Knif audio

[audiox]

www.knifaudio.com

Interesting products. Look very similar to those we are building here.

 

[Guest]

whats wrong with this picture?

 

[Viitalahde]

I've heard the vari-mu. It's VERY good.

 

[[silent:arts]]

[quote author="Lo-Fi"]whats wrong with this picture?[/quote]
shit, they use resistors, caps and some tubes.
in some places the same brand we use :shock:
:green: :green: :green: :wink:

 

[ruairioflaherty]

[quote author="Lo-Fi"]

whats wrong with this picture?[/quote]


It's dreadfully out of focus? :grin:

 

[Mbira]

The caps have exploded?

:wink:

 

[EZ81]

[quote author="Lo-Fi"]whats wrong with this picture?[/quote]
- long, dangling stranded wires soldered directly to solder turrets :shock:
- a budget type PCB in a boutique product. I would not mind paying the extra $20 a 3.2mm double sided PCB with a fancy soldermask color would cost...

EDIT: What i meant to say was: If I would offer inside pictures of my boutique products, I'd make sure they look way better than mass prod. gear or an average DIY project. I guess overbuilding (plenty of cable tie bases, quality PCB connectors etc.) would not make a huge difference considering the huge amount of manual labor that went into the product anyway, but I'd like to read comments on that by people actually building gear for a living (or some extra income).

 

[jensenmann]

With EF804s tubes he´s surely targeting massproduction.

Soldering wires directly on the PCB is definitely less troublesome than connectors. And if you guys want to know about shitty PCBs, I have hundreds of them in my desk (which was 100000 USD new at that time). And it´s still outstanding. Have a look 70s gear. Nowhere you will find good PCBs. This doesn´t affect soundquality - unless your audiophool.

 

[Viitalahde]

[quote author="EZ81"]a budget type PCB in a boutique product.[/quote]

You guys are spoiled with mass-producted group buy PCB's. Electrons don't give a fuck. And directly soldered wires are definately better. Screw terminals? :? Crimped multi-connectors? :evil:

 

[Mbira]

I like the website and this persons attitude though! I like the little personal descriptions.

Nice stuff!

 

[Svart]

I'd buy it. All I care about is the sound.

However they are extremely expensive!

 

[Viitalahde]

And they sound expensive, too. At least the vari-mu.

 

[Curtis]

whats wrong with this picture?

Some of the part numbers have been photo-shopped out (the Lundahl transformer and the top of that cylindrical thingy to the right of the in-focus tube)?

 

[analag]

[quote author="Viitalahde"]You guys are spoiled with mass-producted group buy PCB's. Electrons don't give a fuck. And directly soldered wires are definately better. Screw terminals? :?
Crimped multi-connectors? :evil:[/quote]

Interesting assessment.

analag

 

[Guest]

[quote author="Curtis"]

whats wrong with this picture?

Some of the part numbers have been photo-shopped out (the Lundahl transformer and the top of that cylindrical thingy to the right of the in-focus tube)?[/quote]

bingo! or maybe a sharpie?

:grin:

and im not for sure if those are caps, but they look poofy!!!

 

[EZ81]

...[Photoshop]...

So we will never know if the round black thing is a C3m or a C3g tube.

Electrons don't give a fuck

Electrons don't spend 2kEUR on gear, either. If I was in the market for gear in this quality range, I'd expect at least a cable tie to take the stress off those evil solder joints if the box is moved. But to each his own... I'm sure it sounds great, no matter if built NASA-style or as a hotglue/perfboard/spaghetti mess.

EDIT:
I'm sure it sounds great, no matter if built NASA-style or as a hotglue/perfboard/spaghetti mess. was actually supposed to mean Electrons don't give a f*** )(C) Viitalahde), so in the end the main purpose of the gear (sound) would not suffer if it had been built in different ways

Sorry if I was unclear, the gear looks great, I just misunderstood the "What is wrong in this picture?" question and found a few details to nitpick. Also sorry for the negative energy in this thread, this was not intended. The new espresso maker did not help to get the point across, either... :wink:

 

[dshay]

[quote author="EZ81"]

...[Photoshop]...

So we will never know if the round black thing is a C3m or a C3g tube.

Electrons don't give a fuck

Electrons don't spend 2kEUR on gear, either. If I was in the market for gear in this quality range, I'd expect at least a cable tie to take the stress off those evil solder joints if the box is moved. But to each his own... I'm sure it sounds great, no matter if built NASA-style or as a hotglue/perfboard/spaghetti mess.[/quote]

that isn't a speghetti mess.

And I don't think y'all realize how labor intensive it is to get up to IPC class three military/medical grade standards. You'd have to bump up the price of that equipment substantially beyond what it already is.

I'm a certified quality assurance inspector and some of y'all are officially nit picking right now. That box gets a class one and two stamp of approval, the thing isn't going to be a part of your pacemaker. Some slack on those wires means it'd be easier to field repair, you should be thanking them.

 

[Crusty2]

Well, I think the strain relief argument is a valid one at least; if that shielded wire becomes loose it certainly looks long enough to drift over and make contact with the exposed pins around the vacuum tube socket. Where the voltage might go from there I'm not sure. Hopefully not out of the box through a connector anyway.

A lot of times, the pictures on the site are of production prototypes anyway, and stuff like that gets picked up during CE checks.

Very nice looking gear though! :thumb:

 

[dshay]

[quote author="Crusty2"]Well, I think the strain relief argument is a valid one at least; if that shielded wire becomes loose it certainly looks long enough to drift over and make contact with the exposed pins around the vacuum tube socket. Where the voltage might go from there I'm not sure. Hopefully not out of the box through a connector anyway.

A lot of times, the pictures on the site are of production prototypes anyway, and stuff like that gets picked up during CE checks.

Very nice looking gear though! :thumb:[/quote]

Those are non moving connections inside of studio gear. Those are glass tubes, if that stuff recieved the kind of strain you're suggesting those particular connections would be the least of your worries. Shielded cable has it's tie together built in, three separate turret solder joints makes for a significant mechanical connection that would easily avoid the loose shorting you're suggesting.

Strain relief wouldn't be a major concern. The concern would be minimum electrical clearance, and for that you'd use a tie down or two, but there isn't enough information in that picture to tell if they do have one or not or if it's even needed.

 

[Crusty2]

Deshay,
The gear in question may not actually be used as studio gear, it may go on the road touring Australia in the back of a truck for years on end. I am thinking more about fatigue than strain. Since there is no strain relief (there's another pic on the site which shows it more clearly), the wire can move around freely, possibly stressing the joints.
What I describe is not a likely failure, but a possible one, where a SELV flying lead could possibly become free and come in contact with a nearby unshielded, high-voltage circuit point.

And from what I understand from my readings, if that is the case, a mechanical form of strain relief would be required.