Cheap amp that's not junk?

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That linked board doesn't even have an IC on the edge of the board where you could put a heat sink on it. No heat sink, no real power. ***, I started with 35 W/ch + car radio speakers in a cardboard box. They were real watts, a vacuum tube amp with four 6CA7's. The electrolytic caps were **** and the rectifier tube was weak, wattage was 7 in the beginning, the McIntosh salesman told me. Pieced it together on the $10 a month plan. Used a $5 radio shack meter. Rake leaves or shovel snow for cash, you're young.
A naked board will pick up radio from transmitters. You need an enclosure, and some sort of input/output filtering, at least where I live.
Best bargain is a busted PA amp with case, fan, heat sinks, maybe even the power transformer is no burnt. $40+29 freight yesterday on fleabay. Then rebuild it.
Even cheaper is a working 60's organ, pull the amp and trash the keys. $20 at the charity resale shop. Still need e-caps though, maybe not until next month.
Takes a DVM and maybe an analog VOM to debug your work. Some of those $1 Harbor freight DVM work, my friend has a good one. Plus a soldering iron, not HF, about $40 in tools. Use safety glasses to solder, it splashes. When done, you know much more. Takes patience though.
This is diyaudio. You want power, build a honeybadger kit up in the diyaudiostore in the bar. A junk PA amp is still the cheapest case, fan, heatsinks though.
 
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mcmelectronics.com items have performed well for me. Same sources as ebay, but somehow farnell's QA people screen out the trash. E-bay star ratings aren't worth **** to me, if the stuff looks like the picture, was delivered on time, and performs for a week the vendor gets 5 stars. There are lots of ways to cut costs & make electronic systems blow up in a month. The prevalence of amps on e-bay without package and heat sink is prima-facae evidence of the "buy trash now" desire of the customers. I'm trying to buy bare boards today, all I get in the search are naked chip amps with no heat sinks.
I buy all my TV accessories at mcm now. TVs are not worth repairing; there are hundreds of short life electrolytic caps in each one. You can get a good TV at a chain store, but not the roof antenna, dtv converter, or gadgets to drive it from your PC. My 10 year old Advent TV is failing from the cold today; needs 200 e-caps probably. The DTV converter I bought from mcm to drive it has lasted 5 years, main quibble is the time is always 9 minutes off.
mcm sells packaged amps, presumably with the RF screening I was talking about above. check out their website. another mail order retailer with good repute is parts-express.com. Just got my first order from them; it was okay, but components. I haven't purchased systems from them yet.
 
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mcm is newark is farnell. mcm is the consumer brand with more systems & less parts. Newark ships out of SC, mcm ships out of OH. Expect with the new website, that more confusion about how many boxes @ $9 each you just ordered will multiply. That's the reason I don't buy from jameco; order $30 of parts get two boxes at $20 freight.
 
mcm is newark is farnell. mcm is the consumer brand with more systems & less parts. Newark ships out of SC, mcm ships out of OH. Expect with the new website, that more confusion about how many boxes @ $9 each you just ordered will multiply. That's the reason I don't buy from jameco; order $30 of parts get two boxes at $20 freight.

IS MCM local to you? I thought they were closing their doors and laying off the employees, or at least that was what I thought I read on PE TT late this past summer. Now that the "transition" is done, does still MCM exist, just as a subsidiary of Newark??? I have ordered from MCM in the past, but I thought those times were 'over'. I would be interested to know the skinny on the situation...
 
I can get 1 day service ground rates from both if I order by 10 AM. You may be right, scanning the newark all products list I don't see any listing for assembled amplifiers or TV antennas or converters.
mcm owned the TV accessories market, IMHO, no 2nd source. I've gotten real **** from Best Buy, and the last time I was in there the salesmen couldn't get the "sale sale" tablet to boot up either. And Radio Shack has been all garbage since 1968, a long tradition of garbage & fraud.
Edit, okay, the mcm stuff is under security & audio-visual
Here is an amplifier that OP could buy with some assurance it woulnn't blow up in a month http://www.newark.com/stellar-labs/50-16640/class-d-amplifier-50w-rms-x-2/dp/95Y2921
And here is a TV tuner that puts out analog line level sound on RCA jacks, for $30, a lot cheaper than those under TV sound units with the patented digital link that sanyo is selling for their vile sounding flat TV's. http://www.newark.com/qfx/cv-103/digital-convertor-box-hdtv-tuner/dp/31AC3160
Although I own and recommend the Stellar Labs DTV converter. 2 each two locations, one 30 miles from the transmitter.
 
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I can get 1 day service ground rates from both if I order by 10 AM. You may be right, scanning the newark all products list I don't see any listing for assembled amplifiers or TV antennas or converters.
mcm owned the TV accessories market, IMHO, no 2nd source. I've gotten real **** from Best Buy, and the last time I was in there the salesmen couldn't get the "sale sale" tablet to boot up either. And Radio Shack has been all garbage since 1968, a long tradition of garbage & fraud.
Edit, okay, the mcm stuff is under security & audio-visual
Here is an amplifier that OP could buy with some assurance it woulnn't blow up in a month http://www.newark.com/stellar-labs/50-16640/class-d-amplifier-50w-rms-x-2/dp/95Y2921
And here is a TV tuner that puts out analog line level sound on RCA jacks, for $30, a lot cheaper than those under TV sound units with the patented digital link that sanyo is selling for their vile sounding flat TV's. http://www.newark.com/qfx/cv-103/digital-convertor-box-hdtv-tuner/dp/31AC3160
Although I own and recommend the Stellar Labs DTV converter. 2 each two locations, one 30 miles from the transmitter.
I was looking on their site, seems to me they are selling off mcm stock already not finding familiar items. Some stuff you have to search different ways
 
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