I have been looking into the wolverine and the badger a little more. I think the wolverine is a little too much for me at this time. Its my first solid state amp, only build 3 tube amps so far and some solid state guitar pedals. Also the cost of the wolverine are quiet high (not for what you get, but for a first amp build).
My first plan was the leach amp, its also well documented but a little outdated which makes it harder to find parts for it. Allthough its a 70s design, it still gets a lot of love what i see.
Then i came across the honey badger, which here on DIYaudio get a lot of love. It didnt look to complex for a first build, well documented and parts which are still available.
The AB100 from Nelson looks interesting as well.... this doesnt narrow things down.... haha. A well known problem with audioDIYers i guess, what to build..
I will put the BOM's of these amps next to eachother with prices behind it, then i can see the total costs and availability of the parts and i guess i'll decide from there what to do.
My first plan was the leach amp, its also well documented but a little outdated which makes it harder to find parts for it. Allthough its a 70s design, it still gets a lot of love what i see.
Then i came across the honey badger, which here on DIYaudio get a lot of love. It didnt look to complex for a first build, well documented and parts which are still available.
The AB100 from Nelson looks interesting as well.... this doesnt narrow things down.... haha. A well known problem with audioDIYers i guess, what to build..
I will put the BOM's of these amps next to eachother with prices behind it, then i can see the total costs and availability of the parts and i guess i'll decide from there what to do.
This is the way it sits on the bench today... It was my first time using SMD, and it was just awesome...
There are two daughter boards missing from the pictures, which mount to thermal sensors. The two Badger boards are ~75% assembled. I'm using a custom wound 800VA, dual 45V output, torodial XFMR, from Primrose (SumR audio) here in Canada.
I am building my Badger with the triple MJL4XXX outputs. I originally purchased the SS9014 LTP, but have since decided to avoid this, as there have been stability problems. Now I'm matching some MPSA18 (which are proven reliable) , and will hopefully find a few good pairs to use.
I work away (3 weeks away, 3 weeks home) so my progress is on hold for a few weeks starting today.
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I have been looking into the wolverine and the badger a little more. I think the wolverine is a little too much for me at this time. Its my first solid state amp, only build 3 tube amps so far and some solid state guitar pedals. Also the cost of the wolverine are quiet high (not for what you get, but for a first amp build).
My first plan was the leach amp, its also well documented but a little outdated which makes it harder to find parts for it. Allthough its a 70s design, it still gets a lot of love what i see.
Then i came across the honey badger, which here on DIYaudio get a lot of love. It didnt look to complex for a first build, well documented and parts which are still available.
The AB100 from Nelson looks interesting as well.... this doesnt narrow things down.... haha. A well known problem with audioDIYers i guess, what to build..
I will put the BOM's of these amps next to eachother with prices behind it, then i can see the total costs and availability of the parts and i guess i'll decide from there what to do.
LOL, this is why I have a Honey Badger, an AB100 and two Wolverines. I'm sure there are more to come!
Haha yeah i know that problem... but when you handy and you got a lot of hobbies, you really have to spread your money and time haha. Already build myself 4 guitars, 3 guitar tube amps, cabinets for in the livingroom, etc.
And more ideas then build time. So thats why i already know this is gonna be a slow build 😂
Made a quick BOM pricelist for the amps mentioned in my post. Havent taken the wolverine into my comparision cause of its complexity, price, and complete overkill paired with my "simple" audiolab 6000A preamp. .
The leach and honey badger are in the same price region for populating the boards. The AB100 is a little cheaper, but looking at the overall budget the biggest parts of the total budget goes to housing, transformer and PSU. For populating the board its about 90 euro difference between AB100 and Badger for stereo boards. So in that case, i will probably go with the badger. Got an amplimo 40-0-40v 700VA transformer laying around, so this will fit pretty fine i think for the badger.
The leach and honey badger are in the same price region for populating the boards. The AB100 is a little cheaper, but looking at the overall budget the biggest parts of the total budget goes to housing, transformer and PSU. For populating the board its about 90 euro difference between AB100 and Badger for stereo boards. So in that case, i will probably go with the badger. Got an amplimo 40-0-40v 700VA transformer laying around, so this will fit pretty fine i think for the badger.
