I have been interested in audio for about a year now. I started reading up online a while ago and I came across websites upon websites using the term “audiophile”. Interested, I kept going, learning how my crummy little iPod earbuds were in comparison to $1,200 Senheisser audiophile-grade headphones. I really wanted to hear the difference between what people normally hear and what people want to hear. So, thus began my quest to find the best audio equipment I could, for as little money as I could spend. A year later, I ended up finding a pair of cheap passive bookshelf speakers, a Chinese USB-DAC amplifier, and a pair of sub-$100 Sony headphones that was universally praised by everyone. Coming from my cheap earbuds that I picked up at CVS, the difference in all of these was amazing. The sounds that were coming out of these speakers were astonishing. The lows were deep and chilling, and the highs were nice and loud. I finally had a system where I could just sit back, relax, and listen to music. It was a great setup. It did everything I wanted it to and nothing more. But was I done there? Was I going to stop upgrading and leave it at that?
Of course not.
I starting going nuts. I started doing even more research, reading other people’s opinions on their own setups and what they wish they could have. I started going into BestBuy and comparing the Klipsch and Polk bookshelves they had on the shelves. I went to Goodwill to find a vintage receiver to power my speakers even better. I even bought a turntable and started collecting records (180 grams, of course!). Over half of my music on computer are FLAC files that come from the original recordings. I got myself trapped on the path to audio perfection that has now spoiled me, making me notice all the imperfections of everything now. The only thing stopping me now on my journey is money, and I’m glad. The things that people can buy are ridiculous. I found some audio cabling that cost $2000 for 3 feet of it, claiming that it has some special crystals inside that nullify all interference. The things people will do for “audio perfection” are downright insane.
So, instead of doing that, I decided to go down the cheaper route of slowly upgrading when I find new things. Cheaper things. Earlier this year, I found this headphone amplifier that has gotten a lot of praise, called the Objective2. It was an open-source design some guy made on the internet and gave to everyone, letting companies build the design and create their own to sell. It was small, simple, and relatively cheap, and people loved it. There were no frills. Music sounded clean, unaltered, and exactly how it is supposed to. There aren’t any fancy features on it besides making audio louder and less distorted. At the time, I had already gotten my DAC for my desktop computer and turntable that has a headphone input on the front. I thought I was set. I had no reason to buy another amplifier that would end up doing less than my other one.
That was until this class came around. I knew we had to build a project, and I knew immediately what I wanted to make. I had always wanted to try soldering a circuit board together after my previous task of soldering a new audio pass-over inside my bookshelves (which made the new tweeters sound like night and day). Having a headphone amplifier that I could bring around with my would be very nice, especially since the Objective 2 kit is both 9v battery powered and DC powered. I found a kit online with everything included on Mayflower Electronics and I was ready to go, without any second thoughts about it.
A week later, my package arrived.
This huge mess of random electronic pieces was so overwhelming. I did not imagine what I was getting myself into once I clicked the Buy it Now button. All of this was new to me and I knew I was going to pay for not doing more research about it. I had already gotten myself into this much trouble. Now I have to finish it.
So I went down to the Imagineering Lab again with my box in hand, ready to do some serious soldering.
Here is the circuit board that came with the kit with miscellaneous holes and markings all over it. There were no instructions in the box, so I resorted to my favorite instruction guide resource of all: YouTube.
The company actually already had a series of videos explaining how to build it. They weren’t too descriptive, since they just showed what the parts looked like, a glimpse of the bags, and where the parts should go. I sorted all my bags of pieces based on what they looked like, just like what I did with any new LEGO set, and I began.
I followed the guide very closely, bending the components’ wires, pushing them through the holes that the instructions said, soldering them in, and finally cutting the end pieces. At first, my solders were really bad.
I was so used to soldering wires, where there was really not much to it. Soldering to a board was much harder. The solder kept clumping and did not stick to the board quite a bit, which was very annoying. The solder was also very thick, so it was very, very hard to do anything precise with it. It was the smallest solder I could find in the Imagineering Lab, as the place isn’t really a place for more specific tools.
