audio DIY update – June 2009

After the flurry of activity earlier this month, things slowed down significantly – mostly due to preparations for PRIMER on Memorial Day weekend. I did make a concerted effort at building a modified proto-Klee sequencer the day before PRIMER (to have something to trigger the Sound Lab with), and had positive, but not quite fully working results. It’s still sitting on a breadboard, so I’ll get back to it eventually.

Last weekend I trekked to HGR Industrial Surplus in Euclid, and made some impressive scores:

  • A box containing something like 60 of these Clarostat 100k potentiometers and maybe a dozen 2N3055 power transistors, as well as a number of AC inlets and other random parts.
  • An interesting looking enclosure that will likely contain multiple sequencers and a joystick in the future.
  • Some sort of dual industrial computer thing (I split this with a friend, each of us taking a motherboard – I got the enclosure and he got the cabling). It’s got a bunch of LM339 comparators, LF398 Sample-and-Holds, DG507 dual 8-step multiplexors (sequencer uses?) and many other as-yet-unidentified ICs – all socketed(!)

If anyone knows of a good inexpensive source for knobs for those Clarostat pots, I’m all ears (they’re 1/8″ shafts, about 7/8″ tall). I have some that would work ok if I were willing to cut down the shafts by about 1/4″, but I’m not sure I want to do that.

On the studio front, I found fitting, or close enough to fitting drivers for the monitor cabinets I picked up a while ago. I’ve now got crossover parts on the way. I guess I need to build an amplifier now too – I need no more than 50W per channel and don’t want to spend a lot of money – any ideas/suggestions?

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