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Which DIY Amp for HD650/DT880? - Page 2

post #16 of 20

Why bump? You have a few good ideas of amps that sound good and are reasonably easy to find parts for & build (but also not so easy to the point where they are totally mindless to build) in the PPA, M3 and minimax. Pick between the 3 and go solder. Odds are good that recommendations to build other amps are not so good.

 

As another point, DIY'ing to the point of breaking even dollar wise is extremely difficult. If you are on the budget where you would buy something to try and return this may be a factor. food for thought. When you factor in the emotional rewards of building something that dosnt catch on fire the first time you flip the switch money becomes secondary to the deed. If your just looking for something cheap & good surf the FS forums find a good deal on a desirable amp and sell it a few years down the line for pretty much what you payed. I bought a nice commercial amp new and owned it for a bit over a year and sold it for 90% of what I payed. This is not uncommon. With good quality second hand gear it is not uncommon to break even! I have rarely come close to recovering 90% of my parts cost on DIY gear although I do find that gear that borders on "dosnt exist" makes this easier. Designing your own amp, or matching 100's of FETs is a good start.

 

Something else to note: people who do this for fun build one and build another and build another.... and then the cost REALLY becomes secondary to the many rewards of building your own gear. Very few people build one DIY amp. nip the habit in the bud if you dont want a few amps hanging around in a year. This is actually why its weird to ask what to build, once you start you will probably build all of those anyways. you will make mistakes on the DIY journey, you will blow up some transistors, you might even blow up a tube, you may even build some amps that have your side ache from laughing at how terrible they sound, but thats all part of the DIY journey. Its the amps that come out outstanding and make you say "wow, I built this and its awesome" that make it worthwhile. 

post #17 of 20

I have a MiniMax and it powers even the 600 ohm DT-990s!  

 

It can clip if you BLAST BLAST, but its super high volumes.

 

It sounds GREAT!

 

PS: Yes Tom is the most helpful guy in the world.  HE shipped a bunch of replacement LEDs cause I kept messing em up and he replaced tubes that were microphonic.  Also, always handy for advice and knowledge.

 

A true gentleman.


Edited by Coupe - 9/14/10 at 6:43pm
post #18 of 20
Thread Starter 

Coupe: Thanks for the info, and Tom does seem like a really great guy.

 

nikongod: I'm not extremely worried about budget...I'm just looking to keep it in the ballpark of a few hundred, like I said in my original post. As long as they do well with high impedance 'phones (which they seem to), then I'm good. I'll research those three a bit more and pick one then. And I do really enjoy the few things I have built so far, so I'm sure I'll enjoy whatever I build in the future. Great post man, thanks.


Edited by nate911 - 9/14/10 at 9:42pm
post #19 of 20
Quote:
Originally Posted by nate911 View Post


Yea, that's what I was thinking. Super easy to case up and there's a kit at GlassJar if I decide to go that route. I'm assuming your friend had the DT880/600?


Yup. We had a tiny meet a couple months ago, having the M3, MiniMax and the DT880 was also there.

The MiniMax is no longer with me but my friend who currently have it, is having a great time with his MiniMax+DT880 setup.

 

Are you sure GlassJar has the MiniMax kit? They only have the Millet Max on their site, from what I'm seeing.

post #20 of 20
Thread Starter 

Woops..I meant Beezar :) sorry.

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