[DoubleIPA]

I thought y'all might find this link quite interesting after all the discussion of the coaster board. If I were living stateside I'd probably buy it for fun and give it ago. However, I'm not and I don't have any efficient speakers to run with it. Could Schiit pull off something like this?

Amp Camp Amp

 

[trellus]

I'm stealing this one, thanks!

 

[JamminVMI]

THAT was brilliant! (The performance...’

 

[Ripper2860]

How well, if at all, does the ACA amp drive 4 ohm speakers?

 

[astromo]

I thought y'all might find this link quite interesting after all the discussion of the coaster board. If I were living stateside I'd probably buy it for fun and give it ago. However, I'm not and I don't have any efficient speakers to run with it. Could Schiit pull off something like this?

Amp Camp Amp

Of course they could.

However, based on my read of Jason's posts, he's not one to simply follow the herd. He's also made it clear that we should not expect anything beyond the coaster for Schiit's DIY line.

There has been some talk a good number of pages back from forum members talking up the prospects of a Class A amp in a Vidar chassis. Jason offered up some thoughts in response but tempered the excitement with his standard line of could-be-maybe-never and that he would make a Class A amp distinctly Schiit (in a good Schiit kind of way).

So, it's a case of watch this space being aware that it may be an infinitely long no-show.

I've decided to give the ACA a crack with a significant amount of inspiration coming from reading Jason's story here. I've taken serious note of the challenges that a pro can face, which I think is of great value in itself for someone in my position to have a good reality check on what can go wrong when building a box of electronics. I'm looking forward to the prospect of getting some hands on appreciation of what Jason has written about, even if it's only scratching the surface.

 

[Tom Ato]

I've taken serious note of the challenges that a pro can face, which I think is of great value in itself for someone in my position to have a good reality check on what can go wrong when building a box of electronics. I'm looking forward to the prospect of getting some hands on appreciation of what Jason has written about, even if it's only scratching the surface.

Me too. The ACA should be a fun project with a good result, but I am glad this is at least the third iteration it has gone through. With each new release, they presumably have worked out a few more things which could go wrong and improved the kit, just as it seems with every new chapter, Jason has found another thing to fix and improve on the coaster project (and other products...) before he releases it to the masses.

 

[KoshNaranek]

I thought y'all might find this link quite interesting after all the discussion of the coaster board. If I were living stateside I'd probably buy it for fun and give it ago. However, I'm not and I don't have any efficient speakers to run with it. Could Schiit pull off something like this?

Amp Camp Amp

Already ordered one. Just got the internals though. The plan is to turn my burned out Hafler into an Amp Camp.

 

[Paladin79]

Several of us are jumping on the build, I plan to build dual ACA's to run as monoblocks. No matter what I buy or build, my favorite amps tend to be class A. I posted a link earlier to a thread where JamieMcC did some great looking builds. The man has great talent, he also built his own headphone stands that are quite amazing. I like the idea of monoblocks but turning the amps into a thing of beauty also interests me. There is a lot of freedom in DIY and one day I hope to apply that to Coaster amps.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/pass-diy-headphone-amp-whammy.877569/page-2

 

[jimmers]

Already ordered one. Just got the internals though. The plan is to turn my burned out Hafler into an Amp Camp.

I ordered some Chinese ones 3 weeks ago, they'll get here one day. Postage from USA too dear and I'm in no rush.
I can always replace any iffy components if the PCBs are OK, I have suitable heat sinks and SMPSs

 

[audio philestine]

Sorry, I want to stay married. The WAF on these things is abyssal.

I also jumped in on the ACA pre-order. I've been around electronics most of my life, so the soldering doesn't scare me, but I definitely appreciate the design work and someone else doing the leg work of gathering a parts kit together saving me from filling a BOM full of obsolete/unobtainium parts.

This has got me looking at high-efficiency speakers to match with the ACA. I've looked at the Tekton line, I think they have some smaller, more WAF-friendly ones (mini-lore?), but still outside my current price range [for now...]

I've been looking into the DIY speaker approach, and I'm currently leaning towards an Audio Nirvana high-efficiency (~98dB) full-range single driver (no crossover), but in one of their smaller cabinets (mini-monitor perhaps?) for the WAF. I don't think I can get a larger cabinet approved by the boss. I know the deep bass will be compromised in such a small cabinet, which is also fine for the WAF, but it has also piqued my interest into 2.1/2.2 systems - it's easier to hide a sub in corner than a big cabinet in plain sight.

 

[Paladin79]

There is a simplicity about that amp that I really like and I am going in a similar direction to Jimmers.

Anyway I will try to get back on track and if the Coaster amp appears, I will work with that as well.

 

[Delirious Lab]

Wife Acceptance Factor ...

Wifey must approve of equipment's appearance and approve of its placement in the home or there will be heck to pay...

For me it's What = Wife Tolerance Factor.

 

[Paladin79]

lol I understand now.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

Hey all,

Sorry I haven't gotten to finish up the coaster amp. It's been pretty crazy around here--but a good kind of crazy, a getting-things-done crazy, a the-future-is-looking-really-amazing crazy, so the fact that I've been scarce should pay off. Unless I mess something up again. Which is entirely possible.

Speaking of which, I really need to get back to some mechanical design work that will really change, well, pretty much everything we do. I'll do a chapter on internal changes, but the short version is that we're getting a lot better at (a) doing mechanical design that will work well across a line for the future, and (b) mechanical stuff that addresses some very specific shortcomings.

Hopefully I can finish the coaster amp chapter this week. But again, this is NOT a leading edge of us getting into DIY.

Let me amplify this: I'd actually be more comfortable if nobody built the product. All the talk of DIY makes me nervous, and I'm thinking about simply releasing it as a coaster, with the amp part "left as an exercise to the reader." But in reality I probably will finish it up and provide a schematic and BOM (and NO other docs, no guides, no videos, no manuals, nothing.) As I've said before, literally everyone else on the planet does DIY better than we do. Better we concentrate on smarter, high-volume, "shrink wrap" designs that deliver even better value.

All the best,
Jason

 

[Paladin79]

Thanks for the update on the Coaster!