Choosing and Using Electronic Parts: A Survival Guide, Part 3

Here’s the final section in our series on parts reliability, how to choose them and how to estimate their life expectancy. In the third part of this article, the author continues to examine electronic components, and discusses what we can do about reliability. This article series was published in audioXpress, from November 2001 to January 2002.

Promised to start shipping in June, Alo Audio’s new Continental dual mono headphone amp with USB DAC was already the talk of the show at the Headphonium section of The Show Newport. Alo Audio will not be alone with the idea of designing an hybrid tube/solid-state “transportable” headphone amp and USB DAC but it certainly did it with an interesting design.

June 2015 is – we have to say it – undoubtedly one of the most diverse and interesting issues we have put together. The magazine has something for everyone and lots of great content we are certain will be greatly appreciated by our community. Discover the “outside-the-box” thinking that resulted in one of the most interesting loudspeaker designs in recent times and much more.

New from MOD Kits DIY for NAMM 2015 is The Wave, a tube driven analog spring reverb unit kit combining four dual triode tubes with a MOD three-spring reverb tank, a typical sixties design. The unit can be used in front of a guitar amp or as a line-level analog reverb effect for the recording studio. The Wave kit comes with a pre-punched powder coated steel chassis, easy-to-follow instructions and all necessary parts.

Designed, manufactured and assembled in England, the new Tron Atlantic high end amplifier combines an affordable price with a compact chassis not compromising on big sound. The Atlantic is an extremely low noise stereo 300B design with a D3a driver stage, delivering 9 watts per channel with 4, 8 and 16 ohm outputs.

Blending Old-Style Techniques with New Technology ERIC STROUTH - I started Locomotive Audio really just as a hobby. But, after I realized I could blend several of my favorite things (audio recording, product design, and building electronics) to start a new career, I decided to quit my day job as a graphic designer and go all-in!

The November 2014 edition of audioXpress is dedicated to our DIY audience with the first instalment of a rewarding project on “How to Build an Audio Mixer“ by George Adamidis. We also have two great articles on audio amplifiers: one is Class-AB MOSFET-based and the other is a push-pull AB amplifier using KT 120 vacuum tubes. Of course, we continue to discuss the latest Wireless Audio technologies and Audio for Mobile Devices. In the third article in the Nordic Audio series, we explore Scan-Speak’s audio history. We also bring you an article explaining the thinking and product design considerations for the unique Genelec M Series studio monitors. That and much more is already online.

Luciano owns LPJ Audio, a small business that designs and builds pre- and power vacuum-tube amplifiers. He also teaches analog electronics and digital techniques in a federal technical school in his hometown.

This month’s audioXpress brings a great article from our regular contributor Thomas Perazella, in which he revisits the art of studio reamping and the different approaches and implications of that two-stage studio process. During the process, we first record a …

Member Name: Shannon Parks Location: Mahomet, IL An audio engineer at his own company, Parks Audio, Shannon Parks is proud to have almost all the Audio Amateur magazines in his library and he has been reading audioXpress for quite sometime. Shannon owns Parks Audio and is the administrator of the DIYtube forums (www.diytube.com).