DIY'ers i need help! (DIY headphone amp)

[stev0]

i want to build this: http://headwize2.powerpill.org/projects/showproj.php?file=cmoy2_prj.htm to power some sennheiser 580's. i'm a newb to electronics, as far as soldering on capacitors and things like that, i do have some soldering skills though (from working on rc cars and things like that)... what do i need? what do i need to know? for 25-30 bucks i might as well try this before i go and spend a ton of money on a prebuilt one.. right?

 

[tweakmm]

you can get a much higher quality amp for alot less with a DIY aproach
I really need to build an amp for my cans

 

[stev0]

Originally posted by: tweakmm
you can get a much higher quality amp for alot less with a DIY aproach
I really need to build an amp for my cans

explain.. i'm listining well... reading

 

[Lithium381]

i'm in the middle of building a small amp, it works fine with headphones, but i mainly want to use it for a general pre-amp.....consisting of dual LM386 chips(one per channel)......they worked fine with my guitar until i dropped it, DOH, havne't gotten around to finishing that project up....

 

[clarkmo]

Won't the Boostaroo work for your cans? Seems like a cheap solution.

 

[stev0]

Originally posted by: clarkmo
Won't the Boostaroo work for your cans? Seems like a cheap solution.

meh.. thats a easy way out doing it the hard way i'm learning and finding something to occupy my time that would be spent playing cs or pos... erm, neffing on at.

 

[Templeton]

I'm actually in the middle of building one of these, so I'll try to help. If you've never done any pc board soldering, it's really not that tough as long as you are careful of a few things. Don't use too much solder, you'll quickly find blobs of solder joining together and creating quite the mess. If you do need to clean up excess solder, or have mispositioned a component, have a solder sucker and/or desoldering braid handy. Make sure you have the right tools for the job, nothing sucks more then not being able to finish a project cause your drill is 1000 miles away. This site should be handy, it includes part numbers for all the necessary components from several suppliers, and a pretty decent walk through on assembling the thing. If you're cheap like me, you can request a sample op-amp from ti. Extra things can quickly start adding on to the cost of the amp, a potentiometer for volume control is nice, but do you really need it if the device it's hooked up to already has volume control? An external power supply can be nice if you're planning on using it with you're desktop pc, but a 9volt battery should last awhile anyway. I say that you build it with the bare amount needed first, then if you find that you would like another feature, implement it later on. Hope this helps.

 

[stev0]

Originally posted by: Templeton
I'm actually in the middle of building one of these, so I'll try to help. If you've never done any pc board soldering, it's really not that tough as long as you are careful of a few things. Don't use too much solder, you'll quickly find blobs of solder joining together and creating quite the mess. If you do need to clean up excess solder, or have mispositioned a component, have a solder sucker and/or desoldering braid handy. Make sure you have the right tools for the job, nothing sucks more then not being able to finish a project cause your drill is 1000 miles away. This site should be handy, it includes part numbers for all the necessary components from several suppliers, and a pretty decent walk through on assembling the thing. If you're cheap like me, you can request a sample op-amp from ti. Extra things can quickly start adding on to the cost of the amp, a potentiometer for volume control is nice, but do you really need it if the device it's hooked up to already has volume control? An external power supply can be nice if you're planning on using it with you're desktop pc, but a 9volt battery should last awhile anyway. I say that you build it with the bare amount needed first, then if you find that you would like another feature, implement it later on. Hope this helps.

thanks! that should help quite a bit, actually lithium381 as been walking me though the basics for most of the night, if anyone else has some pointers or sites it would be great.

stev0 <- thought he would give going to bed early a try... doh!

 

[stev0]

well after a night of no sleep, i think i've pretty much got it nailed down. I'm going to go to rat shack today and pic up the cheapo stuff, do a simple one the first time around, just so i make sure i get everything right... then go and make a better one later... chances are i'm going to mess something up and would rather do it with 25 bucks worth of parts than 50

also... is there any particular solder that i should be using when i do this? i know i have some acid free rosin core solder (35/65 sounds about right)...?

 

[erikistired]

hmmmm. i might hafta try this. i suck at soldering but i think i just need practice (everything i've done is with r/c cars which isn't quite as precise).

hmm hmm hmm.