Hello! I've been getting more and more interested in audio lately, and I stumpled upon this wonderful forum. However I have some questions you guys will cringe upon hearing.
If I would like to build an amp for driving a pair of standard bookshelve speakers (haven't decided upon a pair yet), what would I actually need? I saw some people referencing "Sure Electronics" and I decided to have a look at their site. So if I would purchase something like Sure Electronics' webstore 2 x 100 Watt Class D Audio Amplifier Board - T-AMP P, what else would I need if I wanted it to be functional and have something like a volume control? I would only need a rca input. Thanks in advance, and please tell me if I've posted this in the wrong section or if there's a big blatant "NEWBIE GUIDE" somewhere on the site that I've missed!
If I would like to build an amp for driving a pair of standard bookshelve speakers (haven't decided upon a pair yet), what would I actually need? I saw some people referencing "Sure Electronics" and I decided to have a look at their site. So if I would purchase something like Sure Electronics' webstore 2 x 100 Watt Class D Audio Amplifier Board - T-AMP P, what else would I need if I wanted it to be functional and have something like a volume control? I would only need a rca input. Thanks in advance, and please tell me if I've posted this in the wrong section or if there's a big blatant "NEWBIE GUIDE" somewhere on the site that I've missed!
You'd also need a powersupply (Meanwell is the most common choice and inexpensive). And speaker 0utput connectors and wires (sometimes included with the Sure kits).
If your source has a volume control (like a cell phone or file player) you cou.d just use that. Otherwise look for a 10k ohm (up to 50k probably ok too) DUAL volume control potentiometer. Ask here how to wire it if youre going that route.
If your source has a volume control (like a cell phone or file player) you cou.d just use that. Otherwise look for a 10k ohm (up to 50k probably ok too) DUAL volume control potentiometer. Ask here how to wire it if youre going that route.
Thank you so much! What should I look for when purchasing a powersupply? And by connectors do you mean speaker terminals?
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You are going to need much more than what has been noted so far..
Consider...you will need AC power from the wall-current, for this, an IEC C14 female socket and a matching C13 "power-cord". This is more common connection than you might think...& a truly professional way to do it. A panel mounted fuseholder...
Then, you will need to have an incoming connection, the very common RCA jack will work fine.
The speaker jacks next, the multiway versions...that accept bare wires, or "banana plugs", are common & well made.
Next up will be the enclosure, the case...where everything will be stuffed into...
This amp board has built-in heatsinks & active ventilation, a cutout in your case, a hole for the fan will be required.
Having all these parts on hand, lay them neatly out on a table...this will give you an idea of just how big an enclosure you will need.
On your power supply....one thing which may give you more choices...is if you use a "standard" type IE transformers...this is a "square" looking transformer...the other choice is the "toroid" transformer...it looks like a big Donut, wide, short in height & round.....this can make for a "short" enclosure, not tall at all...a consideration in the shape of your enclosure.
Plus your mentioned volume control, a power switch, an indicator showing you off & on. I'm sure there are more things needed, but it escapes me now..
---------------------------------------------------------------Rick.......
You are going to need much more than what has been noted so far..
Consider...you will need AC power from the wall-current, for this, an IEC C14 female socket and a matching C13 "power-cord". This is more common connection than you might think...& a truly professional way to do it. A panel mounted fuseholder...
Then, you will need to have an incoming connection, the very common RCA jack will work fine.
The speaker jacks next, the multiway versions...that accept bare wires, or "banana plugs", are common & well made.
Next up will be the enclosure, the case...where everything will be stuffed into...
This amp board has built-in heatsinks & active ventilation, a cutout in your case, a hole for the fan will be required.
Having all these parts on hand, lay them neatly out on a table...this will give you an idea of just how big an enclosure you will need.
On your power supply....one thing which may give you more choices...is if you use a "standard" type IE transformers...this is a "square" looking transformer...the other choice is the "toroid" transformer...it looks like a big Donut, wide, short in height & round.....this can make for a "short" enclosure, not tall at all...a consideration in the shape of your enclosure.
Plus your mentioned volume control, a power switch, an indicator showing you off & on. I'm sure there are more things needed, but it escapes me now..
---------------------------------------------------------------Rick.......
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Thanks for the reply! Yeah I know it will be a bit of a project, but I'm being optimistic! When looking for a power supply, what is the speciations I'm looking for?
That Sure board actually has the (very commonly used) DC Power Plug, so if you are not planning to play it full blast at 100W per channel, you may use a High Current DC Power Brick as a power supply. This makes everything simple as the AC portion of the design will be isolated. There are some power supplies of this type on the Sure electronics website, but they are hideously expensive. I use this 32V 5A power supply and it works great. Some may worry that it exceeds the recommended power supply rating of 30V for the Sure board, but I don't think there are any components with 30V limit on that board. You really shouldn't be able to crate excessive thermal or current load, especially if your bookshelf speakers are 6-ohms or 8-ohms. If you don't want to risk it, get a 24V power supply brick, they are a lot cheaper.
