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"The Wiener" TPA3118 amplifier, group buy #3 + "Wiener Pro" prototypes.

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#61
rhing said:
gmarsh, you are like a crack dealer, and now I need another fix.

loafimus: 4 x bare PBTL PCB + 4 x microcontroller
ChuckT: fully assembled stereo Wiener + fully assembled Pro
DawgNo1: 2x PBTL 3118 fully built.
jonners: 1x stereo fully assembled Pro
Pyjamas Before Chris: 1x stereo fully assembled Pro
wushuliu: 1 Pair Assembled PBTL MINUS CONNECTORS - 4 ohm
hepmusic 1 stereo 3118 8 ohm fully assembled
rhing: 1 Weiner 3 Pro, fully assembled

I haven't had a chance to try out my Weiner 2 PBTL amps yet. I moved across the country from the San Francisco Bay Area to the South Carolina at the beginning of the year, and we finally moved into our new home. I just hooked up my Weiner stereo amp, and it sounds fantastic. Surprisingly, it holds up well to my latest toy, a near-mint condition McIntosh MC240 6L6 push-pull amplifier that is in original stock form. The Weiner amp can produce a large and deep, room-filling soundstage just like the Mac and trumps it in terms of bass response. Where the Mac amp surpasses it is in the mids and highs. Once I get my garage lab set up again, I'll be able to work on the Mac's power supply (my guess is that those 60 year old electrolytic can caps and Sprague Bumble Bees are like ticking time bombs waiting to fail). I suspect then that the Mac will rule.

View attachment 544101

Anyway, I plan to implement my Weiner 2 PBTL dual mono amp using Cinemag input transformers as I did with my Weiner stereo amp and replace the metallized film caps with some film and oil input caps. I think those Coilcraft inductors will also give the PBTL amps the edge in performance.
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I LOVE that old McIntosh amp. That thing could be the worst sounding amp on the planet, but I think if I had one of them I'd still use it as my main amp regardless because... well, look at it! Dim the lights so you can see the heaters glow, put on the Pink Floyd Ummagumma Live album or something with a bit of ambience, lay back in a comfy chair...

So based on feedback, I might modify the Pro design and put down Coilcraft VER2923s instead of the ICE parts. It'll make the PCB a bit bigger and raise the cost by $10 CAD or more though. Everyone, if you're for or against this, please let me know 🙂
 
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#63
gmarsh said:
I LOVE that old McIntosh amp. That thing could be the worst sounding amp on the planet, but I think if I had one of them I'd still use it as my main amp regardless because... well, look at it! Dim the lights so you can see the heaters glow, put on the Pink Floyd Ummagumma Live album or something with a bit of ambience, lay back in a comfy chair...

So based on feedback, I might modify the Pro design and put down Coilcraft VER2923s instead of the ICE parts. It'll make the PCB a bit bigger and raise the cost by $10 CAD or more though. Everyone, if you're for or against this, please let me know 🙂
Click to expand...

If we want cheap, that are loads of other board. We want quality here, if its better, go for it.
 
#64
I agree with ChuckT and BK, let's have the option of putting high performance components like the Coilcrafts in there. If there was any way to fit axial-leaded film caps on the board, that would be great too, but perhaps the physical layout is that critical where large body caps might compromise the sound quality.

Gmarsh, I can tell you that the MC240 sounds as great as it looks, and yes, Pink Floyd does sound great playing through it.
 
#67
The crowd has spoken! Colicraft it is.

BK: Right now the PCB layout is 7x11cm, I'm thinking the Colicrafts will bring that up to 8x12. In comparison the standard Wiener is 5x10. To make the footprints match I'd have to poke the mounting holes in the middle of the board, I'd prefer to keep them at the board edges where they don't really interfere with stuff. I might add a third row of holes this time, to further mess up the footprint 🙂

rhing: How big are the axial caps you're thinking of using? I'll see what I can do.
 
