Quote:
Originally Posted by basinbeater
Quote:
Originally Posted by basinbeater
I have a buddy who got "a flat response curve" for $37. Why spend $15k? Does it sound like a nice tube amp, or something?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by basinbeater
Quote:
Originally Posted by basinbeater
I have a buddy who got "a flat response curve" for $37. Why spend $15k? Does it sound like a nice tube amp, or something?
Good question. Flat response curve is one thing. Detail, speed, dynamics, distortion, build quality are another. I'm a big proponent of not shelling out big bucks if I don't have to. So it makes me happy to know that tmy home brew amp compares favorably to other units costing much more. Ultimately sound is subjective, and if what sounds good to you is a $37 amp, then that's great. I can guarantee you the fancy tubes from the Mac won't sound as good in the monoprice amp.
Can't even buy decent caps for a powerful amp for $37.
sent from Utah.
I’ve almost knocked on your door a few times basinbeater, been hoping to catch you in the front yard after a bike ride one of these days so we could talk audio, land cruisers and bmws, seems like we’ve got a bunch in common.
Attachment 376764
Last winter when I was back east visiting my parents I was telling my Dad how I had gotten into audio and vinyl and he started digging around and giving me stuff he had left over from his past. He gave me a small box of cartridges. I was super bummed because I couldn’t find them when I got back from that trip. Fast forward 6 months and I’m packing to go home again to visit and I heard something jingling around in my luggage.
There was 3 cartridges but I think this one was the only one worth messing with. It’s a Stanton 680EE aka a Pickering XV-15. They seem to have quite a following and are compared to some of the high end Shure cartridges from back in the day. I picked up a new stylus for it and just got it hooked up.
Holy fucking lush! Super warm but also still very detailed. This is the best my setup has ever sounded. Thanks Dad.
Sweet find! Yeah stop by anytime. I'm around most evening unless we are at the pool. Happy to shoot the shit and listen to a couple of tunes. I need to get back out on the bike. It's been over a week.
sent from Utah.
Holy fuck. I'm glad I don't plan on touching anything of this scale. It's a whole different world.
Popping a 5k amp fuse. You can watch at 2x without missing much.
Yeah that is sketchy as hell. I like the way they jam a bunch of steel wool and go, let's see what happens now...
Got my gb150d buttoned up and moved into the office where it is playing through some Polk rt25 speakers. This is normally where the nakamichi sr4a sits, so it will be interesting to see how this does here for a while.
Attachment 376936
sent from Utah.
Somewhere up thread there was a discussion about some kind of electrical contact cleaner spray - what was it called?
I have a pickup selector switch on a guitar that isn't behaving...
That sounds right. Thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by highangle
Pieces started arriving for the next amplifier build. This one is going to be a 2 channel chip amp. I had a Linn chip amp for a while that sounded really nice, so I figured build something like that in a smaller chassis. So far the transformer has arrived, a 300va dual 25v secondary unit from AnTek, bout $50 shipped if I recall. Amplifier duties will be handled by one at tda7293 chip per channel. Should be good for 60wpc @8 ohms or so and 80 or 90 on 4 ohm speakers.
Pcbs are on their way from china, I got the Gerber files from a diyaudio thread and ordered the boards to be made by jlcpcb. A 12.5" x 12" case will house everything with nothing but a power switch on the front. For a power supply, I'll be using my own power supply pcb design.
I ordered enough stuff to make 5 amplifier modules, so a couple will maybe go into a bastardized dead reciever I have laying around, a cool Yamaha r2000 that has proven problematic to repair.
The amp design is called the Xmas amp, because the guys who designed it released the design on Xmas 2020, and gave away 25 sets of boards on Xmas. The whole thread for the amp can be found here.
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/chip...-jhofland.html
Attachment 381589Attachment 381590
sent from Utah.
Are these really any good?
^^^ I have no idea. Build some and report back.
Boards for the chip amp just showed up, and last night I also finished up the huge Rotel rb-1090. This is the 380 watt per channel (yes at 8 ohms) flagship amp from Rotel I was working on a number of months back. It is fixed, reassembled and tested. It weighs 85lbs. It was very well reviewed back in the day, so I am interested to see how it does vs the honey badger on the big speakers. I think I'll test it a while longer on some less fancy speakers first. The newer rb-1590 is basically the same amp with a new exterior.
