Yes that's mostly what I bought the reel for. For tweeters in particular its nice to have low inductance through twisting the wires together. Many years back I designed a system of active speakers which used Cat5 (in the days prior to Cat6) - 3 pairs for +/- 24V power and one pair for signal. It was screened Cat5 so the screen provided the 0V.
Are you saying those internal wires are much inferior (just to be nice....) to those hundreds of dollars a meter I put outside?
[emoji2]
I wouldn't buy a cheap cable, just not get those ultra-expensive audio cables that give you that "finest sound detail" neither. Power delivery is not what those sellers promise, just that "detailed music".
Hi guys,
I'm struggling with the repair of my SMSL 36A-Pro. I've succesfully desoldered and replaced the old tpa3118 with a new one, but I am having a problem with one of my output channels and could use some help with it as I am a fairly new to troubleshooting electronics.
If I'm not mistaken, all of the four channels should be equal when tested with a simple DMM diode test in reference to PVCC? (relevant part of schematic is in the attached image) The same as bootstrap pins can be checked in reference to GVDD?
All of the 4 bootstrap pads/caps are indeed measuring the same voltage drop in reference to GVDD, which is roughly about 560mV with red probe on GVDD.
When I made a similar test on all of the 4 channels, diode test showed voltage drop from each channel (red probe) to PVCC (black probe) soemwhere around 440mV for 3 of the 4 channels, but 1 channel (OUTNL)
measures around 560-565mV and I cannot figure out why?
I'm struggling with the repair of my SMSL 36A-Pro. I've succesfully desoldered and replaced the old tpa3118 with a new one, but I am having a problem with one of my output channels and could use some help with it as I am a fairly new to troubleshooting electronics.
If I'm not mistaken, all of the four channels should be equal when tested with a simple DMM diode test in reference to PVCC? (relevant part of schematic is in the attached image) The same as bootstrap pins can be checked in reference to GVDD?
All of the 4 bootstrap pads/caps are indeed measuring the same voltage drop in reference to GVDD, which is roughly about 560mV with red probe on GVDD.
When I made a similar test on all of the 4 channels, diode test showed voltage drop from each channel (red probe) to PVCC (black probe) soemwhere around 440mV for 3 of the 4 channels, but 1 channel (OUTNL)
measures around 560-565mV and I cannot figure out why?
Attachments
No idea whether they are superior or inferior. But I know that award-winning speakers like my Linn and my Q-acoustics and my Kef have what looks like 18awg hook-up wire connecting the binding posts to the xover and the xover to the drivers.
I've no idea what cables you used.
As a general rule, I use tru-rip - twin-8 copper cable used to wire houses. If you don't like white PVC, you can dye it.
http://www.generalcable.co.nz/getattachment/e082e6cf-ff53-46a7-aab5-55c18cb14d14
How do you discern the difference between 'cheap' and 'expensive' cable, other than by the amount of money they charge?
Locally, 'speaker cable' sells for $3.50/M-$50/M, Tru Rip, which is pure copper electrical cable sells for $80.00/100M.
It has better characteristics than the stuff sold as 'speaker cable', but only comes in white PVC.
It definitely meets the criteria of 'cheap cable'.
I wonder how much attention is paid to the depth and width of the copper tracks on the PCBs used to make the Xover?
Anyway, back to the subject at hand...
I found a couple of TPA3116D2-based boards in my box of tricks - Feixiang 2.1 units. I don't particularly have a need for 2.1, but they are what I have until the post arrives from China.
Playing around yesterday with my bench power supply, I found they switch on at 8V (not 7, not 7.5, not 7.95, but at 8 🙂 ) and give good sound at 8-12V without noticable difference as you wind the voltage up. But, when you turn them on using the power switch on the board, it makes a heck of a 'crack'. Is this well known? Is it easily fixed? I'm not great at electronics but I am keen and will have a go - I've made my own PCBs in the past and have built a flow oven, can solder passably well, etc. but am very much a data guy. That being said, I'm not scared of getting my hands dirty and have a range of resistors, caps, etc.
I found a couple of TPA3116D2-based boards in my box of tricks - Feixiang 2.1 units. I don't particularly have a need for 2.1, but they are what I have until the post arrives from China.
