Hello everyone,
I would like to build a small (and hopefully inexpensive) amplifier to plug my ipod into outside during the summer. I tried searching the forum but, unfortunately I don't know enough about electronics to follow the posts.
Could anyone have the heart enough to help out a beginner with this?
Cheers,
Jason
I would like to build a small (and hopefully inexpensive) amplifier to plug my ipod into outside during the summer. I tried searching the forum but, unfortunately I don't know enough about electronics to follow the posts.
Could anyone have the heart enough to help out a beginner with this?
Cheers,
Jason
Hi Jason, welcome to amp building. Here's my opinion/advice:
Start with a chip amp. They are perfect starter projects, sound quite respectable and can be made very powerful if need be. You can build them from scratch, buy a ready-to-assemble kit, or anything in between. Plus, you can scale them up or down to suit your budget (I'm thinking of the power supplies in particular here). They can be made quite small.
Look in the chip amp forum. Read a lot first. Check out BrianGT's www.chipamp.com and Peter Daniel's www.audiosector.com for excellent examples. There are many others.
Good luck.
..Todd
Start with a chip amp. They are perfect starter projects, sound quite respectable and can be made very powerful if need be. You can build them from scratch, buy a ready-to-assemble kit, or anything in between. Plus, you can scale them up or down to suit your budget (I'm thinking of the power supplies in particular here). They can be made quite small.
Look in the chip amp forum. Read a lot first. Check out BrianGT's www.chipamp.com and Peter Daniel's www.audiosector.com for excellent examples. There are many others.
Good luck.
..Todd
I agree....For a First Amp project you would not want to build a discrete Transistor amp as they are hard to troubleshoot and easier to screw up......
Chipamps are great cuz you can build something that sounds good and goes really loud with just a few parts and even be done P2P or make your own PCB"s if you can.....
I use one as a Guitar amp and it goes plenty loud enough to overwelm the drums and sounds great to boot.....
CHeers
Chipamps are great cuz you can build something that sounds good and goes really loud with just a few parts and even be done P2P or make your own PCB"s if you can.....
I use one as a Guitar amp and it goes plenty loud enough to overwelm the drums and sounds great to boot.....
CHeers
Also check out the many modification threads over in Class D on the Sonic Impact, and the various Tripath kits, especially the Amp 6 from 41hz.com. Until you get into big (100w+) power, they're small and cheap. They're all highly efficient--which means a lot if you're planning on running your unit on battery power.
These small Tripath-based class D projects are manageable for a beginner, and imensely gratifying when the (great) sound comes out.
--Buckapound
These small Tripath-based class D projects are manageable for a beginner, and imensely gratifying when the (great) sound comes out.
--Buckapound
Hi Jason, I've just "finished" my first diy amp, a chipamp.com LM3875 with a Decibel Dungeon "Uno" preamp using a pair of Vikash designed Fr125s ported speakers.
There were times when I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew but with the help of some top people on this forum it all came together!
It sounds splendid, a friend said it was like wearing headphones, it might not make any sense now but it will when you hear it for yourself.
Go carefully and you will have something that sounds better than you thought possible for the price of mass produced mediocrity.
Be warned though, it's addictive, I haven't painted my new speakers yet and I'm already looking at more ambitious design for the next ones!
JB
There were times when I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew but with the help of some top people on this forum it all came together!
It sounds splendid, a friend said it was like wearing headphones, it might not make any sense now but it will when you hear it for yourself.
Go carefully and you will have something that sounds better than you thought possible for the price of mass produced mediocrity.
Be warned though, it's addictive, I haven't painted my new speakers yet and I'm already looking at more ambitious design for the next ones!
JB
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