Picture of Mainline Progress - What do you think?

[TubeTim]

Greetings,

Progress has been slow but thought I'd post the kit build so far.  What is opinion of build quality? 
(please see image attached)

The solder joints are "known" good; been doing that for 40+ years now.

It's a whole lot of fun to build and I'm taking my time enjoying it.
Sometimes taking 2 or 3 minutes to route a wire properly.

One thing I'd suggest adding to the manual is checking the fine / coarse attenuators with
an Ohm meter.  I did so after completion of that phase of the kit and know they are wired
fine.

Small error in the manual, page 45, 3'rd paragraph says to solder at C socket but one
should NOT.  Building a stereo amp makes life easier since your doing task twice only,
in mirrored.

One thing I find to help is to cut and strip several pieces of wire (4) then continue building.
Seems to go much smoother this was.  I also review the instructions for the sub-section
so I see where it's going.

_ .. --
  TiM

 

[Chris]

FWIW, I think it looks superb so far...

 

[Grainger49]

That is nice, neat work.  It looks like you are doing what I did with my Eros build.  I did 15-20 minutes of work a night and made it as tidy as possible.  My Foreplay and Seduction were not as pretty.

 

[debk]

Nice work, It look Great!

Debra

 

[HF9]

Looks great, keep up the good work Tim!

 

[TubeTim]

Thanks everyone for the encouraging words!    Really appreciate it.

I added some more wires and put the PWB's on their standoffs so the kit looks more complete than it actually is.
It took about 25 minutes to install 7 wires.  Not a particularly fast pace.

Thanks again,

_ .. --
  Tim

 

[Paul Birkeland]

It took about 25 minutes to install 7 wires.  Not a particularly fast pace.

That sounds like the perfect pace to me! 

(You're actually pretty close to completion, based on your pace, I'd say ~2 hours)

 

[HF9]

Nothing wrong with taking your time  ;D I always check and double check my builds, much better to be certain that all steps are correct than rush through a build and then have no idea why it's not working.

 

[4krow]

  If only all the cords behind my system were as neat!

 

[TubeTim]

The Mainline build is completed.  The amp is super quiet, can't hear any noise. 
Touching L/R input channel results in the expected 60 cycle noise in the L/R output channel.

A real stupid question....  Can one interface a low output (2 or 5 mvolt) turntable direct or is a phono preamp required?

Thanks

Tim

 

[Paul Birkeland]

A real stupid question....  Can one interface a low output (2 or 5 mvolt) turntable direct or is a phono preamp required?

A phono preamp is required. 

-PB

(Good job completing the build!)

 

[TubeTim]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the confirm, I was sure one was needed.  I have a Welborne Labs phono pre-amp for this.
With so many cables the system will be a bit of a mess as 4krow eludes to.

The build was very straight-forward.  One just has to pay close attention, read ahead a bit and quit when tired.

Posting some quick shots of the top / bottom of the chassis plate:


Best Regards,

Tim

 

[Chris]

Wow, what a CLEAN design... beautifully done... I gotta have one...