DIY amp for HE series? B22?

HIdden  cost, will come when you make mistakes and have to rebuy parts + shipping. Also expect lots of troubleshooting time. If its your first build, I wouldn't worry about upgrading parts, just get it working first.  I am going to be starting my first B22 build too, skipping all simpleir builds, just going straight to the B22.  Just don't rush anything, take your time building it and keep browsing the DIY forums.

Shipping is a real killer. I spent more that way by not making sure I had all the parts I wanted / needed when it came down to ordering. I built a three channel at 8x gain. If i had it to do over, I would have just built the balanced version with four boards, especially since I bought the HE-6. I think they sound a little thin through the b22, but the HE-6 are quite hard to drive.

I recommend making a spreadsheet with all the parts from the part list just to make sure all get ordered when you go forward. I went back and created one for each of the AMB projects that links to the Mouser page for each component.

As for the other hidden parts, I spent a lot on screws and standoffs -- more than I thought I would. I used Par-Metal cases that ran about $170. Also, I sprung for fancy features so I bought extra projects from AMB to make those work.

To do this over, I would just make sure I planned everything better and made damn sure I knew exactly what I wanted to built. I kept adding and changing the scope of the project.

Sorry for the rambling post. Good luck with the build.

If I recall correctly, the total damage to wallet for my balanced beta22 was something like ~$700-$800.

Casework is a large cost, keep in mind all the small stuff like the pot and knob, standoffs and screws, input and output jacks, IEC socket and things like that. It really adds up in the end, and with shipping especially.

If you are going to get the glassjar kits, I recommend throwing in some spare parts with your mouser order. Even if it turns out that you won't need them, you'll start growing your electronics parts bin, which is always a good thing. Oh, and don't forget to buy the heatsink mounting kits =P.

Good luck, have fun.

That makes me want to cry a little. I totalled mine at around $1750. Granted, I ordered a few extra expensive parts (transformers for a balanced unit, etc.) and used FPE for some casework.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by deadlylover 

If I recall correctly, the total damage to wallet for my balanced beta22 was something like ~$700-$800.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by wotts 

That makes me want to cry a little. I totalled mine at around $1750. Granted, I ordered a few extra expensive parts (transformers for a balanced unit, etc.) and used FPE for some casework.

Oof that's pricey!
 

But I bet it sure looks the part, I just built a wooden box for mine as I didn't really care how it'd look. That, and it'd be bloody expensive to get a proper chassis out here in Australia.

My 3 channel was about 1200 not counting volume control but I would estimate about 400 of that was in casework. I also included some extras like AMB's e12 and e24. The glassjar kits are good, and it can save on shipping by getting everything from one place. You can get the sigma 22 kits there too, The CRDs that you get in the kits are 50 volt rated rather than the 100 volt ones on the amb site and are about 3 bucks a pop cheaper, and 50v should be plenty unless you really mess something up. For the gain it really depends what your source is - do you know what the voltage output of it is?

I would also agree on defining the scope of the project ahead of time and sticking to it. I originally planned to use a rk27 for volume control but ended up building AMB's alpha 10 pre amp. Considering the alps pot is about 20 bucks and the pre amp cost about 6-700 to build it's a pretty big price difference . The alpha 10 is a pretty sweet project though.

If you are very careful and follow all the directions on the website I wouldn't think you should have any problems doing the b22 as your first build. Make sure you measure all resistors and caps to be the right values before you solder them in, check orientation of diodes, etc. I would sign up for AMB's forums as well in case you have any problems as Ti is a master debugger and is extremely helpful and responsive.

I think the B22 is a great amp, I also think the concept of "3-channel" amps is a poorly thought out fad - I cringe every time I read someone buying into/crowing about a "3-channel" build

it would be cheaper to build 2-channels with 2 separate dual PS for a "dual mono" amp - which can technically perform better than "3-channel"

(well not if you buy Glass Jar sigma22 kits - although with 2 you can use the smaller xfmr - but you can buy finished dual supplies for ~1/2 the price of their kits)

dual mono with headphones, amp outputs rewired with "balanced" connectors would be the cheapest, straightest line to "ultimate" performance on crosstalk, "gnd contamination" that "3-channel" is wrongly described as "improving"

dual mono is still inefficient of materials, very much "doing it the hard way" for likely imperceptible "improvement" - and has a deeper history in audio as a mark of a high end amp

I really can't see why dual mono has lost its cache in headphone amps - to see it get less respect than a technically flawed scheme thought up to keep rechargeable batteries happy???

for the HE-6 I would bump up the supply V towards the +/-30 V max - would need good ventilation because of the extra heat