Nice coils!
Are they being produced for sale as well?
Last time I bought them from fireanimal.
@fireanimal do you produce them this time too?
If so, I need a few of these mirrored coils.
Cheers, Wouter
New to amplifier building. Not new to messing around with them. Not new to electronics.
These Wolverine threads are LONG. I could read a book in the time it would take to read through all of threads related here. So I have some questions. If the answer is: "you'll need to dig through the thread", then this build not be for me.
These Wolverine threads are LONG. I could read a book in the time it would take to read through all of threads related here. So I have some questions. If the answer is: "you'll need to dig through the thread", then this build not be for me.
- What input voltage do there need? I see there is a 57 and 64v version? Is one better than the other?
- I assume I need a double tapped toroidal with dual 12v taps for the speaker protection circuit correct?
- What sort of rectifier/cap bank is needed here? Can I just use one of those Chinese ones? I see some people have giant cap banks. Is this the type of board which requires a very large capacitor capacity?
- How large of heat sink is needed?
- What is total cost of all of the components? I know some board builds use some very expensive transistors.
- Has anyone does a separate writeup that walks you through their whole build or has it just been the lot of you kind of building as you go off of the instructions?
Well, your probably not going to like my reply…..
But, you really do need to dig in and read through the Wolverine threads. Lots of important and helpful build information. No single post will help spoon feed the information you asked for.
Background research will go a long way helping yourself have a successful working Wolverine amp.
Dig in and enjoy the process!
But, you really do need to dig in and read through the Wolverine threads. Lots of important and helpful build information. No single post will help spoon feed the information you asked for.
Background research will go a long way helping yourself have a successful working Wolverine amp.
Dig in and enjoy the process!
I appreciate the honesty. I am willing to wait and see if there ever is a guide. Once I have designed and built my end game loudspeaker, I will start on the path to building an amplifier worthy of driving it.
Input voltage we refer to as rail voltage in DC - 49V to 71V. You get more output power with higher rail voltages. How much output power do you need. 64V rails should be more than enough for most home use cases.
Correct as with most builds you will need a "housekeeping supply"
As supply rail smoothing capacitance is loosely related to output power, Recommended minimum 10,000uF per 200W into 8 ohm of output per rail per channel. So for a 64V stereo build 40,000uf in total. Use any you like just ensure the capacitors and circuit boards are rated 15-20% higher voltage than the rails.
All the following are approx and require further discussion - we are working on some tweaks to keep new 5 pair boards main heatsinks cooler;
3 pair output EF3-3 - 50V rails 3Ux300mm min, 64V rails 4Ux300mm min
4 pair output EF3-4 - 50V rails 3Ux400mm min, 64V-71V rails 4Ux400mm min
5 pair output EF3-5 - 50V rails 4Ux400mm min, 64V rails 4Ux400 min, 71V+ rails 5Ux400mm min
It depends on your preference but using all the "economy" choices at mouser, the total cost for components for a stereo build is approx 190USD. Excluding your chassis, power supply, wiring, protections, soft starts etc
The build guide, in combination with Daniels Video series will have this covered. I'd argue the build guide is close enough to such a thing, Wolverine was my first amplifier, and I used the build guide and had no issues. The updated build guides will have the updated recommended component install sequence, this is one of the many reasons the build team did complete pre-production test builds, and not just sims.
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It's definitely not the amp you build in a weekend or on the kitchen table (maybe the brave). But it is state of the art and IMO end game if you put in the time and effort. A properly assembled and cleanly wired wolverine would set you up for life if kept within thermal limits.
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I am letting go some Mills MRA-05 0.39ohm/4w Non-magnetic/non-inductive audio resistors:
Great for this amp(but not only)!
For Sale Thread 'Some components'
Great for this amp(but not only)!
120w into 8 ohm would be fantastic.
So rail voltage is output from the rectifier correct? What needs to be the input voltage from the transformer to the rectifier? Is there a drop from the toroidal transformer input to the rectifier output?
Again, new to building them from scratch.
Got it. And I've heard there's no real benefit to having a larger bank than necessary, only downsides
Perfect, saves me from asking the T&M team to run a thermal sim for me at work
190 is under what I thought so I'm good with this. I have most of the other parts lying around, I know where to get some good size heat sink enclosures for cheap.
This is good to know. The earlier posts found the original guide was missing key things. I guess that has been rectified.
"do it right, do it once, never worry about it again" is literally a slogan written on my shop wall. I have nothing but time at night so I can solder away.
Are there preffered transistors over others for audio? I coemf from the world of automation, test and measurements, and embedded design where a transistor is just a transistor as long as it meets the specs. I see audio has a different view of components.
This should help you size the PSU:
Do you plan to build a stereo, dual mono or monoblocks?
Once you have the transofrmer(s) selected, I can point you to a PSU kit that I'm going to use....
Do you plan to build a stereo, dual mono or monoblocks?
Once you have the transofrmer(s) selected, I can point you to a PSU kit that I'm going to use....
Nice resistors, nice price. However, they may not be suitable. One as an emitter will be too high R causing the Bias to run too cold and two in parallel is too low causing the amp to run too hot. The 0.56's you had were more suitable as a parallel set (wolverine emitters 0.22 - 0.25 ohm but 0.28 wouldve been okay)I am letting go some Mills MRA-05 0.39ohm/4w Non-magnetic/non-inductive audio resistors:
For Sale Thread 'Some components'
Great for this amp(but not only)!
You'd only need to target 54VDC rails as per table above, and you could save more by only needing the EF3-3. If three pair EF3-3 is used, the amp would run quite cool relatively, I would go a 4U/300mm (400mm if you want the extra room for PSU and housekeeping boards) chassis, but 3U/300mm might work but a bit hotter.
Rail voltage is after the smoothing bulk capacitors have managed the sawtooth DC from the rectifier. There are some small loses through the rectifier diodes and capacitors but very loosely the rule is AC x 1.414 to DC so dual secondary 38-39VAC transformer will get ~54VDC rails
Thanks Mainframe,
The resistors (0.39ohms/4w) I am selling are suitable for this amp,
stuartmp
actually gave me the green light to post here about my sale.
Hi asuslover, you are correct my apologies, and above statement was my personal opinion.
Should be no problem using 2x of those in parallel for wolverine
Should be no problem using 2x of those in parallel for wolverine
Hi Wolverine amplifier builders,
We would like to announce another option for the Wolverine Version 5.
If you are planning on getting in on the PCB group buy, the V5 EF3-5 option which has 5 pairs of ouput devices is capable of running higher supply rail voltage for some more serious output power options 🥳
Due to the voltages involved this is for experienced builders only....
Please see table attached with the various rail voltage options and a scope capture with a 4 Ohm load.
- Daniel
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The build guide is one of the finest build guides ever written. Most of what you are asking for is in the 1st post of this thread. I am not sure if anybody reads 1st posts anymore but it’s where I look whenever I am pondering a future build. The last attachment (a pdf file) of the 1st post of this thread has the build guide. When you purchase boards, you’ll get links to the latest build guide (and loads of other stuff) but regardless as member @Mainframe has said and member @Vunce has alluded to, this isn’t your weekend build. I have built ~ 100 amps [not bragging!] in the last 5 years (not all of them made it to chassis!) and this build is one of those that I am taking my time on!
Enjoy the journey.
When you do find and read that build guide, I hope you can appreciate the level of diligence it took to get this design this far. The Youtube build guide video which member @danieljw has kindly uploaded and is attached to every one of his posts is also quite thorough.
Best,
Anand.
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