Hi,
Please excuse me if these come across as stupid questions as this is my first amp project.
I'm currently running a HTPC through a Denon 3802. As I'm not using any other devices the AV receiver is overkill, and large.
I was looking for something cheap, simple and very small so it compliments my mini ITX HTPC. Class D, and this 6 channel board in particular seems perfect but it has raised a few questions and I would be incredibly grateful if I could have your opinions...
What sort of power supply will I need to power this thing? I was hoping I could get away with an external laptop style PSU but I'm guessing it would be a strain and I'm concerned about fire risks.
What sort of 6 channel pot would I need (or 3 x 2 channels?) I'm hoping to do volume control via the PC, but I'm guessing I'll want some control at the amp itself so I don't have a horrible situation where the PC decides to fire out a loud "dong" at full blast!
Finally, I'll only be using 5 channels on this as I have an active sub which will run straight from the HTPC. Would the amp board be ok with this?
Any other recommendations are more than welcome!
Thanks in advance.
Please excuse me if these come across as stupid questions as this is my first amp project.
I'm currently running a HTPC through a Denon 3802. As I'm not using any other devices the AV receiver is overkill, and large.
I was looking for something cheap, simple and very small so it compliments my mini ITX HTPC. Class D, and this 6 channel board in particular seems perfect but it has raised a few questions and I would be incredibly grateful if I could have your opinions...
What sort of power supply will I need to power this thing? I was hoping I could get away with an external laptop style PSU but I'm guessing it would be a strain and I'm concerned about fire risks.
What sort of 6 channel pot would I need (or 3 x 2 channels?) I'm hoping to do volume control via the PC, but I'm guessing I'll want some control at the amp itself so I don't have a horrible situation where the PC decides to fire out a loud "dong" at full blast!
Finally, I'll only be using 5 channels on this as I have an active sub which will run straight from the HTPC. Would the amp board be ok with this?
Any other recommendations are more than welcome!
Thanks in advance.
details for you
Hi
If i where you i would wait for a while. I don't read good words about the latest products Sure sells in terms of reliability.
Search this forum extensively to see if someone else has used this before.
From my experience you need to do a lot of DIY modifications to make sure amps sound wonderful. Also their output filters are not correct for the speaker loads they're supposed to work with.
An external laptop style PSU will not do the job if you're going to listen to high levels. You will need a good power supply at the rate of 14V to 39V for this one. I would recommend 27v-29v dc like those made from MeanWell.
For the pot you should search for something like ALPS, i know for sure they sell quad ones like this :
ALPS Quad Potentiometer RK27114 Pot RK27 10K o 5K Audio | eBay.
Since it is a cheap amp, try it but don't expect miracles.
Hi
If i where you i would wait for a while. I don't read good words about the latest products Sure sells in terms of reliability.
Search this forum extensively to see if someone else has used this before.
From my experience you need to do a lot of DIY modifications to make sure amps sound wonderful. Also their output filters are not correct for the speaker loads they're supposed to work with.
An external laptop style PSU will not do the job if you're going to listen to high levels. You will need a good power supply at the rate of 14V to 39V for this one. I would recommend 27v-29v dc like those made from MeanWell.
For the pot you should search for something like ALPS, i know for sure they sell quad ones like this :
ALPS Quad Potentiometer RK27114 Pot RK27 10K o 5K Audio | eBay.
Since it is a cheap amp, try it but don't expect miracles.
Hi,
Please excuse me if these come across as stupid questions as this is my first amp project.
I'm currently running a HTPC through a Denon 3802. As I'm not using any other devices the AV receiver is overkill, and large.
I was looking for something cheap, simple and very small so it compliments my mini ITX HTPC. Class D, and this 6 channel board in particular seems perfect but it has raised a few questions and I would be incredibly grateful if I could have your opinions...
What sort of power supply will I need to power this thing? I was hoping I could get away with an external laptop style PSU but I'm guessing it would be a strain and I'm concerned about fire risks.
What sort of 6 channel pot would I need (or 3 x 2 channels?) I'm hoping to do volume control via the PC, but I'm guessing I'll want some control at the amp itself so I don't have a horrible situation where the PC decides to fire out a loud "dong" at full blast!
Finally, I'll only be using 5 channels on this as I have an active sub which will run straight from the HTPC. Would the amp board be ok with this?
Any other recommendations are more than welcome!
Thanks in advance.
Thanks for the reply. How do I now what resistance spec to go for when looking for a pot?
The days of me being an audiophile are well and truly gone with 3 kids in the house! I'm not expecting too much but I'd hope the sound would be comparable to my current Denon 3802 going through my QAccoustic 1000 series speakers?
The days of me being an audiophile are well and truly gone with 3 kids in the house! I'm not expecting too much but I'd hope the sound would be comparable to my current Denon 3802 going through my QAccoustic 1000 series speakers?
I use three sure 2x100W stereo boards, you can see something here
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/class-d/87913-class-d-amp-photo-gallery-7.html#post2408306
and I used to have a Denon... well, I still have it but it's in a closet.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/class-d/87913-class-d-amp-photo-gallery-7.html#post2408306
and I used to have a Denon... well, I still have it but it's in a closet.
pot
a 100k pot with some 2.2uf capacitors connected in series with it will do the job.
a 100k pot with some 2.2uf capacitors connected in series with it will do the job.
@Francesco Looks cool. Did you ever have a problem with timings running from a single PSU? Can I ask what PSU rating you used in the end?
