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  The Munich High End Audio Show is commonly regarded as the leading international audio show. It has hundreds of exhibitors and hosts thousands of visitors.  It is spread over four days, from 9th May to 12th May, and is set in the beautiful Bavarian city of Munich. I was in attendance on the first two days, the trade days. I found an Airbnb on the west side of the town. I'm unsure why,…

Here are some fine examples of mounting components on external crossover boards from J.M. in the US. The picture above is made from 1/4" MDF with a clear lacquer sprayed on it.  The picture below features Jantzen Cross Coil copper foil inductors, with Duelund Cast resistors and Duelund Cast PP polypropylene capacitors. The board is 1/4" MDF with Duratex coating on it.  That coating is very…

Some wonderful images from an excellent customer Mr D. M. showing off his setup with the comment, "I am self taught, still learning, DIY HiFi builder these are my EL34 PP 100 watt power amps with 12AT7 phase splitter. Built into a 1u rack case with a 4u front panel and I used black stainless kitchen door handles to finish them off"      

*/   The first port of call when attending the Bristol Hi-Fi Show has got to be Wogan Coffee, the HiFi Collective roaster of choice.  After parking at the £6 a day car park just off Wellington Road, don’t park at the Cabot Circus Car Park. You will be paying a lot more. Wogan Coffee is just around the corner on Clements Street. It has an uber-cool minimalist-style cafe to sample their wears…

Some nice feedback from a valued customer regarding the Elekit TU-8600SVK 300B Single Ended Tube Amplifier kit. He also purchased the Elekit Volume Control Upgrade PCB. Happy days. "Hi Nick Just a quick line to say that my EleKit is now up and running. What an excellent kit, great instructions, everything just fitted, got to love Japanese audio engineering. I reckon build time was about 8 hours…

Once you've added the items you want to purchase to your cart, click on the "Cart" button in the top right-hand corner. This is visible on all pages.Type or paste the coupon code you have been given into the Coupons box. Then click the Add button positioned on the right-hand side of the text boxAfter the first coupon code is applied, the discount given for this particular code is visible under…

Upgrading your volume control is one of the best upgrades you can do to your Hi-Fi. Some would choose an audio-grade potentiometer like an Alps Blue Beauty or one of the range of TKDs. Beyond these, there aren’t too many other options with the demise of the Alps Black Beauties, Noble, Penny and Giles. A better solution is a stepped attenuator. These are effectively a chain of voltage dividers…

*/   The Staverton Park Hotel was the setting for the Chester Group Audio Show this weekend. So Andrew (our developer) and I met in a farmer's field, the makeshift car park, just down the road from the hotel. A minibus was laid on, but we took the short walk instead. The hotel was an excellent venue for the occasion. The first thing that struck me was the high number of hi-fi makers exhibiting…

After initially planning to produce Hi-Fi kits when we started Hi-Fi Collective Ltd in May 2003, the first kit being a stereo 300B single-ended amplifier, offering both a power and integrated version. We produced 25 kits which sold relatively quickly, you can read more about the kit here. However, I quickly realized that the future was actually selling components rather than kits, so we changed…

Here at HFC, we receive many calls and e-mails where people seek advice about which components to use on their upgrade. We are always happy to help with this aspect. One such call was from Mr RG, who had purchased a Chinese-made Reisong A10 single-ended integrated amplifier and wanted to venture into the wonderful world of DIY Audio. My initial request is always, "Do you have a circuit?" and "…