Time to introduce myself

[Moset]

Hi everybody!

(I realize this got pretty long, so if you're in a hurry: I'm Oscar, twenty-six from Sweden. I've built an amp and I'm going to build a pair of fullranges.)

I've been lurking here for a few months now, but haven't really had the urge to post anything before now.

I'm Oscar, a twenty-six year old swede who got into speaker building around twelve years ago. A friend of mine gave me the catalog of a local speaker parts shop and, well, I ended up reading it from cover to cover. I looked at those speaker cones like some men look at cars and most men look at women.

I did, however, have no idea what the hell I was doing. I build my first speakers in shop class. What started out as parts of a bookcase quickly turned into two-ways with twin 8" woofers -- speakers I've kept to this day. Over the years they've gone through several re-iterations. They're probably pretty crap -- I didn't do any calculations, made no attempts to match any driver to the other. Basically, I winged it. Hell, one is sealed and the other ported, just because I never got around to sealing it up after I removed the original tweeter. But for completely winged speakers I've been sufficiently happy with them. Recently, however, the urge to build a new pair, and a good one at that, has emerged. I moved into my first proper, own apartment about a year ago and it's time for my sound system to grow up.

I've been reading here for a few months and I've grown attached to the fullrange idea. I don't know if I'll like it, but you I guess I won't know until I tried. I'm currently leaning towards building a couple of Half Chang's for the living room and a pair of µFonkens for the computer -- the plastic Altec Lansing speakers anno 1995 are growing tired. I just need to look over my budget a couple of times more first.

While studying up on speakers I came to realize I needed a new amp. As a student I bought a cheap Proson 2ch receiver second hand. Cost me about a hundred euros, perhaps two. It's noisy even with my not-very-efficient speakers. There's an audible buzzing from the speakers as soon as I turn it on. It's also a bit flaky and, well, I don't really like it anymore.

So I stumbled upon chip amps, more specifically the LM3886 variant as sold by BrianGT. I pondered buying the parts myself, but it would be more expensive, and much more trouble. So I bought a kit and over the next month or so afterwards scrounged together the missing parts -- a transformer off an online auction, casings from modu.it, various cables, knobs et cetera from wherever I could get a hold of them.

The result is a stereo LM3886 amp and a separate passive preamp, both of which you can see below (the last is of my old amp looking sad under a pile of books) and both of which I will probably ask questions about in the forums. Compared to my old amp, this one is dead quiet. If I put my ear to the midrange and tweeter, I can hear a faint noise when it's completely quiet. If I move away just a little, it's inaudible. Basically, I'm happy.

Now if I could only get to building a pair of speakers to match...

[Cal Weldon]

Hello Oscar and welcome to the forums.

[Jonathan Bright]

Hi Oscar greetings from the other side of the world. Sounds like your addiction started eary! Good to have you on board. Jonathan

[Glowbug]

Welcome to the boards