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Chipamp funnay
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<blockquote data-quote="thylantyr" data-source="post: 1263062" data-attributes="member: 560358"><p><strong>Crash Course in Gainclone Comedy</strong></p><p></p><p>A chip amplifier pics; [black object on right with many legs]</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.tech-diy.com/Chipamps/completed.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.tech-diy.com/Chipamps/completed.jpg</a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://ludens.cl/Electron/audioamps/TA8215.jpg" target="_blank">http://ludens.cl/Electron/audioamps/TA8215.jpg</a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/tech/virtual/images/ab/amplifer.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/tech/virtual/images/ab/amplifer.jpg</a></p><p></p><p>This is an amplifier circuit on a die inside a package and to complete the amplifier</p><p></p><p>circuit you add some extra parts and power supply. These chip amplifiers have</p><p></p><p>been around for decades, you see them in low budget home stereos. An audiophile would never buy a chip amp product as they prefer a 'discrete design', individual transistors, diodes, etc. see pic;</p><p></p><p>Four transistors on the heatsink with all the other circuits on the board.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.drachen-audio.com/Images/DA1_100W_audio_amplifier.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.drachen-audio.com/Images/DA1_100W_audio_amplifier.jpg</a></p><p></p><p>A few years ago, this company;</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.sakurasystems.com/intro.html" target="_blank">http://www.sakurasystems.com/intro.html</a></p><p></p><p>Made a chip amp product called 'Gaincard';</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.sakurasystems.com/products/47amp.html" target="_blank">http://www.sakurasystems.com/products/47amp.html</a></p><p></p><p>People found out it was an ordinary chip amp design with external power supply.</p><p></p><p>It's an 'audiophile' amplifier and reviews were good.</p><p></p><p>When the DIY community at Diyaudio.com found out it was a chip amp everyone</p><p></p><p>jumped on the 'Gainclone' bandwagon.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Comedy</strong>; They either bought the chip amp, I think it was the LM3875</p><p></p><p>or got free samples from National Semiconductor, and made their own chip amp,</p><p></p><p>there is nothing really to make, the amplifier is already designed all you do is add</p><p></p><p>a few extra parts and power the chip and viola' - you have music.</p><p></p><p>It's bad enough that <strong>all of a sudden</strong> these things are cool whereas for</p><p></p><p>years they were not cool, <strong>but</strong> it's pretty pathetic to call your LM3875</p><p></p><p>DIY amplifier a <strong>gainclone</strong> as if you really cloned something //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif :laugh: //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif</p><p></p><p>The gainclones do not look like the Gaincard, they use the same chip amp and</p><p></p><p>that alone justifies the name 'GainClone' ??? ... It's like me looking inside a</p><p></p><p>Bryston amplifier and saying 'hey, they use a XYZ transistor, I'm gonna make</p><p></p><p>an amplifier using this and it's gonna be a ByrstonClone amp, woo hoo! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/uhoh.gif.c07307dd22ee7e63e22fc8e9c614d1fd.gif "</p><p></p><p>Or</p><p></p><p>I'm gonna buy the crate engine found in a Corvette and install that engine on my</p><p></p><p>rolling chassis, viola', CorvetteClone car .... /hehe</p><p></p><p>To make the comedy deeper, people are adding audio voodoo to their chip amp</p><p></p><p>recipe. Black Gate capacitors for the power supply, don't use &gt;1500uF capacitors</p><p></p><p>on the +V/-V rails and make sure you use Panasonic FC caps for SQ, don't use</p><p></p><p>input coupling capacitors, and the gain clone sounds best using the inverting input... something to that effect. Now people are using the 'Carlosfm' snubber'</p><p></p><p>circuit {1 cap, 1 resistor} on the power supply because it sounds so good //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/uhoh.gif.c07307dd22ee7e63e22fc8e9c614d1fd.gif</p><p></p><p>... as if normal power supply decoupling techniques no longer work anymore</p><p></p><p>as they once did and continue to do in the electronics industry.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Comedy Continues</strong></p><p></p><p>Nelson Pass, the world famous amplifier designer decided to apply his patented 'X topology'</p><p></p><p>to the chip amp, taking two chip amps and offering the DIY minions a new bone to chew on.</p><p></p><p>Now we have a slurry of Gainclone X amps in the DIY interest, hehehe</p><p></p><p>If you look at Jeff Roland, uber high end product, they really have a chip amp product too .. rofl</p><p></p><p>Recently on the HTguide.com forum this was posted;</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.twistedpearaudio.com/" target="_blank">http://www.twistedpearaudio.com/</a></p><p></p><p>Schematic;</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?postid=609507&amp;stamp=1112280850" target="_blank">http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?postid=609507&amp;stamp=1112280850</a></p><p></p><p>This is a funny design. He places an opamp front end and uses the chip amp</p><p></p><p>as a booster only and he offers a PCB for this design. You need two of these</p><p></p><p>PCB's for 1 channel, so 4 PCB's for a stereo amp. The design is too 'busy' and</p><p></p><p>bloated with nonsense, yet the design is praised as being clever and refreshing</p><p></p><p>when it's really retarded. It's a single LM3886 per PCB.</p><p></p><p>You can order a LM4780 chip amp with has two LM3886's inside and you</p><p></p><p>can bridge or parallel the design and make 1 chip per channel which is 'better'</p><p></p><p>as it's simple. BrianGT makes a good LM4780 PCB for reasonable price.