Chuck's Racks Part 2

Last year when I first got into DIY, I built 2 51X racks and PSUs, and only filled up one rack, documented here: http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=46108.0.  it's been a year, and i've just now acquired the kits to finish the second rack!    I'll be building:

Serpent Audio SB4001 (Already built one before)
LAZ LA3A-500 x2
ClassicAPI VC528 x3
ClassicAPI LC53A x4

I've had the kits for the SB4001 and the LA3As since June, but yesterday I received a shipment from Jeff with all the ClassicAPI stuff.  I'll be documenting the build here! :-D

How did you get an SB4001 kit?  I thought these were production models only now?

Yea thats what i heard too, hahahahah.  Would love to get a DIY of that though.

someone was selling a kit they hadn't opened after having it sit on a shelf for several months.  I snagged it in may!  Coincidentally, i still haven't opened the box since I got it LOLOLOL 

mulletchuck said:

someone was selling a kit they hadn't opened after having it sit on a shelf for several months.  I snagged it in may!  Coincidentally, i still haven't opened the box since I got it LOLOLOL 

Click to expand...

Lucky!

I decided to start my journey with the opamps for all of these kits.  14 2520s and 4 1731s.  I already built 4 of the 1731s last year, and only need 14 DOAs for this, but I bought 4 extra 1731 kits so that I could run these modules split evenly with a pair running 2520s and a pair running 1731s.

Step 0:  Let's see what we've got 


Step 1:  They gotta be sorted before work can begin:


Step 2:  And sorted!  let's go!!


Step 3:  gotta start somewhere:  Pins, CD1, CD2, R11, and R12


Step 4:  Next, the diodes


Step 5:  Power transistors


And that's where I stopped for the night.  Each step takes roughly an hour because I gotta do it 14 times.

Finished these guys today!


Almost done..

Need a haircut first...

aaaaand scene! 


All 14 fully tested and sounding great!  Actually 1 or 2 of them sounded slightly less edgy than the rest, so i'm gonna chalk that up to different HFEs for all the transistors. 
Onward with the rest of the project.

Finished the 1731s in about 2.5 hours, and also unpacked the rest of the kits! 

1731 sorting


1 down, 3 to go!


Stuffed but not trimmed..


Ready to rock!


And now for the rest of the kits:

the 528s


the first part of the LC53A kits


the 2nd part of the LC53A kits!


Lots to do, lots to do!

Made a fair amount of progress on these guys:

LC53 sort:


Ready for CMRR Calibration:


Sorting the Cut/Boost board:


Partially stuffed:


Finished the resistors!


Assembling the lower boards together:


Startin' to look like somethin!!

Nice

Looks great man, very jealous, hahahah.  You must be giging a lot!!!!!!!!  I have my rack up and running and checked all volts on the rails and card slots.  I just need modules to go in it.  I will probably start with some audio bacon first.

build some VP26s and VC528s!  or some VP28s if you don't want extra fatty bacon for your audio dinner!

got these guys up to the unity gain part of the test! 

the opamps:


ready to test!!


and Testing!!


if you look closely, you can see the meters showing matching levels for the output and input.  Also, you can see a chunk of foam under the module in the rack so it doesn't ground out on the rack frame lol

Chuck..

You are a DIY machine..  WOW 8) 8)
Nice job !!

GARY

It's a production line!

Great stuff! Keep'em coming!

Thanks guys!   

Home stretch!!


WHY ARE THERE SO MANY CAPACITORS!!!!! 


Almost done!  Only switches, inductors and interboard connectors left!


aaaaaaaaaaaaand Scene!!    Fully tested, and fully functional.  The two on the left use 1731s, and the two on the right use 2520s!


Coming up, a threesome of VC528s, a single SB4001, and a pair of LAZ LA3A-500s :-D    If everything goes well, i'll be done with this project in about 2 weeks and my rack will be complete! 

little progress tonight on the VC528s

all the parts:


the small boards

Lots of progress in this update!

All resistors ready to rock


the WIMA caps


the rest of the capacitors


Ready to install Transformers!


Ready for the switch assemblies.  this is the fun part


One down, two to go!


Fully tested and calibrated!


Awesome!  Built these guys up way faster than i expected, actually.    took about 18 hours or so to do all 3.

Next up is the SB4001.  I gotta start piecing together a mouser cart for Peter's LA3A-500s..

TONS of progress so far...

The SB4001 kit


Startin' with the Diodes.


Resistor Bag 1


Resistor Bag 2


Resistor Bag 3


Resistor Bag 4


Resistor Bag 5


All these leads are like a torture trap!  All resistors are done tho!


Here's where I stopped for the night.  Definitely took a big chunk out of the BOM


The next day, knocked out all the caps, etc..  This is all that's left. 


Startin' to look like somethin..


And we're assembled!


At this point, i did the power up test with no smoke!  Check out my awesome test rig lol  ;D


However, the right channel was spitting out a TON of distortion, so I had to take the unit apart and figure out what was wrong.  Before I disassembled it tho, I pulled out the first SB4001 i built and recalibrated that unit.  She was pretty out of wack, now she's money!  one hour later, I discovered that I had installed a 1646 Chip backwards near the gold PCB fingers, because I installed the Chip Socket backwards and didn't follow the silk screen when installing the chip.  Chip flipped, unit reassembled 30 minutes later (I hate how long they take to dis/re-assemble) and we're calibrating away!


And we're fully calibrated!! 


awesome.  this build took about 15 hours, excluding the 2 hours finding the socket that was reversed.  I should not have disassembled the whole unit in hindsight, but I thought I had missed a solder joint or somethin'...    The next project for the weekend is to wire up the back of the rack so it can interface with a patchbay.


Finally, here is the current state of my rack!


I'm definitely ready to put down the soldering iron and make some music.  Putting in 14+ hour days building this stuff can become mind numbing. 

For the LA3A-500's, i already have the transformers from Hairball, so I just need to put together a BOM from Mouser and hit up Drip to see if he's developed his prototype T4B unit designed to fit Peter's PCB.  This pair of modules will be my first actual DIY, because i won't be assembling from a complete Kit;  I'll be picking and choosing parts myself 

So, i have a final update for y'all.

It's Finished!!!!!  Also picked up the mic pre card for my symphony and built the wires for that, so now the patchbay is crammed full of cables:



All powered on:


and now in the final resting place:



Now that i have built everything and have nothing else to build, i guess i gotta start makin' music with all these toys!  WHELP!