[shieldst]

I just built my first and only amp - a CMoy mini tin amp. What's another project of comparable difficulty and cost? Maybe a cheap DAC?

 

[sam_cat]

Gainclone? Costs a little more, but gives you a full size amp.

Sam

 

[Spacehead]

Dual power supply and buffered type amplifier

 

[Marcus_C]

If you want a dac try the amb gamma1, of course then you'll be drawn to one of amb's amps as well...

The γ1 Modular Miniature DAC

 

[oneplustwo]

there really is not something of comparable difficulty and cost. CMoy is the entrance to this hobby so if you're still interested, be prepared to start investing more time and money! Or you can just build another cmoy if you want more practice.

 

[sam_cat]

After my Cmoy I built another cmoy, with a power splitter chip instead of resistors to provide the virtual ground.

Then I build another one, with a pair of buffer chips in addition to the above changes.

I researched how these work/integrate rather than using someones existing design, happy to report it worked, sounds great and I learnt a LOT doing that.

Final Cmoy I built used all the above, with premium quality components.

Then I built a gainclone (finished stage 1 of the build today!). Next up is a starfish.

Cheers,
Sam

 

[shieldst]

I got a few extra opamps and I was considering building another CMoy.

I was thinking of just adapting the design to be a mini guitar amp - rather than a 3.5mm jack in, I would have a 1/4" jack, and instead of a 3.5mm jack out, I would have a speaker. Would this work with the basic CMoy design? Or would I need more power/different components?

 

[sam_cat]

Its not really suited as a speaker amp...
Go have a look into gainclones... a single channel one would be ideal for a guitar amp.

 

[mewrei]

If you're looking into DAC's, try the BantamDAC, from Toole Audio. Its simpler (and cheaper) than the Gamma-1 (albeit the Gamma-1 sounds better and can be expanded into the Gamma-2 which is a very nice DAC).

My second step was a Mini3 from AMB. Very nice portable amp and its not too complicated or expensive. Tangentsoft's Pimeta is also another good choice.

 

[Thehofl]

I just built my first cmoy and have HORRIBLE hissing and lack of volume control in the right channel. Did you encounter any issues like this?

 

[sam_cat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thehofl /img/forum/go_quote.gif I just built my first cmoy and have HORRIBLE hissing and lack of volume control in the right channel. Did you encounter any issues like this?

Yes.
First time around I used a cheap pot, and had that exact issue in both channels. Grounding the body of the pot fixed this.

On one a friend built he had that issue on one channel, one of the resistors was hooked up incorrectly. Sit there with the schematic and check it very thoroughly.. Easy to make mistakes.

In the same vein, clean/check your soldering.. Poor joins or shorts could cause the same.

Good luck.

Sam