Just wanted to say thanks for the help I got from some of you on this forum while I was building my first DIY speaker project. I started this project almost a year ago and finally finished it up (I was in Europe the past 5 months and wasn't able to complete the project before I left).
To start off, I put the T-amp in a new box with a few extra inputs and outputs. The satellites are Hi-Vi B3N (enclosure modelled after Zaph's pair) and the sub is a Dayton 8" DVC paired up with a 70W amp.
I was going for a high gloss finish along with a veneer baffle. I learned the hard way that the surface must be totally smooth before you start priming and painting. I ended up sticking a gloss black laminate on the amp and satellites to cover up all my mistakes 🙂.
Bottom line: I love the sound of this setup. I'm using the speakers at my computer in my bedroom, and I get great sound without having satellites that dominate my desk. I'm also using the sub with my humble HT setup (that's what the second sub input is for on the amp), and it plays flat down to 30 hz. Overall this was an awesome first project for me, and I'm itching to make some more speakers!
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c290/the_mad_bassist/Misc/tn_1.jpg
The whole system
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c290/the_mad_bassist/Misc/tn_2.jpg
Front of the amp
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c290/the_mad_bassist/Misc/tn_3.jpg
Back of the amp
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c290/the_mad_bassist/Misc/tn_4.jpg
The satellites
On a side note, I was having some problems with the main volume pot earlier on. It only gave me volume during the last 10% of the rotation. The T-amp doesn't see this problem anympre, but headphones still do. I have the input wired directly to the pot, which then runs to the toggle switch. The toggle either runs directly to the headphone jack or the amp, depending on the position of the switch. Any ideas how to cure this? Would putting a CMoy headphone amp in place of the volume pot clear up this problem?
To start off, I put the T-amp in a new box with a few extra inputs and outputs. The satellites are Hi-Vi B3N (enclosure modelled after Zaph's pair) and the sub is a Dayton 8" DVC paired up with a 70W amp.
I was going for a high gloss finish along with a veneer baffle. I learned the hard way that the surface must be totally smooth before you start priming and painting. I ended up sticking a gloss black laminate on the amp and satellites to cover up all my mistakes 🙂.
Bottom line: I love the sound of this setup. I'm using the speakers at my computer in my bedroom, and I get great sound without having satellites that dominate my desk. I'm also using the sub with my humble HT setup (that's what the second sub input is for on the amp), and it plays flat down to 30 hz. Overall this was an awesome first project for me, and I'm itching to make some more speakers!
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c290/the_mad_bassist/Misc/tn_1.jpg
The whole system
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c290/the_mad_bassist/Misc/tn_2.jpg
Front of the amp
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c290/the_mad_bassist/Misc/tn_3.jpg
Back of the amp
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c290/the_mad_bassist/Misc/tn_4.jpg
The satellites
On a side note, I was having some problems with the main volume pot earlier on. It only gave me volume during the last 10% of the rotation. The T-amp doesn't see this problem anympre, but headphones still do. I have the input wired directly to the pot, which then runs to the toggle switch. The toggle either runs directly to the headphone jack or the amp, depending on the position of the switch. Any ideas how to cure this? Would putting a CMoy headphone amp in place of the volume pot clear up this problem?
Very nice setup, I wish I could make stuff look as nice as that 🙂
On the headphones note, if you have the line inputs running straight through a pot to the headphones most of the input voltage will appear across the high resistance of the input pot (10k atleast) and nothing across the 32 or 600 ohm headphones. In which case theyll only work when the resistnace of the pot goes below 1k or so. To solve this you would have to build a buffer in between the potentiometer and the headphone jack.
On the headphones note, if you have the line inputs running straight through a pot to the headphones most of the input voltage will appear across the high resistance of the input pot (10k atleast) and nothing across the 32 or 600 ohm headphones. In which case theyll only work when the resistnace of the pot goes below 1k or so. To solve this you would have to build a buffer in between the potentiometer and the headphone jack.
I'm am going to do a similar project for my T-Amp, but, I'm going to use a CMoy headphone amp, connecting the inputs in parallel to the cmoy inputs and the t-amp inputs. I think that the impedance will be fine with this. However, this project probably won't get off the ground till it's too cold to do wood finishing out in the shop.😉
Tom.
Tom.
Thanks for the encouraging responses! I'm glad the speakers turned out the way they did after the countless hours of work I poured into them.
Bonce, I think I'll try using a buffer on the headphone jack. Do you know where I can find an example/schematic of a buffer in this situation? Also, if it could be built to run off of the 12V power source I'm using to power the T-amp, that would be very convenient.
Bonce, I think I'll try using a buffer on the headphone jack. Do you know where I can find an example/schematic of a buffer in this situation? Also, if it could be built to run off of the 12V power source I'm using to power the T-amp, that would be very convenient.
Wow, very impressive! And perfect timing for me as I've been looking for my first DIY 2.1 speaker project. Was this done with plans or was the whole design by you?
tdstr said:
For the satellites, I pretty much used Zaph's design for the B3S's but substituted Hi-Vi's B3N drivers because they look nicer. 🙂
I used WinISD to model a box/port size for the Dayton 8" DVC driver, and I matched it up with a 70W plate amp from Parts Express.
Finally, the amp is basically just the SI T-amp put in a new enclosure with some extra "features", inputs and outputs that I wanted for this application. I'm not sure if anyone else has done theirs exactly like this, so I guess you could say that I designed it... 😉
For starting your first project, I'd recommend beginning with the sub, since that would probably be the easiest to construct with room to screw up a bit. The satellites are also quite strait forward, and the amp is just a lot of soldering. Good luck, and keep us posted!
Jared
Impressive first build !
Very good vork!
Now i dont know much about the T-amp but did you modify it to get the "Sub Out" or is that standard connections?
If you modified it to get the outputs for the Sub, How did you do it?
/Z
Very good vork!
Now i dont know much about the T-amp but did you modify it to get the "Sub Out" or is that standard connections?
If you modified it to get the outputs for the Sub, How did you do it?
/Z
Re: Impressive first build !
The T-amp doesn't come with a sub out normally. Basically after the Master volume pot I split the signal running to the T-amp, sent it through the Sub volume pot, and to the sub output on the back. This output is full range, I let the sub deal with the crossover.
Jared
zei said:
The T-amp doesn't come with a sub out normally. Basically after the Master volume pot I split the signal running to the T-amp, sent it through the Sub volume pot, and to the sub output on the back. This output is full range, I let the sub deal with the crossover.
Jared
In terms of the headphone output, I would go for a simple Cmoy headamp (http://www.headwize.com/projects/showproj.php?file=cmoy2_prj.htm).
This actually requires a split rail power supply but one can be made from a potential divider if only small currents are required. The gain can also be set and I expect you may need atleast a little bit (certainly more than just unity) to drive the headphones to reasonable levels.
This actually requires a split rail power supply but one can be made from a potential divider if only small currents are required. The gain can also be set and I expect you may need atleast a little bit (certainly more than just unity) to drive the headphones to reasonable levels.
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