All, sorry for the generic question, but I have been reading like crazy on this site for a week now and I am unsure which direction to go. Given that some of these threads started many years ago, it is hard to determine what is the "best" thing to do "today". and I know.. "best" is an opinion..but work with me here ;-)
My use case will be %95 home theater and %5 music listening. My current setup consists of a Marantz 8002 receiver, a HTPC, a Rotel amp for my left and right channel ( Marantz handles the rest of the channels ), an EP4000 for my (4) 18 inch subs, and my speakers are:
LR - Klipsch RF-83 Floorstanding Speakers
Center - Klipsch RC-64
The rest... Klipsch-- the same "line" of speakers..
My future goals are to run a "preamp" only and use seperate amps. I am not in any hurry to get there, but would like to start planning soon. I have looked at the LM4780 and the 3886, etc.. Those all look cool, but after looking into my Rotel amp, I see they are using the Sanken 2SC3856s, etc.. I do not have to have ultra-highend, parts, but I would like to build something that will sound better than most "consumer" level products. Basically, I'm not spending $5000-$10,000 on an amp, but would like to have similar quality or better than your typical $2000-$3000 amps. Something better than the Rotels, etc... I image that I would want to run 100 - 150 watts per channel.
Basically, I don't know whether to be looking into chip amps, solid state, or what.. Someone please point me in the right direction so that I can continue studying. Please mention specific amp ICs or parts as well if necessary.
Thank you
My use case will be %95 home theater and %5 music listening. My current setup consists of a Marantz 8002 receiver, a HTPC, a Rotel amp for my left and right channel ( Marantz handles the rest of the channels ), an EP4000 for my (4) 18 inch subs, and my speakers are:
LR - Klipsch RF-83 Floorstanding Speakers
Center - Klipsch RC-64
The rest... Klipsch-- the same "line" of speakers..
My future goals are to run a "preamp" only and use seperate amps. I am not in any hurry to get there, but would like to start planning soon. I have looked at the LM4780 and the 3886, etc.. Those all look cool, but after looking into my Rotel amp, I see they are using the Sanken 2SC3856s, etc.. I do not have to have ultra-highend, parts, but I would like to build something that will sound better than most "consumer" level products. Basically, I'm not spending $5000-$10,000 on an amp, but would like to have similar quality or better than your typical $2000-$3000 amps. Something better than the Rotels, etc... I image that I would want to run 100 - 150 watts per channel.
Basically, I don't know whether to be looking into chip amps, solid state, or what.. Someone please point me in the right direction so that I can continue studying. Please mention specific amp ICs or parts as well if necessary.
Thank you
IMO, your'e out of the chip amp game and in all honesty I don't see building what you're talking about without a lot of experience, including building various amps purely for the purpose of learning to build and test amps.
First, buy Doug Self's book on power amps. Next, buy Bob Cordell's book on power amps. Read and digest both. There are many ways to get 100-150 watts and nobody can say which is best. Look at the Pass amps. Study the on-line schematics for various classics in your power range. Search on-line for why people think they're good and why they're bad. At that point you may develop a leaning towards some specific design and can look for somebody's project to build. There are a couple amp projects right here that should be as good as anything out there, but you should determine that through your own study, not because somebody says so.
Thank you for your response. I should have also said that I am no EE, but did spend a year in an electronics degree program and have tinkered with electronics all my life. I'm not terribly "scared" of anything particular concept, but unfortunately don't have time to learn the past 20 years of amplifier theory. I was hoping to limit my studies to things more relevant to "today's" technology if possible. My plan was to basically build "someone else's" design, but needed some general direction on which type to look at and any specific builds to follow. There are so many builds here that it is hard to understand which direction to go. I don't mind spending the time, but if I don't need to understanding tube or chip amps because solid-state is the correct answer, then I'm not going to spend much time doing it.
Not sure I know what you want and not sure you know 
Are you running 5.1 or 7.1?
The devices are rather good that you already have. You would use the Marantz as preamp?
Running Sub on chipamp is a bit hard, as they don't produce enough juice.
Also why do you need 100-150W? With those speakers it will be insanely loud.
How big room do you have?
Hard to decide what to build, but for HT, tube doesn't sound too good. Chip would be easy to build, solid is not that trivial.
You may bild something that is as good as the ones you have, but will be really hard to make better ones. Especially for the first build.
Back to what to build, there are chip amps that contain a few dollar parts, still they cost a lot. Matching parts, knowing what type is good where makes the real price. And the look. You can build a 7.0 chip amp system even from kit and it will sound good. But will it be better than your present system? Will only know if it is ready and YOU listen to it. Nobody will tell you if you like it better or not.
What power are you running your system at during HT?
Are you running 5.1 or 7.1?
The devices are rather good that you already have. You would use the Marantz as preamp?
Running Sub on chipamp is a bit hard, as they don't produce enough juice.
Also why do you need 100-150W? With those speakers it will be insanely loud.
How big room do you have?
Hard to decide what to build, but for HT, tube doesn't sound too good. Chip would be easy to build, solid is not that trivial.
You may bild something that is as good as the ones you have, but will be really hard to make better ones. Especially for the first build.
Back to what to build, there are chip amps that contain a few dollar parts, still they cost a lot. Matching parts, knowing what type is good where makes the real price. And the look. You can build a 7.0 chip amp system even from kit and it will sound good. But will it be better than your present system? Will only know if it is ready and YOU listen to it. Nobody will tell you if you like it better or not.
