bonnie & jason

β24 amplifier

I’ve just started my most ambitious DIY electronics project yet. Essentially, I’m graduating from the DAC’s and headphone amps into the high power world of speaker amps. This particular project is actually derived from one of the headphone amps I’ve already built.

So far, I’ve just been doing a lot of reading and reading but have also managed to order a significant percentage of the parts needed.

Here are some highlights so far:
This is the enclosure:

This is the part of the build that I was willing to splurge on as I need something large and strong (this will probably weigh more than 50 lbs when it’s done) with integrated heat sinks beefy enough to dissipate massive amounts of heat. I might embellish a bit with some wooden trim pieces but I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.

This is the main toroidal transformer:

It’s a monster at 6.5″ in diameter and more than 3″ tall but has multiple windings and is both electrostatically and magnetically shielded. Quite a deal for $65!

Then there’s a bunch of PCB’s and all the resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, switches, heat sinks, input and output jacks, etc. that I need. So actually, I have quite a bit taken care of. I’ll probably also use my mini mill to custom fabricate some internal sub chassis. I’ll also need it to help locate, drill, and tap the holes for the heat sink.

That’s about it for now. Stay tuned for updates!

1/20/2010
Got the big transformer today. It’s huge! The picture up top doesn’t do it justice so I took this one with my headphones for reference:

The biggest trafo I’ve used so far is only about half the diameter. This thing is so cool!

2/3/2010
Got the boards mostly populated. Enclosure came yesterday. Got some aluminum scraps from the local metal works shop for the sub chassis assemblies. Will try to drill and tap the heat sinks this weekend. And finish populating the boards.