</p><p></p><p>I've built a four channel LM4780 amplifier recently for a friend with my</p><p></p><p>own power supply recipe and I did some basic electrical mods and while</p><p></p><p>these chip amps are cool, they do run hot, they are limited by 35v rails,</p><p></p><p>limited in power output and considering that it took me a few weeks to</p><p></p><p>build this and factoring in costs for all the parts, the money spent is not</p><p></p><p>worth the result. You can get a pro amplifier for about the same money unless</p><p></p><p>you scrounged for parts to make your chip amp. They are boring amplifiers,</p><p></p><p>but they do work and sound fine if you live with it's ultra weak power and</p><p></p><p>headroom.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="thylantyr, post: 1263062, member: 560358"] [B]Crash Course in Gainclone Comedy[/B] A chip amplifier pics; [black object on right with many legs] [URL="http://www.tech-diy.com/Chipamps/completed.jpg"]http://www.tech-diy.com/Chipamps/completed.jpg[/URL] [URL="http://ludens.cl/Electron/audioamps/TA8215.jpg"]http://ludens.cl/Electron/audioamps/TA8215.jpg[/URL] [URL="http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/tech/virtual/images/ab/amplifer.jpg"]http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/tech/virtual/images/ab/amplifer.jpg[/URL] This is an amplifier circuit on a die inside a package and to complete the amplifier circuit you add some extra parts and power supply. These chip amplifiers have been around for decades, you see them in low budget home stereos. An audiophile would never buy a chip amp product as they prefer a 'discrete design', individual transistors, diodes, etc. see pic; Four transistors on the heatsink with all the other circuits on the board. [URL="http://www.drachen-audio.com/Images/DA1_100W_audio_amplifier.jpg"]http://www.drachen-audio.com/Images/DA1_100W_audio_amplifier.jpg[/URL] A few years ago, this company; [URL="http://www.sakurasystems.com/intro.html"]http://www.sakurasystems.com/intro.html[/URL] Made a chip amp product called 'Gaincard'; [URL="http://www.sakurasystems.com/products/47amp.html"]http://www.sakurasystems.com/products/47amp.html[/URL] People found out it was an ordinary chip amp design with external power supply. It's an 'audiophile' amplifier and reviews were good. When the DIY community at Diyaudio.com found out it was a chip amp everyone jumped on the 'Gainclone' bandwagon. [B]The Comedy[/B]; They either bought the chip amp, I think it was the LM3875 or got free samples from National Semiconductor, and made their own chip amp, there is nothing really to make, the amplifier is already designed all you do is add a few extra parts and power the chip and viola' - you have music. It's bad enough that [B]all of a sudden[/B] these things are cool whereas for years they were not cool, [B]but[/B] it's pretty pathetic to call your LM3875 DIY amplifier a [B]gainclone[/B] as if you really cloned something [IMG]//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif[/IMG] :laugh: [IMG]//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif[/IMG] The gainclones do not look like the Gaincard, they use the same chip amp and that alone justifies the name 'GainClone' ??? ... It's like me looking inside a Bryston amplifier and saying 'hey, they use a XYZ transistor, I'm gonna make an amplifier using this and it's gonna be a ByrstonClone amp, woo hoo! [IMG]//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/uhoh.gif.c07307dd22ee7e63e22fc8e9c614d1fd.gif[/IMG] " Or I'm gonna buy the crate engine found in a Corvette and install that engine on my rolling chassis, viola', CorvetteClone car .... /hehe To make the comedy deeper, people are adding audio voodoo to their chip amp recipe. Black Gate capacitors for the power supply, don't use >1500uF capacitors on the +V/-V rails and make sure you use Panasonic FC caps for SQ, don't use input coupling capacitors, and the gain clone sounds best using the inverting input... something to that effect. Now people are using the 'Carlosfm' snubber' circuit {1 cap, 1 resistor} on the power supply because it sounds so good [IMG]//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/uhoh.gif.c07307dd22ee7e63e22fc8e9c614d1fd.gif[/IMG] ... as if normal power supply decoupling techniques no longer work anymore as they once did and continue to do in the electronics industry. [B]The Comedy Continues[/B] Nelson Pass, the world famous amplifier designer decided to apply his patented 'X topology' to the chip amp, taking two chip amps and offering the DIY minions a new bone to chew on. Now we have a slurry of Gainclone X amps in the DIY interest, hehehe If you look at Jeff Roland, uber high end product, they really have a chip amp product too .. rofl Recently on the HTguide.com forum this was posted; [URL="http://www.twistedpearaudio.com/"]http://www.twistedpearaudio.com/[/URL] Schematic; [URL="http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?postid=609507&stamp=1112280850"]http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?postid=609507&stamp=1112280850[/URL] This is a funny design. He places an opamp front end and uses the chip amp as a booster only and he offers a PCB for this design. You need two of these PCB's for 1 channel, so 4 PCB's for a stereo amp. The design is too 'busy' and bloated with nonsense, yet the design is praised as being clever and refreshing when it's really retarded. It's a single LM3886 per PCB. You can order a LM4780 chip amp with has two LM3886's inside and you can bridge or parallel the design and make 1 chip per channel which is 'better' as it's simple. BrianGT makes a good LM4780 PCB for reasonable price. I've built a four channel LM4780 amplifier recently for a friend with my own power supply recipe and I did some basic electrical mods and while these chip amps are cool, they do run hot, they are limited by 35v rails, limited in power output and considering that it took me a few weeks to build this and factoring in costs for all the parts, the money spent is not worth the result. You can get a pro amplifier for about the same money unless you scrounged for parts to make your chip amp. They are boring amplifiers, but they do work and sound fine if you live with it's ultra weak power and headroom. [/QUOTE]
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