Re: Wooden cd player?

Posted by Morse (A) on January 2, 2005 at 00:44:46

In Reply to: Wooden cd player? posted by croft on January 1, 2005 at 08:09:48:

Hi Croft;

A wooden CD player? I'd love to build one too (with heavy duty toggle switches and nixies instead of boring pressure switches and fluorescent display!). Time and $$ constraints are keeping me from doing it just yet.

Why isn't wood used in things like this? Cost. I've owned cassette decks, hifi receivers and such in the past that used wooden chassis, worked fine, and looked a LOT better than the current "paper thin metal and cheesy plastic" jobs. BUT, low cost is the only thing anyone ever seems to worry about these days....

A few thoughts:
1. Use a hardwood like maple or mahogany that has a "good" reputation for "pleasant" tonality. There are a number of guitar builder sites out there that list tonal qualities of different kinds of wood. Use "brighter" sounding woods or "warmer" sounding woods to suit personal taste.
2. You'll need to make sure that components like X caps and PS trafos are in metal subenclosures for fire safety reasons. Make the metal in the subenclosure THICK so it's (reasonably) nonresonant.
3. Don't forget the tonal qualities of other components in the signal stream like output caps. Not much point in investing a lot of effort in a "good sounding" cabinet if you're using tantalum output coupling caps! Polypros, BG's, Elnas, etc are suggested here.
4. You could also take a look at upgrading the opamps in the audio output stage. A few $$ invested here can make a big improvement (make SURE the "upgrade" opamp is compatible with the original before replacing them though!!).
5. Then there's the question of the PS. Switchmode PS have their moments, but how 'bout a linear regulated PS? It's not hard to build and will keep any issues of RFI grunge from the SMPS from appearing.
6. If you're really feeling ambitious, how 'bout a valve output stage for the CD player? There are tons of different valves that could be used - 12AX7, 6922, 6SN7, etc. Stylistically, I'd mount the valves on the top of the unit on a metal mounting plate so you could show 'em off (and keep 'em cool).

Just some random thoughts.
Good luck on your project and please post pics!
Omedetou gozaimasu! ("Happy New Year!")
Morse

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Wooden cd player? - croft 08:09:48 01/01/05 (16)

Re: Wooden cd player? - myfisite 07:40:22 01/10/05 (1)

Sorry: "shielded" instead of "fielded" - myfisite 07:45:04 01/10/05 (0)

Not totally so, but still very wooden - eduardoo 17:55:37 01/02/05 (1)

Re: Not totally so, but still very wooden - eduardoo 23:00:40 01/02/05 (0)

Re: Wooden cd player? - dklk@localnet.com 14:44:51 01/02/05 (1)

Re: Wooden cd player? - croft 18:03:50 01/02/05 (0)

Re: Wooden cd player? - Morse 00:44:46 01/02/05 (2)

Re: Wooden cd player? - pkell44 12:07:08 01/03/05 (0)

Re: Wooden cd player? - croft 17:52:23 01/02/05 (0)

nature of the beast - firestop41 10:48:08 01/01/05 (4)

Re: nature of the beast - croft 17:54:51 01/02/05 (0)

wooden case from cocobola, burl and maple - Metralla 10:57:43 01/01/05 (2)

Re: wooden case from cocobola, burl and maple - croft 18:06:44 01/02/05 (0)

Beautiful!!! But did you see the price??? - firestop41 16:45:31 01/01/05 (0)

Re: Wooden cd player? - tom1356 09:02:55 01/01/05 (1)

Re: Wooden cd player? - croft 18:09:43 01/02/05 (0)

Follow Ups

Re: Wooden cd player? - Morse 00:44:46 01/02/05 (2)

Re: Wooden cd player? - pkell44 12:07:08 01/03/05 (0)

Re: Wooden cd player? - croft 17:52:23 01/02/05 (0)

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