Well, it's my first post here although I've been reading for awhile. It took me awhile to jump on the DIY wagon, but when I saw the new JLM kits I decided I was ready. I present you my completed Baby Animal:
I've wired the XLR jack since these pictures were taken, of course.
The kits are fantastic and are quite easy to assemble. As you can see, it uses the JLM14 input trasnformer and OPA2604 opamp, because it's the cheapest configuration.
Being my first true DIY project, I learned quite a few things:
1. Don't forget to put in the opamps. D'oh.
2. Don't use masking tape to protect the front panel while drilling!!! I heard someone suggest blue painter's tape--use that instead.
3. Buy the right size screws, and if you buy the wrong ones, don't say "Oh, I'll make them work."
4. Giant knobs are much easier to work with than tiny ones.
5. Giant LEDs look goofy.
Before I talk about the sound, let me say that my preamp experience is with a Behringer rack unit, my Mackie mixer, Presonus Firebox, and an MBox. That said, this thing blows the pants off any of those. It is pants-blowingly awesome. Everything I've put through it has automatically turned into the best sound I've gotten out of that instrument. Guitar and bass through the DI are especially awesome, very smooth. After about an hour of playing guitar through the Baby Animal and then into a Marshall patch in Guitar Rig 2, I switched over to the Presonus pre, and it was harsh! I had the volume cranked, and at the same gain as the BA it was painful, whereas the Baby Animal was quite pleasing. I'm very happy with this. After I placed my order, I wondered if I'd notice enough of a difference to justify the cost. Five minutes of testing erased any doubts I had. I also realized how good a 57 can be, and...er...how bad my Studio Projects C1 is.
My only complaint about the kit is that the plastic 1/4" jack on the DI is pretty cheap, and the nut barely fits. I crossthreaded it maybe 1/16 of a turn, and the plastic threads are shot. Be careful!! The threads also don't extend very far up the bushing, so the nut barely has any thread to grip when it's in the rack.
I've noticed a couple of noises that I'm not too sure about. First there's a high pitch noise that only occurs when sound is passing through the preamp. It's VERY faint for normal sounds (I can just barely hear it when playing miced acoustic guitar) but quite noticeable, for instance, when applying distortion to the amplified signal. It sounds almost like the very high pitch whining sound you might get when trying to tune a radio. Again, it only happens when signal is being amplified. As soon as you stop playing, the sound goes away. I will post a sound clip later so you can hear what I mean. There's also a faint puffing sound when adjusting the gain knob. Aside from those, it is quiet--no hum whatsoever, and only a small amount of hiss at high gain settings.
Now to ask for some help. I'd like to be able to run line-level signals through this preamp which is why I'm using Neutrik combo jacks. I need to pad the signal, but I'm not sure how to do it. Would the configuration in
this post get the job done? There're around 4 different suggestions in that thread and I don't know which one is best.
I've ordered a second channel, and it should be here in the next few days. I also ordered the Hybrid opamp kit, and will test it out with that before putting the OPA2604 in for the final unit. I may use the hybrid in a 312-style preamp.
Again, I'd like to stress how awesome this kit is. It is a cinch to build and sounds great. Joe is a great guy and answered my questions very promptly (while politely suggesting I come here and bug you guys.) Send him your money!!
Cheers,
Chris
:green: :thumb: 
