Remember I was a new to building audio a year ago. I learned a lot from reading through the threads. All those questions from other confused builders and seeing other peoples errors are a big help for new builders.
JW,
You might have been new to audio circuits but it does seem you had a pretty strong background in other electronics. I've worked with industrial equipment and automotive wiring for years so many basic concepts I understand, but audio design past the speaker end and acoustics has all been new to me the past few years. It's one thing to find a fault with my equipment but another thing to know how to string a bunch of transistors and caps and resistors together and get sweet music out the other end.
ps. Now add in digital circuitry and I'm lost again, starting from the beginning on how it all works.
You might have been new to audio circuits but it does seem you had a pretty strong background in other electronics. I've worked with industrial equipment and automotive wiring for years so many basic concepts I understand, but audio design past the speaker end and acoustics has all been new to me the past few years. It's one thing to find a fault with my equipment but another thing to know how to string a bunch of transistors and caps and resistors together and get sweet music out the other end.
ps. Now add in digital circuitry and I'm lost again, starting from the beginning on how it all works.
I can see that some concise build instructions would be a help to many. This type of work is my least favorite and not something I am likely to do...If someone else wants to do that work that would be great.
Separate schematics would be nice. I do not know how to put something like this together for publication here.
Another thought is this...and I may be labeled a jerk for saying it....All the answers are there. One only needs to take the time to read and take some notes to have most things made clear. At that point a few pointed questions could be asked.
Again if one of the members with a good handle on how things work and the ability to explain things in writing wants to take the time to put a guide together I'm sure it would be a benefit to many and much appreciated.
E
Separate schematics would be nice. I do not know how to put something like this together for publication here.
Another thought is this...and I may be labeled a jerk for saying it....All the answers are there. One only needs to take the time to read and take some notes to have most things made clear. At that point a few pointed questions could be asked.
Again if one of the members with a good handle on how things work and the ability to explain things in writing wants to take the time to put a guide together I'm sure it would be a benefit to many and much appreciated.
E
I agree with digging in and finding answers in the forums. There's a lot of good information in them. People whine about having to sift through pages of off topic conversation, but there's probably more useful information in those posts.
There are now 8,000 plus posts in the CFA vs VFA thread. Yes you can find the information if you spend the time but it would be nice to put this all together in a coherent way so it wasn't such a chore to find the information. I have saved many of the schematics and other things that have been posted along the way in my documents files so I can go back and find them, that helps. Some of the information is complete some I would need to go back and find if there were any changes after I saved the technical files with files for board layout and asc files for sims and such. There is a lot of information in those 8K plus posts for sure.
Os has the locations of all his finished designs in the first post. Most useful information is in the area of the finished design.
JW,
Bottom line is the easiest thing to do is just build to Pete's layouts and parts selection. Just do what he designed and you know it will work and work well. If you are advanced enough to make changes you can probably figure it all out yourself. The boards are high quality designs and the hard work has been done and proven. Only one input section that wasn't figured out, all the rest just work as is and have great performance.
Bottom line is the easiest thing to do is just build to Pete's layouts and parts selection. Just do what he designed and you know it will work and work well. If you are advanced enough to make changes you can probably figure it all out yourself. The boards are high quality designs and the hard work has been done and proven. Only one input section that wasn't figured out, all the rest just work as is and have great performance.
Hi Guys,
This amp was never intended to be a "kit". This is DIY. If a kit is what you are looking for, one of us who have built them could probably put one together, (for a price), but what will you learn from that? Half of the fun(?) of doing DIY is sourcing the parts, being creatve, asking questions and giving/receiving help. The search function in this forum is invaluable. If you have a question about a certain componant, type its name into the "search this thread" box and start reading each post it takes you to. It's very likely that one of us has already been where you are and asked/received answers. If nothing else you are going to learn something about it.
This amp was never intended to be a "kit". This is DIY. If a kit is what you are looking for, one of us who have built them could probably put one together, (for a price), but what will you learn from that? Half of the fun(?) of doing DIY is sourcing the parts, being creatve, asking questions and giving/receiving help. The search function in this forum is invaluable. If you have a question about a certain componant, type its name into the "search this thread" box and start reading each post it takes you to. It's very likely that one of us has already been where you are and asked/received answers. If nothing else you are going to learn something about it.
I couldn't agree more with the DIY views on this hobby. However i created my boms as i found as i started collecting information for the components i needed to purchase a spreadsheet became the logical location to store the gather data. My versions also include supplier part numbers and i also thought i could minimise the number of orders placed.
Having a bom doesn't equate to treating this like a kit.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
Having a bom doesn't equate to treating this like a kit.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
To me a kit is a prepackages set of parts and boards and instructions. I don't think I have seen more than a couple of people ask about that. If that was to happen only Pete should be doing that and making money in the vendor thread. But a real bom with part numbers and any required matching or bias setting information would be handy if it was all in one place. I'll leave it at that.
