So I am getting into the book
“The Audiophile project source book”
This is my first book on SS getting into building receivers (a big jump from just buying ones already made)
I am hooked, I am convinced that I should try to build one myself.
And I would like to build an SS amp or one of his amps.
However this is the problem of reading a book almost 20 years old
His kits or site is not available. So I would have to create my own circuit boards (which would be a fun hobby but not yet ready). I think to start I should just focus on a practice solder pre printed circuit board
What is the next step? I would like to try to build a ~10w-30w amplifier, pre amp, phono
Or what kits do people go to? eBay? Diyaudio store?
Or should I read another book first that has laid out components?
What is the next book people recommend?
Or, how do I go from circuit diagrams to component layout with confidence?
Should I just buy a proto board and try assembling the components?
Looking for recommended direction
Thank you!
“The Audiophile project source book”
This is my first book on SS getting into building receivers (a big jump from just buying ones already made)
I am hooked, I am convinced that I should try to build one myself.
And I would like to build an SS amp or one of his amps.
However this is the problem of reading a book almost 20 years old
His kits or site is not available. So I would have to create my own circuit boards (which would be a fun hobby but not yet ready). I think to start I should just focus on a practice solder pre printed circuit board
What is the next step? I would like to try to build a ~10w-30w amplifier, pre amp, phono
Or what kits do people go to? eBay? Diyaudio store?
Or should I read another book first that has laid out components?
What is the next book people recommend?
Or, how do I go from circuit diagrams to component layout with confidence?
Should I just buy a proto board and try assembling the components?
Looking for recommended direction
Thank you!
Here is my 2 cents... I got into this through wanting to repair a broken car amplifier. People on this board,. Perry Babin in the car audio forum in particular were extremely helpful, and the repair was a success. It was fun. I wanted more. So I ended up fixing several more amplifiers researching how amplifiers work online. I also took some electronics classes through coursera and Georgia tech. From there I repaired a couple home amplifiers and receivers. I then decided to make the jump to building my own. I chose the honey badger amp as my first build. With help from people in the solid state forum, it was a success. So I built another one. Now I have two good amazing quality home brew amplifiers in my living room. I'm in the process of building a gb150d amplifier now.
The honey badger has a good knowledge base, a detailed build guide, and a supportive build thread stickied at the top. Boards and a book of materials are available in the diyaudio store.
It's fun, and the music sounds great!
The honey badger has a good knowledge base, a detailed build guide, and a supportive build thread stickied at the top. Boards and a book of materials are available in the diyaudio store.
It's fun, and the music sounds great!
I naively got stuck into a USB audio mixer project pcb.
The pcb came in and I built it up.
There was 1VRMS noise on output with inputs shorted !
I have just connected the pcb up any way was easiest.
When I got into it what had happened was charging impulses into smoothing caps was also modulating the ground signal which injected noise into my op amp inputs causing the 1VRMS on the output.
So I reworked the pcb to have power coming into the smoothing caps first, then on to audio circuit. This time hum was minimal.
The other big failure people see on pcb's is not star grounding the different stages of an amplifier. Similar to the problem above the outputs can modulate the ground feeding this back into previous stages and causing distortion and sometimes oscillation.
Also with pcb's its best to keep high impedance tracks short and have the inputs on screened wires. Also keep transformers and high ACV away from high impedance signals.
The pcb came in and I built it up.
There was 1VRMS noise on output with inputs shorted !
I have just connected the pcb up any way was easiest.
When I got into it what had happened was charging impulses into smoothing caps was also modulating the ground signal which injected noise into my op amp inputs causing the 1VRMS on the output.
So I reworked the pcb to have power coming into the smoothing caps first, then on to audio circuit. This time hum was minimal.
The other big failure people see on pcb's is not star grounding the different stages of an amplifier. Similar to the problem above the outputs can modulate the ground feeding this back into previous stages and causing distortion and sometimes oscillation.
Also with pcb's its best to keep high impedance tracks short and have the inputs on screened wires. Also keep transformers and high ACV away from high impedance signals.
making PCB's is a big stretch. There are 1000 ways to lay it out wrong, and disposing of the etch chemical legally in the US costs >$450 here requiring room to store a 55 gal drum at $30 a month rental.
There are thousands of boards available from ebay, mostly from another country. Some are great, some are trash. Read this forum for recommendations of which ones you might buy. Hardly anybody runs little businesses anymore with complete kits.
I learned a whole lot of things by repairing existing succesful amplifiers. That gets you out of buying all the niggly extras of a amp, case, heat sink, fan, transformer, PS, connectors, switches, fuses, lamps, blah blah. The peavey PA amp line is well documented and because the transformers are too heavy for bar bands to schlep around, pretty cheap for 80's 90's models working or not. Dynaco was how I started but they have become trendy and are not cheap anymore even blown up. NAD is respected, blown ones are not cheap, but there are clone boards out there. Quad is another respected line of hifi amps with lots of copy boards available.
