- Aug 10, 2019
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Hi
Just wanted to tell you about a cheap little system that I put together that kicks ass.
It consists of a set of new Boston Acoustics on big Mission stands, good old Gale XL315 speaker cable, an excellent condition Technics A900mk2 amplifier I found in Oxfam for £80, and .. wait for it..
A good condition Goodmans DVD player GD134 (£12.99 from cash converters!) output to a cheap ebay SMSL DIR9001/1793 mini-DAC (£35 from ebay hong Kong including delivery!) powered via a 12V 3A regulated supply in a little aluminium box (again ebay Hong Kong).
I was suprised to find it was actually a computer DVD rom drive inside the cheapy Goodmans. So I put a brand new Pioneer DVD rom inside, and it worked even better. Next I added lots of damping. I mean lots. I filled the DVD with UHU white tack, blue tack, and other tacks.. about 20 packets, amounting to about 2.5kg of mass! At least 1kg of that is moulded all over the Pioneer DVD rom drive. Nothing that gets hot is covered, but all circuit boards are screwed on top of great balls of tack and the IDE ATA cable and clock etc have at least 2 packets each around them. There is also about 500g of a dynamat clone on the lid which pressed down on the tack around the drive.. The whole player weighs about 6kg now, not insubstantial for a slimline budget DVD player and it is totally dead like wood when you tap it. I cannot explain how much this changed the character of the sound. It was night and day. The sound is astonishing, and I made no component changes.
I've had had lots of nice proper hi-fi over the years but the clarity I am getting from this cheeky funky old new borrowed and blue system is sublime. Total cost for system? About £400, or about what the Technics amp would have been new back in 1995.
Just wanted to tell you about a cheap little system that I put together that kicks ass.
It consists of a set of new Boston Acoustics on big Mission stands, good old Gale XL315 speaker cable, an excellent condition Technics A900mk2 amplifier I found in Oxfam for £80, and .. wait for it..
A good condition Goodmans DVD player GD134 (£12.99 from cash converters!) output to a cheap ebay SMSL DIR9001/1793 mini-DAC (£35 from ebay hong Kong including delivery!) powered via a 12V 3A regulated supply in a little aluminium box (again ebay Hong Kong).
I was suprised to find it was actually a computer DVD rom drive inside the cheapy Goodmans. So I put a brand new Pioneer DVD rom inside, and it worked even better. Next I added lots of damping. I mean lots. I filled the DVD with UHU white tack, blue tack, and other tacks.. about 20 packets, amounting to about 2.5kg of mass! At least 1kg of that is moulded all over the Pioneer DVD rom drive. Nothing that gets hot is covered, but all circuit boards are screwed on top of great balls of tack and the IDE ATA cable and clock etc have at least 2 packets each around them. There is also about 500g of a dynamat clone on the lid which pressed down on the tack around the drive.. The whole player weighs about 6kg now, not insubstantial for a slimline budget DVD player and it is totally dead like wood when you tap it. I cannot explain how much this changed the character of the sound. It was night and day. The sound is astonishing, and I made no component changes.
I've had had lots of nice proper hi-fi over the years but the clarity I am getting from this cheeky funky old new borrowed and blue system is sublime. Total cost for system? About £400, or about what the Technics amp would have been new back in 1995.