I bought the rights to the Merrill DCA speaker drivers but…
Have been dabbling in diy audio for more than 10 years now. When I first started, I was already keen on high sensitivity drivers but choices are… let’s say I have better chance of finding a virgin in a crowded university disco club!
But over the years, we have been served a platter of various choices. Some are excellent, some are memorable while many are passable.
And the one that has value-over-price ratio screaming off the charts is none other than the excellent Merrill DCA speaker drivers.
Over here at diyparadise, we are lucky we got to know of Dave Merrill who, sadly, passed away too young. Before he passed on, Dave handed over the rights of the drivers to his friends, Harry and Kent from twobaldguysaudio.
So twobaldguysaudio have been carrying the torch for the Merrill DCA drivers for the past few years. Then we came in as we took over the international distribution of the drivers as we have been set up to deliver worldwide (where Fedex would go). It helps that one of our business partners have known Dave and has tried his design over the years.
Fast forward mid 2009, diyparadise acquired the rights to the Merrill DCA drivers, having been approached by twobaldguysaudio.
And we have big plans for the drivers!
But fast forward today… we hit a snag.
We are almost sold out of the DCA4 but we couldn’t re-order them. The factory that makes them has gone bust! twobaldguysaudio were caught surprised too as this is something they didn’t anticipate either. To make matters worse, Dave Merrill didn’t leave the construction plans of the drivers.
So we are in a quandry now.
We still have lots of DCA5.5 so plans for this driver could still be set in motion but for DCA4, we got to hang on first.
I hope this explains clearly what happened to these excellent drivers. We really wish we could offer more DCA4s for now but until we could get this production issue sorted out, we are keeping our fingers crossed!
25 January 2010 | diyparadise | Comments Off
looking back at 2009…
wow! another year goes back just like that! actually 2009 just whizzed back to me.
2009 has been a disappointment for me. so many things i wanted to do but accomplished so little.
the usb-eiaj module, the spdif-eiaj module were supposed to be ready this year but got stuck. got the pcb built but couldn’t work! spent quite some time debugging but just couldn’t find anything wrong. sigh…
every other product seems to have little problems of its own too. developed and got the 6 channel beyonce working. wanted to incorporate the apple remote control as the blaupunkt remote isn’t exactly quality stuff. over time, the flexible pcb just doesn’t get so flexible anymore… after a few days of scratching my head, finally got it working but now couldn’t get it to repeat nicely. it either loops till the end or doesn’t do anything at all. so near yet so far!
i guess all of this have to do with just less time for myself. for the past few years, on and off, i have had the opportunity to work from home, interspersed by occasional out-of-town trips, but since the company that i work for have been bought over by our much bigger rival, you bet things will change!
and changed it did. we lost so many good guys. retrenchment, layoff, work force management, cut cost… whatever you call it, we lost so many guys. those that were left behind just got their work load doubled, or even tripled. and with new management and new colleagues, came new challenges!
all this meant that i devoted more time to my day job than before, thus leaving less time for diyparadise.
and with this new company, came a few new policies. though i love cars, i have not owned a car for the past 3 years as my wife and i could get by with just one car. but no chane of that now! got to get a car for my own use and i ended up getting a 20 year old merc, which has its occasional tantrum and requires lots of my attention, t l c and also some wads of cash. sigh…
so all in all, 2009 just whizzed back too quickly. so much to do, so much wanted to accomplish but so little time. and all this to the detriment of diyparadise.
well, the year wasn’t really wasted. on a personal level, began paying more attention to food and own health. do visit my blog here, http://bleedinggumsmurphy.blogspot.com
anyway, i’m just hoping 2010 will be better but need to adopt a few changes first!
30 December 2009 | diyparadise | No Comments
Helping a friend out here…
Yeah, please help spread the word. If you know anyone looking for such merchandise…
Please visit movie3dmerchandise.com. Thanks!
