haas@utah-gr.UUCP (Walt Haas) (03/11/85)
I have just completed assembly of a Hafler 110 preamp kit. The assembly
took about 5 hours total. The preamp is well laid out and easy to work
on. The main PC board comes fully assembled and tested, so assembly of
the kit consists of mechanical assembly and soldering of a secondary PC,
some connectors and the power wiring. None of it was particularly
difficult, given ordinary dexterity and soldering skills. The instructions
are not nearly as thoroughly broken down and illustrated as Heathkit
instructions are, but the Hafler instructions turned out to be perfectly
adequate for a kit builder with substantial experience. The manual tells
you of the importance of using 60/40 rosin core solder, and all the bad
things that will happen if you don't, but the kit doesn't include any!
There were three minor discrepancies in the kit, none of which had any
practical effect:
1) The volume control nut was the wrong size. Since the control was already
solidly soldered to the main PC with six large pins, I didn't worry about
this, and am using the unit as it is until I can get my hands on the
right nut.
2) The instructions said to cut two 1/2 inch pieces of shrink tube -
unfortunately there was only 3/4 inch of shrink tube in the kit! I had
some lying around and used it, but the kit would probably work fine with
two 3/8 inch pieces of tube in the same place.
3) The instructions told me to screw on the bottom cover, then paste on
the serial number label in the middle. However, the label had already
been pasted to the cover when the kit was unpacked - and the label
ended up on the inside of the unit!
As far as I can tell the finished unit lives up to it's DC-to-UHF specs,
but nothing else in my system is good enough to properly test the 110.
Certainly I can find no fault with it's performance. Cosmetically, it
would look right at home on the bridge of a battleship - I assume nobody
buys Hafler components for their looks! Assembly might be confusing for
somebody with no previous electronics experience, but I suspect most
people without experience wouldn't cut their teeth on a $300 kit anyway.
Regards -- Walt Haas
ARPAnet: Haas@Utah-20
uucp: ...{decvax|ihnp4|seismo}!utah-cs!haasbmw@aesat.UUCP (Bruce Walker) (03/15/85)
In article <1374@utah-gr.UUCP> haas@utah-gr.UUCP (Walt Haas) writes: >I have just completed assembly of a Hafler 110 preamp kit. >Certainly I can find no fault with it's performance. Cosmetically, it >would look right at home on the bridge of a battleship - I assume nobody >buys Hafler components for their looks! Actually, you'd be surprised; a lot of people go for the "Darth Vader Techno Look", I know *I* do! I like the looks of the Hafler 110, the older preamps are pretty "kit-looking" though. I think my chief complaint, finish- wise, is that they (Hafler) didn't match the surface texture (or colour even) between the amp and preamp components that most often are purchased together. The amp has a semi-gloss epoxy sort of finish which doesn't look quite right near the preamp's flat satin black finish. Oh well, they sound good to me, which I reaffirmed last night by listening to the latest release by Level 42 at a "good" level. Good stuff. Bruce Walker {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!aesat!bmw
dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) (03/19/85)
I built a DH-110 from a kit about 6 months ago, and noticed the same small errors that you did. In addition, there is a mistake in the circuit schematic that you might want to fix: The labelling for C29 and C30 (on the PC13 circuit board, part of the "filter" switch) is reversed. I later built a DH-220 and it also went together well, although requiring some work to be done in crowded quarters.