How to make amplifier?

Thread Starter

SNsound

Joined Apr 16, 2009
6
Hello everybody here. I'm a new member from Chiang Mai, Thailand. I'm very interested in making amplifier so I try to search for the website that can help me. Then, I've found this site. Please give me some suggestions. I would like to make amplifier about 500w. Do you guys have some circuits? I would like to test and learn by myself. Thank you in advance. ;)
 

PRS

Joined Aug 24, 2008
989
500 watts is alot of power. Are you doing this for fun? If so, I suggest you start out with a more humble amplifier.
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
The 1.5kW amplifier at sound.westhost uses a high voltage dual-polarity supply and millions of output transistors. Read the forum there where guys make it and it blows up.
 

Thread Starter

SNsound

Joined Apr 16, 2009
6
500 watts is alot of power. Are you doing this for fun? If so, I suggest you start out with a more humble amplifier.
I know that 500watts is a lot of power. I'm serious with this. I'm not doing this for fun. I'm used to make it but the sound is not satisfied me so I would like to learn more and improve it. If you guys have some experiences about making 500watts amplifier, please give me some suggestions. Sometimes I think I want to do business about this. I will try to adapt it without transformer. I think that I will change it with switching. It might be challenging.
 

gotumal

Joined Mar 24, 2008
99
Usually sound amplifier's power is specified in PMPO which is far more than what we mean in electronics (RMS).
You can get many circuits over internet, infact there are many ICs which alone does amplification. But for this much wattage, you need to have many stages of push-pull amplifiers at the output.
And if you ask me i would tell you the beauty of these Hi-fi amplifiers lies in the layout of the PCB, since you have to be very carefull about THD and other interferances.
Another dominating factor in sond reproduction is quality of woofers, tweeters and squakers.
And at last, the best sound system today still uses vacuum tubes!:)
 

KL7AJ

Joined Nov 4, 2008
2,229
Hello everybody here. I'm a new member from Chiang Mai, Thailand. I'm very interested in making amplifier so I try to search for the website that can help me. Then, I've found this site. Please give me some suggestions. I would like to make amplifier about 500w. Do you guys have some circuits? I would like to test and learn by myself. Thank you in advance. ;)
Sawasdee Krap!

I plan on being in Chiang Mai in late December. It will be my sixth trip there since 2000.

How is the political situation down in Bangkok now? I haven't heard any news for a couple of weeks.


If you plan on building a high power amplifier without a lot of experience, it's always best to use Mosfets, because they are not subject to thermal runaway....much more forgiving. I would look for schematics for either Crown or Perreaux amplifiers, and try to duplicate them. They both use very sound and stable designs.

The high current power supply transformer will be the hardest item to obtain, I would think. Anyway, I wish you the best; it sounds like a fun project.

Eric
 

PRS

Joined Aug 24, 2008
989
SNsound, I'm sorry for jumping to the conclusion you were just starting out as a hobbyist. You can see from those circuits given by the folks above that we are talking about a large scale project. Hats off to BeenThere for building that monster he showed us! ;)

Now I see you have business in mind. That's a worthwhile project! I'm no businessman, but I know that you need to make up your mind as to quality. Will you mass produce cheap stuff? If so, you're probably right in using a switched power supply. But if you're thinking quality, I'd advise using the old xformer-based supply. Switchers tend to be noisy. You can identify the noise with a spectrum analyser and then filter out the unwanted harmonics but that can be expensive in itself, and very frustrating.

More thoughts on the subject if you want them, but I just wanted to appologize for not taking you seriously in the first place. Good luck! I'm all for you, wishing for your success! And have fun putting it all together. :)
 

beenthere

Joined Apr 20, 2004
15,819
One of the more enlightening experiences I had was doing a sound test between some then popular Acoustic Research speakers and a pair of gen-u-wine Klipshorns.

The AR speakers were in sealed enclosures, and rated about .8% efficient in converting electrical energy to sound. Paul Klipsch was a tinkerer who built the first folded horn enclosures. The largest (Klipschorns) stood 5 feet tall and used the corner walls in a room as part of the final horn. They were rated at 30% conversion efficiency.