You may even find a laptop power brick that would work, preferably more than 18V and at least 4 amps, to power the amp. This may limit the output power to approximately 30-40W per channel, but that is still a lot of volume for bookshelf speakers in a small to mid size space. If you have something like this laying around, I would try that first before ordering a Power Supply Adaptor.
24-32V DC is a safe voltage, so you could build your amp by getting two pieces of plexiglass that match the size of the amp board and mount your board between the pieces of plexiglass. The board already has RCA input connectors, and screw-in speaker terminals. You may want to drill holes on the top pieces of plexiglass where to match the screw locations for the speaker terminals so you can get to them with a screwdriver to attach speaker wires. Or if you are feeling more adventurous, you may add some speaker binding posts. I found this image with a simple "plexiglass amplifier" search on Google Images. Or doctormord (a well known DiyAudio) member has some cool plexiglass designs here.
Sure Electronics sells a digital volume control module that will fit that amp, that is probably your best bet for clean volume control.
You may even find a laptop power brick that would work, preferably more than 18V and at least 4 amps, to power the amp. This may limit the output power to approximately 30-40W per channel, but that is still a lot of volume for bookshelf speakers in a small to mid size space. If you have something like this laying around, I would try that first before ordering a Power Supply Adaptor.
24-32V DC is a safe voltage, so you could build your amp by getting two pieces of plexiglass that match the size of the amp board and mount your board between the pieces of plexiglass. The board already has RCA input connectors, and screw-in speaker terminals. You may want to drill holes on the top pieces of plexiglass where to match the screw locations for the speaker terminals so you can get to them with a screwdriver to attach speaker wires. Or if you are feeling more adventurous, you may add some speaker binding posts. I found this image with a simple "plexiglass amplifier" search on Google Images. Or doctormord (a well known DiyAudio) member has some cool plexiglass designs here.
Sure Electronics sells a digital volume control module that will fit that amp, that is probably your best bet for clean volume control.
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Great reply! One question though, if I go the power brick route, will the watt on the brick need to match the amp board?
That 32V 5A version as mentioned should work just fine, Five amps of current should suffice ....When I was talking about transformers & all...that was the "old school" in me talking..
This amp is the digital variety, the power supply modules we're all talking about is the "Switched Mode Power Supply"variety , often abbreviated as SMPS....a more modern variety, fitting to a more modern class D amp here.
My ramblings were for the "old style" linear power supply.
A lot in this amp module has been done for you already...
--------------------------------------------------------------------Rick..........
Thank you so much! You've been of great help! I'll lurk around on the forums a bit more before purchasing some parts for myself as a christmas gift 😉 Oh and one last question I missed, why does most people on this site recommend amplifiers that are somewhere in the 500w x 2 range? I thought you wouldn't need more than about 50w for normal speakers, and about 100w for more power hungry ones?
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Unless you want to drive insane amounts of bass through bookshelf speakers, the power you would need in a small-to-medium size room is probably somewhere between 2W-20W. (If you want insane amount of bass, you should get a subwoofer anyway.)
In some cases, the power ratings are not very meaningful. For the particular amplifier you are considering, I think even the ratings on Sure Electronics site is not accurate It should be: 100W x 2 (4 ohms, THD 10%), 72W x 2 (4 ohms, THD 1%). You don't want to listen to music at 10% (or in most cases even at 1%) distortion. If you look at the specs, distortion is stated as 0.005% at 10W, which is excellent for normal listening levels. Specs for the same board on PartsExpress website indicate 2 x 50W into 4-ohms with 0.01% distortion. This is probably the reasonable upper limit of this amp IMHO. Accounting for the efficiency of the amplifier, other stuff on the board (e.g. fan, etc.), you should need at most 120-125W of power supply input, this is why the 32V 5A brick (which is 160W) is sufficient. Even a 32V 3A brick may be ok if you are going to use 8-ohm speakers.
Thank you! The last question, is the watt output (which also effects the thd,right?) controlled by the volume control?
There is a posting here..which is really an experiment & a poll ...to find out really how much power your using..in Watts for the music your listening to at the very moment....I believe the figure was about 7 Watts....yes, just some seven Watts worth, not 50, not 500....!!
This moment, I'm listening to Tears for Fears, "Los reyes Catolicos"....using but 600 milli Amps worth.
