Your argument's not very valid if you remove one amplifier. I think the horse is dead already.
It's very valid, the OP has ONE subwoofer and ONE stereo, two channel Badger. He can connect the subwoofer to either one channel, or bridge it. It depends on the speaker Z and the power capability of the amp whether he gets the magic smoke or not.
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OK, so your argument is that a bridged, two channel amp is 4 times more powerful that 1/2 of a stereo amp. This is only true if the amp can actually double it's power into 4 ohms with both channels driven. As AJT said, not likely since the trafo is likely to run out of power.
The HB sounds like an expensive amp. It's very impressive. 20 years ago I would have gone to great lengths to obtain anything sounding that good.
I'm 54. My hearing is fine but somehow all that keen delineation can fatigue me now. Even that is a matter of recording quality. Some of my vintage rock really gets me grinning with the HB.
I'm very glad I built The HB. It blows away all receivers and most of the amps I have tried. It's got massive authority.
The F5v2 has less power but sounds so "at ease". I'm more relaxed when listening to it. It affords the ability to reduce the second order harmonics (distortion) but I'm so darn content with it I have not budged from the starting value of a mid set pot. (6L6 of the Pass diyAudio forum posted a great video about this extra distortion control on youtube) The F5v2 is spacious clean and balanced in its presentation of timbre. Horns sound like horns, violins sound like instruments made of wood. It will make you pickier about what you feed your speakers/ears. It's like a great tube amp w none of the drawbacks. I just plain love it.
I'm 54. My hearing is fine but somehow all that keen delineation can fatigue me now. Even that is a matter of recording quality. Some of my vintage rock really gets me grinning with the HB.
I'm very glad I built The HB. It blows away all receivers and most of the amps I have tried. It's got massive authority.
The F5v2 has less power but sounds so "at ease". I'm more relaxed when listening to it. It affords the ability to reduce the second order harmonics (distortion) but I'm so darn content with it I have not budged from the starting value of a mid set pot. (6L6 of the Pass diyAudio forum posted a great video about this extra distortion control on youtube) The F5v2 is spacious clean and balanced in its presentation of timbre. Horns sound like horns, violins sound like instruments made of wood. It will make you pickier about what you feed your speakers/ears. It's like a great tube amp w none of the drawbacks. I just plain love it.
Glad you like it.
Funny thing is , a lot of older receivers/amps are "HB" based. They just
take shortcuts like :
- 1 current source - diode biased
- no cascode
- overcompensated with no TMC (ensures warranty life)
- cheap power supplies /single pair outputs.
OS
Funny thing is , a lot of older receivers/amps are "HB" based. They just
take shortcuts like :
- 1 current source - diode biased
- no cascode
- overcompensated with no TMC (ensures warranty life)
- cheap power supplies /single pair outputs.
OS
You've distilled the very best! I'd say that I wish I'd found the HB first but then I'd not appreciate how very good it is. You and your team knocked it out of the b park. Thank you.
I'm intrigue by your Wolverine. With the 5 OPS, how would you compare it with/to the HB?
I feel like I owe it to myself and yourself to build one!
I'm intrigue by your Wolverine. With the 5 OPS, how would you compare it with/to the HB?
I feel like I owe it to myself and yourself to build one!
I think that just goes to show you get out what you put in. All those little compromises add up to a larger compromise in the end product.
it do not matter how much power that LIVES in the amp, if you can't get it to the driver.
if you have ONE 8ohm driver and and a 2ch amp in stereo mode, you can only use 25% of the power that lives in the amp(given it can run With 4ohm load). if you bridge that same amp on that same driver, you can use 100% of the power living in the amp. that is 4 times the power no matter wich way you look at it. (not counting for any voltage sag, as that will be different from build to build)
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4 times the power theoretically, delivered by 2 amplifier channels in reality.
Amazing how long folks can continue to argue about it.
Bridging TDA2030's, ashaming indeed.
Amazing how long folks can continue to argue about it.
Bridging TDA2030's, ashaming indeed.
If you've bridged, you've doubled the number of output devices and therefore doubled the power output capacity. That looks like 12 output devices. That is two amplifier boards per each channel. You get 3db more speaker output. Suppose you'll notice?
OR
If we wanted to nearly quadruple the effective power output, we'd first have to quadruple output device capacity and then power that appropriately. That looks like 24 output devices. That is four amplifier boards per each channel. You get dangerous heat and 6db more speaker output.
P.S. At this point, the risk of fire increases dramatically, so adding an additional woofer may be a lot safer than pushing just one woofer as hard as possible.
OR
If we wanted to nearly quadruple the effective power output, we'd first have to quadruple output device capacity and then power that appropriately. That looks like 24 output devices. That is four amplifier boards per each channel. You get dangerous heat and 6db more speaker output.
What model woofer do you have that 1). doesn't x-max like crazy when pushed by a honey badger and 2). can dissipate same heat as a space heater when pushed by a much larger amp?
P.S. At this point, the risk of fire increases dramatically, so adding an additional woofer may be a lot safer than pushing just one woofer as hard as possible.
If you plan to continue in the DIY amplifier hobby, you'll love the Slewmaster series amplifiers. The Wolverine is virtually identical in sound to the Badger. It can probably output a little more power due to the extra outputs but I doubt you will ever run out of power with your HB unless you are driving very low efficient speakers or trying to play a party in a very large room. The Slewmaster is designed to accept virtually any IPS topology. So far I have built these IPS for the Slewmaster; CFA-XH, Symasui (symasym), Spooky (Leach), Wolverine (Badger), Krypton-C (CFA), AX-14 IPS (Apex). Each sounds stellar like the Honey Badger. There are boards available for most here.
This is a long thread, deservedly so. On page 12 (default numbering), OStripper put up a general description of this amp with 2 output pairs (ie: 2NPN x 2PNP planar power transistors). Did anyone optimize a design for this smaller configuration?
Ron, I recovered so well from surgery that I took to the great outdoors and haven't made any progress on my F5 or AJ. Then my DIY efforts went to refurbishing the cradle boat I made for my daughter for use by my first granddaughter who was born last night. 🙂 I will start building amps again soon now that the weather is turning cold.
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Indeed, congratulations to BobEllis. I just started reading the Aleph-X thread and that is a fascinating Class A design but the power supply is challenging. Are you using a cap multiplier on your AJ build? How did you configure your power supply?
Thanks again. My AJ is PSU is a straight CRC 68K µF 0R1 68K µF, no multiplier. It's on the bench (AKA kitchen table) as we speak, but no progress until I return from visiting my daughter and granddaughter next week. I have a thread in the Pass section that will come back to the top once I start making progress again.
Sorry for the thread-jack. 😱😱
Sorry for the thread-jack. 😱😱