The upshot was that the salesman forgot to turn down the volume when he switched to the Klipsch speakers. One became concerned about structural flaws in the building.

Power is great (I run about 2/3's horsepower), but there's other ways to get loud.

I still have my Bose 901's, by the way.
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
I also still have my Acoustic Research speakers and they still sound great.
Because they are not blasting loud I still have my hearing.
 

beenthere

Joined Apr 20, 2004
15,819
What do wars have to do with it?

Anyway, as long as you have Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, you'll never want to turn the music up loud.
 

Thread Starter

SNsound

Joined Apr 16, 2009
6
SNsound, I'm sorry for jumping to the conclusion you were just starting out as a hobbyist. You can see from those circuits given by the folks above that we are talking about a large scale project. Hats off to BeenThere for building that monster he showed us! ;)

Now I see you have business in mind. That's a worthwhile project! I'm no businessman, but I know that you need to make up your mind as to quality. Will you mass produce cheap stuff? If so, you're probably right in using a switched power supply. But if you're thinking quality, I'd advise using the old xformer-based supply. Switchers tend to be noisy. You can identify the noise with a spectrum analyser and then filter out the unwanted harmonics but that can be expensive in itself, and very frustrating.

More thoughts on the subject if you want them, but I just wanted to appologize for not taking you seriously in the first place. Good luck! I'm all for you, wishing for your success! And have fun putting it all together. :)
Don't apologize me. It's ok. I still need you as my advisor. :) I will show you some of my amplifiers that I try to make but I bought some of equipment from some shops. I really want to build them by myself. It would be nice if I can make the PCB and create the circuits of 300 - 500watts amplifier by myself.
 

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Thread Starter

SNsound

Joined Apr 16, 2009
6
Sawasdee Krap!

I plan on being in Chiang Mai in late December. It will be my sixth trip there since 2000.

How is the political situation down in Bangkok now? I haven't heard any news for a couple of weeks.


If you plan on building a high power amplifier without a lot of experience, it's always best to use Mosfets, because they are not subject to thermal runaway....much more forgiving. I would look for schematics for either Crown or Perreaux amplifiers, and try to duplicate them. They both use very sound and stable designs.

The high current power supply transformer will be the hardest item to obtain, I would think. Anyway, I wish you the best; it sounds like a fun project.

Eric
hi Eric,

Nice to meet you. I hope to meet you in Thailand. Anyway, you said that you would look for schematics of Crown or Perreaux amplifiers and try to duplicate them. Will you do it for me? I really like it. Do you have Crown or Perreaux amplifiers now? In fact, I would like to make my amplifiers to have a good sound and quality as Crown. I hope I can do it. Please ... I need you as my advisor. Thank you in advance. :)
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Have you studied Class D amps? I'm not an expert in high power audio (and with my old ears no judge of quality), but I have seen several people on the site designing DIY amps. Being fundimentally digital, they can pack a lot more volume without the heat being generated (at 300W there will heat, no way around it).

Here is a thread about such an amp almost a year ago...

http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=12788&highlight=Class
 

PRS

Joined Aug 24, 2008
989
SNsound, I'm impressed. You are quite serious about this business of building amplifiers. I have no experience building high power amps, though I have built low power amps. I get my kicks from designing them without using ICs. I'm still learning. Lately I've been studying my old textbooks on feedback in order to make an 8 Watt amplifier. It's on my workbench as I write.

In short, I don't know how I could be an "adviser" to you. You seem to be way ahead of me!
 

Thread Starter

SNsound

Joined Apr 16, 2009
6
Have you studied Class D amps? I'm not an expert in high power audio (and with my old ears no judge of quality), but I have seen several people on the site designing DIY amps. Being fundimentally digital, they can pack a lot more volume without the heat being generated (at 300W there will heat, no way around it).

Here is a thread about such an amp almost a year ago...

http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=12788&highlight=Class
I have never studied about Class D amps but I try to learn by myself. I can do it. I want to show you one of class D amps that I made but I bought equipment from the electronic shop. It would be nice if I can do everything by myself.
 

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