CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

dvh99 · Joined: 25 Dec 2009 Posts: 2158 Location: nederland

hi i am on the lookout for a new amp and since i am cheap and want the best possible sound i was wandering if anyone is familiar with rod elliott from esp (elliott sound products).

http://sound.westhost.com/project101.htm

this seems pretty cool, with a big toroidal trafo of 800va and 60.000uf (60*1000or 30*2000)capacitance this thing must drive even the most demanding speakers.

WTS · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1276 Location: Calgary

HI,

I wouldn't expect audiophile quality sound from this design, but on the other hand I'd bet it sounds okay. Just depends on what you want for the money you pay. Have you had a look at the audio website, diyaudio.com yet for other circuits?

Don't get over worked about the 60,000 uf in the power supply, that much capacitance in the power supply only tends to make the low end mushie and lose.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 3:11 pm Post subject:

It's probably just me, but I wouldn't trust any low production run audiophile amp, no matter what the specs say. Why not get a good used MOSFET amp from a known company like Ashly?

Sumpin' like this one is a good deal

http://cgi.ebay.com/Used-Ashly-FTX-2000-power-amplifiers-Nice-/380237026370?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5887e49442

There aren't any on eBay right now, but this guy might still have one. THe FET500 on eBay now from an iffy seller dates from 1985, so that's a bit old, but the FET 2000 or FTX 2000 are newer..

dvh99 · Joined: 25 Dec 2009 Posts: 2158 Location: nederland

well i have been looking on his site and all of them think the amplifier sounds great, besides it will be fun to do.
walter i have been looking on the diy site and there are some great designs for speakers as well.
i sold my philips fb860 speakers a couple years ago and i still regret i did that, had them advertised 1 day and had 3 buyers which made me think that i priced them too low, 300 euro.
as for the 60.000uf how do you know that cause others swear by it.
keep in mind that it will be 30.000uf per channel driven by 2 500va toroidal transformers. (my original post said 800va but i have changed my mind and will use 2*500va)

age of the amp doesnt matter much, the fets can be replaced by newer fets from hitachi and a few caps can be replaced, only thing that needs to be done is changing the bias.

my original post said 800va but i have changed my mind and will use 2*500va.

if someone knows a good site for heatsinks please let me know.

WTS · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1276 Location: Calgary

I would look at the link Curt posted, for the price those amps would probably be very good.

As for the PS caps, I've designed/bulit a few amps in the past and have experimented with alot of different things and if you want nice tight defined bass then don't use big electrolytics. My present bass amps use 800uf per rail of PP caps and it's the tightest bass I've ever heard and I've listened to a few audiophile sytems worth mega bucks before to compare with. But the PP caps are expensive and big.

For heatsinks look at surplus store sites.

dvh99 · Joined: 25 Dec 2009 Posts: 2158 Location: nederland

was thinking 1000uf 70 or 75v and then to the desired total of 30.000 per channel.
isnt 800 a bit low.
those mega buck amplifiers are for snobs that listen to boring jazz, lol.

http://www.haje.nl/product_info.php?cPath=1417_1433_1442&products_id=22993
this will be the transformer i will get.

dvh99 · Joined: 25 Dec 2009 Posts: 2158 Location: nederland

http://www.avx.com/docs/Catalogs/ffb.pdf
you have something like this?

WTS · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1276 Location: Calgary

No, the caps I use are from solen.ca, they are the PA20000 units, looks like the price went up. They did have a great sale on them not too long as I recommended them to someone else not long ago. I bought mine probably 20 years ago.

beun · Joined: 28 Jun 2006 Posts: 676

How cheap are you looking for and how much power do you think you need?

dvh99 · Joined: 25 Dec 2009 Posts: 2158 Location: nederland

the do it yourself project will cost about 500 euro, if i will use the solens a lot more 55dollars a piece Sad

.
its not that i will be needing the power to play the music loud but a powerfull amplifier sounds so much better at normal listening levels.
150 watt rms in 8 ohm.

and this at a later stage:

http://diyaudioprojects.com/Speakers/Hi-Vi-3-Way-Tower/

Wombat · Joined: 18 Aug 2006 Posts: 16

I think you'd be much better off to buy a commercial amp, new or used, and modify it. Transformers and heatsinks and cases alone will cost more in parts. Only build from scratch if it's something genuinely high-end and classic, like the Leach Superamp, or a Nelson Pass class-A monstrosity.

The Behringer A500 is pretty good value, for example. Power is modest, but quite adequate for home use, and it's passively cooled. Trolling used sources may get you a comparable "mid-fi" amp (NAD, Carver, Adcom, Hafler for example.) There's probably other brands that are equally good and more common in Europe.

Alternatively, a sure winner for sound quality per $ or Euro would be a "Gainclone" chip amp. An LM3886 is shockingly cheap, so doubling or quadrupling them for parallel or bridged use is quite reasonable. Have a look at diyaudio.com, or just google gainclone.

Tom.W · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 6637

I have a Pass labs Aleph 5 class A 60wpc stereo amp. It kicks some serious ass with the proper speakers ! Also great for heating your house in the winter........... Wink