Buffalo Dac build

steve2701 · « **Reply #40 on:** 22 Jan 2012, 09:29 pm »

Hi Serengeti,
Here in the UK the standard is Brown = Live, Blue = Neutral, Green/Yellow = Earth-safety ground.
I do have electrostaic screens installed in these transformers - they are (obviously) connected to the earth.

Red = +ve secondaries and yellow = 0v.

The material is a phenolic laminate I use at work. Very dense, exceedingly hard and a pain to work with

It helps that I have a full workshop and a (very) powerful pillar drill.
Paul suggested Stainless Steel fitting hardware to help avoid any nasties in the way of magnetics, so bolts, nuts and washers are all S/S grade A2.
Complete overkill, but just enough in this case

serengetiplains · « **Reply #41 on:** 22 Jan 2012, 11:10 pm »

If we define overkill as doing something that has no effect, I don't view your work as overkill. My projects are all about as complex as yours, which I've learned is required to get those extra few percents of subtlety. But as in quantum physics, subtlety is power. Great work.

serengetiplains · « **Reply #42 on:** 29 Jan 2012, 03:33 am »

Steve, are you using balanced-AC to the Hynes supplies?

steve2701 · « **Reply #43 on:** 29 Jan 2012, 05:23 pm »

Hi Serengeti,
Kind of - sort of yes is the answer!
Technically it is difficult to use balanced power here in the uk as we have a fixed 240v - 0v and earth system. We *cannot' have 120 / 120 & earth as only the *live* section is fused in the Uk, not the neutral.
So what the guy did that made these particular TXs was rather clever - centre tap to earth for the first one, the second one then re combines the phases. That is as much as I know! So yes - the power has been *cleaned* by balancing - then made legal again by the second. All I know is that 120K of TX's is a lot to play with.

These two should be in place finally tomorrow, if I can get access to the underspace for them. Trying to move two together while wired is ' amusing' shall we say.
All good fun though and starting to progress nicely now.

steve2701 · « **Reply #44 on:** 8 Feb 2012, 08:28 pm »

A further update on whats happened recently.
As per last post, the two x 5Kv isolator / balancing tx's have been finally placed and wired.

A few other goodies finally landed - cable to wire the tx's together, glands for between boxes, mcbs to fuse each supply..

Made the outlet board for inside the office

but this leaves me with a fair bit of soldering

The soft start modules turned up ready for installation into the main distribution box

After speaking with Paul I decided to make it easier for myself and fuse each and every transformer (and therefore its following circuit) with a 2A MCB right in the distribution board. Using the DIN rail system makes this very easy. Just swapped out the links and installed (well at least some, as 14 ordered and 12 arrived

) the mcbs.

Hopefully over the next few days the transformers will have their permanent homes (just finishing that off) and I will have drilled a lot of holes through my office wall.

I did finally finish mounting each tx onto it's own plinth

& as the eagle eyed NicMac noticed they are indeed Canterbury Windings work

next up is summing the outputs and putting the lot in their homes

serengetiplains · « **Reply #45 on:** 9 Feb 2012, 01:30 am »

Very impressive, Steve!

Have you, uhh, thought of adding, say, a Felix CLC filter before or after the power transformers? That would diminish the amount of noise reflecting back onto the mains. This is something I'm doing here.

Then, eventually, you can say to your sweet, "Honey, we need a new house."

When I owned a house, I fed balanced power to a pack of old Elgar reconditioners---a conditioner-gaggle---I painstakingly upgraded (all resistors and capacitors, and some wiring) and ran in series, one series leg per component. It was horrendously complicated, but it worked. Cough.

steve2701 · « **Reply #46 on:** 9 Feb 2012, 01:32 pm »

Hello Serengeti,
I had not thought about putting anything else in the power lines yet - possibly later if I really need to go there.
I took the setup of the mains supply to my office to the Nth degree, so I'm hoping that I don't need to do much else.
Out in our yard (some 15m from the main entrance) is our own sub station which converts 11Kv @5000A to our 415V 100A 3Phase supply.
I allowed two phases to be used for machines, offices and heat / light. The third phase is kept 100% separate and just for the HiFi

