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Showing posts from August, 2021

DIY 300B Monoblock

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I have been working on several EL84 tube amps - stereo, dual mono and mono. All of them sound great, but the problem is that each channel can only output 1.4W max, which is good enough for close listening in a small space. As for the next project, I decided to build a pair of monoblocks which can output larger power. Why monoblocks? Because monoblocks can deliver the clearest sounds without affecting the other channel (crosstalk). And it's relatively easier to build a pair of monoblock VS a dual mono. So now it comes to the selection of tubes. I like listening to vocals, people are saying both 2A3 and 300B are very suitable for vocal and both tubes are quite similar. However 300B can deliver larger power, so I decided to go for 300B. Design Rationale I like simple and clean things, and cannot withstand wires flying from one end to another like a spider web,

How to turn your piCoreplayer into a CD Player

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piCoreplayer can be very handy when playing music stored in the NAS or HDD, but what if you want to play a CD one day? Would you invest another CD player if you just want to play a CD occationally? This article will walk you through the steps how to make a cheap but nice CD player with your existing devices. Materials -a piCoreplayer -an external USB CDROM -patience Step 1 - Connect USB CDROM to piCoreplayer Connect the external USB CDROM to the USB port of your piCoreplayer first, either the 2.0 or 3.0 port will do. If you do not have one, you can buy one from computer centers, it costs around USD30. Step 2 - Install extension in piCoreplayer By default, piCoreplay does not suppor