Hints For Novo Kit Assembly

Ok, if you do let me know and we could go out for a beer or vino!

Graham,

I am thinking of assembling Novo full kit to work with my Cambridge Audio's DAC Magic and AKG 701 headphone. But I have following questions to clarify:

Have the components in a kit gone through QA screening, testing and matching before packaging ? I wonder what to do when there is channel imbalance caused by unmatched components after assembly is completed. Is the Novo commercial version a better option as far as build quality assurance is concerned.

What is the power/voltage/current specifications for the switching power supply unit ? I am thinking of sourcing a better one (in term of current capability and output noise/ripple) locally for output improvement. Once I received a switching power supply unit from UK similar to the one in Novo kit for my DAC. The power supply unit heated up easily even with light load because of poor energy conversion efficiency (not greener than linear power supply).

Thanks in advance.

littletree76 wrote: Graham, I am thinking of assembling Novo full kit to work with my Cambridge Audio's DAC Magic and AKG 701 headphone. But I have following questions to clarify: Have the components in a kit gone through QA screening, testing and matching before packaging ? I wonder what to do when there is channel imbalance caused by unmatched components after assembly is completed. Is the Novo commercial version a better option as far as build quality assurance is concerned. What is the power/voltage/current specifications for the switching power supply unit ? I am thinking of sourcing a better one (in term of current capability and output noise/ripple) locally for output improvement. Once I received a switching power supply unit from UK similar to the one in Novo kit for my DAC. The power supply unit heated up easily even with light load because of poor energy conversion efficiency (not greener than linear power supply). Thanks in advance.

Hi littletree and welcome to the community!

Every single piece in the DAK Novo kit is the same spec as used in the commercial Novo.

We don't believe in wasting time here at Graham Slee Projects Limited so we don't go in for "crank" designs that require trimming either before, during or after assembly: if the components have been put in the right place (and the right way round in the case of transistors, diodes, polarised capacitors and so on, and soldered properly) then no channel imbalance due to the electronics can exist. The potentiometer is therefore the deciding factor: this is sourced directly from an Alps Europe authorised distributor - we know a large franchised distributor sells Alps seconds for profit, so we don't go there for anything apart from solder tags. If a one in a million problem were to exist where a part was found faulty we guarantee to replace it.

As for the power supply, I buy these from people I know, then I test them myself. It is rated 24 volts 0.75 amps, centre positive. I have three working constantly in my own system and the one that powers my Novo gets barely warm.

Our components are all genuine branded items from Philips, Panasonic, Welwyn, Vishay, Alps, On-Semiconductor, etc. We would rather pay more and have the best reputation rather than penny-pinch - we find we profit more by having good measures.

Going back to component matching for a moment: there are some who learn electronics professionally and there are some that dabble and have never had the experience of professional learning - people should be alarmed by this but they are not - they believe the dabblers because they are so convincing in their arguments, and to the non-electronic mind the false positives stack up. I have seen the dabblers designs - these are people who big themselves up but they are in reality very tiny. Proper electronics designs take into consideration the tolerances of components because all components are plus or minus some percentage away from their specified value. Take the op-amp for example: apart from laser zapping to minimise offset voltages to microscopic proportions for instrument usage, no other part of an op-amp is "hand matched" but in our findings, those which we use (in designs other than the Novo) are all within spec. That is what proper design is about.

I hope this brings you more confidence in us.

Best wishes,
Graham