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2 X 100 Watt 6 Ohm Class D Audio Amplifier Board - TDA7498 100W Stereo Power Amp | eBay
2 X 100 Watt 6 Ohm Class D Audio Amplifier Board - TDA7498 100W Stereo Power Amp for US9.99
There are plenty of other examples out there. It seems to be an attractive option of you were putting together a multi-channel amp.
Are these kinds of things complete crap or are they actually pretty decent ?
2 X 100 Watt 6 Ohm Class D Audio Amplifier Board - TDA7498 100W Stereo Power Amp for US9.99
There are plenty of other examples out there. It seems to be an attractive option of you were putting together a multi-channel amp.
Are these kinds of things complete crap or are they actually pretty decent ?
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I speak as someone who has little DIY experience, other than an interest in reading about projects. I think the main answer to your question is that people like the challenge of turning a bag full of tiny parts into a working project, or at the higher level, of building something original of their own design. Other than those, you probably can NOT build something cheaper than buying a ready-made unit. I did a spot survey (Ebay) and I think you CAN buy a "DIY" (modules) that would be cheaper than my "benchmark" Behringer iNuke NU3000 (~$300) but you of course must find a power supply, chassis, etc. For the rest of us (me!) I am content to just take the fan out of the NU3000 and get a nice quiet Class D amp 🙂 Did I mention a warranty, at least until you remove the fan! Thank God (if she exists?) for cheap Chinese electronics (+ ebay and similar marketing) ... for those of us who are not to be trusted with a soldering iron ... for the rest of you, there is authentic DIY!
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If you wan't to build and especially construct yourself, the reason for sure shouldn't be to save money.
I myself like the challenge and I think if you are good, working long and hard at it ... and a bit luckey, you can end up with something which is better than what you can actually buy.
Getting a board and PSU off eBay, I would think could save you some money compared to get an off the shelfe HiFi/Surrounf unit giving the same performance. On the other hand don't thinkall you can find on eBay is pure gold .... think a lot of stuff don't seem to be well engineered, and it seems that some folks will get a schematic off the net and start producing something they don't really understand .... especially when we talk things like class-d which is very much harder to get to working really good compared to e.g. Class-AB
So do it becourse you feel like it, and think it is fun 🙂
I myself like the challenge and I think if you are good, working long and hard at it ... and a bit luckey, you can end up with something which is better than what you can actually buy.
Getting a board and PSU off eBay, I would think could save you some money compared to get an off the shelfe HiFi/Surrounf unit giving the same performance. On the other hand don't thinkall you can find on eBay is pure gold .... think a lot of stuff don't seem to be well engineered, and it seems that some folks will get a schematic off the net and start producing something they don't really understand .... especially when we talk things like class-d which is very much harder to get to working really good compared to e.g. Class-AB
So do it becourse you feel like it, and think it is fun 🙂
Ask your wife why she likes to knit jumpers. You can buy jumpers for less than the cost of the wool.
A hobby is just that, a hobby - something to do in your spare time.
I've never been bitten by the DIY speaker bug as I consider aesthetics to be important, others will disagree. I build amplifiers because I can achieve what I want to hear at a fraction of the cost of the commercial item. I'm talking about Pass Class A amps which are prohibitively expensive to buy but easy to DIY. At the lower end of the scale the tables are turned and you are paying for the pleasure of creating your own masterpiece.
A hobby is just that, a hobby - something to do in your spare time.
I've never been bitten by the DIY speaker bug as I consider aesthetics to be important, others will disagree. I build amplifiers because I can achieve what I want to hear at a fraction of the cost of the commercial item. I'm talking about Pass Class A amps which are prohibitively expensive to buy but easy to DIY. At the lower end of the scale the tables are turned and you are paying for the pleasure of creating your own masterpiece.
