[winterslove]

Hi everyone!!!!
i placed this mesg in the newbie section but because it is because of aspen amps that i came to this site i thought i would post it here too
as it is aspen amplifiers users that i hope to know more as boy i need advice and help when i dive into the diy pit

A little about myself first
my name is jason
I am from the un-united kingdom,
i live in a small town of waterlooville(named after the battle of waterloo, the ville part meaning village in frence i believe),
it was a stopping off point for people traveling from london to portsmouth city,
it is a nice place although no nightlife,just houses and tree's
tree's are a passion for me,
i find looking at tree's is very uplifting.

I turned 31 today,
although it was not as much a shock as when i turned 30,
as on that birthday i could not deny i was an adult,
no longer in my 20's.
Strange as as i turned 30 i became invisble to anyone under 30,lol.


I have many questions to ask, but thought it best to say hi first before
picking your brains with my endless search for wisdom on diy amp building.

I am yet to build a diy amp,
This is due to knowing nothing about it,that is my purpose in joining this site,
to meet many people who can advice me and help me
in making up my mind what path to go down,
as i have come across so many diy amp sites all claiming to be
able to take one to audio heaven.

I will end this post here as if i do not,
i fear the questions will start comming,
and when they start,
i find it hard to stop them comming.lol

Great forum you have here,
you all seem very friendly and helpful.

Sorry to go on abit in this post, but i thought it would be best
to say hi to you all, and let you know abit about myself before
the onslaught of questions,lol.

cheer's all from the land of rain,
jason.

p.s i have yahoo mesger and aol mesger so if anyone would like to add me up my aol aim is winter6romance and yahoo mesger is just4justine4ever

[AKSA]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to our forum.  There are lots of helpful people here and I believe you will find building an amp with forum input a good way to start out.

However, I urge you to visit your local electronics store (or Maplin/Cricklewoods in London) and buy a cheap, simple kit.  Once you have your iron set up, you can attack the kit without fear or qualm, knowing if you ruin it the cost is very low.  You can't bugger up an AKSA;  too expensive and ambitious!!

The biggest skills to gather together are soldering and component familiarity.  I should also mention patience and a measured, disciplined approach, very necessary when you are plodding around in unfamiliar terrain.

Your first stop is the forum, particularly as you gather information about the products, and value assessments.  Then you ask me by email, and I try to back you up to the maximum this imperfect but fast medium permits!

Look forward to welcoming you to our family!

Cheers,

Hugh

[winterslove]

Thankyou for the email hugh,

May i ask what sample kit i should get,
i have never tried anything like it before and
have no idea what sample kit i should try
as they have a few,
also what type of solder iron should i use?
i am very much a newbie,lol

I am enjoying this forum
i am reading many posts on this forum and looking at pictures
of other peoples designs
but i guess i must not run before i can walk
i will follow the advice with the kit
as im sure if i do not rush and do my homework
and do a sample kit like you say
then in the long term
i will have a great amp
and will have learned a thing or two along the way

thanks again for your reply

Jason

[fajimr]

welcome aboard winterslove

here are a few links to some queries I posted a while back... all the information was helpful to me as a DIY newbie...

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=18225&highlight=


http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=19011&highlight=

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=18730&highlight=

[rez]

Any one know of a Canadian web-seller of cheap electronics (practice) kits?

[Gordy]

Well,    and welcome to AC Winterslove!  At one time I had a link to a $10 or $15 chip amp kit that would have been a great practice project, but Firefox crashed and dumped my entire list of bookmarks a few weeks back   I've been searching Ebay for the listing, but to no avail so far...  I'll post a link if I do find it again!

Gordy

[gonefishin]

Hi Jason


   As you've already figured out...this a great little community here.  As you'll soon find out...this little community is here for a reason...one heck of a nice sounding amplifier!


  happy birthday  


   dan

[winterslove]

hi guys
thankyou fajimr for the advice and for taking the time to provide the links
i have been searching though them and find the information very helpful
do you have any pictures of any project?

