Guidance for a newb

I have an old garage sale find Altec Lansing 221 speaker system for my PC speakers. I would like to upgrade them and have been trying to find a good place to source parts AND learn about building systems.

The only place I've come across is parts-express.com. I don't think I'm advanced enough to build amps from a pcb up so getting complete parts would be a must.

Budget wise, I was looking at ~$150 systems such as Klipsch pro media 2.1, Logitech systems etc. I'm thinking I can build a similar or better system for less than that with some guidance.

Any help is appreciated, especially on threads/articles I can read to learn about how to build amps from scratch.
 
Budget wise, I was looking at ~$150 systems such as Klipsch pro media 2.1, Logitech systems etc. I'm thinking I can build a similar or better system for less than that with some guidance.
Welcome to the forum!

Actually, a diy equivalent is likely to be more expensive than the commercial item.

The diy path is fun, educational and a way of improving performance, however good components don't come cheap.

Please choose your immediate priority for assistance.

Is it "getting complete parts would be a must" or is it "how to build amps from scratch"?
 
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I've been looking at diy plans for building amps. It's basically sourcing parts and the PCB with some soldiering right?

What would be some recommended plans to look at?

What would constitute a "better" amp, higher quality components such as capacitors and mosfets etc or are those all pretty much the same?

I've read over explanations of the different classes of amps and I think class D is all I would need. I use the speakers for music and gaming, I would need to incorporate a headphone jack too. I would like to also build the speaker boxes, what are some decent names for speakers? I have browsed the Dayton Audio on parts-express but most of those do not handle 50w.
 
A 2.1 system requires two amplifiers - a two channel stereo amp for the satellite speakers and a separate mono amp for the woofer.

For a beginner, this may be too complex a project to build from scratch from circuit board and component level.

It would be easier to simply build a two channel stereo amplifier and pair it with two well built speaker boxes.

Here's a suitable stereo amplifier kit to which you would have to add a suitable power supply as well as two speaker boxes:

http://www.velleman.co.uk/manuals/k4003.pdf

Velleman 2 x 30W Audio Power Amplifier Kit K4003

Amplifier power outputs are always optimistically high, and depend on the current cabability of the power supply. Speakers of a lower power rating than the amplifier headline figure are permissable. If listening at normal, undistorted listening levels, you are unlikely to blow up the speakers.