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Tools of the trade...


Quiet_Hollow

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Lots of threads with people showing off their fancy gear so I figure I'd post my modest collection of tools. This is what I use to extract every ounce of performance from my system. This is how I stay in the "know". These are the means to making a $2000 system stomp all over a poorly executed 5-figure system. I would consider this the minimum necessary out-lay to measure, setup, and basically maintain any audio equipment in a modern home, shy of the knowledge and skill required use this stuff properly. The only other critical item I forgot to include in the picture was my test CD. [H]

Naturally, one could get really expensive in a hurry with test equipment, but that's not the point. This here is enough to put you well into journeyman territory, and save yourself a ton of coin in the end, by letting you know exactly what you need to accomplish your goals.

post-42237-13819686582628_thumb.jpg

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Isn't the unit in the plastic translucent blue case one of those capacitor ESR meters you can purchase as a kit?


Yup, that's the one.

Across the top row from left to right is:

- Anti-static wrist band (in the baggy) for soldering and handling components
- Butane soldering pen (in the red case)
- Coil of thin gauge Kester 44 solder
- Coil of solder wick for component removal
- Can of DeoxIT DN5 (formerly Cramoline) for treating connectors and pots
- Small tub of flux
- Blue ESR meter
- Rat Shack SPL meter
- Dual unit tape measure

In the foreground from left to right:

- Scientific calculator (TI-30, one that does trig)

- Digital Multimeters (Fluke 179 and 87V)

I use two good meters to confirm a part when doing repair work, but having just one will work for starters.

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Isn't the unit in the plastic translucent blue case one of those capacitor ESR meters you can purchase as a kit?

Yup, that's the one.

Across the top row from left to right is:

- Anti-static wrist band (in the baggy) for soldering and handling components

- Butane soldering pen (in the red case)

- Coil of thin gauge Kester 44 solder

- Coil of solder wick for component removal

- Can of DeoxIT DN5 (formerly Cramoline) for treating connectors and pots

- Small tub of flux

- Blue ESR meter

- Rat Shack SPL meter

- Dual unit tape measure

In the foreground from left to right:

- Scientific calculator (TI-30, one that does trig)

- Digital Multimeters (Fluke 179 and 87V)

I use two good meters to confirm a part when doing repair work, but having just one will work for starters.

You forgt two pretty important tools:

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTl3TnaX3fHHw3O-U_hMDR

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Ah, I remember the good old days when the test equipment you needed cost five figures. Now so much of it can be packed into a hand-held unit for a few hundred dollars. Add some speaker design and analysis software and you can design 'em too. Now if they could just get those CNC wood cutting systems down to a few hundred dollars....

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  • 4 years later...

I'm bumping this thread simply to reaffirm the importance of recognizing and diagnosing error in your system.

 

These tools will help a person along that path.

 

Got some "new-old" speakers in this past week. Clearly there's a problem after plugging them in, and without this trusty suitcase of diagnostic tools we'd be up a creek trying to figure out what's wrong.

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