This feeds two separate Consumer units. One unit now supplies the power amp and now this dac via separate radial circuits.
The other Consumer Unit supplies the Cd and Pre.
So that is sort of 'overkill' yet again.
As for moving - I know what you mean - my knees and legs get weary with age of stairs at home - so maybe moving will be sometime.
As for moving this office - no chance! After the work that went into making it, I will never get to re-create anything like this again unfortunately, at least until I win the lottery.
Making this room was another journey:-
http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/1984380/Wall_boundary_trapping#Post1984380
If you have some spare time you may like to visit that diary.
It has a lot of happy and weird memories for me - and did I learn a lot!

steve2701 · « **Reply #47 on:** 15 Feb 2012, 09:15 pm »

A few more pics of some rather slow progress over the last few days.
The last two MCBs turned up, so I could continue with the wiring in of the transformers. It all became a 'bit busy' in the distribution box.

Only to discover that 50m of CY cable is nowhere near enough

This rats nest will become tidier I promise.
(EDIT) All of the 'earth' (ground for those in the US) on the right hand side are for the electrostatic shields in the transformers.
The lone earth on the left hand side bottom of case is the safety earth direct from the fuseboard. This is the one that will continue into the dac boxes as a safety earth. A fair amount of experimentation will no doubt follow with getting the rest of the signal ground correct.

And finally some transformers get to live in their new homes.

I also had delivery of a bunch of stuff to mount Pauls supplies when they arrive shortly - all in s/s A2, so no nasties with electromagnetics. Also a super long drill bit to allow me to drill 17 holes through my lovely sealed office

Not something I take lightly as it is 100% sealed, I have no 'flanking' noise at all. 100+ industrial size tubes of acrylic sealer / intumecsant made for a big bill. Making a lot of holes was never part of the plan.
All done and ready to move forward again when more cable arrives.

serengetiplains · « **Reply #48 on:** 16 Feb 2012, 05:25 pm »

Great progress, Steve.

steve2701 · « **Reply #49 on:** 17 Feb 2012, 10:03 am »

In the title of the great Floyd track - One of these days.
Checked where my tickets were for the Festival of Speed? Payment had not been sorted correctly and therefore no tickets sent.. Sorted. Where are my Aussie Floyd tickets? Its nearly showtime.. Printed today sir, will be with you Monday... Sorted. Yipee, another 50m of CY gets delivered instead of me going to collect it. Aghhh it won't go through the holes?? Last cable is 9.47mm dia. This is 11.52. Try and get that through all those 10mm holes I drilled in the office wall

It's a different manufacturers product, but what was in stock. same spec - different outer layer (much more pliable).
Only have my battery drills at work so can't get anything bigger than 10mm into the chuck.
Going to have to drill through from both sides of the wall with a standard length 13mm drill when I get my leccy drill back up on Monday as I am not buying yet another drill bit just for one job

This may just be going to be one of those very frustrating days.

steve2701 · « **Reply #50 on:** 17 Feb 2012, 08:50 pm »

So after a bit of stomping around things decided to improve.
Went home for an hour and got us a nice lunch on the way.
Found an ancient drill that looked like it may just do the job.
Post contained confirmation of another Floyd concert with a good friend on March 2nd

, Steve Hacket tickets on the 25th of this month, and Tord Thorgesten the day before my first Floyd gig.
Music is on the up at least.

The drill fitted and looks slightly bizarre.

but it works

So made a quick jig for all the upcoming soldering.

and then a knock at the door announced the arrival of my next project - yet more supplies from PH

Fortunately my good friend then arrived and it was time for 4 hours straight in the music room - which is what it's all about ultimately!
Left for home in a much happier frame of mind

steve2701 · « **Reply #51 on:** 13 Mar 2012, 01:46 pm »

So I finally got the outside transformer box all sorted and fitted, as you will see below - a little bit of green lighting, a raise in temp then an increase in humidity to 92% & the Borg would feel right at home in there..

