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Articles
June 2012
20th Jun 2012by Nelson Pass
Do-It-Yourself audio is a great activity. Many major audio components are easily constructed and made to perform as well or better than what we see in the stores and at considerable savings. The process is educational and therapeutic and there are few greater satisfactions than listening to music on equipment you have built yourself.
42,049 Views | Read More »
December 2011
14th Dec 2011by Michael Rothacher
In the first L’Amp article, we built-up a simple Class A amplifier using a not-quite unobtainable Static Induction Transistor. It’s a nice amp, but it doesn’t have a lot of power or voltage gain. In this little vignette, we’ll examine a simple option for improvement.
16,082 Views | Read More »
November 2011
14th Nov 2011by Michael Rothacher
I’m not a real amplifier designer, and this is not a real article about a wicked-good sounding, super-simple amplifier anyone can build using light bulbs and alien technology. Now that the pressure’s off, we can have a little fun.
40,010 Views | Read More »
August 2011
17th Aug 2011by Nelson Pass
In the BA-1 and BA-2 projects we constructed two different amplifiers using very similar input and voltage gain stages (aka the “front ends”), but used them to drive two different Class A Mosfet follower output stages. Now we are going to flip this approach and begin exploring some different front end designs capable of driving these and other follower output stages.
55,511 Views | Read More »
March 2011
29th Mar 2011by Michael Mardis
Gain structure is a concept that gets talked about a lot in pro audio, but most home audio folks have never heard of it. Understanding gain structure can help you get the cleanest signal possible out of your system and avoid some nasty things like noise and clipping.
100,282 Views | Read More »
February 2011
8th Feb 2011by Mark Cronander
It's the fourth year of the Burning Amp Festival and we held it at Fort Mason, the site of the first event. Read on to experience the sights and sounds at the show and find out why we can never have enough BAFs ...
13,022 Views | Read More »
October 2010
23rd Oct 2010by Prodanovic Aleksandar and Slobodan Pavleski
You’re a Macho Man. You have all the gadgets which real Macho Guys absolutely must have, A CD player, a transport with a separate DAC, and you also just finished making the best amps money can buy. Recently you made a dedicated media PC, which is dead silent and as capable as HAL 9000! And most importantly, you’re hanging with right Macho Bunch, at the right place, diyAudio, sharing ideas and the newest tips on how to reach Audio Nirvana.
Wait a minute! You have a Wife, or even a Mom? And they aren’t always in the mood for your torture of loud music every day? So... you really aren't so macho, and you need a Volume Control!! Here's all that you need to know ...
27,671 Views | Read More »
September 2010
2nd Sep 2010by Nelson Pass
Recently, Nelson Pass offered a prize on diyAudio for the best suggestion for the next Pass DIY project, the prize being the project, and this article being that. Here is the Zen I/V Converter, an elegant and versatile companion for your DAC.
47,001 Views | Read More »
July 2010
15th Jul 2010by Michael Mardis
"There they were, dozens of pairs of beady tweeter eyes, flared midrange nostrils, gaping woofer mouths – all daring us to say something, anything, good. I was trapped in a room surrounded by forty plus pairs of speakers, all waiting to sing and be judged. Some of them hulking as big as a Frigidaire, some so small that two would fit in your hand, others looked like fish or sewer pipes, race cars, Uncle Sam or even a puppet piano face. No kidding. Fortunately they didn't all sing at once!"
Want to know what it's like to be in a hotel meeting room surrounded by more than 40 pairs of handmade speakers? Read on...
13,034 Views | Read More »
April 2010
21st Apr 2010by Stuart Yaniger
SY decided to just chuck his phono preamp and build a new one from scratch. The old one, a hybrid tube-FET cascode design, suffered from less-than-optimal noise and distortion, insane power supply sensitivity, and OK-not-great RIAA conformance, so the new one is designed to be better in all those respects. This article describes the theory, design, and construction of an excellent phono preamp.
178,249 Views | Read More »
21st Apr 2010by David Davenport
There is a lot of information available for designing audio circuits, but precious little on interconnecting those circuits into a total audio system to achieve maximum performance.
This article focuses on audio system design for the DIY enthusiast implementing a system for home use and will most benefit the person constructing his or her own equipment.
114,249 Views | Read More »
February 2010
1st Feb 2010by Morgan Jones
This article follows the design process from theory to measurement of a loudspeaker engineered to be driven by a low powered single-ended triode amplifier. The author has a broadcast background, so accuracy was a key requirement. This is not a loudspeaker designed to sound “nice”, it is a loudspeaker engineered to sound “right”.
159,174 Views | Read More »
1st Feb 2010by Nelson Pass
Many of you have never built an amplifier, and this article is intended to get you to do it.
One of the biggest hindrances is the hesitation to take that leap into building your own electronics. ... The solution: choosing something really easy but satisfying – a simple but exotic project with low barriers and cheap satisfaction.
163,873 Views | Read More »
November 2009
14th Nov 2009by Jan Didden
We failed again at Burning Amp 2009: No amplifier actually burst out in flames, but one did smoke a lot...
Mark (Variac) was nervous. So was everyone around him. Burning Amp 2009 had arrived... What would the weather be, would we have enough food and enough tables? But most importantly: would there be enough interesting visitors with interesting stuff to make it a success?
Read on and find out ...
13,227 Views | Read More »
10th Nov 2009by Nelson Pass
The Burning Amp Festival happens every end of year in San Francisco. Do-it-yourself audio enthusiasts from all over gather to listen to talks and equipment demos, show off their projects, and rub shoulders with the rich and famous. Having a very large collection of audio parts and diminishing storage space, I seem to have fallen into the role of Santa Claus there, distributing components and cheap advice, with white hair, beard and a large elf (Colin Pass) to add verisimilitude.
This year we also brought a batch of unfinished amplifiers - chassis, connectors, transformer, power supply capacitors and Mosfet output stages.
As we were handing these out, it became apparent that a suitable design for their use was a requirement, so the notion of the Burning Amps was born, a series of Class A designs which run fearlessly hot in the pursuit of quality amplification.
Here is the first one.
96,743 Views | Read More »
August 2009
31st Aug 2009by Nelson Pass
In Burning Amp 1 we examined an amplifier circuit designed to complement the hardware we gave away to some attendees at last October's Burning Amp Festival in the San Francisco bay area. This first design centered on a power output stage having of four banks of parallel N channel Mosfets. It was a single-ended Class A amplifier which delivered high quality sound with only local feedback.
Burning Amp 2 will use virtually the same front end and power supply but coupled to complementary banks of N and P channel power Mosfets used as followers in a push-pull Class A configuration.
Introducing ... Burning Amp 2!!
74,314 Views | Read More »
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