Mini Millet Tube Amp - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

rds · 06-02-2008, 05:26 AM

This is my implementation of Pete Millet's clever hybrid amp design:
Starving Student

All wiring is silver plated copper. All resistors are Dale Vishay. The coupling caps and bypass caps are Wima mkp. All power caps are Nichicon PW. The output caps are Nichicon Muse ES bypassed with wima mkp. The gain switch is a Carling 2m1 DP-1. The pot is Alpha 5j3. The LEDS are Avago HLMP-EL16-VY000. The Phone jack is Switchcraft RN112BPC.

*This post has been re-edited many times as the design has come along, so comments below may not apply

juniperlater · 06-02-2008, 05:52 AM

That is beautiful! How does it sound with full-size cans?

Drag0n · 06-02-2008, 07:09 AM

Can it be ordered from somewhere? Cost? Sound? Can it drive more than those Koss KSC75's? Looks nice.

Steve_72 · 06-02-2008, 10:33 AM

Originally Posted by juniperlater

That is beautiful! How does it sound with full-size cans?

X2! It looks very appealing in such a small package. I'd be very interested in how to get one, and how they fare in driving full-sized cans.

rds · 06-02-2008, 10:42 AM

Can it be ordered from somewhere? Cost? Sound? Can it drive more than those Koss KSC75's? Looks nice.

I built this myself.
It sounds very nice, but I haven't had a lot of time to listen to it yet.
I put the Koss there to give an idea of the size. This amp has a lot of power and will have no problems driving just about any headphones.
Those green terminals in the bottom picture hold the gain resistors. So it can be optimized for whatever it's powering.

cooperpwc · 06-02-2008, 11:16 AM

Beautiful. You make a fellow Canadian proud.

Does it have diamond buffers? (Not sure if they would fit.)

NoPants · 06-02-2008, 12:10 PM

is this the new starving student model?

FallenAngel · 06-02-2008, 12:14 PM

Originally Posted by NoPants

is this the new starving student model?

Yep.
RDS: Nice looking build, but not exactly "starving" on the Hammond 1455 case

rds · 06-02-2008, 12:41 PM

RDS: Nice looking build, but not exactly "starving" on the Hammond 1455 case

I was thinking "starving student: saturday night" might be appropriate.

n_maher · 06-02-2008, 01:45 PM

Yes, it's the Starving Student Hybrid and is an open source DIY design. More details can be found in the DIY forum.

rds: nice work, but you might not want to advertise that you'll be building more unless you're looking to pick up an MOT tag.