Project: PrometheusCU

[Langer]

I'm in the middle of making a collection of interconnects for my headphones / amp / crossfeed filter / dac / PC and switch box.

I'm making:
10' 1/4" extenstion
1/4" -> RCA
1/8" -> RCA
1/4" -> 1/8"
2x 1/8" -> 1/8"
a bunch of RCA -> RCA

I'm using an old milspec wire:

18awg Military cloth-jacket silver stranded wire.
-Single conductor made of 19 strands of oxygen-free silver.
-The metal is insulated first with an extruded jacket of traditional PTFE Teflon.
-This wire has a middle layer of insulation - a double sleeve of fiberglass cloth infused with teflon.
-The top jacket is a dense fabric sleeve made of teflon-infused fiberglass threads. A real quality feel, nothing quite like it.

-I then sleeved it in nylon multifilament.
-Then as an added step I gave every wire a ferrite core on both ends.

Connectors:
RCA = WBT silver
1/4" male = Furutech
1/4" female = neutrik gold
1/8" male = cardas gold
Quables y-joints
Cardas solder

I spent a long time collecting the parts and several hours just getting to the point you see below - I hope you enjoy. I can't wait to give these new cables a listen. If all goes well then I'm going to re cable my headphones to match.

Here are some progress pics:

I have a small order of 2 pairs furutech XLR's and 8x furutech bananas enroute among other things... I'm real excited to play with those!

 

[Langer]

All done batch 1:

The chubby parts are ferrite cores - 1 for each wire. With the help of some blasphemy and a burn on my wrist, I was able to get some of the ferrite hidden inside the connectors.

Yet to be done... hopefully complete in the short future:
18x RCA -> RCA
1x USB -> miniUSB
2x more mini -> RCA
1x 1/4 -> XLR
6x XLR -> XLR
Balanced XLR mod for the rs-1's
5x power supplies w/ cables from outlet and to their respective devices
ZenHead portable amp
Corda Cross Crossfeed filter
other crossfeed filter (linkwitz? maybe)
Alien DAC
other DAC don't know which yet
Wheatfield HA-1
Custom billet aluminum enclosures for all (staring with the zen head).

A couple days ago I was given a sweet retro device by my AV store owner friend. A really sweet Sennheiser distribution bar used for retail can displays back in the 80's. It's an extruded aluminum bar about 5' long - wall mounted - holds 8 headphones - all the cans hanging on it can also be plugged into it - so you can compare the phones against one another instantly, it's also emblazed with massive bold SENNHEISER lettering. Really cool! I plan on beefing it up with better wire plugs and caps. It runs on 4s 9V batteries so no power squealing either. I hope to one day have 8 sexy headphones to hang on them, I hope to one day own all of the below... years from now of course: Grado RS-1, Grado HP-1000, AKG k701, AKG k1000, Jecklin Floats, Sennheiser HD600, Audio Technica ATH-W5000 and lastly Denon AH-D5000.

I've been looking at the ASUS headphone amp sound card as a possibility for Prometheus - looks to be quite the contender. Even the opamps are modular.
http://www.futurelooks.com/asus-xonar-essence-stx-headphone-amp-sound-card-reviewed/

 

[Langer]

Teaser:
A little taste of the EMI shielding I mentioned before.

These are the left-over bits from the radio/instrumental shielding on the US presidential helicopter. They will be used to shield my portable amp, and my sound-card.

The pics don't show the iridescent quality off this stuff. It almost glows when you put a light on it. I'm no photographer - so excuse the poor lighting and pic quality. One's using overcast light, ones using halogen, and the last is tungsten.

I tried to take pics from different angles showing how it changes but I wasn't overly successful.

 

[Langer]

I got my package from Sidewindercomputers.com. I HIGHLY recommend this eTailer - I made this order at about 10pm on a Sunday evening. Gary, the owner, personally responded via email and thanked me. I then amended the order at about 1am, and again Gary immediately responded with the revised quote. Thanks Gary!

I got my Uber Fans!

Four new Revision C models from Delta's AFB line have arrived!

The AFB1212GHE Revision C Grand High Speed is our newest king of 120mm fans. This dc fan motor provides over 240 cubic feet of air out of a traditional design that has been highly refined and tuned by Delta's fan motor team. Comparisons with our other high end Delta parts show it has modest power requirements for its ability to move so much air out of the standard 120x38 millimeter form factor. It does lack the directional blades which we've all come to know as Delta's patented design, which helps airflow move more consistently straight out of the fan housing. However, as noted in its lower decibel rating, it will also lack the high pitched whine that accompanies directional fin fans. The AFB parts can be undervolted slightly more, but apparently cannot be overvolted as much. For power users adjusting the voltages on these parts, it will be a welcome change.