28 July 2009 | Business, Internet marketing | No Comments
Thanks for the flowers!
I was really surprised by the elicit exclamations of “approval” to this article I posted 2 months ago. Bruce Lee and Our DIY Audio Journey. Have a read there if you haven’t.
Here are my comments.
I may have not written well enough but it is my intention to spread the message to audiophiles not to concentrate on the technology of music. Just focus on the end result. It’s much better this way. Here’s another quote from another famous Chinese which perfectly describes what I meant.
It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, so long it catches mice
— Deng Xiao Ping
Also I meant to say that throughout our audio journey, the more we learn, the more we unlearn. Somewhere along the journey, we’ll discard thoughts that we held close to our hearts. Somewhere along the journey, we’ll embrace stuffs we thought we’ll hate dreadfully.
So it just doesn’t make sense to hold on to a strong set of beliefs that certain technologies or components is superior to the rest. You just lose out in the long run. Be open minded. Be receptive to new ideas.
Unfortunately such a simple idea got some very strong comments as you could read on the site.
I thank the folks who defended what I wrote and what I stand for.
For those who criticize the article, thanks for taking your time to read and share your thoughts.
Another guy mentioned that we build our products to certain price points. This isn’t true. We just build the best we could at the time. You know we are always learning so naturally, later on, we’ll improve on our products but we don’t set a price point and build around it. Look at my Monica DAC. I spent thousands just to purchase enough Black Gates caps for the output. Do you know of any manufacturer who offers such Black Gates caps in his offerings? Even in this day knowing that they are now out of production? At any price point?
There was one guy still asking about how to build his own LDR volume control. I thought I did a basic explanation on this. All about Volume Control. I’m sorry if I’m not thorough enough.
However, this diy audio site has all the info you need.
Lastly, Thanks for the flowers!
16 June 2009 | diyparadise | No Comments
I want to apologize for the lack of new developments…
If you have been to my blog and read my blog posts on doing business, you should know that I support keeping your day job and running a part time business. It’s indeed having your cake and getting to eat it.
You enjoy the best of both worlds - the stability of income, the flexibility of taking off any time (from your day job)… but yet also the opportunity to explore your interest further and not to mention the extra income (from your part time job).
Yup! Indeed it’s wonderful!
However, lately I have been hit by a double whammy.
Due to the excellent work of many greedy bankers, circumstances beyond control forces many companies to take drastic measures just to survive. My day job company too. A number of my colleagues got retrenched and those left behind had to shoulder the extra responsibility. On top of that, pay cuts were instituted too.
What this means is…
I now have less time as I work more on my day job.
I now have less income as my day job has a pay cut and I have less time to work on my part time job..
Yes! A double whammy!
You would have thought that having a part time job would be perfect for times like this. Well, it’s a safety net should you receive the dreaded pink slip but I didn’t expect I would not get the chance to supplement my day job loss in income via my part time job.
And the loss of personal time!
Thus I apologize if you see lack of activity on my site. Life just has been more hectic these days, but for less.
Dang… I should have been a banker!
16 June 2009 | Business, Money | No Comments
BlackBerry Withdrawal Sympton
I have had the privilege of using a BlackBerry for the past 4 years. This particular model above. When I first started using it here, it just looked weird as QWERTY type keypads weren’t the rage then. I still remember young school girls giving me the bewildered look as if I was talking to my calculator!
I got to use one as my day job (not diyparadise) pays for it. The convenience of reading/replying emails on the go was fantastic! Needless to say, I quickly had it set up to “push” my other non-work related emails too, like the diyparadise email accounts, yahoo email accounts… Guilty as charged! But then have you ever wondered how I could sometimes reply your email barely seconds after you send it out? Now you know!
But all good things will come to an end and in the latest bout of cost cutting, this has to go.
So I got it cancelled and…
Now I’m suffering from BlackBerry Withdrawal Sympton.