Firstly I completed the fused power out box so that every transformer was wired in to its correct fuse and left or right supply. Fiddly job as first the outer sheath needed removing with a stanley knife, then the shield cutting back and neatly covering with heat shrink to make sure of no shorting issues. The the two inner black (numbered) cores need to be coded blue for neutral and brown for live. (on this juncture 1 = live 2 =neutral) It got very busy indeed in that box. Then I decided when it was all finished that I had better put in a couple of spares, good job as they have already been spoken for in the shape of a 'mux' board from TP and probably a USB power supply.

Lower 2 left hand shelves house 5 transformers a piece for the dac boards. The upper shelf was a real fun one to get hands into with screwdrivers..

The fun thing I had to remember here was that pin2 equals LIVE every time in an XLR so for the sake of sanity I coded wire two brown = live.
All of this wire stripping, cutting and shrinking while ten feet up a ladder was, ahem, frustrating

and only resulted in two sliced thumbs (who mentioned H&S) and sore soles of feet.

Upper shelf contains four transformers for the output stages, wiring got to be very 'imaginative' here.

Finally a view of the whole lot before it gets a neat surround fitted and doors put into place.
As can be just about seen, I have incorporated as much 2mm aluminium sheet between shelves and transformers as I possibly can (at least two in each case) to help as much as possibly with EM & RFI. There is a fair amount of laminate in there as well, along with ceramic bearings

All completed just in time for the imminent arrival of Pauls regs and getting started on the really interesting stuff

serengetiplains · « **Reply #52 on:** 14 Mar 2012, 11:42 pm »

That's looking very fine, Steve. Soon it all will be together.

steve2701 · « **Reply #53 on:** 27 Mar 2012, 11:27 am »

Bit of head scratching going on today as to work out the very best layout for this little lot in a box - do I make the box as well due to size - we will see.

loads of wire on order now as well to put this lot together with. Keeping it all neat and not a rats nest of wire is going to be a test for certain

jtwrace · « **Reply #54 on:** 27 Mar 2012, 11:42 am »

I'm confused. What are you building though?

Paul Hynes · « **Reply #55 on:** 27 Mar 2012, 04:20 pm »

Stephen is optimising his power supply to power the Buffalo DAC. The Buffalo on-board regulators are being given their own independent power supplies, to remove any power rail and power ground return current inter-modulation between the individual digital and analogue stages within the DAC architecture that would occur when feeding all the regulators from VD.

This is the optimum power distribution method for all precision electronic systems.

As well as using individual power supplies, Stephen is also attending to mains issues with balanced transformer feeds to all the mains transformers etc.

This is not overkill, it is just doing the job properly and he will reap the rewards accordingly, with a higher level of resolution than would be obtained with a common power supply for all the DAC stage regulators.

Regards
Paul

serengetiplains · « **Reply #56 on:** 27 Mar 2012, 05:07 pm »

Yeah, it's fantastic. Electronics done properly.

mjock3 · « **Reply #57 on:** 31 Mar 2012, 07:29 pm »

Wishin you the best Steve. That is one big project. Can't wait to hear what you have to say when it is done.

steve2701 · « **Reply #58 on:** 17 Apr 2012, 06:36 pm »

Back after a much needed short break

Just before I left I knocked up some copper angle to see if the idea I had would work :-

Looked ok so got some brass angle in. Didn't fancy the idea much of using a hacksaw through 16 times, so decided to buy a new toy - (it does have a future use

)

The results were OK - so have ordered in some more fittings to set them out like this.

I then need to see if it will all fit nicely onto the base of a 18" x 14" box, of if I have to go the alternative and split it into two boxes.

Bit of re-wiring to do in the transformer box - didn't fancy standing up the ladder any longer so decided to bring my building scaffolding back into use and made a propper platform to work from for a couple of days..

JDUBS · « **Reply #59 on:** 17 Apr 2012, 07:31 pm »

This is the coolest Buffalo PS EVER!!!

Nice job.

-Jim