Solid State Amp (with Style)


[Jesse] sent in this beautiful 300 watt amp project. It uses six LM3886 amps to create a pair of 150 watt amps that are bridged to create a single 300 watt amplifier. Usually I don’t mind my lack of multi-language ability, but many of the parts were sourced from this site. It looks like the cases were bought in Hong Kong, anybody know were I could get some in the US?

15 thoughts on “Solid State Amp (with Style)

  1. The store the parts were bought from is in Taiwan. If you are interested in buying any of their kits, they appear to ship to other countries. I’m sure the readers who understand mandarin and myself would be happy to help you place an order.

  2. i built this amp with two modules each holding two instead of three lm3886 with only 5% tolerance resistors but its quality is still much better than all commercial amps i ever heard…

  3. I saw Bob Pease do a presentation on these integrated amp modules about half a year ago; they’re really nice. He mentioned that an audiophile equipment manufacturer had asked them to make a batch that was gold-plated (so they’d look a little less out-of-place driving a $n,000 amp, no doubt).

  4. I find it a little funny that for all the precision going into the design to get “audiophile” quality, he uses a cheap Behringer mixer and Creative Labs audio card to do his testing.
    -don’t get me wrong, those brands DO have their place. I use them myself. Just thought it odd.

  5. slob, you can look up most of the equivalent parts on digikey.com to get a quick idea. The “audiophile” brand components will obviously drive up the cost a huge amount though.

    Heres some quotes/estimates with decent parts (price for one item):
    6x LM3886 $5.40
    2x RCA jack ~$2
    4x binding post ~$2
    10x 1200uF 50V low esr $1.33
    2x 47000uF 40V $14
    2x 15uF Poly 400V $8
    6x 0.2ohm 2W 1% $2
    1x 500VA Toroidal $110 (can source cheaper on ebay, or use a standard core).
    xx other smd components, caps, switches, jacks etc. ~$70+
    2x heatsink $40 (or less surplus/used)
    1x case: price unknown, you can gut something used for next to nothing, or spend hundreds.
    4x double sided PCBs: maybe 50sq inches total, $100 would get you enough boards for two amps

    Total? approx $500. More if you bought a case and fancier parts, less depending on parts quality.

    Or if you are like me you have most of this stuff laying around… :P

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