above. Price: $749 (I'll also add in the Tray, the Pulse Tx, and the clear top for free). Please let me know.