Hello all,
New house, new project! My current lab gruppen / void system has had a comprehensive 'no' from the better half - so looking to downsize. Hoping to both keep this as a project log and also gain some knowledge from the collective hivemind!
Amp will be powering:
Two 8R 5"+1" Onkyo tops 100Hz+ (they're cheap but surprisingly good sounding) (~50wrms)
Dual 4R 8"PPSL 20-100Hz (~800wrms)
Amp proposal:
Input:
Wifi board / RCA. Aim to use wifi 90% of the time, with RCA fallback. Does anyone know of any good or cheap PCB solutions? I have found this but not sure what else is on market..
Preamp:
Most likely 6J1 with gain control, really like the sound of these. Unless anyone has any better ideas for similar money? I have very limited experience with tubes..
DSP (already own):
4ch MiniDSP analogue standard board. I have measurement kit, so intend to make the most of room correction!
Amp boards (already own):
Sub: TAS5630 (240w @4R x2)
Tops: TPA3116D2 (30w @8R x2)
Power supply
Eltek Mini rack 48v / 800w telecoms SMPS (recently bought)
24v supply TBD. I was thinking to put two TPA3116D2 in series to get 24v each? It's easier than either buying a separate 240>24v supply or using a 48>24 DCDC? Is this a silly idea?
I plan to pop it all in an easy prebuilt aluminium case, as small as I can cram in..
Thoughts and criticisms are more than welcome!!
New house, new project! My current lab gruppen / void system has had a comprehensive 'no' from the better half - so looking to downsize. Hoping to both keep this as a project log and also gain some knowledge from the collective hivemind!
Amp will be powering:
Two 8R 5"+1" Onkyo tops 100Hz+ (they're cheap but surprisingly good sounding) (~50wrms)
Dual 4R 8"PPSL 20-100Hz (~800wrms)
Amp proposal:
Input:
Wifi board / RCA. Aim to use wifi 90% of the time, with RCA fallback. Does anyone know of any good or cheap PCB solutions? I have found this but not sure what else is on market..
Preamp:
Most likely 6J1 with gain control, really like the sound of these. Unless anyone has any better ideas for similar money? I have very limited experience with tubes..
DSP (already own):
4ch MiniDSP analogue standard board. I have measurement kit, so intend to make the most of room correction!
Amp boards (already own):
Sub: TAS5630 (240w @4R x2)
Tops: TPA3116D2 (30w @8R x2)
Power supply
Eltek Mini rack 48v / 800w telecoms SMPS (recently bought)
24v supply TBD. I was thinking to put two TPA3116D2 in series to get 24v each? It's easier than either buying a separate 240>24v supply or using a 48>24 DCDC? Is this a silly idea?
I plan to pop it all in an easy prebuilt aluminium case, as small as I can cram in..
Thoughts and criticisms are more than welcome!!
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Everything apart from the Smps is playing together
(will try to fix image later..)
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
(will try to fix image later..)
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There is a bank of two capacitors near the centre of the pics. Why? Some types of SMPS's may be unstable with heavy capacitive loading, because they alter the closed loop transfer characteristic, adding poles and zeros not taken into account by the SMPS manufacturer. Please ignore this comment if they are wired in other place.
Okay, so no amplifiers in series.. As much as I was toying with it, I knew it was probably one of my worse ideas!
I have heard that additional capacitance after SMPS can be bad. They are not worth placing in then to test? I will remove if so, I don't want to send wild voltages downstream.
One thing I am currently struggling with is how to wire TAS5630 in PBTL. Not having much luck with the manufacturer response or the internet. Are these instructions for the TPA3110D2 the same: ?
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Any takers for the PBTL question above?
It'll fit!
(click on image for correct aspect ratio)
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
It'll fit!
(click on image for correct aspect ratio)
Hi Graham, sorry for the slow reply - have been quite distracted with losing my job .. Good news - I can finally progress on with the build!!
The device seems very good to me, noise floor is low enough to not seem a problem, and works flawlessly with airplay. With careful AB I cannot fault the sound quality vs any other method.
I see there is a new version on their website, with slightly more IO.
As above, the build is forging on!
The mechanical assembly is complete with the front and rear panels machined, internal frame is built up and the the components are all connected and talking to each other.
A complete rats nest at the moment as needs some serious tidying before its final commissioning and assembly. Have decided to make the top lid out of laser cut wood, just working on the finishing of the part.
I will try to get a better picture soon, but here is a current image of the spaghetti junction going on in the living room..:
However, I have a problem - please help!
