I just got a request from someone who wants to CNC a front panel for his Muffsy MC Head Amp, and he wanted to use the logo and the font that are on the printed circuit boards.

OSIFONT - The CAD Font

The font used on the PCB is the built-in vector font in Eagle, which is proprietary. The Eagle font is really similar to the "official" CAD font OSIFONT. Which is, I'm sorry to say, proprietary.

Luckily, Github user hikikomori82 has made an open source variant of OSIFONT:

The "Muffsyfont" - The OSIFONT to a T

I thought the lower case "t" looked wrong, so I changed it, and now it's the Muffsyfont.

Download the Muffsyfont here.

And Finally the Logo

The logo is a bit easier though, I can share that with anyone. And by virtue of placing it on this site, it becomes open source as well.

Download the large PNG with transparent background here.

It's become evident that I need a better solution for photographing my projects. So I went out and bought some surprisingly cheap LED panels:

But then I had no idea on how to build this into a suitable light box. So I spent the time buying suitably sized vinyl backdrops and some clamps from the UK based eBay seller photogeeks11. I can't thank the seller enough, small sized vinyl backdrops are very hard to find. They are also of excellent quality.

My first lightbox...

The first lightbox was three pieces of scrapped wooden planks. Just to hang the backdrops from. The two side LED panels leaned against the planks, and I managed to somehow balance the top LED panel long enough to take one picture. Then it all crumbled and fell to the floor. (Nothing broke, luckily.)

It did produce one good picture before the whole construction fell apart though. Keep in mind that this is taken using my Galaxy S7 Edge with default settings.

Rethinking the lightbox (the one that didn't fall apart)

Since I wasn't in the mood for having my (albeit cheap) LED panels crushed, I set out looking for alternatives to scrap wood. I finally found some nice square aluminum tubing and plastic joints.

With the building material in playce, I brought out my trusty old (and very dull) hacksaw and started construction. Here's the result:

The plastic joints had to be hammered into the tubing, and I was a bit worried that I would never be able to disassemble the light box (it's big, and I don't have that much space). Luckily, the plastic sort of shaved off. Using the hammer, I was able to take it apart.

While still a very snug fit - which is good, the lightbox is nice and stable - I'm able to pull the tubes apart so I can store the lightbox when it's not in use.

Pictures, or it didn't happen!

Well, I have only one picture. It's of my B&O IcePower module, on white vinyl backdrop.

This picture is also taken with my Galaxy S7 (the system camera is now on a tripod in front of the light box). I had to change exposure, and do some post-editing though. 

I think that's quite a beautiful result. Now that I have the system camera mounted, I've finally found my lightbox solution.

It wasn't exactly cheap though, it came in at just above US$ 300. It's tailor made to my needs, which is why we all do the DIY-thingie in the first place. Right?

Update: Picture taken with the system camera

Here's the Muffsy Back Panel photographed with my Sony Alpha 5000 with a Minolta MD Rokkor 50mm f/1.7:

...and the camera itself:

The Sony Alpha 5000, with its 20 megapixel APS-C sensor, is really great as a manual camera. It's got no viewfinder or fancy autofocus, so I wouldn't use it to shoot sports pics. Or outdoors, due to the relatively dim LCD monitor...

The range of vintage lenses that can be used with the Sony Alpha (E-mount) cameras is almost endless, since there are adapters available for most lenses. Check out the YouTube channel AdaptedAlpha to see lots of examples of older lenses being used with the Sony E-mount cameras.

Ryan has built the Muffsy Phono Preamp, and wrote about it on his blog. Thanks for the great review Ryan!

He offers up some beautiful pictures of his build, and writes about the whole building experience.

Ryan was one of the few who received power supply capacitors that were too big for the board. That problem was solved, but it's a sub-par experience for those who got them nonetheless.

He also notes, like many others, that it can be difficult to insert the cables into the screw terminals. This is a side effect of making everything fit on the small board. You'll find suggestions on how to make this easier in the build instructions if you're worried about this.

Ryan decided to make his own back panel, and the final result is excellent.

Yngve from Norway has built a total of five Muffsy Phono Preamps by now, but this has to be his coolest project ever. When he bought a Dual 1225, he decided to give it an integrated phono stage, using the Muffsy.

The Dual 1225 was opened, the drill was brought out, and the Muffsy placement was decided.

Next is the cabling, Ynge decided to connect the tone arm cables directly to the Muffsy input.

There was even space for a power supply and a transformer inside the Dual 1225.

Yngve reports that he's very happy with his upgraded Dual. There is absolutely no noise or any distortions, so he has succeeded with his well thought out layout.

Ivo, who created the SMD version of the Muffsy Phono Preamp, has sent me a lot of nice pictures and a description of his project.

Here's what Ivo says about his project:

I wanted to build a compact turntable preamp with some adjusting capabilities such as gain, impedance and input  capacitance . So I found the Muffsy PP-3 as a very good and valid starting point for my build project. 

At the same time i wanted to do something rare in a audiophile world and SMD seems to be rare. Using SMD components allow to reduce the size of the board. The smaller the size of the components and PCB, the lower the possible external interferences. So I decided to try to build this project with SMD components.

It was very hard selecting the components, and the cost increase for a single board is high. For my PP I chose all resistors in 1206 package and 1% tolerance, and all the capacitors in 1206 package and 5% for the capacitors (excluding the RIAA and the output capacitors).

The RIAA eq network capacitors are high quality KEMET PPS capacitors (case 1210 and 1812 5%) and the output capacitors are PET capacitors from WIMA (10% tolerance, case 2824). I also put some attention to keep the signal path as short as possible and equal length between left and right channels.

I decided to build the PP and the PSU on the same PCB, but leaving them disconnected and connect the two circuits by wire. The boards can then be separated, if needed.The final dimensions for the PCB (PP + PSU) is about 12cm x 9cm and it fits exactly in a B1304 enclosure.

• Power ripple/noise: 12mVpp, 0.166mV RMS
  
• Output noise with shorted input: 7.12mVpp, 0.173mV RMS
  

That's the project in Ivo's own words. He has been very focused, with a clear design goal from the start. The end result has become very nice because of this.

I particularly like how he mounted the LED in the front panel. This nice effect came from drilling about 80% through with a 5mm drill, and finishing with a 2mm drill. The remaining hole was filled with hot glue and polished.

It was great to be able to support Ivo in this project, and I am very happy for him that everything worked out as he wanted it to.

I love to see the result of people's work, here are a few pictures of the Muffsy Phono Preamp built by customers.

Muffsy SMD Edition

This first one is really cool. It's built by Ivo, who wanted a version with SMD components. He did all the work, with a few pieces of advice from muffsy.com, and got the board produced. Apart from the board looking really nice, Ivo also added variable input capacitance to his project.

Muffsy with Back Panel

Scott recently finished his Muffsy Phono Preamp, using the B0905 cabinet and the new Muffsy Back Panel. I love Scott's tidy work. I am also really impressed, as this is his first DIY project.

Muffsy PP-2 with Audiophile Resistors and Capacitors

Cyto wanted to use radically different components than what I had intended. Using some creativity and lots of elbow grease, he managed to get them all in there. A great example of making the project your own. It is, after all, DIY.

Cyto has published more pictures on Photobucket.

PP-3 with a Separate PSU

Yngve chose to build the PP-3 with the power supply in a separate cabinet, using an XLR cable for power. Here's the result:

Please send me a note on the contact page if you want to share pictures of your Muffsy Phono Preamp.