A new Aleph 3 builder

[Homeron]

Hi folks,

I am a rookie in audio DIY. I am glad to join you and i expect to be able to contribute to the success of this forum. With your help, I hope to learn a lot and furthermore to give back my futur knowledges, as clearly as i can.
My goal is the following: i would like to build an aleph 3 amplifier.
The big thing is that i really want to understand what i do. Being able to explain back how it works is for me as important as having it done.
I have some background in electronics, i quite like to get my hands dirty and i appreciate good sound.

At the moment, I listen to my music with Jm lab Opal 615 loudspeakers (150 w, 92dB, 8 ohms), a Marantz PM6010 amplifier (2x50 w) and a Marantz CD4000 CD player.

For my Aleph 3 projet, i am starting from zero. So I am seeking for any material that would help me to be successful. I already know passlabs and passDIY web sites and i am working with the 2 manuals. By the way, if Nelson Pass read this, I would like to join other people to thank him for what he does.
I would greatly appreciate any tips coming from people with some experience in Aleph 3. Indeed, i still have no idea of how i will process, what would be the right first steps. But as we say, Rome was not built in a day !

So let's go ...

[relder]

Given that the circuit is already designed your main initial tasks will be:
1) Choosing/designing/building a chassis which will revolve around the heat sinks you choose. (monoblock? stereo?)
2) Finding adequate heat sinks (that can be shipped affordably.)
3) If you're not going to make/design you own PCBs, finding a PCB that is compatible w/ your heat sink (if the power FETs are soldered directly on the PCB then that will determine minimum heat sink dimensions.)
4) Finding a Xformer (one or two?)
5) Choosing to initially add mods or wait for later (CLC filter?) I waited to get the basic ckt working. I should have planned a little better, since I don't have much room for space consuming mods like CLC filter.

The above will take most of your time, the rest is relatively easy. Learning circuit behavior will come along the way.

You might also look at the A30, which is nearly the same, and Nelson tends to recommend over the A3.

Also troll old threads here to get ideas for layouts, ckt boards, etc.

Rob