I seem to have a fundamental issue with the connection of the power rails inside, which I do not seem able to solve. Here are the three 'symptoms' of the problem:
Can anyone help with any pointers? I can draw up a schematic if that would help?
Thanks
The mechanical assembly is complete with the front and rear panels machined, internal frame is built up and the the components are all connected and talking to each other.
A complete rats nest at the moment as needs some serious tidying before its final commissioning and assembly. Have decided to make the top lid out of laser cut wood, just working on the finishing of the part.
I will try to get a better picture soon, but here is a current image of the spaghetti junction going on in the living room..:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
However, I have a problem - please help!
I seem to have a fundamental issue with the connection of the power rails inside, which I do not seem able to solve. Here are the three 'symptoms' of the problem:
- There is a pulsing 'crack' sound from the outputs, sounds like an RC circuit discharging in ~1 second intervals somewhere
- The TPA3116D2s seem to be able to be powered without their 0V line connected (!!), the only other place they seem to be able to get the differential is from the DSP ground (Not good!!)
- The protection circuits really do not like the supplied signal and refuse to open a lot of the time. If I fiddle with separate isolated DC supplies and power up in certain ways they sometimes latch open. I guess they're detected DC offsets.
Can anyone help with any pointers? I can draw up a schematic if that would help?
Thanks
Hi Graham, sorry for the slow reply - have been quite distracted with losing my job .. Good news - I can finally progress on with the build!!
The device seems very good to me, noise floor is low enough to not seem a problem, and works flawlessly with airplay. With careful AB I cannot fault the sound quality vs any other method.
I see there is a new version on their website, with slightly more IO.
Sorry to hear that! At least you have something to d distract yourself with!
I have the up2stream pro version, I assume there will be marginal differences in quality one way or the other. How did you isolate the power going to the board? Keep up the good work man.
Seems I'm not the best to ask about power isolation!
I used an MP1584 buck I had lying around to drop from the aux 12v SMPS to 5v for what it's worth.. Shame these don't have an onboard linear reg to allow a greater operating range / take out some noise if it's present.
All up and running! Update:
- The protection boards were causing some fairly serious ground loops. I was unable to find a solution that both allowed their DC fault correction to work and keep the grounds floating. For this reason I have disconnected them and will be using a spare timed relay circuit to delay switch on of amp boards.
- A large portion of the noise issues were from the antennae on the wifi board. Relocating the board and antennae as far as possible with a specific orientation has stopped all EMI issues (was being picked up by valve stage). Noise floor is now non existent with 90dB/1w tops.
- The up2stream board has self destructed anyway. It started drawing 1.5A @ 5vdc (7.5w!) and shortly after ceased to function. Arylic have kindly offered to send a new 'bottom board' to the unit, as was most likely the source of fault. The BT 5.0 input sounds pretty decent in the meantime.
- In order to simplify the build & troubleshooting, I am building the amp first as 4ch, then will upgrade to 6ch at some point in future.
- All electronics is done (minus wifi and relay)! Done some light REW / DSP work and sounds great!
- Left to do is grab some pics, fit to case + upgrade wiring on PPSL to allow the full 600w power.
- The protection boards were causing some fairly serious ground loops. I was unable to find a solution that both allowed their DC fault correction to work and keep the grounds floating. For this reason I have disconnected them and will be using a spare timed relay circuit to delay switch on of amp boards.
- A large portion of the noise issues were from the antennae on the wifi board. Relocating the board and antennae as far as possible with a specific orientation has stopped all EMI issues (was being picked up by valve stage). Noise floor is now non existent with 90dB/1w tops.
- The up2stream board has self destructed anyway. It started drawing 1.5A @ 5vdc (7.5w!) and shortly after ceased to function. Arylic have kindly offered to send a new 'bottom board' to the unit, as was most likely the source of fault. The BT 5.0 input sounds pretty decent in the meantime.
- In order to simplify the build & troubleshooting, I am building the amp first as 4ch, then will upgrade to 6ch at some point in future.
- All electronics is done (minus wifi and relay)! Done some light REW / DSP work and sounds great!
- Left to do is grab some pics, fit to case + upgrade wiring on PPSL to allow the full 600w power.
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The TPA3116 chip has both Mute and Standby logic incorporated. Delay turn on can be accomplished with a very simple RC circuit.
The chips also incorporate voltage, temperature and current protections internally and fault reports on one of it's pins. The fault pin can be used to put the amp into standby mode.
The data sheet is ... Here
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