What power are you running your system at during HT?
If you don't want to build from complete scratch you may look at Aussie Amplifiers. Anthony sells a good product that is guaranteed to work and perform well. I built a NVX500 I use on my main Martin Logan speakers on home theater duty. High End Audio MOSFET Amplifiers - Amplifier Modules - DIY Amp Modules - DIY Audio - Amp Kit . All my stereo stuff is DIY Pass / First watt stuff, you can't beat bang for buck but the heat generated from Class A stuff is a bit much for home theater duty.
Bill
Bill
My subs are an infinite baffle setup and are driven by a Behringer EP4000 amp. I have a Feedback destroyer in front of the amp as a 25 band "eq" as needed after room treatment. So, I am not looking to drive my subs with this conversation. Maybe an amp powersupply upgrade in the future with bigger caps or something..
I run a 7.1 system. The left/right channel are being driven with the Rotel Amp ( forget model number, but it is around 500 watts RMS ) The remaining channels are driven by the Marantz receiver. If I built the amps now, I would probably use the Marantz as a preamp only until I replace it in a year or two. Basically, I just want to be able to use a preamp only device when I decide to upgrade to newer technology.
100-150 is not a requirement but just a number to hope to have enough "juice" for anything new in the future...or inefficient speakers. I don't like driving amps at %90 -%100 personally... Room is 23x16x10 (8 ft drop ceiling)
I have built several electronic things in the past, but never an amp outside of a small opamp project when I was a kid.. I have a background in electronics and IT, so the concepts aren't all foreign. My hope was to limit what I have to teach myself instead of reading for months in each amp catagory just to determine what is "popular" in today's times or for home theater. Sound is very important to me, but I'm not the guy that sips wine and will lecture on the difference in timbre between this $10k speaker and that $20k speaker.
I run a 7.1 system. The left/right channel are being driven with the Rotel Amp ( forget model number, but it is around 500 watts RMS ) The remaining channels are driven by the Marantz receiver. If I built the amps now, I would probably use the Marantz as a preamp only until I replace it in a year or two. Basically, I just want to be able to use a preamp only device when I decide to upgrade to newer technology.
100-150 is not a requirement but just a number to hope to have enough "juice" for anything new in the future...or inefficient speakers. I don't like driving amps at %90 -%100 personally... Room is 23x16x10 (8 ft drop ceiling)
I have built several electronic things in the past, but never an amp outside of a small opamp project when I was a kid.. I have a background in electronics and IT, so the concepts aren't all foreign. My hope was to limit what I have to teach myself instead of reading for months in each amp catagory just to determine what is "popular" in today's times or for home theater. Sound is very important to me, but I'm not the guy that sips wine and will lecture on the difference in timbre between this $10k speaker and that $20k speaker.
two parts to this blog, here's the first...
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/diyaudio-com-articles/200460-l-amp-simple-sit-amp-part-1-a.html
here's the second...
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/diyaudio-com-articles/202480-l-amp-simple-sit-amp-part-deux.html
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/diyaudio-com-articles/200460-l-amp-simple-sit-amp-part-1-a.html
here's the second...
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/diyaudio-com-articles/202480-l-amp-simple-sit-amp-part-deux.html
This might be a gentle introduction to amp building...the 8 Ohm power rating is only 50 WPC, which is less than you were looking for...
Akitika GT-101 Audio Power Amplifier Kit
Akitika GT-101 Audio Power Amplifier Kit
IMHO chip amps would be out, I would look into building 7 monoblocks of a design you like and fit your budget. For home theater I would look at class AB designs and ensure the power supplies are beefy for the action movies.
You could just build 2 channels or 1 for that matter and see how you like it compared to what you have now using the pre-amp and sources you intend to feed.
In the end if it was me I would end up close to or over $10,000 but that is why I don't add up the bits.
You could just build 2 channels or 1 for that matter and see how you like it compared to what you have now using the pre-amp and sources you intend to feed.
In the end if it was me I would end up close to or over $10,000 but that is why I don't add up the bits.
Chip amps don't typically achieve the power levels desired, don't have rock bottom distortion numbers and probably have more noise than a good discrete circuit is capable of. That's not to say they don't have their place and can't sound really good, they just didn't seem to meet the stated goals. IMO, the goals might be a bit overkill. I almost never need more than a 35 W/ch amp and with more speakers the demands are even less.
Who knows what I'm actually using when I'm watching movies... I don't honestly know. My numbers may be overkill... I just want a little room if needed, but when I find something that looks like the correct path, maybe I'll build a smaller version and see what that sounds like in comparison to what I have.
Thanks all for your responses so far.
I think you are under 10W with those speakers.
Chip amp and solid will not be much different in cost. Unless you go with A, but that would be too much heat. You will need about 1kW+ power with 50W/channel system plus case, heatsink, psu capacitors. These are around 70-80% of the cost. But if you need 100W+, then the cost can double, as you need double sink, double transformer capacitors.
So if you know what power you want, you can calculate roughly the basic cost you can't avoid.
Chip amp and solid will not be much different in cost. Unless you go with A, but that would be too much heat. You will need about 1kW+ power with 50W/channel system plus case, heatsink, psu capacitors. These are around 70-80% of the cost. But if you need 100W+, then the cost can double, as you need double sink, double transformer capacitors.
So if you know what power you want, you can calculate roughly the basic cost you can't avoid.
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