Lest it appear that I unfairly discounted or stereotyped tube ampers as old fashioned romantics, I should say that of the most revealing of three tube v SS comparisons I’ve done, through very good Osborn made Focal speakers it was
- well regarded Bryston 4B - 3rd on sound quality
- Audio Research of a quarter the power - 2nd, and
- Lowest powered but innovative Audio Aero’s Capitole - 1st .
From www.audioaero.com/ “50 W Class A special push-pull configuration leans on the very musical E34L triode wired, supported all the time by the powerful KT88 pentode.”
But to build any of these three DIY is in a different league to a gainclone or UcD.
Perhaps I should have titled the thread “King of the simple & cheap DIY amps”
classd4sure
I don’t need 180 w - I’m curious how you get 2*50 w ~ is it from the 180 w chip?
- well regarded Bryston 4B - 3rd on sound quality
- Audio Research of a quarter the power - 2nd, and
- Lowest powered but innovative Audio Aero’s Capitole - 1st .
From www.audioaero.com/ “50 W Class A special push-pull configuration leans on the very musical E34L triode wired, supported all the time by the powerful KT88 pentode.”
But to build any of these three DIY is in a different league to a gainclone or UcD.
Perhaps I should have titled the thread “King of the simple & cheap DIY amps”
classd4sure
I don’t need 180 w - I’m curious how you get 2*50 w ~ is it from the 180 w chip?
Hi,
I don't think anyone was very insulted by your humor regarding the toob guys, providing they didn't take it out of context, which was obvious enough.
There is no such thing as a UCD180 chip. It's a module that's built with discrete parts based on the UCD concept.
So it's not like Tripath where you just throw a chip on a board and string in a few supporting components.
So I'm going to do it with a handful of transistors, solder, wire, and a few dozen hours.
That's how I'm keeping my cost low.
Actually the minimal goal was 50W, with the transformer I've selected it will be more around 75W per channel.
My current protoboard version which is far simpler gets about 35 watts and with the speaker I have it connected to shakes the house, there's only a bit of a hiss, and a very small buzz, both only heard with no music playing. The causes of that are the simpleton input stage, connected to my computer through 15' of wire, and the huge parasitics of the plastic protoboard. The next circuit will address those issues.
So like I said it violates your second criteria in every respect, but it certainly is DIY. My goal of 200$ includes the power supply, and because of most parts not being sold in single units, I'm going to have plenty left over to build a second channel with.
Best Regards,
Chris
I don't think anyone was very insulted by your humor regarding the toob guys, providing they didn't take it out of context, which was obvious enough.
There is no such thing as a UCD180 chip. It's a module that's built with discrete parts based on the UCD concept.
So it's not like Tripath where you just throw a chip on a board and string in a few supporting components.
So I'm going to do it with a handful of transistors, solder, wire, and a few dozen hours.
That's how I'm keeping my cost low.
Actually the minimal goal was 50W, with the transformer I've selected it will be more around 75W per channel.
My current protoboard version which is far simpler gets about 35 watts and with the speaker I have it connected to shakes the house, there's only a bit of a hiss, and a very small buzz, both only heard with no music playing. The causes of that are the simpleton input stage, connected to my computer through 15' of wire, and the huge parasitics of the plastic protoboard. The next circuit will address those issues.
So like I said it violates your second criteria in every respect, but it certainly is DIY. My goal of 200$ includes the power supply, and because of most parts not being sold in single units, I'm going to have plenty left over to build a second channel with.
Best Regards,
Chris
Rick,
I'm going to make a discrete amplifier based on the UCD concept, which, requires a handful of transistors. I'm not even going to make a PCB for it, I'm doing it P2P, hence the few dozen hours (I take my time). The plan is done with spice, I have done several versions of it.
Regards,
Chris
I'm going to make a discrete amplifier based on the UCD concept, which, requires a handful of transistors. I'm not even going to make a PCB for it, I'm doing it P2P, hence the few dozen hours (I take my time). The plan is done with spice, I have done several versions of it.
Regards,
Chris
Hi Rick,
Found the reference design thread did you? Good man. The last circuit I posted in there had an error I just recently fixed, brought the ol protoboard a long way, and I've got more upgrades in mind.
You're right it's a huge challenge. Should be a big thrill. You'd never believe the sound I'm getting off of a plastic protoboard with the very simplest of implementations no less. Now I'm hellbent on making it even better.
I do fully encourage you to buy a module from Hypex though, all the hard part is done, it's much higher quality than doing it point to point, Cost is most reasonable, less of a fire hazard etc. Might not have the same sense of achievement but you'll certainly have an amazing amplifier.
That aside, I can honestly tell you that even the cheapest UCD based amp like I have playing now behind me puts to shame your average commercial junk as far as sound quality goes. It's not even funny. Basically for a small chunk more than a cheap commercial unit would cost you, you'll embarrass even rather high end and hugely expensive amps. It kind of makes the choice easy, and possibly why I chuckled a bit when you wanted to know how it is compared to a gainclone, world's apart.
Just know that it is entirely possible to experiment and build your own as well. I hope to actually start putting the next one together in a few weeks time.
Regards,
Chris
Found the reference design thread did you? Good man. The last circuit I posted in there had an error I just recently fixed, brought the ol protoboard a long way, and I've got more upgrades in mind.
You're right it's a huge challenge. Should be a big thrill. You'd never believe the sound I'm getting off of a plastic protoboard with the very simplest of implementations no less. Now I'm hellbent on making it even better.
I do fully encourage you to buy a module from Hypex though, all the hard part is done, it's much higher quality than doing it point to point, Cost is most reasonable, less of a fire hazard etc. Might not have the same sense of achievement but you'll certainly have an amazing amplifier.
That aside, I can honestly tell you that even the cheapest UCD based amp like I have playing now behind me puts to shame your average commercial junk as far as sound quality goes. It's not even funny. Basically for a small chunk more than a cheap commercial unit would cost you, you'll embarrass even rather high end and hugely expensive amps. It kind of makes the choice easy, and possibly why I chuckled a bit when you wanted to know how it is compared to a gainclone, world's apart.
Just know that it is entirely possible to experiment and build your own as well. I hope to actually start putting the next one together in a few weeks time.
Regards,
Chris
Ugh.mac said:The UcD's have the most utterly transparent sound quality of any amp I've heard in my system. I thought they sounded fantastic with the standard NE552 buffers but I recently upgraded them to AD8620. The new buffers have raised the bar yet another notch. I highly doubt that these amps will be replaced in my system for a long while.Cheers, mac.
You don't mean you bought yourself some AD8620s and replaced them yourself?
That sounds like a horrible endeavour.
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