Average cost of a Pass F5

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Destroyer OS

Destroyer OS

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Joined 2005
You could build my DIY7297 for about that price if you're real careful on parts. It's been preferred over an F5 by at least one person. It's 15w, not 25w, however.

It's about $130 mouser in parts, $45 PCB's. That's $50 left over for binding posts, RCA's, heat/chassis. You might go over budget a little.

Realistically a good F5 we're talking $300 transformer, $400 chassis from DIYstore, and then you've still got PCB's, wire, connectors, and through hole parts. It can be done for less if you got surplus stuff and don't give a **** what it looks like.
 
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Hikari1

Member
Joined 2012
I'd say more like $80 (Antek) for the transformer...$200 for the case (Diyaudio 4U). $50 for the jfets, $50 for the boards (PSU and F5). That's $380 plus caps/other parts (maybe $100 if you are cheap). That's $500.

Class D stuff may be what you want if you are on a budget. I have a hifimediy T2 (about $100 w/a big smps PSU). It's not bad. I wouldn't call it great though. If you don't have a preamp already (you are gonna need a preamp w/the F5 and those speakers) this may be a better option.

But if it was me I'd just spend the extra money on the F5 or other firstwatt design.
 
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AudioSan

Member
Joined 2009
res07njc said:
that's crazy! ..perhaps with bejeweled chassis, dual mono and caddocks. To the original poster, the big expenses here are aluminum, iron and capacitance. Figure out how to get a transformer without breaking the bank. Surely there are EU folks who know how to get some decent iron on the cheap who can chime in. Caps are also cheaper if you want to string several (or a bunch of) smaller ones together, particularly if they were purchased from a 'surplus' outfit. I believe a few folks say this is better even, btw..

Then figure out how to get some aluminum. From my experience, a pound of Al is good for ~10W, so go industrial if it's simply about the sound. For example, I'm attempting to recycle my old 12 ft. satellite dish into an amp.. (hey, it's aluminum and it's free). There's 460 watts there by my estimation. Might take some propane brazing and my imagination, but there it is.. diy

and to "gild the lily", as they say... build it point-to-point or on a perfboard.. there's nothing cheaper than that.
Click to expand...

this included som massive heatsinks capable of about 150W dissipation pr ch. dual mono setup with 300VA transformers, capasitorbank of 144.000uF, 2 pair outputs and somewhat expensive resistors.
 
EUVL

EUVL

Member
Joined 2003
xen-audio.com
You should change your title to lowest cost, not average cost.

A F5 headphone amp properly built with matched devices and decent parts is ~500€.
So 200€ for a power amp can only be a scratch build.

So let's see how cheap you can get :

Heatsink 15€ + 15€ postage
Alu Aluminium 185x200x40mm Kühler Kühlkörper Heatsink XL | eBay

Transformer 300VA 60€ + ?? postage
RKT 30030: Ringkerntrafo, 300 VA, 2x 30 V, 2x 5,5 A bei reichelt elektronik

No-name caps 22000uF 40V 4x 24€ + ?? postage
BSN 22.000 - 40: Snap-in Becher-Elko, 35x50mm, 22.000µF - 40V bei reichelt elektronik

2SK246 / 2SJ103 unmatched 3€ + ?? postage
Suche nach bei reichelt elektronik
Suche nach bei reichelt elektronik

IRFP240/9240 unmatched 6€ + ?? postage
IRFP 240: Leistungs-MOSFET N-Ch TO-247AC 200V 20A bei reichelt elektronik
IRFP 9240: Leistungs-MOSFET P-Ch TO-247AC 200V 12A bei reichelt elektronik

Vero board 10€
Resistors, NTC etc 20€
Connectors, switch, etc 20€
Single shipment from reichelt to Portugal 30€

So rough total including postage 210€.
Close enough to your budget, but :

No PCB, build P2P on Vero.
No proper case, no protection circuits, no electrical safety, ......

But it will make sound, probably also decent.
Just don't expect the same as First Watt.
For simple circuits like this, component quality matters. No short cut.

If you want a low cost solution with value for money, build yourself a 3886 using PCBs from chipamp.
It sounds very decent, and is within your budget even with good parts.


Patrick
 
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massimo

Member
Joined 2002
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jameshillj

Member
Joined 2005
Probably the best Nichicon for the F5 are the KG series - the Super Through are a bit better than the Gold Tunes and still a reasonable price - similar performance but a different sound would be caps like the Jensen 4 poles, the Aerovox, the BHC (maybe T-Network or Slit Foils), the Epcos range, etc - with a bit of judicious searching, can get quite reasonable prices occasionally on places like our Bazaar, online sites and maybe Group Buys - often 50V dc volt ratings have more options.

If you build the F5 well, it may be the last classA amp (or any amp) that you build - they are really are something 'out of the box' if done well.
 
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