[MrJoshua]

Well, after only having my Sonic Impact T-Amp for a couple of days, I was annoyed that my speaker cable wouldn't fit into the flimsey spring clips, and that the quality of the 3.5mm jack seemed a little suspect (probably nothing wrong with it, I just wanted RCA's!)... So I went to Maplins and bought a nice looking Hammond Case, a 5mm Blue LED, 2x Gold Plated Stereo Binding Posts, 2x Gold Plated RCA's, a 2.1mm Power Socket and 8x Gold Plated Bannana Plugs.

Total: £28

When I got home I set about disassembling the T-Amp and once I'd removed the PCB from the chassis I was faced with the task of removing the PCB Mounted Power and 3.5mm sockets.

Well, with much cursing and burned fingers I got them off the board, but there was a casualty

... One of the solder pads that the 3.5mm socket was soldered to had come away from the PCB, leaving the tiniest bit of track exposed... I was never going to be able to solder a wire to that, so I very nearly gave up (it was very nearly put out with the trash

) however in a "moment of clarity" I got my multimeter out and traced where the track went to... I found that it went to the plug that feeds the volume pot, so I soldered my wire to the pad below that pin... Oops, another casualty: The wire above where I'd been soldering now came out of the plug, so I just soldered this to the same pad.

Once I finished soldering the wires on to the board (Power, 2x Stereo Speaker, 2x RCA and LED) I put my tools away and went to bed!

Yesterday I took the whole lot down to my friend's Auto Tuning Shop as I knew they had a pillar drill which was going to be needed to successfully drill the holes in the face and rear of my Hammond Case. This was the first time I had ever drilled anything accurately or even used a pillar drill, however it all went very well... I even countersunk the holes for the screws which hold the volume pot in place!

Apart from marking the faceplate with a screwdriver (I'll paint it some day to cover the mark) everything went well.

I'm still using the stock knob from the original case as I couldn't find a knob that would fit the recessed pot properly... I'm now looking for a way to sort this out as I'd like a decent Alloy knob for the front...

I couldn't wait to get it home to try it out, but I went out for some food with some friends in the evening so I couldn't try it out as soon as I'd have liked

(the food and company were good though, so it made up for it).

When I did get home, I soldered my Bannana Plugs on to the Van Damme 2.5mm Speaker Cable and hooked my home-brew 3.5mm -> RCA cable up to my iPod, connected the speaker cable and took the power lead from the back of my amp to my 3Ah 12v Gell Cell.

Would it work? Had my efforts been worth it?

YES!

It sounds great at acceptable listening levels... I've not really tried cranking it up with some Little John (hehe just kidding, I don't even know who he is!) as it was late when I finished it and it's still pretty early over here on a Sunday morning, but what I have listened to sounds beautiful. I'm not experienced enough to explain in words the sound being produced my my JBL 4208 Monitors, but it sounds good to me.

I hope I've not bored you to tears if you've actually read all of this post lol....

Anyway, here are the photos I promised in the Thread Title:

Comments?

 

[blessingx]

Very nice!

 

[soundboy]

Mmmm....metal!!

Excellent work, MrJoshua.

 

[Feanor]

looks great! If I had any skills, I'd try the same thing.

 

[bundee1]

I know Im dying to get some skills. If I knew how Id be spending all my time making cables and sonic t-amps. Nice work and thanks for the pics Mr. Joshua.

 

[Necros]

UK seller of these amps?

 

[Oddball]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feanor looks great! If I had any skills, I'd try the same thing.

Amen to that. I'm always promising myself to make the jump into DIY, but I've yet to make it. Pretty sweet looking case you have there.

 

[MrJoshua]

Thanks for the comments guys!

Necros: I bought mine from www.thinkgeek.com and it was delivered by DHL very fast with no duty or tax. I think it came to about $70US including delivery.

I've been listening to this amp non-stop for almost 24 hours now (I had it on overnight while I was alseep lol). and I really do like it.

With regards the construction... If you can solder and have access to a pillar drill then you're well on your way to being able to build one of these.

 

[Jon L]

Man, you guys keep tempting me to mess with my SI. Must resist...

Looks like you are primed for changing PS caps to bigger ones and to add some big caps to the battery PS, both of which mods should be WELL worth it. Given the effort you've put into it so far, just do it!

 

[cetoole]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrJoshua Thanks for the comments guys! Necros: I bought mine from www.thinkgeek.com and it was delivered by DHL very fast with no duty or tax. I think it came to about $70US including delivery. I've been listening to this amp non-stop for almost 24 hours now (I had it on overnight while I was alseep lol). and I really do like it. With regards the construction... If you can solder and have access to a pillar drill then you're well on your way to being able to build one of these.

Wow, stuff is expesnive in the UK, that is a bit more than 3x the amount I paid for mine, shipped. I havn't modded it yet, or even tried it, but I can't wait. Now, just need the Millet PCB.

 

[JWFokker]

For guys in the US you can get it at Parts Express for $30, instead of $35.

So when are you going to replace the capacitors on there with higher quality ones? Just replacing the 330uf cap with an 1800uf or 2200uf Panasonic FM cap increases the response below 40Hz. Well worth the couple bucks and 15 minutes of effort.

 

[Oski]

That's excellent work! I didn't even think I wanted one of these until I saw yours. There are other people that provide custom enclosures for the SI, but I've always thought that it was too expensive for what is a $19 amp...whereas putting in the hammond case with all the other parts would probably run less than $75. Given my lack of equipment an know-how, it would be really nice to see someone pick up the gauntlet and start building these things for sale (in the Hammond case with all the upgraded parts and such).

 

[Oink1]

Nice job MrJ - In stock form the Sonic T looks like cheap tat IMO but that mod makes it look a hundred times better

 

[pbirkett]

Good work Josh, I like that!

 

[MrJoshua]

Thanks everyone!

I'm really happy I made these modifications now... Like Oink1 mentioned, they do look like a toy or something in their stock form, but now it looks pretty nice indeed!

Ugly Duckling into a Beautiful Swan

All it needs now is a decent knob on the front to make it look pretty special.

With regards to the capacitors, thanks for letting me know that this would make a difference (I didn't realise) but could someone please tell me which caps need changing (edit my photo if you think that'd help explaining it to me)... Which ones to which values etc. I'd gladly make these changes and provide my thoughts on the sound afterwards.