LM3886 based Amp -Upgrade advice please.

[mikesnowdon]

Hi.

I own a Cambridge audio 340A SE Integrated amplifier. I have allready modded the Preamp stage and apart from a minor buzz problem (this will be fixed soon) the sound is getting really good. I want to turn my attention to the power stages but I'm afraid this is where my knowledge and experience runs out.

As I understand it the poweramp stage is basically a Gainclone, it uses the LM3886 Chip. I have read good things about the DIY Gainclo

[Panelhead]

But a quckie, trying soldering a couple 10 -33 ufd low impedance electrolytic caps from the +/- power pins of the LM3886 to ground.
This has improved the sonics of every chip amp I have seen so far.

George

[jaycee]

I would hope the Cambridge amp has such caps near to the chip already.

There is not much you can really do there.If I know Cambridge they have used cheap crappy electrolytic capacitors. You could swap them all out with good quality ones but I don't know how much difference it would make.

The main target is the main power supply capacitors. Check out what brand and size these are. Replace them with something decent, and bypass them with small polyester capacitors.

[mikesnowdon]

Thanks for the replies.

I posted this thread by mistak - while typing the first post I hit a wrong button. The full post is in the following link.

Any further comments please post here.