DIY Amp for BAMTM

[Frosteh]

Hi all. I have been lurking for a while and am looking to get into building amps now, not just speakers. My most recent build was a pair of BAMTMs from Zaph, powered by a Behringer a500. While I really like this setup, I'm looking to get into building my own amps as well. I've read quite a bit about various gain clone types and some that claim to be better than the gain clone, but I've had a tough time finding which design and/or kit would be best for me. I'm looking to at least replicate the a500's abilities and still fall below the $180 price mark when it's all complete. Is this even possible? Ideally I'd be able to power the drivers with around 250W each side @ 4ohms, roughly what the a500 can do.

If you could recommend a good kit amp to start with that will power these beasts similarly or better than the a500, I'd really appreciate it. I've got lots of experience with electronics, so don't worry about my qualifications to be handling these. Thanks!

[planet10]

Making a gain clone that outperfrms the Beringer (substantially) should not be hard. Making one that exceeds 25-60 w is more of a challenge.

dave

[h_a]

250W each side @ 4ohms

You sure you really need that power? Large room or insensitive speakers?

The ClassD stuff usually comes with big power numbers and the cheapos usually trade quality for quantity in this regard.

With solid state amps less is usually more and you would be surprised how well a 'smallish' 50W amp will do. That would fit your budget also much better.

Hannes

[Frosteh]

That's a good point. The woofer of this system is rated to 50W, and I never push the limits of the speakers (I'm in a college dorm and I don't want to anger the masses). I'm thinking I probably never even get close to 50W (that sad, there are two of these plus a tweeter on each channel). That said, I do enjoy to go loud on occasion for hosting movie nights in my dorm. Knowing this, what would you recommend? Do you think the 25W-60W will be enough to fill a room well? My room is 204ft^2.

[Frosteh]

I've been looking at some threads about the Sure 2x100 and it looks to be an incredible amp for the price, provided I buy a good power supply to go with it. I have two questions, though.

First, what modifications would you recommend to the amp? I don't like the fan, so I'll be installing a heatsink. For more complicated mods, I found threads like This. And then some posts like This. These seem to be some pretty reasonable mods given my experience with electronics.

Second, would I be able to run multiple amps off that power supply?

[mb3]

I have had a sure 4x100W and played in a similar sized room with the volume maxed, with speakers of average efficiency, music was very much in the 'is this damaging my hearing???' range. Sounds like the 2x100 will be ample for you, volume-wise.

I think the main mods are replacement of the input capacitors and the output inductors. There are countless in the main thread.

I believe using one power supply for multiple boards causes a hum, i'm not sure if there is a solution to that?.

[mnemneth]

Hi there.
I have one of the 4x100 Sure amps and rate it quite highly.

However, electronics progress and this little beauty caught my eye;

IRS2092 IRAUDAMP7S high end class D stereo Amplifier | eBay UK

This seller has lots of audio goodies and if you are happy with buying from China, it might meet your requirements.

Sandy.

[Frosteh]

Originally Posted by mnemneth

Hi there.
I have one of the 4x100 Sure amps and rate it quite highly.

However, electronics progress and this little beauty caught my eye;

IRS2092 IRAUDAMP7S high end class D stereo Amplifier | eBay UK

This seller has lots of audio goodies and if you are happy with buying from China, it might meet your requirements.

Sandy.

What is better about this amp other than output power? Will the sound quality be as good as a modded 2x100? The thing that people rate the 2x100 so highly for is its outstanding sound quality. I'd rather have extremely high quality than tons of power, as I doubt I'll ever really be turning them up to as loud as they can go.

[mnemneth]

Originally Posted by Frosteh

What is better about this amp other than output power? Will the sound quality be as good as a modded 2x100? The thing that people rate the 2x100 so highly for is its outstanding sound quality. I'd rather have extremely high quality than tons of power, as I doubt I'll ever really be turning them up to as loud as they can go.

Well for a start, out of the box, the distortion levels are MUCH better than the TK2050 based amp module, at pretty much any power level.

Why mod something if you don't have to?

As to turning them up as high as they would go, NOBODY does that. Your ears would be bleeding LONG before you hit max power.

If you have a power meter on your amps, you'll find it unlikely to be using more than 20w at any given time and that would be pretty loud in a normal sized room with reasonably sensitive speakers.

Sandy

[Frosteh]

Originally Posted by mnemneth

Well for a start, out of the box, the distortion levels are MUCH better than the TK2050 based amp module, at pretty much any power level.

Why mod something if you don't have to?

So basically you're saying that, even modded a bit, the sure 2x100 wouldn't perform better than this one? That seems strange given that this one is half the price, but I believe you. Are there any mods that I could do to make this one even better? I was sort of looking forward to playing around with it a bit. Also, would that amp be any good for powering a subwoofer?