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Definitely not crap, at least for sonics. I have not tested these specific boards, but I have tested the Tripath versions made by the same vendor, and they actually sound very, very good even by audiophile standards. Good candidates for mods! But their Tripath versions run very hot for some reason, while competing products from HifiMeDiy do not. You should definitely check the HiFiMeDIY stuff also.
But at $9.99 + $12 shipping.... man, if these things are even half as good as the tripath versions, that's a heckofabargain!
I especially like the HiFiMeDIY amps that can be driven with +24V, allows for use with rechargeable batteries, and then they really sing.
Once i got these going, I ended up selling off all my tube amps. They are that good. I kid you not.
I used one of those Sure amplifier boards in a project and, in my opinion, it works great. If I remember correctly it is one of their class D models listed at 15 Watts / channel, no fan.
As far as "why diy?" - in my case I was presented with a predicament caused by my wife's choice of entertainment center furniture. All the cubby holes are too small for conventional gear so I rolled my own.
As far as "why diy?" - in my case I was presented with a predicament caused by my wife's choice of entertainment center furniture. All the cubby holes are too small for conventional gear so I rolled my own.
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You are never likely to save money with DIY audio. That said, I pretty much make everything from scratch I use for audio now. USB DAC, mic pre-amp, power amp, headphone amp. I bought a LP-2020A+, but then I replaced pretty much every through-hole part and removed the entire op-amp section. I mostly bought it for the board and the case.
If I make it it is fun, but it is also *exactly* the way I want it.
If I make it it is fun, but it is also *exactly* the way I want it.
There is nothing like the feeling of achievement when building an amplifier from the components and it works first time.
Then there is the feeling of achievement when it doesn't work first time and you work out why !
Then there is the feeling of achievement when it doesn't work first time and you work out why !
Totally agree with Nigel
So far I have 4 working amps built from inexpensive kits and 3 that I screwed up. Of the working amps the most satisfying are the ones that I modified (thank to the help of many of you). Even the ones that don't work are satisfying in their own way and I learn something new every time. 😀
So far I have 4 working amps built from inexpensive kits and 3 that I screwed up. Of the working amps the most satisfying are the ones that I modified (thank to the help of many of you). Even the ones that don't work are satisfying in their own way and I learn something new every time. 😀
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Ask youself this: whats the fun in taking a premade module and hooking it up as opposed to building the same thing from scratch.
Back in the day the object was to save money and still have a top notch product.
Sure this gets less and less norm with today's manufacturing.
But DIY can still have a considerable savings for very quality stuff if you don't go overboard on over spec'ed parts.
And even if you do you won't get that kind of quality without paying a price for the manufactured unit.
Besides all of the enjoyment one gets out of DIY, There have been considerable achievements in the design process of new technologies being presented in these very threads.
Also the comradery of the community is second to none and is most enjoyable during this process.
Sure, I have bought a mixer and some amps and such for probably less the than I could have built them for and the amps only because the were used.
How else could you build a good high power set of amps for less than $.25 a watt or better.
I 500 watt amp kit for $50!!
Sure the iron transformers or Heatsinks are not exactly cheap but can be if you are good at resourcing the options.
But my favorite thing to do is to be able to build speaker systems that rock and are tailored to my liking and have just as much precision and finesse for much much less than a prebuilt system, Namely ESL's and Exotics and as well as others of the standard type.
Creativity is at its highest when DIYing and it is all about meeting our own individual needs.
Keep on DIYing !!!!
Cheers !!!
jer 🙂
Sure this gets less and less norm with today's manufacturing.
But DIY can still have a considerable savings for very quality stuff if you don't go overboard on over spec'ed parts.
And even if you do you won't get that kind of quality without paying a price for the manufactured unit.
Besides all of the enjoyment one gets out of DIY, There have been considerable achievements in the design process of new technologies being presented in these very threads.
Also the comradery of the community is second to none and is most enjoyable during this process.
Sure, I have bought a mixer and some amps and such for probably less the than I could have built them for and the amps only because the were used.
How else could you build a good high power set of amps for less than $.25 a watt or better.