I did think about going for 3 x 2 channel boards but was hoping that the 6 channel would be smaller, cheaper and easier to wire-up. I'm a complete newbie at this.
Frankly, I'm amazed that there aren't tiny, affordable 5.1 channel amps that can be used with just one input. I could just buy 5.1 computer speakers, sats powered from the sub, but I don't really fancy that.
I did think about going for 3 x 2 channel boards but was hoping that the 6 channel would be smaller, cheaper and easier to wire-up. I'm a complete newbie at this.
Frankly, I'm amazed that there aren't tiny, affordable 5.1 channel amps that can be used with just one input. I could just buy 5.1 computer speakers, sats powered from the sub, but I don't really fancy that.
I'm actually trying to decide between this board and the older 4x100 TK2050 based board for a multichannel (16-20 channels) whole house background music amplifier. The fact that the older boards seem to be 'going away' means I need to decide quickly, or the decision will be made for me
Honestly, I'm not after 100% pure audiophile sound as defined in this forum. I will be using it with relatively cheap speakers, so I'm more concerned with ease of integration and reliability. Concerning reliability, most of the time when I have seen sure boards burning up, it seems to be because of abuse (over voltage) or overheating due to the chips not making good thermal contact with the heat sink from the PCB being a little warped. My plan to mitigate that was to remove the heatsink and use some thermal pad material instead of grease. Not quite as good thermal conduct, but guaranteed to not be zero, as it is if there is an air gap between the chip and the heatsink.
I understand neither of these have a Zobel, and the output filters are not tuned to 4 ohm speakers. I'll be using 8 ohm, so I think I'm okay. The new board uses mostly surface mount components, but the TC2000 data sheet suggests surface mount components to keep trace length short, as stray capacitance in the traces of the oscillator are a big concern in the board design, so other than not being able to have large or special kinds of filter caps, I fail to see how that is a problem.
All that to say that my modding will probably be limited to very minimal changes, if any. That said, I'd like very much your opinion on which board would work better for my purposes.
The differences I see: (6x100 TDA7498 vs 4x100 TK2050)
Anything I missed?
Comments are very much appreciated since I need to make a call on this soon. It seems to me the biggest implication is the chip used (TC2000 / TK2050 vs TDA7498), but maybe I'm wrong.
Thanks!
Honestly, I'm not after 100% pure audiophile sound as defined in this forum. I will be using it with relatively cheap speakers, so I'm more concerned with ease of integration and reliability. Concerning reliability, most of the time when I have seen sure boards burning up, it seems to be because of abuse (over voltage) or overheating due to the chips not making good thermal contact with the heat sink from the PCB being a little warped. My plan to mitigate that was to remove the heatsink and use some thermal pad material instead of grease. Not quite as good thermal conduct, but guaranteed to not be zero, as it is if there is an air gap between the chip and the heatsink.
I understand neither of these have a Zobel, and the output filters are not tuned to 4 ohm speakers. I'll be using 8 ohm, so I think I'm okay. The new board uses mostly surface mount components, but the TC2000 data sheet suggests surface mount components to keep trace length short, as stray capacitance in the traces of the oscillator are a big concern in the board design, so other than not being able to have large or special kinds of filter caps, I fail to see how that is a problem.
All that to say that my modding will probably be limited to very minimal changes, if any. That said, I'd like very much your opinion on which board would work better for my purposes.
The differences I see: (6x100 TDA7498 vs 4x100 TK2050)
- TC2000 / TK2050 vs TDA7498 - What are the implications here?
- 39V max supply vs 30V - 6x100 seems 'safer', and could probably drive it safely at 36V?
- Button inductors vs coil inductors - coil seem like they could handle more current, is this a concern?
- mute/standby dip switch vs tied directly to ground - I plan to make a separate circuit that detects audio coming in to 'wake' the amplifier, in order to lower the power requirement and eliminate hiss in the house when no music is playing. Having the dip switch makes that mod easier, but it's not impossible on the 4x100, just more difficult (cutting traces, etc)
- 600W peak vs 400W - I was planning on running 2 4x100 amps per 350W mean well and using 2 power supplies for 16 channels (I won't be blasting all the channels at once, and realistically won't ever draw more than 25W RMS per channel). With the 6x100, I might need to go from one supply per two boards to one supply per board, using 3 power supplies and 3 boards for 18 channels. This might actually reduce risk, since I've seen some issues (as slikvik mentioned) claimed about running multiple sure boards from a single SMPS. Thoughts?
Anything I missed?
Comments are very much appreciated since I need to make a call on this soon. It seems to me the biggest implication is the chip used (TC2000 / TK2050 vs TDA7498), but maybe I'm wrong.
Thanks!
I'm a newbie, too... all I did was just making some holes (it's always funny!) and assembling it all. That said, I don't know what you mean with "timings"
I'm using a "24V DC 14.6A 350W Regulated Switching Power Supply" from sure-electronics.
The Sure TDA7498 boards have appeared on the Parts Express website. This may mean that the 6 channel board is actually ready for prime time. However, for Sure (heheh) the TK2050 boards work just fine and sound great. I have been living with a 2 channel and a 4 channel Sure board for the past year and am very pleased. For best flexibility, though it costs more, I recommend 3 of the 2 channel boards, using two of the 350 W Meanwell supplies.You can double up the 2 channel boards on 1 PS. Total cost about $250 for 420 clean watts into 4 ohms, more than enough to blow windows out of typical living room.
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