The Most Beautiful Homemade Device I’ve Ever Seen

Fun & Games Music Technology
The Most Beautiful Homemade Device I’ve Ever Seen

I covered British electronics hobbyist Rupert Hirst’s lovely freeform headphone amp back in December, when it was still “just” a skeletonized circuit. Now he’s finished up by casting the meticulously-constructed electronics in clear resin, with equally meticulous care. He built a custom mold from 1.5mm cardstock, carefully sealed the jacks against resin infiltration, and mounted the wire frame inside the mold. After pouring the resin and allowing it to cure, he squared up the block on a belt sander, chamfered the edges with a router, and finally polished everything up with wet/dry sandpaper and Brasso. Rupert’s aesthetic—doing relatively simple things with extraordinary attention to detail—is always inspirational to me.

Crystal cMoy Freeform Headphone Amp

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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