I bought an ICEpower 50ASX2 amplifier from Ebay in 2018. It was an impulse buy if I’m honest as it was very cheap, they retail at about £100 in the UK and I got it for £35, but it’s been sat in my drawer since then waiting for a purpose. I must admit, I’m running…
Category: DIY Audio
A quick note on distortion
Recently I built the Nelson Pass H2 Harmonic Generator, a circuit that injects some 2nd harmonic distortion into the signal chain. Whilst I still need to get this boxed up to play with it properly, I’ve been mooching around and doing some reading on distortion. As part of my meandering, I came across this website…
PCM1794A DAC and Streamer project
As mentioned in a previous post, I wanted to build an integrated DAC and streamer to go with my XP-7 headphone amplifier. My search for a suitable DAC led me to the PCM1794A and further searching led me to the slowdiyer who, yet again, had built exactly what I wanted. A previous build had me…
Nelson Pass H2 Harmonic Generator
In a nice turn of events, my anniversary of 2 years as a member of the DIYAudio.com forum was coincidentally marked with a nice little gift. Nelson Pass and the good people at DIYAudio host an event called Burning Amp annually. It allows people to see and hear designs made by other DIY audio enthusiasts…
A novice’s guide to getting PCBs fabricated
In the previous post I talked about sourcing kits and boards suitable for novices. Once confidence builds and a little experience and knowledge is gained, other projects beckon and you find yourself perusing projects designed by generous folk who release their designs into the wild. Although most are usually just schematics, occasionally these may come…
A novice’s guide to DIY kits and boards with support
Whilst there is a proliferation of DIY audio PCBs available through sites such as Ebay and the many other Chinese based sites, there appears to be a relative dearth of suppliers of DIY kits and boards with accompanying support. For those with a little experience, a PCB with accompanying schematic is all that is required…
All together now….building an integrated DAC/streamer.
A while ago, when building my friend’s chipamp, I had the intention of incorporating an internal DAC and streaming capabilities into the enclosure. Nothing special, just a Pi Zero and DAC HAT. Noise problems that I didn’t have the time (or knowledge) to troubleshoot meant the amp was just built as standard. The idea of…
Rod Elliott ESP P88 Pre-amplifier
I’ve been impressed by the ESP projects by Rod Elliott, they work well, are simple for novices but with plenty of scope for modifications. The projects come with extensive documentation, including construction advice if you buy the PCBs. I decided to try his well regarded Project 88 preamplifier to go with my Nelson Pass ACA….
Chipamp.com LM3886 PCB
This is the original chipamp.com board for the LM3886 amplifier, generously released into the public domain by its designer Brian Bell. The board size is 30x74mm so comes in really cheap when ordering. Although the schematic is provided below, it is also worth having a look at the datasheet for more information. Click here to…
Ray Samuels Audio XP-7 Headphone Amplifier clone
I bought a mixed bag of boards recently and came across this one knowing nothing about it, apart from it appearing to be a headphone amp. I finally found out that it is a clone of a commercial project – the Emmeline XP-7 which has been around for a number of years. A cursory search…