I read "electronic devices the electron flow version" by floyd, an obsolete text from the local community college. Learned a lot. Perhaps your local community is sluffing off another textbook that give a great introduction to theory without requiring a lot of math. I got mine at a charity resale shop. Doug Self & John Curl amp design books are popular here, but are pretty sophisticated for a beginner. They cover subitlties of design that affect the 3rd digit of harmonic distortion, not anything you are likely to hear on a speaker costing <$600 ea. If you get HD <1% it is pretty good for a beginner. I favor a 6 transistor design that has HD .06% at 70 W/ch power. The Apex AX6. I built mine point to point, no import PCB's required. Stuffed it in a dynaco ST120 instead of the torn up many times repaired boards it came with which sounded blah.
Happy shopping, reading, maybe building or repairing.
There are thousands of boards available from ebay, mostly from another country. Some are great, some are trash. Read this forum for recommendations of which ones you might buy. Hardly anybody runs little businesses anymore with complete kits.
I learned a whole lot of things by repairing existing succesful amplifiers. That gets you out of buying all the niggly extras of a amp, case, heat sink, fan, transformer, PS, connectors, switches, fuses, lamps, blah blah. The peavey PA amp line is well documented and because the transformers are too heavy for bar bands to schlep around, pretty cheap for 80's 90's models working or not. Dynaco was how I started but they have become trendy and are not cheap anymore even blown up. NAD is respected, blown ones are not cheap, but there are clone boards out there. Quad is another respected line of hifi amps with lots of copy boards available.
I read "electronic devices the electron flow version" by floyd, an obsolete text from the local community college. Learned a lot. Perhaps your local community is sluffing off another textbook that give a great introduction to theory without requiring a lot of math. I got mine at a charity resale shop. Doug Self & John Curl amp design books are popular here, but are pretty sophisticated for a beginner. They cover subitlties of design that affect the 3rd digit of harmonic distortion, not anything you are likely to hear on a speaker costing <$600 ea. If you get HD <1% it is pretty good for a beginner. I favor a 6 transistor design that has HD .06% at 70 W/ch power. The Apex AX6. I built mine point to point, no import PCB's required. Stuffed it in a dynaco ST120 instead of the torn up many times repaired boards it came with which sounded blah.
Happy shopping, reading, maybe building or repairing.
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Indianajo makes a good point, buying all the stuff you need to build an amp can get expensive. After repairing several amps, i figured it would be much cheaper to integrate diy amp boards with an existing blown amp. The arcam I built into a honey badger was free, and that covered heat sinks, transformer, and case. That one probably cost less than $200 total. The Denon, similar situation, $80 for a busted one, power supply was good. Amp board was bad. Amp boards dropped right in, so reused the heatsinks, transformer, power supply, everything except the amp boards, which I replaced with honey badger boards. Total cost was less than $150. Looks stock, sounds better than stock. Current gb150d project uses a rotel case transformer and heatsink. I am using the power supply from the arcam.
We'll see how this one comes out. Building one with all new components would be nice, but I am a cheapskate.
Eventually I would like to be able to design my own circuits and pcbs, but I am a long way from that.
Keep posting what you decide to do and what path you take, I am interested...
We'll see how this one comes out. Building one with all new components would be nice, but I am a cheapskate.
Eventually I would like to be able to design my own circuits and pcbs, but I am a long way from that.
Keep posting what you decide to do and what path you take, I am interested...
Very good insight!
I guess one of the selling point that the book was making is that is it is cheaper than buying a new high end amplifier.
However the obvious, it is still going to cost money to buy those good components.
I like the idea of finding a broken SSreceiver for little money, going through seeing what’s wrong. Testing components. Adding own amp board hopefully designed better than what was originally designed.
Also the idea of fixing something and not throwing it away.
I am actually working on repairing a dynakit ST70 and learning how tube amplifiers work. So that side of receiver repair is covered
I will keep reading, practicing, tinkering
DIY Amps to look into
Honey Badger
Books
Doug Self & John Curl amp design books
And I will keep watching you tube videos
Thanks for the advice!
I guess one of the selling point that the book was making is that is it is cheaper than buying a new high end amplifier.
However the obvious, it is still going to cost money to buy those good components.
I like the idea of finding a broken SSreceiver for little money, going through seeing what’s wrong. Testing components. Adding own amp board hopefully designed better than what was originally designed.
Also the idea of fixing something and not throwing it away.
I am actually working on repairing a dynakit ST70 and learning how tube amplifiers work. So that side of receiver repair is covered
I will keep reading, practicing, tinkering
DIY Amps to look into
Honey Badger
Books
Doug Self & John Curl amp design books
And I will keep watching you tube videos
Thanks for the advice!