Yes, final question...the power output, volume usually means the overall distortion goes up.....In the case of this amp, the specifications are a bit misleading & vague. Ultimate, maximum power is quoted as EG...100 watts RMS, 20 to 20KHz, 0.5% Total Harmonic distortion, Eight Ohms per channel. Given that....long ago, I heard the human being cannot hear distortion levels below 0.5%....you'll note, this amp has figures at some 10% at full power.....this 10% is truly unacceptable...this said, an "acceptable" figure of 0.5% lies well below this 100 watt level.
-------------------------------------------------------------------Rick..........
This moment, I'm listening to Tears for Fears, "Los reyes Catolicos"....using but 600 milli Amps worth.
Yes, final question...the power output, volume usually means the overall distortion goes up.....In the case of this amp, the specifications are a bit misleading & vague. Ultimate, maximum power is quoted as EG...100 watts RMS, 20 to 20KHz, 0.5% Total Harmonic distortion, Eight Ohms per channel. Given that....long ago, I heard the human being cannot hear distortion levels below 0.5%....you'll note, this amp has figures at some 10% at full power.....this 10% is truly unacceptable...this said, an "acceptable" figure of 0.5% lies well below this 100 watt level.
-------------------------------------------------------------------Rick..........
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Interesting... So maybe I shouldn't get all hooked on the watts... Is the board I linked still a good option? I found that it was praised a lot.
Yes, this seeming obsession with power in watts...ultimately means nothing.
What one is more likely asking, how loud can I play my music?
One must take into consideration just how sensitive...how efficient your loudspeakers are.
Consider a speaker I'm simulating out....one that makes the best use out of the power available...I found a driver that outputs 110 decibels with ONE watt of power, note, the so-called "Rock Concert" comes in at 115 decibels...a level that can be exceeded with four watts with this driver. Conversely, many loudspeakers plain eat power, giving you little output for it..
It is an "illness" perhaps....The high dollar "far field" studio monitors of the mid seventies, made by JBL, used just 150 Watts of power, todays versions want 2500.....a sixteen times multiple.
-------------------------------------------------------------------Rick.........
What one is more likely asking, how loud can I play my music?
One must take into consideration just how sensitive...how efficient your loudspeakers are.
Consider a speaker I'm simulating out....one that makes the best use out of the power available...I found a driver that outputs 110 decibels with ONE watt of power, note, the so-called "Rock Concert" comes in at 115 decibels...a level that can be exceeded with four watts with this driver. Conversely, many loudspeakers plain eat power, giving you little output for it..
It is an "illness" perhaps....The high dollar "far field" studio monitors of the mid seventies, made by JBL, used just 150 Watts of power, todays versions want 2500.....a sixteen times multiple.
-------------------------------------------------------------------Rick.........
Thank you for the info, you've helped me so much! I think I'm fairly ready to start venturing into the jungle of diy audio 😛
Without getting too technical, the answer is yes. At higher volume, the amplifier sends more power to the speakers. At higher volume levels, the amp also dissipates more power as heat. Luckily, class-D amplifiers are very efficient, they only waste about 10% of the power as heat. The heat sink and the fan on that board should be able to deal with even the maximum power levels as long as you don't mount it in a sealed plastic box. At regular listening levels, the fan would probably not even run.
As the other poster suggested, I wouldn't get too obsessed about the "Watts", especially for a first project. If you check out the "Chip Amps" forum, there are many excellent (and popular) amplifier designs with 2x68W, 2x50W, 2x40W ratings.
The amplifier you chose is a pretty good one. It has low distortion, high quality audio output at regular listening levels. It has enough power to drive pretty much any home audio speaker. Because it is a Class-D amplifier, it is very efficient, does not require a complex and high wattage power supply, does not generate much heat, so it is easy to work with.
I fully agree with what everyone has suggested thus far.
However, I might suggest a different amp board than the one you originally linked. I didn't see in the product listing what chip it used, but "T-Amp" makes me think of the older (no longer made) Tripath designs. They were well-loved in their day, and still seem to have a few fans. But class-d technology in general has improved.
I would look at an amp board based on the Texas Instruments (TI) TPA3110, TPA3118, or TPA3116 chips. This is a modern, low-cost but high-value chip. Sure makes several of these, for example, 2 x 30 Watt Class D Audio Amplifier Board -TPA3118 or 2 x 50 Watt 4 Ohm Class D Audio Amplifier Board - TPA3116. Those are literally the same module, one uses the tpa3118 chip and the other the tpa3116 chip. The chips are the same circuit, the only difference is how they dissipate heat. The tpa3116 requires an external heatsink (you can see it in the pictures); the tpa3118 uses the circuit board itself as a heatsink. Because of this, you usually see higher power ratings with the tpa3116, though with proper PCB design, they can be the same. And, as has already been discussed, for reasonable indoor listening levels on common bookshelf speakers, 20 or 30 Watts should be enough. (And, particularly when you're just starting out with DIY, having a lower-powered amp might just save your speakers when you make an inevitable mistake.) So I personally prefer the 8 over the 6, for the simple reason that I don't have to mess with a heatsink.
