My first kit experience

I expected a DIY kit to have most things available, just add solder, and hey presto! The kit is done! Not so for my first audio kit. The PCB for the cd player is so misaligned with the holes on the chassis. If I align the toslink, the XLR and the BNC outputs would not match. Worse, even if I wanted to just align the toslink, the board will be blocked by one of the pillars of the chassis.

I know I will never use toslink... so I may just drill out the square opening and add another similair one for analog outputs direct from the cdpro2 unit. The BNC would be used for digital out, when an external DAC would be used.


The other thing that irks me is the mounting screw of the panel when mounting the cdpro2 to it. The mounting panel is meant for m4 counter sunk allen key head screws. Using a m3 here would seem out of place. Like those freebie Large size t shirts for a Medium frame person. However, the cdpro2 itself accept only m3 screws and would require the suspension to be screwed on as well. The look here is important as in future, whenever I place a CD, I will surely see this mismatch. Furthermore, Puay Huat, the shop that I go for screws, do not have counter sunk allen key head screws.

To get around this, I thought of drilling through the cdpro2 for a m4 size screw and just add a nut at the end instead of using the spring suspension. But this will be quite a chore. When I checked the mounting holes of the cdpro2, my 3.1mm drill bit fits in just nicely. I then have the ideal of tapping the holes for m4 screws instead. This is a perfect solution to the problem. But for a kit, it seems a bit drastic... should't it be all working and interconnecting?


Anyways, tap ahead I went. Just hand hold the transport in the left and tap with the right. I would not recommend this to first time users of a tap. You may want to practice a bit first. Use quality taps for good results. M4 taps are much easier to accomplish then m3 taps.

The mounted transport can be seen below.


Another thing is that the stand off posts are not included. I will have to tap blind m3s for mounting the display panel and buttons for the cdplayer. Much to my disappointment, I was not able to locate my m3 taps... Will have to buy one set soon.

Some pics here.