Over the past few years, without me even realizing it, I have taken to the habit of taking a look at my BlackBerry almost every few minutes, looking for the red blinking LED, cause if it I see it, this means I have mail! Someone wrote to me! Bet it’s important! Could be some big order! Could be some customer complaint! Could be some diyer has discovered another nice tweak and wants to share with me! Needless to say, I check my BlackBerry almost hundred times a day. Every day. Why heck, I even bring it to the toilet with me!
Then there is this excellent Meteor Crusher game! I’m proud to say after hours spent blasing meteorite rocks, killing alien spaceships, yours truly now ranks at World No 138, but this ranking I’m sure will slip pretty soon due to my recent “retirement”.
So now, just back to regular cellphones, without the instant access to emails/Internet, I feel soooooo…. disconnected. So disoriented. So helpless.
It’s like you let me drive a Ferrari until I love the speed and the sound of the engine, then suddenly you take the keys away from me.
It’s like you introduce this drop dead gorgeous babe whom we have just so much to share, and then she suddenly disappears without a trace.
Yup, it feels like that. It feels like I need to punch someone. Or at least the bolster my wife hugs to sleep.
But then, I slowly realized I now talk more to people around me. I learn more about them, seeing sides of them which I was blind to before. I also became a bit more productive and spend more time doing… whatever’s more productive then checking my BlackBerry.
Hey! Slowly I gained a life! Even my wife says she’s glad I no longer have my BlackBerry. Geez…
But hey, this phone I got, it has sudoku…
10 May 2009 | diyparadise | 1 Comment
BFM89.9 The Business Station
when i was studying in the states, my tuner was only tuned to 94.9, the classic rock station! it was a blast! i had it playing almost all the time, and it introduced me to lots of rock dinosaurs!
but back home in malaysia, i’d rather listen to chinese than english radio stations. they are just so bad, so juvenile, so silly… it seems that the people behind the radio stations only cater to youths. it’s all just today’s hits, silly boybands, hopeless singers doing inept cover versions, and silly deejays! i really think many of these stations hire radio deejays from some circus. they are THAT bad!
so i was pleasantly surprised when i first listened to bfm 89.9, the business station.okay, call me jaded but the music selection from these folks is soooo refreshing. perhaps i’m biased towards rock music (and this station plays mostly rock) but the whole “attitude” of the station, the programming, the interviews, the deejays and even the website shows folks behind this station really give serious thought to what they do.
the daily interviews are just great! it’s a great learning opportunity for everyone to learn, not just from the business end but also about life as there are sessions by life coaches too. heck, the interviews are even saved in mp3 format as podcasts and could be downloaded from the site. i’ve saved a whole bunch of them and just cycle thru my ipod during some days when i commute by train (and still keep an eye on the occasional pretty lass i come by). so who says guys can’t multi-task?
then of course, unlike other radio stations run by seemingly juvenile deejays who think what’s going on with britney spears life is more important than issues that may affect your life directly, the deejays here don’t yak too much! one of my major turn-off is deejays who just love the sound of their voice, sometimes yaking over nothing and laughing loudly just to fill the airwaves with some noise. grrrrr!!!!!
i also like the way they play with the bfm acronym. there’s the finance related “bankers, financiers, money-makers”, “bring forth money”. there’s also other fun acronyms like “bmw, ferrari, maserati”…
but the one i like best is “bond frustrates moneypenny”. nice pun!
to me still, the best thing is the music. it’s not perfect but it’s already a great step in the right direction for malaysian radio. get ready for some ccr, pearl jam, u2, led zep, acdc, sting, eric clapton (early stuff), jimi hendrix, grateful dead, inxs, nirvana…
so tune to this station if you are in kuala lumpur. if not, visit the website, you could hear it live from there too.
6 May 2009 | Business, Music | No Comments
You Wouldn’t Believe Whom I Met!
About 10 years ago, I began my first foray into DIY audio. I built a Darling amp. There’s quite a lot of articles on Darling amps on the net, just do a search.
