[Dustin24]

I don't know anything about this stuff but thought those of you who do might appreciate it.

 

[Ko Nectic Jazz]

What about if we clone it, now ?...

and mod it, of course !!!

 

[Oink1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ko Nectic Jazz What about if we clone it, now ?...

...treat it with the contempt it deserves and bin that mofo'

 

[NotJeffBuckley]

Looks like some power supply caps, some input caps, some resistors maybe, some op-amps, some jacks, a switch, and the components to hookup some batteries.

Truly, an amplifier lays before us!

Can you take a better picture of the chips? I'm curious as to what they're using in these things to keep costs down so low.

 

[Kirosia]

The boostaroo consists of evil and heartlessness.

 

[kramer5150]

Thats a lotta caps.
Are those buffers?

 

[marvin]

The old Boostaroo chip amps are Philips TDA7050's. Pretty bad specs, but it can run in balanced mode... They're 50 cents a pop, and all you need to make a working fixed gain amplifier from one of those is 3 volts, a power supply cap, two input resistors, two caps for output HPFs, and two jacks for input and output. It probably cost them about $1.00 of parts per channel to make.

Looking at this one though, they seem to have changed from an all-in-one TDA7050 to using regular op amps. Not surprising as the TDA7050 is now obsolete. Without the all-in-one nature of the TDA7050, they seem to have needed to do some design work too. And they've even added a voltage regulator.

 

[Teerawit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NotJeffBuckley I'm curious as to what they're using in these things to keep costs down so low.

mass production w/o the "standard DIY" parts.

 

[Bosk]

pardon my naievity in asking the question but is using a Boostaroo in a portable situation preferable to using no amp at all, or would it simply degrade sound quality?

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bosk pardon my naievity in asking the question but is using a Boostaroo in a portable situation preferable to using no amp at all, or would it simply degrade sound quality?

I doubt it's any better than the typical circuitry in portable players... quite possibly worse than some. The main point of the Boostaroo is to save battery life and offer additional headphone outlets.

 

[Dustin24]

Sure I can take some better chip pics. I'll also write down everything that's written on the chip.

 

[Jam_Master_J]

What, no blackgates?

 

[wnewport]

 

[marvin]

The point is probably to get some extra bit of gain that you can't get from some hideously underpowered devices. (Like the PSP.)

 

[Mercuttio]

Oh, I recognize those parts.

See those little black caps? Those contain the souls of the damned.