Going to SMD components would let you shave at least 30-50% of area mostly by shrinking resistors. TO-92 board footprint isn't much smaller than SMD transistors and board width will be determined by heatsinked output transistors. I dunno, maybe some layouting wizard could make it flat mountable on a 2U heatsink. The problem is that many DIY'ers are afraid of SMD parts.
Thank you for your suggestion for what might be possible for making those amplifiers smaller.
Not necessarily afraid of them. I've built around 5 of the SS Mini Dynalos, which are pretty much all SMD. The problems with SMD include the difficulty in troubleshooting them, parts removal/changeout (depends on device footprint), problems with matching devices (resistors/transistors), etc. An amp done with all SMD will also tend to run hot. Looking at you mini dynalo
Just because the amp board is done SMD doesn't mean the heatsinking and thermal requirements will decrease.Thank you for explaining those difficulties, that utilising SMDs provide.Not necessarily afraid of them. I've built around 5 of the SS Mini Dynalos, which are pretty much all SMD. The problems with SMD include the difficulty in troubleshooting them, parts removal/changeout (depends on device footprint), problems with matching devices (resistors/transistors), etc. An amp done with all SMD will also tend to run hot. Looking at you mini dynalo
Packages such as the QFN-20 are in my opinion dumb. Try soldering one of these to a 2 or 3oz copper board, with half the pins connected to ground. Good times.
It's a few months back, but why did you sell your custom CFA3?
What were the "uniqueness to them" from both of these builds? I never saw that across the remainder of the thread.Bumping this thread because I have some downtime while I wait for some parts to be cleared by the customs.
Have 2 custom CFA projects on my table at the moment. The larger one is a 3U case while the smaller one is 2U. Roughly the same spec as my previous builds but both are going to have some uniqueness to them, which I will reveal when they are finished.
The 3u build had speaker taps, and switch to go between speaker/headphone.
Did you or @Dukei expand if you increased the bias or anything else perhaps different?
I don't think he did? I personally have no idea. I just said make me pretty things that make nice sounds and send to me. So details are lost. Forgot to say small, and now it's pretty and big. Hopefully he can fill in the details.
Haha. I love how you forgot to say make it small and now you have the largest build.
Sometimes it also ends up being whatever it wants to be.The beauty of DIY is any ****ing way you want it.
Wow !!! What a clean build !!!