Even though I’m trained in electronics, I was totally fresh out of school and damn wet behind the ears. Yes, the schematic looked simple enough but at 250VDC, this isn’t the time and place to “experiment”, so I thought.
And building my first amp, I had so much to worry. Guess what? I found this guy, possibly the first guy to build a Darling amp in Malaysia, willing to help me build my Darling amp. But only from a distance as he stayed hundreds of miles away from where I was.
What followed was a long exchange of emails, asking all sorts of questions, to clear any lingering doubt and gain more confidence before tackling the project. Like I said, at 250VDC, my apprehension should be understandable.
Now, Shamsul is not only a very patient guy, answering all the emails, he’s enthusiasm just “pops” out of the emails he writes. You must be a piece of dead wood if you don’t get infected by his enthusiasm.
Couple weeks later (I’m slow you see), finally got it built and voila! It works!
I was so excited I even built a page for it (and it’s still there today!)
You could see, I was so lazy I didn’t even got the wooden base built for it. Just a top plate, supported by rubber door stops and playing music! Ahh… those carefree days…
Anyway, my friendship with Shamsul didn’t stop there and we continued to exchange emails on many topics, even outside audio.
Then suddenly for some reasons, all communication stopped. Shamsul sort of went “missing in action”. He was sooooo quiet that, forget about the Darling amp, even a 0.00001W amp is louder!
Many years later, I was surprised to get some comments on my blog. From the initials and the wordings, I guessed it’s him. And it’s him! Shamsul’s back!
And what a coincidence! He has been working at an office just 2 miles from where I work! For the last 5 years!
So yesterday, finally met him face to face for the FIRST time. The guy who set me right on the path to DIY audio. My humble thanks to you for guiding me right on this journey.
Now Shamsul, it’s MY turn to corrupt you! Will get you to my place some day and corrupt you with big fat evil horns!!!
24 April 2009 | diyparadise | 1 Comment
i worked on a tube preamp over the weekend
It has been a while since i worked on tube gear. Not that I don’t want to but ever since toying with Monica, Charlize, Beyonce etc, it doesn’t matter what is the technology, great sonics qualifies it as good gear!
But I agreed to working on this tube preamp as this guy been sucked dry by a local audio company. He bought the preamp, found some problems, sent back for repair, was charged heavily and then spewed some bullshit here and there…
I know the manufacturer, and know how bad his work is as I “rescued” a previous victim of his. I’m just fed up of listening to this smooth talker, giving other local audio companies a bad name…
When I got the preamp, I was kind of shocked.
The signal circuitry, component for component, is a direct replica of the Simple 5687 preamp on my site! This circuit was published on my site in 2003! It’s actually not my design but a take from vt4c’s design which was published in a local paper. The power supply circuitry is totally different from mine as cost is clearly a major consideration for the manufacturer so one choke and the tube rectifier was omitted. I can tell you this, out goes the sonics!
This “victim” came to me as this preamp, despite repairs, is still giving him problems. And I could see why!
In all, it’s a sloppily done job. And the components… there’s no regard for quality at all. The same type of resistor is used for plate, cathode and bleeder. The same size for all.
The manufacturer didn’t even try to optimize the sound. I know this as feedback from diyers who built this preamp told me the sound could be optimized further. If you spend some time on this circuit, you know the sound could be improved very easily by changing some parameters. Nope, this manufacturer didn’t bother doing that.
And the volume pot! It’s not even the usual Alps Blue but a cheapo Panasonic type I’ve used before. There’s a reason I don’t recommend this Pana pot ove the Alps. Wait, scratch that. There are many reasons not to!
There’s more to it but I’ll stop here. That’s the problem, the gullible public is always taken for a ride by folks like these. You have been warned!
20 April 2009 | diyparadise | 3 Comments
My friend Jonas sent me this. It’s so fitting in the current economic crisis.
6 April 2009 | Business | No Comments