Thankyou also Gordy and thanks for the birthday greeting,
it was a better birthday then when i turned 30 as i have had a year to get use to being nearer 40,lol
hope you do not mind me asking but what part of the world is creek in?
sounds a beautiful place,
I know the feeling regarding the crashing of firefox
my pc always crashes all the time when i play media
i have no idea why it is does
all i know is if i try playing any type of visual media it crashes
but never when i play audio,just media
its a pain as i can not play any pinoy vcds on my pc

could i ask about your aspen story?
how you got into it and what you have learned and if you have any pictures of your system?

i plan to take pictures all the way towards my build including the sample amps upto when my system(journey)is over
along with how i got along on each part of the journey
and put it all in a blog so that
any newbie in future will have a pictures and words insight into building  an aspen amp,
Also they will see that if someone like me who has never built or soldered in my life can build one,
then anyone can,
thanks again for the help
jason

[winterslove]

thnaks for the birthday greeting gonefishing
your speakers look amazing
i have regas EL8 which look very blend next to yours

i looked at your system info and you really have one hack of a system
i love opera and folk music and i can not begin to dream of how real the
vocals must sound though your speakers and system,
I'm very much a vocal guy,
I love audio that makes vocals sound real!!!
im not so much into the type of sound that people say "sounds live"
as live music is only as good as the pa and i have heard some really poor live shows,
once i heard a band play a song live that sounded nothing like how the track sounded on cd.

Jason

[PSP]

Hi Jason,
You have to go find some unamplified live music to listen to.  That  IMO is the only real gold standard, and the more you hear the more sure you will be as you mold the sonic character of your system.  If you don't know what live, natural music sounds like, you will drift and run around in sonic circles.

Welcome to the Aspen circle... you have made a good choice.
Peter

[MattCassidy]

Hi jason, and welcome

Similar to you I had never done a DIY project as was in fact pretty new to audio in general. Loved music, but was never aware of the amazing and facinating world of hi fi.

I took the plunge and built a Aksa 100W Nirvana. I have to say it was pretty straightforward, especially with Hugh's help. Do yourself a favour and do what hugh says and read through the instructions first. Then make sure at each step to read the entire section. Work slowly and steadily and you are almost guaranteed success.

My Power Amp is now finished and it is fantastic. I have also nearly completed a GK-1R, which although much bigger project was not to hard either (so far).

My top piece of advice is to start thinking about a case early. It is a pain, expecially if you are in a small town. it took me quite a bit of looking around and investigating, and worst of all waiting waiting for the sheet metal worker to finsih my case when everything else was done! Oh the anticipation was dreadful, much worse than waiting for Santa as a 4 year old.

Cheers
Matt

[winterslove]

thanks for the posts
what type of case did you go for?

i have had some ideas for my case
one idea i had was a beach wooden front
and a glass type top
the problem is i have no idea were to look for
sites that sell that type of stuff or even if it is poss
i really am a newbie
that was my main reason for joining this group
i thought it best to join and learn from other peoples wisdom
rather then just jump in and mess up

one thing i would be thankful for is if anyone could tell me
the best sample kits to buy to pratice with
as huge said to me to buy the pratice kits from maplin
but they have a few and i really could do with someone telling me
which one to go for first and also what solder iron to buy
as i have not got one and i have no idea the wattage to go for

i also want to say thankyou to everyone who has sent me a reply to my questions
im sorry if i ask such simple and daft questions
its just i really have no idea
i just have a desire to learn and build my own amp
i just fingure out that it is best to do research first before
starting anything new

Jason

[MattCassidy]

I got a brushed aluminium case made, the two heatsinks made up the left and right sides and were external, it's pretty plain but nice. I am ashamed to say I have neglected to photograph it so far. There are some posts on this forum about where to find a case, so it might be a good spot to start. I also looked around a fair bit at the pics of peoples systems on this site to gain some ideas, although most seem to be much more handy than myself.

As for a test kit, I instead got a packet of cheap resistors and a blank bit of circuit board from a local electronics supplier. Then I just practiced for at least 10 minutes until my soldering was up to scratch. I also had my dad look over my shoulder for a little while, he was a television engineer in his time and had some good advice for me. I would say that you need a good digital multimeter and a good soldering iron, and a good pair of side cutters and that iwll be half the battle. i check every resistor value before I stick them in, much easier than remembering the band colours etc.

[winterslove]

im going to sound so thick now
but what is a resistor?
im showing how much of a newbie i am,
infact i was worried before as im so much a newbie i know nothing,
i thought that because i do not even know what a resistor is,
people may wonder why do i want to build an amp if i dont even know such a basic thing as what a resistor is or what it does,lol
i did try to find posts on the basics of an amp
what each part is and what it does but couldnt,
i did buy an book by a guy call john lindsey hood i think?????
but it was to hard to understand and did not explain the basics in normal english,
so if you could tell me what makes up an aspen amp and the basics
of what they do,
i would be soo thankful

[MattCassidy]

A resistor is a little thingo with one wire going in and one wire going out, it looks a bit like an overgrown grain of rice with stripes and its function is to partially resist the flow of electricity. There are lots of these in any electronics project. there are also capacitors, which can hold a charge a bit like a battery, transistors which someone else can explain and then there are diodes, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

I reckon that if you don't know what a resistor is then you should certainly do a really small project first, or perhaps look for a short course to learn a little bit first. Perhaps locating some high school textbooks could be worthwhile for some of the basics. I just looked up a book called "Electronics for Dummies" that you can buy online. Not that i am saying you are a dummy! it is just what the book is called.


