Case Mod - In Progress Htr-Labs.net AudioBox - Update 3/20/09 AudioBox and Server Complete!

Update 7-10-2008 (Wave Desk)

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this thread is totally subscribed
yay for the audiophile stuff :]
the table design looks pretty cool, so keep it up

 

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Love it. Great stuff so far.

 

Addition to the Update 09/09/2008 at the top of the thread.

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Dude i love it!!! i love the sleeving etc looks the muts nuts

 

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Dude, some awesome modding going down here. I see you have cash to spare

Oh, and btw, These are what you might call 'muts nuts'

 

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whaaaoo sleeving looks mighty coolio think i've seen it before ermm

 

Sure is a lack of digital connections and a lot of chrome, reminds me of American Chopper

 

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Very impressive. Excellent start to the project.

 

Just a tip:

Avoid the Neutrik NP3TB. ugh. Worst fitting plug I've ever seen. it's extremely well made, but it just slides out of the jack too easily. And if you're using any star-quad type of wire over 24awg each, you won't be able to fit the inner plastic piece over the sleeving.

 

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This is where it starts getting expensive.

My recommendation is a dac. One with sp/dif in, which you hook up to the Xonar, and the other end to your amp. It's made an unbelievable improvement for me. Don't worry too much about digital cables though; unlike standard cables, most cables are about the same. My recommendation here is for the twisted pear Opus; this diy will set you back about $275 for parts, but it's truely spectacular. There's also the E-MU0404 usb; it also takes sp/dif and optical, and has balanced outputs. These run just under $200. Bit lower down there's the Zero dac. Chinese made equiptment, fantastic sounding, and as a "bonus" is also an amp. This one's just about $150 shipped.

That, and ers paper your sound card. The back, at least. ers paper is conductive though, so cut up an old neoprene mousepad (the really cheap ones that come with computers, similar to wet suit material), and attach it to the back of your card, and ers paper to the back of that. Computers are extremely noisy.

Then, there's the suggestion of re-sleeving your cables with nylon multi-filiament. It's much less microphonic, it covers the cables better (tighter weaves) and is much softer. On the downside, it does not stretch like regular monofiliament sleeving does over connectors (less stretch), and it's more expensive. And a bit thicker, too.

And as an Audiophile, I'd like to just say, sorry for your wallet. I came into this hobby looking for a decent pair of headphones that weren't hte usual crap. Had my mind set on a grado sr60, and now I've got an HD600, audiotechnica ad900, a few iem's, melos sha-1 amp, a Linn sondek lp12, marantz sa-1, sa8001, sony scd1, sony qualia 007, and custom preamps and monoblocks. And martin logan electrostatic speakers.

Oh boy.

 

Small update - Parts and Tools

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Nice thread mate, i'm in the process of polishing off a design for a slightly similar PC at the moment although it will basically be a HTPC.

If you can get them easily enough in the US it may be worth looking at the Isotek mains conditioning products as from what I know they are more highly regarded than the Russ Andrews gear. They also look a lot nicer!

The only other thing that might have been an improvement is using a USB DAC (or even a combined headphone amp/USB DAC. Done properly they help to isolate a lot of the grounding issues that normal audio connections cause (on a PC). Saying that I imagine the Xonar does a spectacular job as it is.

 

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