[Rodent]

Hi, in Sweden, the last year of upper secondary school, every student is supposed to come up with an idea for a project and work with it for the whole year.

Now, I'm thinking of building a headphone amplifier as my project, and I wonder if you think I could pull it off?

I don't have any soldering experience except from school when i was 14-15.
I would have to do it at home and i think solely by myself and would have to buy the equipment and the components.
This shouldn't be a problem price-wise, should it?

How hard is it and are there guides on how to do it?

 

[episiarch]

Hi, Rodent. The first resource you want to check out is Tangent's "Getting Started in Audio DIY" site,

http://www.tangentsoft.net/audio/

You'll find lots of guides and info there. There are many more in Headwize's project library,

http://headwize2.powerpill.org/library.htm

but I think Tangent's site is very user-friendly and a great place to start. Note, by the way, that the amps on Tangent's site are op-amp designs and that this is by no means the only way to build a headphone amp. The Headwize library includes many types of designs.

The simplest amps are very simple indeed. If you have a full year to work on this project, you might consider something fancier, such as building several amps of different designs and comparing them, or building a couple to learn from and then designing your own.

 

[ipodstudio]

Rodent,
you could take a look here for starters:

http://tangentsoft.net/audio/mint/steps.html

which is one step by step guide to making an amp in a mint tin

Then goto the links section at the ipod studio and you'll find several more with detailed construction diagrams. (you need to sign in to Yahoo! at the above link)

Hope this helps get ya started!