[Bionic Gecko]

For pretty much a complete Electronic HARDWARE newbie(Im not to software) how difficult would it be to make a headphone amp(Hopefully portable)

 

[Budgie]

Not that hard if you can solder. If you don't have exsperience soldering, You may want to learn and practice that first. An easy project will fail if the solder joints are not good.

 

[Sol_Zhen]

Hey,

Start with the Cmoy design. It's the easiest to learn on, is portable, and sounds pretty good.

Take a look at Tangent's Getting Started in Audio DIY page.

Then look at the guide for building a CMoy amp.

Good stuff in there. It's the guide many of us use the first time.

 

[bralack42]

CMoy's a great project to start out with, and Tangent's articles are wonderful!

Soldering isn't hard once you get the small learning curve down. I suggest practice-soldering hookup wire to the Radioshack board (or whatever you use) before you begin with actually making it. Then you can also practice desoldering. If you're nearly as careless as I you'll become good friends with the braid.

 

[ChewToy]

I made my cmoy in a couple hours (thats with barely any experience soldering). I'm sure with experience and planning for the case layout, it could take like 40 minutes. Though its a very simple project, and if you use tangent's layout to the T its a great learning experience. Just make sure you learn about why certain parts go where (like caps on the inputs) and the HPF formed that causes the bass to rolloff. but you'll get all this after you build it, just make sure you read all the info so you actually know WHY it has certain characteristics. :-D

edit: Oh and i hate the braids...I'm just no good with them, yay for the pump! hehe

 

[ofb]

"...how difficult would it be to make a headphone amp..."

really, it depends on who's asking.

if you've got a healthy curiousity and sense of humour about yourself, then you probably like figuring things out and don't get frustrated real easily. so is a headphone amp a good first electronics project then? heck yeah! you'll like building it and have a very cool toy when you're done. definitely have a go.

the links and advice above are where to start. and this forum is full of people happy to answer your questions all through the process. go for it.

fwiw, i skipped the cmoy and did a meta42 for my first project. once i figured out what to populate it with, it was really just a pleasant assembly project.

the caution i should add to that is i have a lot of non-electronic building experience, so maybe i had an easier learning curve with keeping track of pieces and soldering. the cmoy is a nice simple amp that might be a better place to start for many. and it makes a nice gift for a friend when you replace it with a more complicated amp. (that's an important clue: people find they like making amps and build more.)

my first amp, plus more links