You could also try howstuffworks.com for some initial explantions of these things.

Here is a link that explains some basics of amps although it might be alittle advanced.
 
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=amplifier.htm&url=http://sound.westhost.com/amp-basics.htm

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress, think yourself lucky you will be learning a whole new world! Lots of fun.

Matt

[Gordy]

The cool thing about those resistor thingies is that they can also look like caps and caps can look like diodes and diodes can look like transistors   Just thought I'd clear things up for ya...   Very intimidating at first, but I was soon able to usually sort them all out... usually.

A pro tech. in Canada got me started and he recommended Weller soldering eq., but there's plenty of others.  Here's the one I have with adj. heat to the iron... http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=372-120
Whatever type you get, make sure you get a pencil tip along with the std screwdriver tip, it'll come in very handy!  Don't spend big money on "name" solder, Kestor is excellent and easy to work with.  Typical me, can't remember the word used for the low temp. solder, but for some reason they named it after those minty leaves that Koala's eat

I was going to suggest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page as a source for info, but I think Matt's links are probably better!

Oh, and Creek is Branywine Creek, a water basin that runs through SE Pennsylvania and N Delaware (east coast usa).  I'm in Wilmington, De. which is non too beatiful, but the river valley is!!!

[rabbitz]

Welcome winterslove.

If you want a basic kit, look no further than a Chipamp which has only a few parts and sounds excellent. A really good start into learning about assembly of an amp. Look at the Dual Mono kit 3875-KIT-C-DM, but you only need to use one of the rectifier boards with 1 transformer. This design started from a thread on DIYAudio.com.

http://www.specializedkits.com/lm3875.shtml

A good place to start to learn is Rod Elliotts site.
http://sound.westhost.com/

Then you can progress to the AKSA, mmmmmm, once you've done your homework and apprenticeship.  

Cheers

[PSP]

Hi winterslove,
Another route is to get a few kits of increasing complexity, starting with a kit that has just a few parts, and then work your way up the food chain to larger and more complex kits.  When you are comfortable, build an AKSA.

Velleman (and I am sure that there are others too) makes a wide range of kits; for example see:  http://www.itcelectronics.com/plin-revised.asp?C=1267

The key is to make the kit work exactly as it should work and then understand more or less how it works.  You might find Forrest Mims' books a good basic introduction to electronics and electronic components ("Getting Started in Electronics" is particularly good for beginners, I think); see  http://www.forrestmims.com/  I bought my copy at Radio Shack.

To enjoy this journey and succeed, you must move slowly and softly through the woods as you learn.  Occasionally, when my circuits made more smoke than music, I would try to pursue the problem with too much speed and fury... that nearly always makes more smoke and even less music.  Instead, especially when there is trouble, be a student--a slow careful observant student.

Have fun, go slow, and be very patient.  When you finally flip on the switch and hear music from your AKSA, you will find that the journey has been very much more than worthwhile.

Peter

[gonefishin]

A small project will be a good idea.  It will get you familiar with the components and also with soldering.  Decent soldering skills will come in handy when you start you AKSA project.

   Hugh has simplified most of the work with the instructions that he has written.  But...if this is your first "larger" project...don't fret.  Just take the knowledge that you've learned while building your smaller "practice" project and apply it to each step of the AKSA amp.  If your still feeling a bit overwhelmed at how many steps there are...just set your goals on one or two steps at a sitting.  If you only finish one or two steps at a time...the project will be coming to an end before you know it


     dan

[gonefishin]

A small project will be a good idea.  It will get you familiar with the components and also with soldering.  Decent soldering skills will come in handy when you start you AKSA project.

   Hugh has simplified most of the work with the instructions that he has written.  But...if this is your first "larger" project...don't fret.  Just take the knowledge that you've learned while building your smaller "practice" project and apply it to each step of the AKSA amp.  If your still feeling a bit overwhelmed at how many steps there are...just set your goals on one or two steps at a sitting.  If you only finish one or two steps at a time...the project will be coming to an end before you know it


     dan