Jacken’s Blog

After trying to start VPN Tracker 4 and failing after upgrading to Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 I could no longer contact any servers at the same domain as the network I tried to connect to. To fix this, look inside the /etc/resolver directory, if there is a couple of files called vpn-resolver-#### you have to remove these files to get everything to work again.

There’s a new version 5 of VPN Tracker that supposedly fixes problems with Leopard, but you have to buy an upgrade. I just wish that Apple could make a front end to Racoon. It’s very irritating to have to pay Equinux $80 to get functionality that’s essentially built in the operating system. And I have always hated their way of locking the program to one specific machine serial number.

I just bought a new Mac Mini Core Duo2 as a media player in my bedroom. I connected it an old 23″ Cinema display that I don’t use. First I was a bit annoyed that I needed to use the keyboard and mouse, but then I found Remote Buddy. What a relief! I can now do almost anything with Apples lovely simple remote. I’m going to use it for playing back my CD collection that’s been ripped to a large hardisk. Watching DiVX, DVD, MPG films on it. And watch TV with my EyeTV kit.

So the next step was getting the audio out of the mini. Well, let’s face it, the output quality from line-out isn’t something you can call great. So I’m about to order an Zhaolu DAC 2.5 and mod the crap out of it! I’m thinking of installing a ZapFilter, better clocking etc. I’m then going to use mini-spdif connector to get the digital data out from the mac to the DAC.

Now I just need to get my home built amp finished.

I’ve now been in my HIFI obsession mode for almost half a year. There’s always a new obsession around the corner. Maybe my next one will be photography again? I have these stints of interest for a specific area that is all consuming. Thankfully I have a very understanding wife.

I’m currently working on moving my homebuilt class-D amplifier to a new rack enclosure. So the kitchen is full of PCBs, connectors and tools. But it seems like I’m never going to get this amp finished. I was really annoyed with the amplifier, because I really need a remote for it. So I ordered a kit for a passive motor controlled Alps control. This time I have put in a lot of effort in getting all the wires as short as possible. So the volume control is sitting at the back of the amp and I’ve made a brass rod as an extension.

I also added a notch filter to my ProAc clones. First I was very happy with the sound, but after a couple of weeks, I realized that I got tired of listening to them after just 20 minutes. Well, turns out I had made one of the tweeter filters the wrong way, so now with the notch filter they finally sounds more to my preference. Success!

So finally my new speakers is playing music. And how they play! I got myself a new Class-A amplifier to have something nice to drive them with. At first they sounded a bit short on the bass side, but now after about 20 hours of listening, the bass starts to improve. I’ve never believed in the “burn-in” of speakers, but I have to say I’ve been mistaken.

I invited some friends over for a music listening party. A lot of records and an even larger amount of beer made for a beautiful evening.

At the same time I ordered my new amplifier, I also ordered a new DVD player with DVD-Audio and SACD playing capability. So I rush out to get my hands on a SACD record, but the only one I could find was the slightly overplayed Dark side of the moon by Pink Floyd. But it was a good test record because I have two different mastering versions on cd, so comparing was easy. And to my surprise the CD (actually Flac played through my Squeezebox) sounded better than the SACD one! So I had to check that the player didn’t play the normal cd layer, but no, it played the SACD layer. The singing voices on the SACD sounded muffled compared to the Japanese pressing of the CD. Also the pinpointing of instrument placements in the stereo image was not as good an coherent from the SACD. The player a Pioneer 696 is a low budget player so it could be it. But I’ll crank up the manual and check so I haven’t done something stupid with the settings.

More testing tomorrow…

So I finished putting my new diy speakers together. I still need to put veneer on them (probably going to use cherry) But they sound great! Yes, really great. I’m going to add the notch filter, just to try it out.

So I finally decided to go with the Proac Response 2.5 clone speakers. The original speaker costs $4400, but a very good copy or the original is possible to build for around $1000. It uses high quality Scan Speak speaker elements, and I bought them today. My friend Micke is also building a pair at the same time. So now I have four speakers standing in my livingroom. Everything is covered in MDF dust. Thankfully I have a very understanding wife.

So far we have put together the side and top walls. Today we glued the Bituben dampening material to all the walls (except the front baffle) I still feel faint and feel a stinging sensation in my fingers. Next time, gas masks. Anyway, we are moving along in a good pace. Hopefully we will have a pair of working speakers finished this weekend. The plan is to first finish the speakers, but not glue the back end so we can make adjustments to the stuffing and filtering. I also want to try different lengths of the bass reflex tube. Coming along nicely. But I’m still worried about doing the veneering.

Here’s a quick picture of my finished Cyburg Needles speakers. First time I do any wood crafting, and they sound great! Next up, a pair of Jordan Transmission Line speakers.

In my quest to make a nice sounding bedroom stereo for a small budget, I bought a Sonic Impact T-Amp. To really make the most of it, you need to modify it to get more bass. Naturally I had a bit of a misshap when I slipped with my soldering iron and destroyed one of the surface mounted condensors on the board. Trying to find a component that small was impossible.

Instead I ordered a kit from 41hz.com called Amp5. I spent like three nights soldering it together. Because I managed to destroy the T-Amp, I was very cautious, measuring every component. I also checked off all the mounted components in the component list. When I did the initial test, I had a bit of a problem that turned out to be a cold solder. There is two torroids of copper that needed a lot of heat, but I got that sorted. I did a quick mockup to test the system, and got two minutes of great sound out of it before leaving for work. But when I put it into a chassie, one of the speaker terminals got short circuited so there was a big flash and bang. after that, one of the channels was dead silent. So I sulked all weekend, and Ylva came up with a lot of jokes of me not getting close to anything with a soldering iron.

Today I decided to at least finish the chassie and solder new speaker connectors that isn’t as easily shorted. And to my big suprise, the amplifier worked! Amazing! And the sound quality is great. I must say I like the sound of T-class amplifiers. Puts my old (very expensive) preamp and amplifier to shame.

So the Amp5 kit can take quite the abuse. I now have a great sounding stereo in my bedroom. Success…

I have made some small upgrades to JackenIAX. The main thing is that now you can set the number of digits used for local extensions, so that you don’t get a prefix number added before dialing.

There is other stuff coming shortly…

Go and download the latest JackenIAX