DIY Subwoofer Amp

[Big Kev !]

Hey everyone

I'm in the process of building a subwoofer for my room and up until now only considered using a plate amplifier either a 240W or 350W one which you can get from Jaycar here in Australia for around $300. The sub being used will probably end up being a Dayton or Shiva or something along those lines, most probably in a sealed enclosure primarily for music (ultimatly the box will depend on the woofer I get).

To keep costs down or get something substantially better though I was looking at making a DIY amplifier, which would be fun to do in itself. If I got a plate amp it would probably be seperate to the enclosure anyway. I was looking at some kits avalible since I dont have much knowledge on building amps. I was looking at the Studio 350 (from Silicone Chip) in kit form from Jaycar but I was wondering how it would do as a pure subwoofer amp. Are there any proven sub amp designs? While the cost of the Studio 350 seemed pretty good after adding in the enclosure heatsinks and a power supply the cost jumps quite a bit to the level of the plate amps. Another thing I was wondering is if you can start with say a plate amp and add better components like a toroidal or something or is this not viable? Any opinions or ideas would be greatly appreciated

Thanks a lot

[AndrewT]

Hi,
is your plate amp being fitted into the speaker cabinet?
Then you can save the cost of a case.
I suspect that all the hardware and components will cost more than a plate amp. Their prices seem to be very competitive.
However A DIY amp will always sound better.
Cost out the mods your thinking about, then add in your learning value and your new budget could get you down the road to a successful DIY sub amp.

[Big Kev !]

Originally posted by AndrewT
Hi,
is your plate amp being fitted into the speaker cabinet?
Then you can save the cost of a case.
I suspect that all the hardware and components will cost more than a plate amp. Their prices seem to be very competitive.
However A DIY amp will always sound better.
Cost out the mods your thinking about, then add in your learning value and your new budget could get you down the road to a successful DIY sub amp.

I did not plan on having the plate amp fitted into the cabinet, just have a passive sub, pretty much so I can chop and change subs/enclosures later on.
Anyone got any suggestions on good DIY sub amps or ideas on modding the plate amps?

Cheers

[PierreG]

I did not try it but there is the P-68 project at ESP.

http://sound.westhost.com/project68.htm

And he his from Australia......

[rabbitz]

I've used the high power version of the ESP P101 which does a nice job and used the Jaycar sub processor kit K1814. The only problem I had was the low gain on the P101 and had to modify the K1814 to suit. Could have always put an additional gain stage in but that's more components. I used it in it's own case as well as a DIY plate amp and IMO was more trouble and expense than what it was worth, so have gone back to plate amps.

ESP also have a subwoofer amp... can't remember the number but is supposed to be quite a beast.

[bigpanda]

Ever consider Anthony's AV400?

[amplifierguru]

Hi Big Kev,

Have a look at my new unique design GB300D 'patent pending' MOSFET topology amplifier!

Derated for heavy duty as a sub amp it will do 200W into 8ohm or 300W into 4 ohms from a lower supply voltage/capacitors and smaller VA transformer than others due to the efficient R2R topology.

http://members.dodo.com.au/~gregball/guru_007.htm

Cheers,
Greg