Building a 'Geddon.

I have never used a soldering iron sucessfully. when every I try to get the solder to go somewhere, it just sticks to the iron, and by the time I have got it off the iron the thing I am soldering has reached 2000oC and straight after comes away with a lumpy one side but perfectly flat the other peice of solder, weighing in at around four ounces stuck to it.

However lets pretend I had skills. I want to build an armegeddon, or more specifically a power supply for the LP12.
I would like it to be seperate from the main shebang, and would invite instruction on how to build this apparently simple design.

I would also appriciate some help with technique, I am not jokeing about my soldering skill.

 

Didn't want to try to write a soldering guide, so found a pre-built one instead. Try this

Solder FAQ

I haven't checked it out, but at a quick glance it seems good.

Not to sound rude, but do you really want to mess around with mains voltages if you can't yet solder well? Bad solder joints can result in arcing and arcing can result in fire. Your life and the life of your family are more important than your stereo.

With all due respect I'd suggest that you start with terminated speaker cables and interconnects, move on to Xovers and then maybe to kit form pre-amps. These will help you hone your skills.

Whatever you do, I wish you the best of luck and safety.

 

www.neilmcbride.co.uk/

info all on naim stuff is here, inc armageddon

 

gary,

I'm sure you're aware of RichardH's guide to building a DIY 'geddon over on the main Pink Fish site: http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/frameset.htm

I think this has all the advice you need. This was my first ever DIY project, my only previous was soldering plugs onto speaker cable. The electrical bit was very easy. Building the box and cutting holes for the switches and plug was harder and took most of the time. The 'geddon clone gives a really worthwhile improvement over a Valhalla for relatively little cash.

If you want to see what the inside of one looks like (there isn't much to see) to convince yourself you can make one too, please get in touch.

duncan

djcritchley AT hotmail DOT com

 

Heres a few photo's of my version Garyi, you can never have too much info. Sids version of a DIY Geddon .

I have found that using the Stainless steel locking DIN's to be a good move and also using a IEC inlet socket, so you can use sepaerate power leads. It would be possible to build a Geddon with the minimum amount of soldered connections. You would just need to use components that could take push on spade connectors. All you would need to do then would be to crimp on the spades. AMP 'pidg' crimps are the ones to go for as they use top quality, tin plated, annealed copper connectors. They are used extensively on Aircraft in harsh envoironments. A non solder DIY Geddon is very doable with a bit of planning, and the quality of the connections could be just as good or maybe even better than soldered ones.

HTH.

 

Mine has a XLR connector for the lead from the deck and an IEC mains socket (I use a Music Works mains lead). It really does sound much better than the Valhalla that preceded it. I must get round to spraying it black at some point, the case is still unpainted aluminium...

Tony.

 

Sid, you may find it worth seeking out a glued subchassis to replace the welded one in your deck. It's a good excuse to take the turntable to bits anyway...

(You seem to have an early 80s deck (but with braces...) and a mid 90s Valhalla...)

Paul

 

I'm widdya there Paul, ,
Getting a glued sub-chassis is on my list of things to do. The Linn badge commands top dollar these days though, so as my deck has been well set up by a local dealer anyway and i happen to like the sound i've got at the moment it is a 'back burner' job.
As far as taking the deck to bits goes, i found that in the early days when i first got the deck i was taking it apart, putting it back together, fiddling , fettling, meddling , etc, etc, etc, all the time. Now that I've actually paid somebody to do it properly for me i feel less inclined to piss about with it , especially from a suspension point of view. I have definately found that less time meddling = more time just sitting down , listening and enjoying. It may even be a psycological thing, whereby because I've paid money to get the deck sorted, if i meddle with it i might ruin it, even if it really sounds better, trtusting your ears isn't always black and white, well not on my head anyway . Sure, it maybe doesn't sound quite as good as it could with better components installed but I'm reasonably happy with it for the time being. The good thing about the PSU type mods is that it doesn't really effect the suspension, as i don't touch that part of the deck.
As far as my mothballed Valhalla goes, it was bought and fitted to the deck as a brand new unit on 22 Feb 1999,( @ £175 !!) there is a 'QC' sticker on the Valhalla board to suggest that this was it's year of manufacture.

I really do like my Vinyl replay but i've got no plans for any big money investments in my LP12 for the future. Affordable, bit size improvements and maybe some decent s/h part exchange deals are where i'm at for the future. The DIY Geddon clone is a small money project that was well within this criteria. Although my Geddon has been in use for a few months now, i still consider it to be my prototype, I'd like to build a nicer , less agricultural, model next year , if i can find some time.

Ditto (ish).

 

A good solder tip => (Seams nobody knows it)

What you have to do with you solder-iron is drop it in solder-grease

With solder-grease your iron-solder-point will last longer.

1) Plug in your solder-iron
2) wait 15min
3) dop you iron in solder-grease
4) whipe it off
5) melt some thin over your iron
6) your solder point will last much longer

Do this once a week or so, it depends


I have learnd this from a special technican

It's darn simple, but it seems, nobody knows it