I 500 watt amp kit for $50!!
Sure the iron transformers or Heatsinks are not exactly cheap but can be if you are good at resourcing the options.
But my favorite thing to do is to be able to build speaker systems that rock and are tailored to my liking and have just as much precision and finesse for much much less than a prebuilt system, Namely ESL's and Exotics and as well as others of the standard type.
Creativity is at its highest when DIYing and it is all about meeting our own individual needs.
Keep on DIYing !!!!
Cheers !!!
jer 🙂
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I think you have to be careful with DIY, to avoid becoming obsessed with pointless details. My foray into amp building ended with me fretting about speaker protection to the extent that I felt nervous every time I turned on the amp. Yet I couldn't bring myself to place switch contacts at the output, for fear of corrupting the signal. So I used triac crowbars, but fretted about whether they were big enough, or whether they were switching fast enough, or too fast, and then whether they, themselves, had any measurable effect on the signal. It wasn't so much that I was worrying about nothing, but more that I began thinking about stuff that designers should worry about, not users. It began to spoil my experience of using the equipment.
What a relief to kick all that into touch, and get into speakers, and particularly DIY software. Exactly the same creative kicks, but zero cost, and no fear of smoke, fire and catastrophe. Assembling a system of multiple stereo amps from eBay with many thick cables gong into the backs of the speakers still gives you the mad-professor thrills, too. I'll also be doing a bit of woodwork, and that's very satisfying, but fear-free as well.
What a relief to kick all that into touch, and get into speakers, and particularly DIY software. Exactly the same creative kicks, but zero cost, and no fear of smoke, fire and catastrophe. Assembling a system of multiple stereo amps from eBay with many thick cables gong into the backs of the speakers still gives you the mad-professor thrills, too. I'll also be doing a bit of woodwork, and that's very satisfying, but fear-free as well.
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I diy because I can and I like the challenge and the learning, it was never above saving money.
Re the Sure amps, i have a friend who has had a handful, after several failures he opened a few transistors/chip cases, and there were several dubiously labelled components to be found. Ie they were stuffed with fake components.
Re the Sure amps, i have a friend who has had a handful, after several failures he opened a few transistors/chip cases, and there were several dubiously labelled components to be found. Ie they were stuffed with fake components.
There is a limit to the DIY aspect of any electronics project (or any project I suppose). At one extreme one could fabricate their own semiconductors. At the other end one simply buys an all-in-one audio system from a retailer and plugs it in. Most of us fall somewhere in between in an area of expertise that is comfortable for us to acheive the results we are happy with.
I tend to approach DIY in areas where there is no apparent solution. If the problem looks like it is something I can solve then I have a go at it. I purchase what I can and DIY the remaining parts. In my most recent case it was the desire to have a decent FM stereo receiver with an integrated amplifier that would fit in a specific spot (see post #7). Amplifier boards seem to be everywhere, most give good performance and are inexpensive. What I couldn't find was a FM stereo tuner that would fit in the chassis so I had to DIY one.
Developing the tuner module ended up being lots of fun. Learned microcontrollers, LCD displays, the i2C bus, etc. I've written lots of PC software so folding that knowledge into a microcontroller was a great learning experience.
I tend to approach DIY in areas where there is no apparent solution. If the problem looks like it is something I can solve then I have a go at it. I purchase what I can and DIY the remaining parts. In my most recent case it was the desire to have a decent FM stereo receiver with an integrated amplifier that would fit in a specific spot (see post #7). Amplifier boards seem to be everywhere, most give good performance and are inexpensive. What I couldn't find was a FM stereo tuner that would fit in the chassis so I had to DIY one.
Developing the tuner module ended up being lots of fun. Learned microcontrollers, LCD displays, the i2C bus, etc. I've written lots of PC software so folding that knowledge into a microcontroller was a great learning experience.
The amp module doesn't come with a case so you still have to DIY it. And the toughest parts of DIY are the casework and power supply anyway.
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