Stuart, i completely understand that the wolverine is 'just' an upgraded version of the badger, and it will probably sound even more amazing. I'm a bit in doubt still. It is my first solid state amp build, so far i only build some SS guitar effects. Amps i have build were guitar tube amps, the thing i like about tube amps is that if something is broke, mostly damage is just a few parts and you can directly see what parts are goners. SS experience teaches me that sometimes a little mistake can kill a lot of parts and it can be hard to track down the damage (for my knowledge and experience that is).
So i saw the wolverine is a 1000$ amp to build (offcourse still most money will go to housing, transformer and PSU) but im not sure if its a good first amp project. Neither am i sure if the badger is, but the schematic looks less complicated, less parts, a little cheaper.
Its hard to pull the trigger on a first build haha
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The short answer is Yes.
The long answer is that the touch function is provided by a capacitive touch button that will mount under the OLED display, and along with the OLED, will fit neatly into the front panel under a piece of lexan/glass. The control board will be programmed to provide color selection, etc.
The front panel is getting cnc milled to allow these parts to fit properly together under the glass panel. From the user perspective, it will be "one screen".
The long answer is that the touch function is provided by a capacitive touch button that will mount under the OLED display, and along with the OLED, will fit neatly into the front panel under a piece of lexan/glass. The control board will be programmed to provide color selection, etc.
The front panel is getting cnc milled to allow these parts to fit properly together under the glass panel. From the user perspective, it will be "one screen".
The amplifier protection is actually separate from the display and can operate on it's own. The display board monitors temperature and has an RTC on it. If temperature goes out of range it sends a simple binary signal to the protection board to shut down. The protection board sends a simple hex code to the display board stating the state of operation. This is all part of the datalogging system Valery and I started on many years ago.
This is the display system I was putting together for my Simpelstark amps before work got in the way. It uses a 2x20 alphanumeric display. If I ever manage to get some free time I want to redesign the display board with ESP32 and use WIFI for clock functions. In a preamp it could be used for remote control which is another project half done and waiting for time to complete.
Hi Thiez,
if you are still a bit unsure about what choice to do between building the Honey Badger or the Wolverine, I tell you choose quietly the Wolverine. I built both. Consider that, as you correctly stated above, a large amount of the expense is due to the PSU and the casing. And consider also that the PSU you would build for the HB should likely be ok for the Wolverine too. So for the casing. And if you decide to build the EF3-3 version of the Wolverine, you would have to buy the same number of output devices of the HB (the output devices are most expensive components). Just some more caps and resistors for the Wolverine. But you would build a more modern amp design, with one of the best support you could get here on this forum, as regards both building itself and the configuration choices you will have to do to get the most suitable amp for you needs (the Wolverine amplifier is highly customizable, too!). And, I repeat, last but, of course, not least, it sounds BETTER!! I started my "diyer career" building class d amps, then I got aware that if I really wanted to make the jump, I had to build at least class AB. At the time, one of the best options was the Honey Badger and I built it. And it was a challenging build! Looking at the past though, I admit I've had little if no more troubles in building the Wolverine compared to the HB. If I have to make the same decision today, I would have no doubt, I would choose the Wolverine for sure.
Gaetano.
Thanks Jeff!
From what i understood this (lcd unit)is compatible with the newest version of speaker protection.
What about the touch pad function that helitim said?
I ended up with an OLED alphanumeric display instead of LCD or regular LED because I wanted to do Green letters on Black background. The OLED was the only available option for this preference at that time, and looks really nice(in my option).
This is my first amplifier build, and I'm very pleased with the build so far.
For those following, it was not a cheap project.I have just under $2500 Canadian invested so far, and should be under $2700 when everything is completed. I really didn't constrain myself though. As I want this for my main system.
This is my first amplifier build, and I'm very pleased with the build so far.
For those following, it was not a cheap project.I have just under $2500 Canadian invested so far, and should be under $2700 when everything is completed. I really didn't constrain myself though. As I want this for my main system.
Thanks for your reply gaetano! I considered indeed that the money diff between the HB and the wolverine wont be as big....
I have to say that the welcome by the wolverine team and fans already have been very good haha. I like the positive replies on this forum. There are a lot of forums where it seems hard to be welcomed when you are a 'newbie'.
Im going to prepare my plans a little further. Probably wont start building anywhere soon. Im always planning and figuring things out for months before i start buying and building haha. Think things through, let it rest for a while, rethink it, etc. But im sure thats familiar to a lot on this forum.