There is an enormously long thread dedicated to the tpa311x amps here on DIYA, TPA3116D2 Amp. I have to mention it out of principle, but to be honest it's probably too long to be valuable to newcomers.
However, there is another thread on a different forum: TPA3110 and TPS3116 amps. This is also pretty long, but at least it's manageable. Ironically, this is what really got me started with diyAudio. I first came to this hobby looking to get great sound at a low price. Since then, my goals have shifted to doing projects just to learn more about electronics and audio. Because of this thread, I started out with an even simpler Sure tpa311x amp: 2 x 8 Watt Class D Audio Amplifier Board - TPA3110. You can also buy it from Parts Express. Grab that and a basic 12V/2A power supply; I started with this one. That's $25 for the amp board and power supply. Spend another $20-30 on RCA connectors, hook-up wire, speaker binding posts, a power jack, and a basic enclosure. I assume you already have a soldering iron. $50 or so and you'll have something that would retail for at least twice that, and sound surprisingly good. You can do volume control with a 10k potentiometer ("pot"), or go one better with something like this, DACT stepped attenuator. Though maybe start with a cheap pot, just so you can get familiar with the wiring.
Good luck and have fun. I hope you get bit by the diyAudio bug. As I said before, if cost and good sound quality were my only goals, I would have stopped long ago. And in fact, I've probably spent enough to buy a good system a few times over. But I can't put a price on all the fun I've had and knowledge I've gained, so in that regard: totally worth it!
However, I might suggest a different amp board than the one you originally linked. I didn't see in the product listing what chip it used, but "T-Amp" makes me think of the older (no longer made) Tripath designs. They were well-loved in their day, and still seem to have a few fans. But class-d technology in general has improved.
I would look at an amp board based on the Texas Instruments (TI) TPA3110, TPA3118, or TPA3116 chips. This is a modern, low-cost but high-value chip. Sure makes several of these, for example, 2 x 30 Watt Class D Audio Amplifier Board -TPA3118 or 2 x 50 Watt 4 Ohm Class D Audio Amplifier Board - TPA3116. Those are literally the same module, one uses the tpa3118 chip and the other the tpa3116 chip. The chips are the same circuit, the only difference is how they dissipate heat. The tpa3116 requires an external heatsink (you can see it in the pictures); the tpa3118 uses the circuit board itself as a heatsink. Because of this, you usually see higher power ratings with the tpa3116, though with proper PCB design, they can be the same. And, as has already been discussed, for reasonable indoor listening levels on common bookshelf speakers, 20 or 30 Watts should be enough. (And, particularly when you're just starting out with DIY, having a lower-powered amp might just save your speakers when you make an inevitable mistake.) So I personally prefer the 8 over the 6, for the simple reason that I don't have to mess with a heatsink.
There is an enormously long thread dedicated to the tpa311x amps here on DIYA, TPA3116D2 Amp. I have to mention it out of principle, but to be honest it's probably too long to be valuable to newcomers.
However, there is another thread on a different forum: TPA3110 and TPS3116 amps. This is also pretty long, but at least it's manageable. Ironically, this is what really got me started with diyAudio. I first came to this hobby looking to get great sound at a low price. Since then, my goals have shifted to doing projects just to learn more about electronics and audio. Because of this thread, I started out with an even simpler Sure tpa311x amp: 2 x 8 Watt Class D Audio Amplifier Board - TPA3110. You can also buy it from Parts Express. Grab that and a basic 12V/2A power supply; I started with this one. That's $25 for the amp board and power supply. Spend another $20-30 on RCA connectors, hook-up wire, speaker binding posts, a power jack, and a basic enclosure. I assume you already have a soldering iron. $50 or so and you'll have something that would retail for at least twice that, and sound surprisingly good. You can do volume control with a 10k potentiometer ("pot"), or go one better with something like this, DACT stepped attenuator. Though maybe start with a cheap pot, just so you can get familiar with the wiring.
Good luck and have fun. I hope you get bit by the diyAudio bug. As I said before, if cost and good sound quality were my only goals, I would have stopped long ago. And in fact, I've probably spent enough to buy a good system a few times over. But I can't put a price on all the fun I've had and knowledge I've gained, so in that regard: totally worth it!
I just put together a little TPA3116 amp. I bought the amp, a 24V 5A power supply, a potentiometer for the volume control, RCA jacks for the input, a plug for the power supply, and speaker connectors. It was actually pretty simple. It sounds great and has no problem providing plenty of clean volume to my rather low sensitivity speakers. I had it wired, put together, and working within a couple of hours.
Did you mention what your budget is? And how good are you with a soldering iron?
Mike
Did you mention what your budget is? And how good are you with a soldering iron?
Mike
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