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From: haas@utah-gr.UUCP (Walt Haas)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Hafler 110 kit assembly
Message-ID: <1374@utah-gr.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 10-Mar-85 20:20:11 EST
Article-I.D.: utah-gr.1374
Posted: Sun Mar 10 20:20:11 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 15-Mar-85 03:05:10 EST
Organization: Univ of Utah CS Dept
Lines: 42

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!haas