#68
loafimus: 4 x bare PBTL PCB + 4 x microcontroller
ChuckT: fully assembled stereo Wiener + fully assembled Pro
DawgNo1: 2x PBTL 3118 fully built.
conners: 1x stereo fully assembled Pro
Pyjamas Before Chris: 1x stereo fully assembled Pro
wushuliu: 1 Pair Assembled PBTL MINUS CONNECTORS - 4 ohm
hepmusic 1 stereo 3118 8 ohm fully assembled
rhing: 1 Weiner 3 Pro, fully assembled
williamau: 1 Pair Assembled PBTL - 8 ohm
BK856er: 1x bare Wiener Pro + microcontroller
 
#70
Somehow my name got changed in the list to 'conners' so I've changed it back. Just copy and paste the list, then add your name. Then no mistakes.


loafimus: 4 x bare PBTL PCB + 4 x microcontroller
ChuckT: fully assembled stereo Wiener + fully assembled Pro
DawgNo1: 2x PBTL 3118 fully built.
jonners: 1x stereo fully assembled Pro
Pyjamas Before Chris: 1x stereo fully assembled Pro
wushuliu: 1 Pair Assembled PBTL MINUS CONNECTORS - 4 ohm
hepmusic 1 stereo 3118 8 ohm fully assembled
rhing: 1 Weiner 3 Pro, fully assembled
williamau: 1 Pair Assembled PBTL - 8 ohm
BK856er: 1x bare Wiener Pro + microcontroller
 
#71
Up late last night, got the Coilcraft inductors in there. Board size is now 8x12cm.

I might put the input protection clamps back in (I took them out when I was chasing a small size), this will probably bring the board up to 8x13cm.
 
#72
loafimus: 4 x bare PBTL PCB + 4 x microcontroller
ChuckT: fully assembled stereo Wiener + fully assembled Pro
DawgNo1: 2x PBTL 3118 fully built.
jonners: 1x stereo fully assembled Pro
Pyjamas Before Chris: 1x stereo fully assembled Pro
wushuliu: 1 Pair Assembled PBTL MINUS CONNECTORS - 4 ohm
hepmusic 1 stereo 3118 8 ohm fully assembled
rhing: 1 Weiner 3 Pro, fully assembled
williamau: 1 Pair Assembled PBTL - 8 ohm
BK856er: 1x bare Wiener Pro + microcontroller
shochu: 1x fully assembled stereo + filter & thermal kits
 
#73
shochu said:
loafimus: 4 x bare PBTL PCB + 4 x microcontroller
ChuckT: fully assembled stereo Wiener + fully assembled Pro
DawgNo1: 2x PBTL 3118 fully built.
jonners: 1x stereo fully assembled Pro
Pyjamas Before Chris: 1x stereo fully assembled Pro
wushuliu: 1 Pair Assembled PBTL MINUS CONNECTORS - 4 ohm
hepmusic 1 stereo 3118 8 ohm fully assembled
rhing: 1 Weiner 3 Pro, fully assembled
williamau: 1 Pair Assembled PBTL - 8 ohm
BK856er: 1x bare Wiener Pro + microcontroller
shochu: 1x fully assembled stereo + filter & thermal kits
Click to expand...
TigerFoo: 1x fully assembled stereo + filter and thermal kits
 
#74
The Pro board is starting to sound like quite the little amp now. Depending on the time frame of all this, I will probably add one or two of them also.

Gmarsh, do you have the solder paste gerber? I found www.oshstencils.com which can print them off for cheap and figured if I'm doing a handful of them it'd come in handy.
 
#76
loafimus said:
The Pro board is starting to sound like quite the little amp now. Depending on the time frame of all this, I will probably add one or two of them also.

Gmarsh, do you have the solder paste gerber? I found www.oshstencils.com which can print them off for cheap and figured if I'm doing a handful of them it'd come in handy.
Click to expand...
I've got the PCBs finalized for the TPA3118 stereo/PBTL cards. Still nudging parts around on the Pro. I'll make everything available when I order the PCBs.

So far I've only used metal stencils from Elecrow, and they've been working great for me so far.
 
#79
loafimus said:
I know it's still in development and everything, but one thing that concerns me about the Pro card is that I can't find dickbutt on it. Will this feature make it to the final version?
Click to expand...
I'll figure out somewhere to put it when I'm done the layout.

He recently made an appearance on another design, I used the negative on the solder mask and had the board ENIG plated. Turned out pretty good.

KMRRam1h.jpg
 
#80
Yawn, time to put this down for the night 🙂

oYyc41b.png


Board size is 75x125mm. Putting some 100uF polymers by the op-amps for more decoupling. The top audio input is being copied to the bottom, and the PSU/microcontroller are going to be shifted rightwards to make the TPA layout a bit cleaner.
 
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