Pictures of your diy Pass amplifier

Just found this thread. Here's a photo from my workbench. This is supposed to become a Babelfish Aleph J. It might take a while, because life is happening and I am also trying to finalize my Open Source Monkey Coffin speakers...
 

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DIY Pass HPA-1:

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Thanks, guys!

@thompsontechs, I'm afraid I'm a bit of a capacitor-sound skeptic (at least as far as coupling/decoupling caps go). I was going with a blue colour scheme for the amp sections (thus the Nichicon KAs and TDK films), but the blue ClarityCaps are absolutely monstrous -- so I settled on a different colour scheme for the I/O section and chose some decent caps which matched the white/red of the RCA sockets.

I have collected a nice cross-section of available caps to do some A:B testing in a speaker cross-over, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

PS: before some of you jump all over me for selecting components for colour, let me remind you that this is my amp. :)
 
Thanks, guys!

@thompsontechs, I'm afraid I'm a bit of a capacitor-sound skeptic (at least as far as coupling/decoupling caps go). I was going with a blue colour scheme for the amp sections (thus the Nichicon KAs and TDK films), but the blue ClarityCaps are absolutely monstrous -- so I settled on a different colour scheme for the I/O section and chose some decent caps which matched the white/red of the RCA sockets.

I have collected a nice cross-section of available caps to do some A:B testing in a speaker cross-over, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

PS: before some of you jump all over me for selecting components for colour, let me remind you that this is my amp. :)


I know there is a difference, but I think many get caught up in it the way they do cables and such.



Choosing for color will drive some bonkers, but as you said, it's your amplifier.


I must admit though I have never seen that approach to an amplifier build... :D


Cheers!
 
Nice looking amp JeffYoung! Thanks for sharing. If you do choose to try some other coupling caps I don't think you will regret it. I used the same Mundorf "MCaps" on my B1, and replacing them with Clarity Cap CSA's on the output and Mundorf Supremes on the input made a very noticeable difference. If your amp has gain I suspect you would get even more out of the input cap change than I did on the B1.
 
.... Did you do the metal work yourself?

Yep.

Grooving the faceplate:

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Turning the volume knob insert from Richlite (check out the cool Bakelite knobs on my 1953 Clausing lathe):

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Boring the hole for the volume knob insert (this is a 1955 Bridgeport, although the boring head is "modern"):

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Tapping holes for the "button board":

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Cheers,
Jeff.
 

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Member
Joined 2004
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:nod::nod::nod:

:cheers::cheers::cheers:

Inspiration inspired by Papa's inspiration.

Beautiful craftsmanship Jeff. What many people don't recognize is that you could have paid for a commercial HPA-1 with the amount of hours you must have put into this. It's not about the having, it's about the doing that drives you. Cheers!