1. This is ridiculous. How does building a gainclone in a roasting dish improve it in any way?

Posted at 8:50PM on Oct 5th 2007 by ex-parrot

2. I fail to see how a solid state amp could be affected in any way whatsoever by vibrations that would be stopped by using a beefy chassis... Seriously, are you worried about getting voltages induced by minute vibrations in the connecting wires?

I could see for a phonograph, or even a tube based amp, but a op amp solid state amp!

Admittedly, a baking pan would make a reasonably decent chassis in general, so long as you don't mind your gear looking like it was built by a 15 y/o...

Posted at 9:01PM on Oct 5th 2007 by ...

3. That heat sink looks cool. Wonder why it's still rapped in plastic though. I like to go around and look at peoples synthesizer circuits too.

Posted at 9:59PM on Oct 5th 2007 by TJhooker

4. TJhooker that thing in plastic is a toroidal transformer not a heat sink

Posted at 11:49PM on Oct 5th 2007 by bender386

5. So if I take an XBox 360 and mount it on a skillet, does that make the project worthy of a HackADay spot? Come on, I thought HAD was for true hacks, not "Ooooh, I need a surface to build on, so let's use whatever I have in the kitchen". Now if the guy had used the skillet to make the diaphragm of a [u]speaker[/u], now [u]that[/u] would be worthy of a HAD spot.

Posted at 7:47AM on Oct 6th 2007 by MacGyverS2000

6. #5: imagine the frequency response of a baking tray driver ;)

Posted at 8:35AM on Oct 6th 2007 by ex-parrot

7. i like it how its listed in 'portable' audio hacks

Posted at 11:25AM on Oct 6th 2007 by jeff

8. if you can't see how vibrations will affect any circuit, solid state or not, you have very little experience with electronics repair. i've fixed the same guitar and bass amplifiers three times over for bad solder joints because tendency is to rest amp heads on cabinets, which induce massive vibrations. stereo amps are the same, put them on/near speakers, or on shelves that can transmit vibration from the speakers to the amp chassis, and you'll have broken solder joints in just a matter of time, pcb or turret board or point to point. every system that has assembly has a mean time between failure; it's just that certain systems will take longer to degrade based on construction method and environment. when you introduce vibrations, you're going to be pushing every mechanical connection, including soldered ones.

as far as exotic materials for build, fabienne is absolutely right; i've heard systems that cost tens of thousands of dollars, and they're by and large boring sounding unless you're listening to diana krall or kenny g. there's absolutely no need for pure silver wire and ridiculous cable unless you have the sound source that will utilize it, a circuit design that will utilize it, and speakers that will be able to project said difference. Then you have a system that's great for listening to shitty jazz while sipping wine and appearing rather pretentious. solid solder joints, effective grounding, and reasonable parts selection are what's important.

Posted at 4:48PM on Oct 6th 2007 by cliff

9. I think the "heat sink" you think is wrapped in plastic is actually the power transformer - to convert the 110V AC down to 50V AC.

As for why this thing has to be "mass loaded" to keep vibration down - when doing a solid state amp I haven't a clue.

Posted at 5:46PM on Oct 6th 2007 by smilr

10. #8: Give me *one* audio source which is capable of "utilizing" pure silver connections or oxygen free cables... I was agreeing with you until I came upon that part of the post.

Posted at 11:10PM on Oct 6th 2007 by andrew

11. about how much power are u getting out of this amp per channel??

Posted at 1:32AM on Oct 7th 2007 by watever wenever

12. #10 I agree, audiophile snake oil is the worst. If he was really worried worried he would have at least shielded those wires, look how close they are to the transformer... I THINK that might actually cause a difference more than wire type.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistivity#Table_of_resistivities

Posted at 3:31AM on Oct 7th 2007 by htl2001

13. #1 A lot of gainclones actually epoxy the components down.

#11 The LM3875 chip can supply about 50W/channel.

#12 You can see gold is not the best conductor. The reason is it popular for connections is that it does not oxidize or tarnish like copper or silver. Snake oil products can be used to change the sound. Good on some systems, bad on others. Tinned copper should me good enough.

Grounding is very important. An external power supply is ideal.

For those who are not familiar with a gainclone, they are simple to build at a very reasonable cost and they sound very good. The chips are about $4 each.

Posted at 11:35AM on Oct 7th 2007 by DIY Audio Projects

14. Smilr I think bender386 already cleared that up, so cha ya know what? UH UH..

That's an obscure form of transformer too. I want to role it in dough and deep fry it.

Posted at 2:11PM on Oct 7th 2007 by TJhooker

15. Man, you guys are hating on his pan D:

Posted at 9:45AM on Oct 9th 2007 by warpfox

16. #10: i was being sarcastic more than anything. what i was trying to get at is that even if you do make an amp with insane wire, ridiculous capacitors and resistors, and over the top connectors, it won't help your audio path if you're plugging a $35 cd player you got from wal-mart into the front end. same with any computer's on-board sound card, all but the best pci sound cards or even most reasonable cd players.

my point is that to even start going down the road of trying to justify ridiculous wire and components, you'd have to spend several thousands of dollars on ridiculous audiophile equipment and interconnects to even *think* about claiming superior audio "tone" or "dynamics" based solely on wire selection, all the while not having any shielding for your inputs as shown in the photos of this build. and that isn't even touching on the issue of speakers and then speaker cables. if you have anything less than insanity throughout, your insanity in your component selection for one part of the signal chain is obviated.

will i say that certain signal paths sound better than others...absolutely. i put a mcintosh c28 in front of a tube headphone amplifier i built and it sounded like god compared to the tube pre i built. there was definite difference. this was coming out of an echo sound card though, with 320kb/s aac files playing. my shitty mp3s still sounded shitty though, and just as bad. and it wouldn't have mattered if i used monster cables or the cables i made.

Posted at 8:37PM on Oct 9th 2007 by cliff