'Shed amps!'

For the three and more legged things
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Dave the bass
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#1 'Shed amps!'

Post by Dave the bass »

A clapped out CD player + amp and a clock radio just don't 'do it' anymore when I'm working in the garage or the shed. We live in the digital age, get with it DTB!

So I've built these little TDA2030 based amp kits. Typical tiny bag of bits in a jiffy bag jobbie from Hong Kong. £6 for each 'kit' inc P+P. How do they do it?.... by putting in the cheapest (occasionally wrong value!) components and a pcb whose print is held on with snot (which melts and causes the track to lift if you hold the iron on for longer than 20mS). But that aside, the kits are OK.

I built 3. Thats 1 for the garage, 1 for the shed and one as a reference semiconductor amp in the man-cave.
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Each is powered by a handy discarded Laptop SMPS. HP, Digital and Compaq. I use 'em all. 19V at ~ 3amp per PSU, ideal. Cases are MB2 from Maplins and knobs n socketry were all from eBay. Class eh! :-)

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Up close.
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Reel of solder for size reference.
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...and in action being fedfrom Squeezebox Controller.
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Had to buy a wifi extender to get coverage all the way down the garden to the shed mind..... :lol: but at least I have music everywhere now at home.

DTB
"The fat bourgeois and his doppelganger"
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ed
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#2

Post by ed »

one for the master and one for the dame............

you can see I'm spending too much time with nursery rhymes at the mo....

but, really, how do they sound????
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Dave the bass
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#3

Post by Dave the bass »

ed wrote:one for the master and one for the dame............

you can see I'm spending too much time with nursery rhymes at the mo....

but, really, how do they sound????
JTS is the Genesis fan, she's more into Nursery Cryme... arf! SWIDT? :-)

Soundwise, well, yeah they're OK actually. A hefty PSU helps. I tried running the amps using the on board rectification and smoothing and using just an external mains TX but the sound was noticeably harsher than when using a gurt big lump of SMPS. The HP laptop PSU supply's a constant 19.5V DC up to a whopping 4A or so. My ears give in before the amp clips using this combo. I listened to each one for a few hours supplying background music through Grand-Popz still-on-loan FH3's while I did all the casework (aka, drilling, cutting + bleedin') and they sound 'quite nice' but stick a reference SE 6EM7 back into the system and all the colour comes back into the music.

It's funny, because they appear to go sonically super high and super lo, don't clip unless you drive them to monster SPL's and have zero hum and hiss....but.... but.... they just don't have 'that' airy sound and detail that I get from those funny ol' milk bottles that light up (occasionally).

OTOH, they're small, they are very cheap and very handy plus they're maintenance free and go LOUD through some awful 2 and 3 way BR speakers that live in the shed and garage. They serve their intended purpose really well.

Howsat?

I'll bring one to the next Owsters so we can use it as a ref 'crud' amp! :-)

DTB
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izzy wizzy
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#4

Post by izzy wizzy »

And rocking Fat Freddy too. Choice :)

cheers,

Stephen
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Dave the bass
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#5

Post by Dave the bass »

izzy wizzy wrote:And rocking Fat Freddy too. Choice :)

cheers,

Stephen
Awww yeah! That album 'Based on a true story' has been in heavy rotation for almost 2 weeks now. It's a cracker. I missed it when it 1st came out, only picked up on it recently.

Awethumness +56billion :-)

DTB
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izzy wizzy
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#6

Post by izzy wizzy »

If you like that, check out Big BW. Great live too :D

cheers,

Stephen
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Dave the bass
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#7

Post by Dave the bass »

Ordered and on the way as of last friday!

DTB
"The fat bourgeois and his doppelganger"
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