Kindhornman and kool lites, you are both correct. A well organized BOM and some set up guidance would be great.....I wish I worked in a way that when I figure these things out for myself it would be more helpful to others.
A lot of us work differently. When I go to assemble an amp I grab parts out of my drawers and boxes. What I don't have in stock I add to the next order of parts. I know Terry works like this also. I can't imagine how much of a PITA and how expensive it would be to order from a BOM. Buying in bulk saves a lot of money and grief. Suppliers like Newark have amazing overstock sales regularly. There aren't that many different parts needed to build most amplifiers on this website.
The problem with a BOM is that everyone seems to have their own "favorite" caps, transistors, resistors etc. One guy might feel it is mandatory to use mica for all the small caps and black gates for the electros, 600V oil-filled input caps, .6w resistors etc and don't mind spending $300+ for parts when another feels he gets just as good of results with $50 worth of carefully selected "bargain" parts. I know someone offered to put together a manual similar to what the Honey Badger has. Maybe he can still be coaxed into doing that. I wasn't suggesting that any of us are looking to "make money" off of putting a kit together. I'm certainly not. A BOM is nice sometimes but the availability of parts is different for everyone depending where they live and where they shop for parts. I have had much more problem trying to find a specific part listed in a BOM than I ever have searching for them based on the value printed on the schematic. If I just couldn't find one of them I just asked for help. Someone here will be able to point you in the right direction.
Terry,
No argument that some will want to use costly boutique audiophile parts but I think that Pete used mostly common parts that should be easy enough to find, at least for us here in the USA. When those parts aren't available I agree then substitutions come into play. I don't believe in the audiophile parts myself, I have personal experience on the capacitors front as I knew someone who made many of those for companies selling them for big bucks, they were nothing special except for the wrapper.
Where I think things change is when you go for the maximum voltage as Pete seemed to like to do, not everyone needs to build with 70V+ rails but that seems to get the maximum results that Pete was after.
No argument that some will want to use costly boutique audiophile parts but I think that Pete used mostly common parts that should be easy enough to find, at least for us here in the USA. When those parts aren't available I agree then substitutions come into play. I don't believe in the audiophile parts myself, I have personal experience on the capacitors front as I knew someone who made many of those for companies selling them for big bucks, they were nothing special except for the wrapper.
Where I think things change is when you go for the maximum voltage as Pete seemed to like to do, not everyone needs to build with 70V+ rails but that seems to get the maximum results that Pete was after.
Or if you do not have enough experience and time to do the search will end up with a firework..
Terry you right these not a kit but think that way Because is DIY there is a chance always to NEW builders
You built a lot of amp and have a lot of experience that is great for you! I respect that. Also you are very helpful to answer!
But someone just want to build one amp at his spare time or limited time can get in trouble. Burn precious parts etc.
Can you see that
I did blew up amplifier at start up when I had less experience
$17/PC power Sanken went up to smoke, I never finished that amp because of that!
It would be very- very helpful to separate the circuit at least for these PC board which can be used with BJT or mosfet
If someone use different semis or components than is it in the schematic or BOM he must take the time to do research ,many of us just order the parts in one order what ever we need, if I burn one component after I have to reorder so on........
Please do not misunderstand I'm very great full for the opportunity we can build such a great amp. But we can not think these way if I have the time to go true several hundreds of pages everybody must have or do the same
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It wasn't likely the lack of a BOM that caused your first amp to blow up. Common sense says chances are you will blow something up on your first build. If that scares you away from the hobby, it's probably not a good hobby for you. Use cheap parts and ask lots of questions if needed. I got my first few amps running with no smoke. I did a lot of reading, asked some questions, and posted some pictures here. Later on I built a big oscillator, but that was because I followed an outdated schematic.
That was not my first amp or second 😀
Yes DIY is a great hobby but no longer cheap and if we pay good bucks we want to put it in good use, shipping not cheap to specially if we have to reorder etc.
To write which hobby good to someone ........... 😱😱🙄 I do not think we must go there a bit over the top.
I read many time even experience builders like Terry do make a mistake how much more can happen with a less experienced guy with a complex schematics
We just saw an example
I do not write these to argue please I have better thinks to do 🙂
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Yes look what just happened. He made a mistake, was smart enough to post a few pictures before blowing it up,and all is good. My point exactly.
If you think the hobby is getting more expensive, you need to look at what you are working with. Parts are cheaper and better than ever. Leave the Hitachi and Toshiba parts alone. On Semi and Fairchild are very cheap and excellent parts.
If you think the hobby is getting more expensive, you need to look at what you are working with. Parts are cheaper and better than ever. Leave the Hitachi and Toshiba parts alone. On Semi and Fairchild are very cheap and excellent parts.