Best amp for a newbie

[Garnett]

Hi. I'm interested in building my own hifi equipment, and have just started reading online about the Sonic Impact T-Amp and the Amps offered by 41hz.

I currently have an old Marantz amp driving some KEF Q55.2 floorstanding speakers with an old Marantz CD63 as the only source.

Please can anyone advise me on what kit amp I should look at first? My preferences are ease-of-build, and quality of sound. I don't care about looks.

At the moment I'm dissapointed by the slightly woolly bass of my current set-up.

I'm a bit mystified by all the different terminology. I've searched on here, but I'm struggling to find recommendations. Sorry to bother you with such basic questions. If all you want to do is direct me towards good online information resources, I'm only too happy to try and figure all this out by myself.

Thanks for any advice or website addresses you can provide.

[filholder]

Hi,

I was in the same boat as you about a year ago, i started off building a 'Gainclone' or 'Chipamp' as they are also often called. Probably the best chipamp kits for beginneers are the kits sold by www.chipamp.com and www.audiosector.com . These are very simple to make and good value IMHO

These are actually both run by people on thse forums and you will be able to get good advice of of them and the other user here.

It is very easy to make an amp using these kits that will blow you old amp out of the water.

Other kits to consider are the Class-D amp from www.41hz.com, they have some great kits and at reasonable prices. I have build an Amp3, that is a very tough thing to solder and i wouldnt advise it on anyone unless you have a lot of experience soldering surface mount stuff. Sounds great though. Of the currently available 41hz style kits the Amp6 is probably the best to build as a beginner, it is mostly through hole components and has an on board power supply so you will only need to supply a transformer and connector to ge a working amp.

Thats my take on it anyway,

Ps your in the work section for this, try Class D rather than ChipAmp

[Nordic]

I think if you want to build a chipamp, go for the Twisted pair Rev C kits, these are probably in a class of their owna very few of the other kits also include softstart circuits, a buffer, and speaker and short circuit protection....

[Garnett]

Thanks Filholder. I've had a look at the websites. Those amps sound good. I had a look at 41hz.com but struggled to differentiate between the amps they supply.

You recommend the Amp6? Then I'll look into it more.

Nordic. It's funny you should mention speaker protection. I've just been reading how one guy will not use his kit amp with his best speakers, and it left me wondering whether there was something you could put in the way to protect them.

Could you post me a link to those amps you recommend. I can't find them.

Thanks

[duelbox]

http://www.twistedpearaudio.com/

This is what Nordic was referring to. They look very nice indeed.

[bender460]

Since you said you have an old Marantz amp. Are you trying to build something better?? Some of the "old" stuff is pretty good. I would sugest a Twisted pair Rev C kit, or a similar kit from Chipamp.com the 3886 variety. Lower on power the LM3875 stereo kit can sound extremly good also. Good luck.

[Nuuk]

I have treid to provide a comprehensive guide to DIY hi-fi for beginners here

[Nordic]

Yeah, I owe everything to Nuuk... in the beggining, there was darkness, then Nuuk said, look at mah website!!!!!!!!! and there was light!

[Nuuk]

Yeah, I owe everything to Nuuk... in the beggining, there was darkness, then Nuuk said, look at mah website!!!!!!!!! and there was light!

And it took me a lot longer than seven days!

[danielkwok]

www.hifidiy.net

This is a site providing serveral kits of 3875, 3886 & 4780 etc.
They're very cheap but more than good enough in quality as well as easy to built for a beginner.

I've built one months ago & undertaking some mods at the moment.