Are those chinese LM3886 kits any good?

[bancika]

I'm thinking about getting a pair of speakers for my living room and will need an amp. One alternative to spending 250 euros is to build my own simple amp with LM3886 or something like that. I stumbled upon these cheap kits from chinese sellers. Are they any good? Anyone tried them?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1PC-Assem..._Audio_Amplifiers_Preamps&hash=item4ac3af83f0

Thanks,
Bancika

 

[Mario Pankov]

Link opens ebay.com home page. If you`re asking about the XY offerings, I think there were at least two threads about them on this forum. Most complaints were about poor customer support and incomplete schematics, If I remember correctly. Do a search, you should be able to find those discussions.

 

[bancika]

Fixed the link, thanks. In the meantime, I realized that my smart TV that I planned to use as a hub for movies and music doesn't seem to have analog outputs that I could plug into the amp, but only digital optical outs. Looks like I'll have to get a receiver

 

[AudioSan]

if you use analog TV signal, then you can take out analog sound on your scart.
if you have a decoder and tv signals by HDMI. then you need a DAC with Optical in.

BTW: link is not fixed.

 

[sereal]

I bought one for my first amplifier. I haven't used it very extensively as i'm still in the process of building the enclosure and waiting on a couple more parts like a pot, binding posts, etc. Over all it seems to work fairly well. The seller was 'hifispot168' I also picked up some speaker protection boards and my transformer from him.

He shipped via fedex for free (I'm guessing because it was a decent sized order) only I think I got screwed since fedex sent me a letter saying I had to pay import fees or something - haven't followed up on that yet.

For the power board one of the caps arrived damaged, the seller was happy to send me a replacement but I was eager so I ended up ordering 4 replacements of probably of better quality from digikey.

The schematics were pretty pitiful but it's pretty obvious where things go if you use a bit of common sense. The only tricky thing was I couldn't figure out the polarity of the caps he sent me - i'll have to post a picture here sometime.

 

[Mihkus]

If i would buy this kit, i would have to spend extra at least 30$
To make it sound well as it should.

 

[sereal]

If i would buy this kit, i would have to spend extra at least 30$
To make it sound well as it should.

On what?

** oh that's a NE5532 with the 3886 ***

I got http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LM3886-Am...mplifier_Parts_Components&hash=item4abf3bea4a

 

[AndrewT]

The amplifier inside a working power amp is relatively cheap.
Expect the amplifier to be ~ 10% of the total cost.
The chassis and heatsink ~30%, the transformer and PSU ~30%, the chassis hardware and wiring ~30%.
Instead of spending $20 on a cheap amplifier for a total cost of ~$200, why don't you look at a better amplifier costing $40, for a slightly dearer $220 total.
Or, make it a two channel, using two $40 amplifiers, for a total cost of $260.
Saving a few dollars on the amplifier by buying complete rubbish from China is false economy.

 

[AudioSan]

that is very correct. i vas thinking of building a 5ch class A/B amp for surround. With 5 pc L10 amps.
L10 amps = $125 + $30 in shipping
Tx+PSU = $250 + $105 in shipping
heatsinks = $160 + $65 in shipping
DIY chassis = $200
grand total of $935 +25% taxes
thats about 15% of total cost. With 5 ch in one chassis. and with one common PSU and transformer.
so if i'm going to build a 5ch. i'll build the honey badger insted

 

[sereal]

The amplifier inside a working power amp is relatively cheap.
Expect the amplifier to be ~ 10% of the total cost.
The chassis and heatsink ~30%, the transformer and PSU ~30%, the chassis hardware and wiring ~30%.
Instead of spending $20 on a cheap amplifier for a total cost of ~$200, why don't you look at a better amplifier costing $40, for a slightly dearer $220 total.
Or, make it a two channel, using two $40 amplifiers, for a total cost of $260.
Saving a few dollars on the amplifier by buying complete rubbish from China is false economy.

Yeah i'm learning that right now. I started with ~$100 (transformer, lm3886, powerboard) and i'm etching into the $300 total area.

Mind you that extra $200 is all stuff that is mostly reusable (case, pot, knobs, binding posts, etc) I also ordered extras of most parts and some parts were more costly simply because I was impatient.

Only hard part i'm having is the case, I find nice ones on ebay and other places but the shipping ends up being more than the cost of the case.

I think I locked down my choice to a Hammond 1444-33CWW from digikey which is cheaper/free shipping (on orders over $200)

 

[Laramy]

My 3886 home build uses the chipamp.com boards, and the quality is top notch. The case I got through the ebay-china connection, and it is the only thing I recomend from china. Nice thick aluminum, lots of extra hardware, along with a throw away power switch and IEC connector, $85 after shipping.