My "audiophile" LM3886 approach

Outstanding! that picture should also be placed in the gainclone projects thread. Yes I know that is not a gainclone, but it is a chip amp and a well done one I might add, and looks cool in the cardboard box.

Just remember to have some vents in the Oak chassis you and pop are building so the heat sinks can breath. Also I did not see a fuse on the mains.

I can't wait to see it finished..
 
Cheers Guys,

There are 2 amp fuses on each transformers primary (plus a 5a in the uk mains plug.

Totally right about the ventilation, these things really chuck out some heat. Totally different to my normal LM3886 gains clones it that regard.

I am gonna let them bed in for a couple of days with telly watchng duty before i listen critically. Sound pretty nice already though
 
Hmm.

To be honest I think they are pretty decent size. There each have a 100mm * 50mm *50 mm heatsink. The part number is 5075251 from RS and they are rated at 1.7degC/W.

I chose them since they have a lot of radianting surface area in a quite short layout which is what i plan for the oak boxes. These will be built so that the heatsink sticks out of the side of the oak box, a athestic choice i fancy plus i mean far less heat inside the enclosure. Something i have always found in my IT work seem to degrade eletrolytics very quickly.

I think they might be heating up at the moment due to the fact they have little to no air flow underneath. I am going to attack to boxes to night to see if this lowers the temp.

If anyone else has any opions wether these heatsinks are too small that would be very much welcome prior to finalising the oak boxes.

Cheers guys,

Phil
 
"If anyone else has any opions wether these heatsinks are too small that would be very much welcome prior to finalising the oak boxes.

Cheers guys,

Phil"

As long as you have GOOD airflow and don't plan on DJ'ing with the amp that should be good. Worst case is taller feet to allow more air from bottom to top or a slow fan.

Remember the LM3886 has overtemp protection. But I seriously doubt you would experience it. I have still yet to over heat any LM chip.
 
Hmm.

I am using a Ad815 based preamp cuiruit with a DC negating servo. Beacuase of that there is no Caps at all in the signal path until the Power amp so I guess it is wise to leave one there.
What is the standard Input caps like in terms of quailty, is it polypropylene? Also what value is it. I have some BIG 4.7uf LCR polypropylene caps which work very well as input caps on a T-amp. Are these any use in this appication or are the values way off.

Phil
 
Well I tend to have other experiences with heatsinking.The amp can go very loud on most types of music without the need for bigger heatsinks than what you have.However you should test it with your favourite bass heavy music to really see how it fares in your set up.Something like Massive Attack or Kruder and Dorfmeister or even some recent Red Hot Chili Peppers at high levels will heat things up very quickly.Then the spike protection will kick in.Depends on room size,speakers,listening levels etc etc.
 
The standard kit input cap is a Epcos 1uF 305V Polyprop.

Initially the amp was designed for a 1uF Polyester, but we changed the board to accomidate the larger MKP. Anything with a 22.5mm pin spacing (or smaller) will fit on board. For larger than that, I recommend using an axial cap off board.

As to whether you need an inout cap, just measure the DC on the incoming signal with your multimeter.
 
lpm76 said:


I havn't found anything about that one in here! Is that a further refinement of the RevC, or is it a new design?


Some of both. It has some new features, such as a DC nulling servo, and it has the capacity for parallel current pumps(LM3886s).

The biggest difference is between it and the original REV A.

Mauro has not published the schematics though, so its hard to say what the exact differences are.

Ever since his bad experiences here dealing with some in the hobby (thankfully those people are not here any longer) he has been very reluctant to share details of new designs here. I don't blame him at all.

Bottom line, if Mauro designed it, I am quite sure it is good. :yes:

Cheers!
Russ