The fan controller - the build quality is nothing to write home about but I'll straighten out the components, clean off the acetone, add new heatsinks, and make a new frame.
I went with this controller because it's the only controller -that I could find- that can offer up-to 45Watts per channel.
Most 120mm case fans will draw no-more than about 2-3W - so a low wattage controller will more than do you.
The Delta Fans I'm using however draw 29.4W w/ an on spike as high at 40W so they need more beef!

Also some arctic silver TIM and TIM remover - some of which will be used in this project... most will go elsewhere.

 

[Langer]

All 6 fans taped together actually hover.
6 in a row run at 19-21dB at min and 67-71dB on MAX (~1 away).
Even at min setting the row throws over 85CFM at any point (~5cm away).
They have a power spike of ~40W and pull 29.4W at 12V
Which means I need to have 270W of power overhead just to turn on my fans, and another 180W to keep 'em running.

 

[Langer]

TOTALLY OFF TOPIC

I love the smell of insanity in the morning:
Sometime later this year I'm going to start on my next project.

It will be an experiment in enterprise level overclocking.
It will be quite a large rig built entirely from that 8.5mm thick carbon armor.
It will be built around a Quad x Quad Opteron system giving a total of 16cores (24 once the 6core Istanbul's chips are released)
Feature 5 fully automated watercooling loops with 8 rads and 10 pumps.

Here is the motherboard on which this system will be built:
*click for big*


Here are the specs:

The MSRP of all the parts is about 20k, I'm projecting my costs to be under 5k tax in- I've already started rallying support with unimaginable success.

Don't get too excited though it's still many moons out.


Cheers - Jesse

 

[Softcore]

gosh amazing documentary. why the preferece of AMD over Intel btw? have you thought of Arctic Cooling MX-2 instead of AS5?

 

[JAson1980]

All 6 fans taped together actually hover.
6 in a row run at 19-21dB at min and 67-71dB on MAX (~1 away).
Even at min setting the row throws over 85CFM at any point (~5cm away).
They have a power spike of ~40W and pull 29.4W at 12V
Which means I need to have 270W of power overhead just to turn on my fans, and another 180W to keep 'em running.

Tower, we are ready for take off

 

[Langer]

My CFM meter only gos up to 200... so I can't even read their max output.

What I do know is that I fed one a carrot and it didn't even slow down.
I'm certain that it would eat a finger just as easily.

 

[gaoxingdcf]

that is an really cool rig ~~
when is the end date of this rig ??
will love to see an review on it ~~

 

[WLM_WLM]

omg im a noob in case modding, but after looking at your posts, i felt that you are awesome! keep up the good work dude!

 

[lunzi88]

omg, yr fans hover.......

 

[mulderang]

i really really cant wait this to be done

 

[emuji]

wow. keep it up dude. can't wait to see the final product

 

[Langer]

Thanks a lot everyone.


Considering that my new fans frighten me, it occurred to me that someone might get hurt.

So I decided to add redundant safety protocols, just in case:

 

[crissama]

My CFM meter only gos up to 200... so I can't even read their max output.

What I do know is that I fed one a carrot and it didn't even slow down.
I'm certain that it would eat a finger just as easily.

i think we have found a new way of cutting veggies for cooks all over the world

 

[Langer]

UPDATE:

Today was an intimate day between myself and my scroll-saw. =)

I started making some carbon accents from .8mm sheet - I had a few of these sheets left over from an earlier project. Their intended purpose was the outer shell of the Acer Ferrari series laptop .

I popped out the stainless steel - and cut out a replacement on my scroll saw:

I made some more carbon covers for the I/O and the RAM.

And another for the RAID card, because it's PCB was green:

I also covered the ATX plug with a little cover - because I wont be needing it:

A little overview:

I made little circles for all the fan motors as well, but I forgot to take pics. I'll take some with next update.

Tune in soon for more.
-Jesse

 

[cloudbp]

Won't u increase the heat if u cover them with carbon fibers?

 

[Langer]

Not a concern, there's LOTS of airflow in this case. Thanks for posting, but plase don't quote the images. =)

 

[Langer]

Here are some slightly better pics now that the sun is out.

The Pico's rad - push pull Kama Kaze fans (great 40mm fans, nearly silent)

=)

-Jesse