Best beginner DYI projects poll

Hi! I am looking into playing with some DIY audio. Wondering if we could make a community approved list of worthwhile projects for beginners - both in ease of completing and in expected quality of the finished product. Something like a proletarian DIY leaderboard.

***Beginner meaning an adult with some conceptual knowledge of physics and electronics and not excessively clumsy.

*** Feel free to suggest other interesting projects

 

Heh... personal bias. I would start with Headphone Cables, Interconnects, and Adapters. Once you have a couple of those done, I would move onto an amp. Since there are many good solid-state amps using tried and true but tiny surface-mount parts, I suggest a tube amp for that retro, hand-built look and feel. Also, I think a tube amp may be easier to learn from than solid-state amps with their black boxes of integrated circuits and microprocessors.

Even though the parts are more costly, maybe add the Torpedo III as it doesn't seem that bad of a build.
The Crack seems like a popular first build. The Projects and the T3 seem more professional in their finish. I am contemplating building a T3 over the summer... maybe.

 

Just a niggle, but it is DIY. Do-it-yourself.
Now that that is out of the way, I think cables are a nice starting point. Gets you used to using a multimeter and soldering iron on non-volatile components.
Next, I'd recommend a CMOY so you can learn a little bit about simple audio circuits.
I think the Bottlehead amps are great sounding, and their kits are impeccably put together - you can build a functional amplifier without having a clue about how it works for better or worse.
I'd avoid anything that requires you to be too careful with heat or ESD issues at the start, so hybrid amps may not be the best.

Have fun!

 

I voted for the Crack, as it was my first kit. Also check out Beezar's website - you could build a decent little Starving Student tube amp for around $150. Would be a fun place to start. They also have a couple of cool DAC's that look like decent builds. Then work your way up to the T3.

AMB also has a bunch of fun projects once you are fully entrenched in the DIY sickness. The gamma 1.5 actually is quite the boss little portable, but might not make an ideal first project.

 

I dont know if this is off topic, but my first projects weren't really audio projects. I wanted to get comfortable with soldering so I bought a couple of inexpensive Elenco begginer kits to get comfortable with soldering. If you dont have any experiecene with a soldering station, I would recommend this before any audio projects.

Basic kit - http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-Practi...1452474232&sr=8-1&keywords=soldering+practice

Basic Project - http://www.amazon.com/Super-Ear-Amplifier-Kit-MK-136/dp/B0006HJSLE/ref=pd_sim_328_11?ie=UTF8&dpID=518JhAcAHGL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160,160_&refRID=00QQQGPJSDZV50ST05W9

Surface Mount kit - http://www.amazon.com/Gikfun-Weldin..._UL160_SR160,160_&refRID=091Q52A5SVNC4SEEER7T

 

Anything in particular we should look for when getting a soldering station to use for these sort of projects?

 

This is the best thread to poke through for general advice: http://superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/solder-and-soldering-irons.659/

Each product has their own help forums that might have specific advice to the project. The Bottlehead forums are crazy good resources with incredibly nice and patient people there to answer questions. Was invaluable to me when I built my amp.

 

Awesome, thank you! I'm not sure I'm ready to jump into DIY yet but I'm glad to know the resources are available.

 

I built the Torpedo III as my first project. Probably not the easiest go around, but everything was so well labeled I was pretty happy.

 

Another "classic" is a weller wes51, but their QC on the "lower" products have been questionable it seems.

The circuit specialist seems to be another rebrand of the many chinese clones (936 etc) on the market also. Maybe they put a little more QC into them, but the 936 clones are already pretty good for the price.

 

I snagged an Oki PS-800 refurbed from Oki directly for 80 bucks almost two years ago, got a spare coil and two extra chisel tips as well. Supposed to be a pretty great iron, I actually haven't even opened it yet >.>

 

Another interesting begginer project is the ELENCO FM/AM radio: much more components to solder to one's heart delight. Its cheap, relative to getting something like the Torpedo III and messing it up. The negative is that probably will end up in the trash after the giggles of making something that works wear out - its been a long time since I used a radio on a regular basis anyway.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2079475242&pf_rd_i=desktop

 

They have a dozen or more of these projects. The practice kit is really for someone who has zero soldering experience. I did like soldering something that either played the radio or has some actual use. More rewarding experience.

 

So after doing some research on various DIY stuff, I've changed my mind on build projects. Cables and interconnects are still first, but I agree CMOY should be second. If you really want to learn by tinkering, I would buy 2 CMOYs and try to build them to produce as near identical sounds as possible. Then, tinker with one. That way, you can learn how measurements and sound change with different parts, and you have a reference CMOY to compare to for <$100.

 

since it's your first build, you can try an O2. If you screw it, you won't be so sorry.

 

I'm curious at the BOM and difficulty of that Krell Klone but I can't really find too much information around the internet. From the few PDFs I found, it doesn't seem a whole lot harder than the CKIII.