ZEN amp born on 4th of July

[moe29]

Well, the Zen amp was my first try at DIY some years a go. But i
failed miserably (this Forum wasn't here!).

So the parts have been sitting around mocking me for all these
years. Finally i etched the PCB and ordered a few extra parts
that i needed and finally finished!

I've attached a pic of the amp being tested... now to build a
chasis (the hardest thing for me to do!) The amp is built as the
article instructs. No additions or subtractions.

Oh yeah, it sounds lovely on my Paradigm Titans... it's playing
some Beck as i type

thanks again to Nelson Pass and his DIY gang

[jewilson]

Looking good

jim

[faustian bargin]

is that heatsink getting very hot? it looks kindof small compared to others i've seen.

/andrew

[moe29]

The heat sink is the R-Theta from the group Aleph X buy.
It's 11"x11". So yeah, it's getting hot, but not out of
control... i can put my hand on it for 2 seconds or so

i think it can handle the 140 watts or so that the Zen is dissipating...
it seems to be a tad hotter than what my production
Aleph 3 runs at.

[JOE DIRT®]

why not space out those fets?????.....looks good though

DIRT®

[moe29]

"why not space out those fets????"

because i'm a "fearless diy-er" (like Nelson says)

and i have replacement fets


(actually that's the spacing of the line art from the original article.
Spacing them out would require running wire to the PCB, which i
didn't want to do.)

((i suppose the PCB was designed to place the board between
two heatsinks, not for use on one))

the amp does have a bit of hum with the power supply as is. But
it sounds very nice, it's amazing what you can get out of 1 gain
stage. I'm not comparing it to other amps - just taking it for what
it is. It does sound better than my Onkyo TX-SV919-THX home
theatre receiver. it's easy to listen to.

[JOE DIRT®]

great to hear your happy with it...and if it sounds better than your onkyo then it must be pretty good

DIRT®

[Netlist]

Nice job Moe,
I particular like the shiny caps.
Is there anything special with them?

/Hugo

[moe29]

The caps are just the Panasonics with the part numbers from the
original Zen article. I peeled them one night just for looks. I have
no comment on wether they make the amp sound better.


I'm trying to make myself promise to completely finish this amp
and get it in a nice chasis. I would like to add a C and L before
the caps on the board to see if i can quiet the hum a little bit. I
don't want it to get out of hand because i really like the simplicity
of this amp.

i need to finish my 10 watt SOZ so that i can compare the two.


thanks for putting up with my half finished projects.


moe29
------------------------------------
there's always a siren
singing you to shipwreck
stay away from these rocks
we'd be a walking disaster

[Netlist]

Originally posted by moe29
I'm trying to make myself promise to completely finish this amp
and get it in a nice chasis.

I'm trying to make myself promise to push you a bit to completely finish this amp and get it in a nice chasis.

/Hugo