Gainclones (c)

[lohk]

one fact more I forgot to mention:

Inspite of different experiences the mentioned chip amp version has NO OFFSET, like its predecessors, although there are no caps to prevent that. The reason? The topology overall, I suppose.

Klaus

 

[Kit Taylor]

http://home.student.utwente.nl/f.s.bouwman/chill-amp.html

This chap does PCB based gainclone kits for about £100, though you must supply your own case and tranny.

Scott Nixon too. He can also supply some cool-looking cases.

http://scott-nixon.com/

 

[Andrew L Weekes]

I'm waiting at present for one of my work colleagues to mill me a lump of alloy for the heatsink / amp chip mount.

Once I have this it should progress fairly quickly.

Andy.

 

[ron]

The bass is very light with non sensitive speakers, they should be at least 90db.
I have compared a few different chips including LM3875,OPA types and TDA types, the TDA types are by far the worst sounding.

 

[coredump]

ron,
how did you like the OPAs? Which ones did you check out? Where they worth their money?
Questions galore...

 

[ron]

Hi

I tried both the OPA541 and 549, both sound good but out of the two I prefered the 541.
The OPA541 and LM3875 are my favourites, both sound different so I suppose its down to personal taste, the opa's also have different pin outs to the LM3875's.
You can get free samples from Burr brown (Texas Instruments)
I own a valve amp, Avondale NCC200 and a couple of Gainclones, I still listen to all four
There is loads of designs you can try using these chip amps, all sound totally different, just don't use them with non sensitive speakers or else they will sound bright and harsh.
Also use two transformers

Ron

 

[coredump]

ron,

thank you for your post; I think I'll give the OPAs a try, depending on TIs willingness to send me samples.

Hashness never was a problem (with mine at least), quite on the contrary; its resolution is better than my NAIT's. It's the midband meat I'm missing.
Cheers,

Oliver

 

[ron]

Hi Oliver,

I agree about the midband, my LM3875 uses a couple of valves as buffers, its a crazy design but it sounds rather nice the beauty with these amps is that the amount of parts is so minimal, just changing the odd resistor etc makes alot of difference.
I would also recommend the Mur860 diodes and changing the fb resistor with different types.
Good luck and let us know how you get on

Ron

 

[mcai7et2]

Just to let you know, there is currently a group buy on at diyaudio.com for gainclone PCB sets (for two channels of audio plus a power supply).

The more people that buy then the cheaper it is for me to buy my 10 channels

Info is here:
http://www.diyaudio.com/wiki/index.php?page=Initial+List+for+NI+GC+PCB

 

[Mus]

If this qualifies:

http://www.norh.com/products/leamp/gal.html

I lived with a pair of these for a couple of years and they sounded fantastic

Regards

Mus