Help me get a taste of Pass diy

[dake13]

After building a gainclone for a friend, I've decided to try a class A project. I have a couple of tube amps, and this would be for my second system upstairs. I'm pretty intrigued by what I read in the archives.

But also pretty bewildered on what to build. Zen 4? Aleph 30? Aleph 3? I have no idea and could use some help.

- shouldn't be too advanced. I've done some diy, but I'm not whiz at electronics and will probably have questions. In fact, the easier the better.

- Must have pretty good sound.

- 30 watts would be great, but I could probably get away with as little as 10. would love to have a class A amp.

- not too expensive - certainly under $500 us. I also don't have access to fancy metal working tools, etc.

- It would be great if circuit boards were available.

thanks for any help. Reading through the archives on this list was very interesting.

[Magura]

Hi Dave,

The Zen 1 seems to be what you need to start out with. It offers 10W, and can be beefed up to at least 25W with a few extras.
It's reasonably simple, sounds great, and there are boards readily available for like 15$ a piece.

The only thing that doesn't add up is your 500$ limit. Unless you have the time and patience to search scrapyards and surplus sales (and the experience to know good from bad at the surplus/scrapyard), you're going to let go of approx. 1000$ before you're done.
I know this seems like a big figure and I am aware that I will get the usual "this can be done much cheaper" speach from a few people, but the fact remains that I have helped many beginners getting their feet wet with a Pass construction, and none have made it significantly cheaper than that for a first project.


Magura

[d to the g]

Originally posted by Magura

none have made it significantly cheaper than that for a first project.

I think an mini-aleph can be done for less than $500. heatsinks, toroids, connectors, and power supply caps all from apexjr. i think i'm at ~$250 and as long as i dont blow anything up i've got everything i need.

[GRollins]

To some extent you can trade time for money. If you haunt the surplus websites long enough you can find most anything you want cheaply. But how long is long enough? Well, too long for most people. You could easily end up taking a couple of years to get everything together.
You might also take a look at ebay.
The things that cost the most that you absolutely can't do without are the transformer and heatsinks. The chassis can be relatively cheap if you want. Plywood, plastic, all sorts of things can be used if you don't mind the amp looking more home-grown than some of the projects you may have seen by experienced builders.
Depending on your resources, you may be able to salvage the transformer and/or heatsinks. Depending on your luck and how persistent you are, you may even be able to get things for free. But again, scavenging takes time. You will almost certainly run across parts that are almost right, which can get frustrating. (That's how I got a lot of the transformers I've got...I've got scads of the silly things, but they never seem to be the right voltage or current for what I want to do. I really need to throw away all those stupid wall warts...I just don't do projects that small.) Heatsinks are never quite big enough, or they're drilled for the wrong devices. They pile up, waiting for use another day--I'm just now getting around to a rebuild of a '70s era computer power supply (i.e. pre-switching) to power a small amp for music in my work space. But sooner or later you'll find a use for most everything.
The basic idea is to keep your eyes and ears open. You might get lucky.

Grey

[Babowana]

Originally posted by dake13

But also pretty bewildered on what to build. Zen 4? Aleph 30? Aleph 3? I have no idea and could use some help.

If you have a tube pre having enough gain, e.g. SRPP,
I would recommend the Firstwatt F4.

[ssmith]

I second the recommendation for the Mini-A -- it's what I chose as a first Pass project. Because of the lower output power, components like heatsinks, caps and transformers will work out cheaper.

Maybe brianGT will have some more PCBs available soon, which are great quality and cheap.

http://www.diyamps.com/aleph/aleph.shtml

You can consult the parts list and work out how much it will cost.

[dake13]

Thanks for all the responses. $1000, ouch! I can see how the project will get pricey, but that's a bit high. I'm willing to pay for a good tranny, but I'd probably build a stereo amp rather than monoblocks to save money. I also have quite a few connectors and such already, so maybe I can save a few dollars there.

I'm going to do some more reading on the Zen, the mini-Aleph and the F4.

I take it the best way to find out who's selling circuit boards is to search the archives?

[Andersonix]

Originally posted by Magura
I will get the usual "this can be done much cheaper" speach from a few people,

Dake,
This can be done much cheaper! But you can't pay retail for transformer and heatsinks...

[dake13]

Originally posted by Tosh


Dake,
This can be done much cheaper! But you can't pay retail for transformer and heatsinks...

I'm still not sure how we get to $1000. Granted, I haven't done the work to figure out what size heatsinks I would need - just kind of glanced at the prices on the Conrad website. And I've sourced tranformers from Plitron before, but not for any rating higher than 500VA.

Would someone mind posting a ballpark figure for transformers and heatsinks for one of the above projects?

[jupiterjune]

I think jleaman has some Mini-A boards.

JJ