Attachment 381648Attachment 381649Attachment 381650
sent from Utah.
I wish phone mics recorded bass well, cause this one is SOLID.
Makes these little polks sing.
https://youtu.be/UKfhcchlngo
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Got the big Rotel up for sale on ksl. Come take a listen if you are interested. $100 off for maggots.
Listening to a little chick corea on it now. Sounds oh so nice. In SLC.Attachment 382028
sent from Utah.
Attachment 382668
Not musically related but they will keep my beer cold.
Building a DIY lithium iron phosphate battery for my new camper setup. 100 amp hour for less than half the price of a Battle Born.
Tell us more...Quote:
Originally Posted by dfinn
I like to camp. I do it frequently and sometimes for a couple of weeks or more at a time since I can work remote. The battery setup on my current truck is sub par. I recently added some portable solar panels and this has helped but my current "house" battery is just way too small to power a fridge and charge a laptop for more than a few days. I'm in the process of building up a new truck and wanted to make sure I did it right this time with a bigger battery and more solar but I'm also really cheap. One morning I woke up and googled "DIY lithium battery" and now it looks like I'm building bombs in my basement.
I bought 4 x 100 Amp hour cells. They are each 3.2v. When wired in serial they will create a 12v battery. I also got a BMS (battery management system) which does a few things like overcharge protection, low voltage cut off, cuts off charging in cold weather and watches the voltage of the individual cells to make sure they stay within a certain percentage voltage difference of each other. It also has bluetooth and an app that I can connect to on my phone to see current state of charge, rate of charge or discharge and keep tabs on the individual cell voltages among other things.
Not including some new tools that I needed anyways to do all the wiring in the new truck it was about $400. You could do it cheaper with a less expensive BMS and maybe cut $100 off of that price, maybe more if you didn't mind buying from sketchy China stores on aliexpress. I bought all my stuff from US companies, it seemed less risky.
Those cells just showed up today. I've got them wired up in parallel and I'm charging them all to a voltage of 3.65 using a power supply. Once they are at 100% full I can hook then up in serial using the BMS and start putting some 12v loads on them to do some capacity testing.
cells:
https://batteryhookup.com/products/n...000mah-cells-1
BMS:
https://store.currentconnected.com/product/jbd/
That some good shit. Makes my head start spinning, battery powered amps for Powerful portable boomboxes.
Thea are pretty much complete tda7293 chip amps. The thread should you want to learn more is here...
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/chip...ml#post6488134
Attachment 383031
sent from Utah.
Damn Chinese box got delivered... To Chihuahua Mexico of all places. So... Found some heatsinks out of a dead Yamaha reciever. I know I kept the junk around for a reason. Hopefully I'll get to testing these this weekend.
They should be fun to play around with and test different combinations of parts. I have 3 more boards, so can build different configurations. Each complete amplifier module (not including heat sink, power supply, etc) costs about $30.Attachment 383706
sent from Utah.
Ye olde scrapboard amp. The case was delivered to Chihuahua Mexico. I am not in Chihuahua. So... Ye old scrapboard for now.
It works.
Listening impressions to come.
Attachment 383818Attachment 383819
sent from Utah.
Awesome. The Ghetto TK421 FTW!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by basinbeater
Ghetto tk421 playing in the living room. Sounds pretty good with some cheapo Polk monitors (great little speakers for $20. if you get a chance to pick some up cheap, do it.) Using a nad preamp and a denon tuner. This nad preamp seems to play nicely with everything I hook it up to.
Gonna play it in here for a while, get a real feel for this amp. The boy says it sounds good.Attachment 383901Attachment 383902
sent from Utah.
Oh, I think you need all that bass!
Ha. Those little peashooters of speakers are not adequate for the room, and the amp is a lower water unit, 40 or 50 watts per channel. But for a temporary location until my case shows up, it can hang here. I think eventual resting place will be in the kitchen. I may pair a digital streaming preamp with it, who knows.
This room already has a large speaker setup. Cause I need the bass.
sent from Utah.
The next project has arrived.
The Wolverine ef3 power amplifier. These are prototype boards, I am part of the prototype test builder group. This is the long awaited successor to the honey badger amp (of which I have built two now).
Lots of soldering ahead.
Attachment 384339
sent from Utah.