I first started soldering the capacitors in, as they were the first things on the instructions. Probably because they were the smallest and easiest things to put in…
Capacitors: Complete!
…or are they?
Actually, while I was getting ahead of myself during the first steps, I accidentally soldered two of the small capacitors in the wrong spots.
Oops.
It was a huge pain to remove them. I tried using the soldering iron to heat the solder and slowly remove them.
Nope.
I then tried simply tugging on them as much as I could. Obviously that didn’t work either. I ended up just snapping the capacitor wires in two, completely breaking them. At that point I was so frustrated that took a little break. I ended up asking one of the guys working there what I could do, and they found a special tool to heat up old solder and suck it up. If only I had found that sooner... I pulled the leftover pieces of the capacitors out, with another hand holding the board.
I was out two capacitors, so there was no way I was going to complete the project on time. Shipping the pieces took forever and simply ordering two tiny capacitors is going to be expensive, especially shipping-wise. So until I can find a hobby store in town with my extremely specific capacitors, my amp is essentially dead.
…but that wasn’t going to stop me! Oh, no, I wanted to finish this darn thing. It frustrated me enough that I didn’t care if I was out a few pieces. I could simply take it apart again if I found the pieces I needed.
I kept soldering and soldering, slowly improving my solders to ones that actually held the pieces in place on the board.
Defying gravity…
Some pieces were very prone to static, which could destroy the components and render the board useless. I opted to use one of the little arm thingies to hold the board so I wouldn’t have to.
More and more pieces coming together. I put a piece of paper in between those two components so that they wouldn’t touch each other. They were the most fragile pieces, so I only touched them with the paper and needle-nose pliers.
9V battery connectors, added!
And the front inputs too! The DC power, ON/OFF button, audio input, LED indicator, volume knob, gain switch, and audio output pieces are shown here.
At this point, the internals are complete! I’m still not sure where the chips go, and I’m positive that where I put them are not where they belong. I don’t want to risk frying them so I’m holding off on turning it on.
Now that the hard parts are over, time for the easy part!
Putting the board into the enclosure is easy as pie. Slide it in, screw some metal screws into the aluminum from the back and front, and presto! I have an Objective 2 amplifier of my very own.
The kit came with rubber feet, so I stuck those on. Great for putting it on my desk. I also screwed in the back plate. I only need one side to access the internals from, so I obviously left the front panel open for now. I want to still be able to put some 9v batteries inside, and obviously install those two missing capacitors. I really wanted to try it out now…
Here it is with the front plate partially installed! It’s just kinda sitting there with some tape on the bottom to keep it on. I also didn’t put the volume knob on yet, since it’s really hard to put on and take off.
Dang, this thing looks slick! It turned out much better than I expected. I knew I was going to mess up, but I thought I would mess up more. It’s an easy fix that just requires some patience by the mailroom!
Until I get those last two capacitors, I won’t know if I messed up or not. I’m afraid that I might have burned some components from leaving the soldering iron on them for too long. I’m also worried that I accidentally soldered two things too close, causing a short. I’m crossing my fingers that these don’t happen!
What did I learn from all this?
- Follow the instructions.
- Soldering really isn’t as hard as it looks, once you get the hang of it.
- Follow the instructions.
- Follow better instructions.
- Follow the instructions.
It’s a nice, clean, little box! I really like how it looks. It’s not the most complicated thing either, so it’ll probably start getting messy once I start plugging everything into the front panel. It was a great learning experience doing this. It helped me kind of understand how these things work. There’s a lot more to them that it seems. I really can’t wait to hear this thing with my own ears once I can find the last parts, either in the mail, hobby shop, or a lucky trip to the Photonics lab! This little Objective 2 amp is only one small step of my journey to become the ultimate audiophile! Look out, wallet…