Playing around yesterday with my bench power supply, I found they switch on at 8V (not 7, not 7.5, not 7.95, but at 8 🙂 ) and give good sound at 8-12V without noticable difference as you wind the voltage up. But, when you turn them on using the power switch on the board, it makes a heck of a 'crack'. Is this well known? Is it easily fixed? I'm not great at electronics but I am keen and will have a go - I've made my own PCBs in the past and have built a flow oven, can solder passably well, etc. but am very much a data guy. That being said, I'm not scared of getting my hands dirty and have a range of resistors, caps, etc.
TPA3116 boards WIKI.... Search for Giancarlo.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/diyaudio-com-wiki/252663-tpa3116d2-boards.html
This one also handles power off.
TPA3132D2 - on-delay and emergency shut-down (anti-pop) - also for TPA3116 / TPA3118 - #360customs
J.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/diyaudio-com-wiki/252663-tpa3116d2-boards.html
This one also handles power off.
TPA3132D2 - on-delay and emergency shut-down (anti-pop) - also for TPA3116 / TPA3118 - #360customs
J.
Cheers, chaps. That looks exactly what I need, and is within my scope 🙂
Mods to increase bass?
Hi All,
I finally finished my first build and have been overall rather impressed with the results. My only complaint is there is not enough bass for my liking. Are there any simply mods to the boards that would help with this?
I'm pretty much s novice when it comes to this so details would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Hi All,
I finally finished my first build and have been overall rather impressed with the results. My only complaint is there is not enough bass for my liking. Are there any simply mods to the boards that would help with this?
I'm pretty much s novice when it comes to this so details would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Which board are you using? Also, what about the rest of your system: power supply, source/pre, speakers?
A couple things come to mind which might affect bass:
- The DC-blocking capacitors could be too small of a value. If you look at the datasheet for the tpa3116d2, there is a table for gain setting, and also what (minimum) uF value should be used for the DC-block caps relative to the gain setting.
- Power supply issues. If you have access to other supplies, it might be worth trying just to see. Check ebay or Craigslist for an Astron SL-11A or RS-12A power supply. These are designed for HAM radio, but are a popular pairing with the tpa311x amps. High-current, regulated, linear power supplies. Buy used and you can probably re-sell for about what you paid, making it "free" to test. You could also experiment with increasing power supply decoupling, that is, add more high-quality, low-impedance capacitors between the board and power supply.
A third possibility is that you have mis-wired the speakers, swapping + and - for only one speaker. This means your speakers will be out of phase, and some frequencies will basically cancel. Bass is particularly affected because it tends to generally be mixed equally to both channels. Everyone should wire their speakers out of phase just once to hear what it sounds like, it's very peculiar. I doubt this is your problem though, as the effect is pronounced enough that I think you'd say the problem isn't just bass. But it's quick and easy to sanity check correct wiring.
Well, I guess I did leave out some important information.
I'm using two Sanwu mono blocks with each powered by one of these power supplies.
The speakers I choose are these 8in speakers which sounded great when i tested them with my home theater amp before cutting holes in the ceiling.
Its possible I wired something incorrectly, but I did my due diligence before assembling the amp and for to be honest everything sounds great. My personal preference is just to have more bass.
I hope this helps.
I'm using two Sanwu mono blocks with each powered by one of these power supplies.
The speakers I choose are these 8in speakers which sounded great when i tested them with my home theater amp before cutting holes in the ceiling.
Its possible I wired something incorrectly, but I did my due diligence before assembling the amp and for to be honest everything sounds great. My personal preference is just to have more bass.
I hope this helps.
Or to be more accurate. it's the wavelength of bass frequencies that enable cancellation at any listening position, and is very obvious, you get cancellation at higher frequencies but you have to stand right in the sweet spot and move your head side to side to hear it, and yes it sounds peculiar.
Aye there's your problem, ceiling speakers! they don't even pretend to have any bass, and they never can because they are designed to fire into a ceiling space, I mean even if you were to box them in, they're never going to thunder.
Why even ceiling speakers? you don't live in a supermarket?
