chipamp vs transistor

[jessadr]

Would anyone make a comment on the best all around 100Watt guitar amp build idea. Would you use lm3336's or mj15003's and tip30 and tip31? Like a Peavey Standard 260. How does the chip amps sound vs the old stuff? My Crate Block uses some kind of chip as a final and sounds real good for a basic amp.

[LJ King]

Just my opinion - -

The best professional equipment for guitar will be discrete. For bedroom practice, it really doesn't matter.

At 100 watts or so up to 150 watts, I'd rather have 4 discrete devices - 2N3055s, 2N3773s or the like, without protection circuitry to destroy the sound to protect me from obtainingthe tone I want, that can be replaced if necessary. Above 150 watts I'd rather have the same discrete devices but more of them, six or eight.

A chip amp doesn't do it for me.

A guitar amp doesn't concern itself with specs or invasive protection circuitry.

I've never used a Crate Block. Isn't it a digital amp - class D or the like?

The old Peavey stuff like the Standards and Musician 400 series are great sounding amps. I just got into them recently.

(yeah Teemuk I know the Peaveys have "protection stuff" but it doesn't interfere with the sound - just like the old Kustom K200Bs)

[R.G.]

Shall we have another go at this? 

In my opinion,
(a) there is no "best" in terms of sound; (a1)all modern power amps are variations of the Linn architecture, whether discrete or integrated, including all the power amps I've ever seen in SS guitar amps with the sole exception of Class D stuff. The Linn architecture is great at hiding the individual inner sounds of the amp; and (a2) anything that the amp does as a "tone" can be done out side the amp if you try hard enough. (a3)Taking that further, people form uninformed opinions based on some experience and cling to them with a death grip, simply because that's what they've always thought. Changing your opinion is HARD. Which would you rather do - change your word processor or your spouse? (a4) As a result, ask ten people what is "best" on anything, you probably get ten answers and because there can be no disagreement about a matter of taste they are all ten right!
(b) using an amp with no protection is begging to get the amp destroyed when something untoward happens. See the long discussion on this in "schematics". A guitar amp that doesn't concern itself with protection is either (b1) short lived or (b2) overbuilt and has not ... yet... hit a situation outside the overbuild. And (b3) protection per se is not invasive if well designed. If correctly designed it is ... protective. A case which would activate the protection would damage the amp without the protection circuits. (I believe we got to there, yes LJ?)
(c) Outside the supercilious "protection equals bad tone" argument, and the "best tone" arguments, there are real, measurable decisions to be made in terms of difficulty to build, which presumably, is why you are here. For that, there is no question. Use chip amps. Building a 100+W discrete amp is an exercise in practical electronics that many professionals muff up. Where the wires connect to one another can make a non-specious, non-mystical, measurable difference in how the amp sounds. In a discrete amp, there are necessarily more critical elements that have to be hand wired, and hence are easier to muff up. If you're not already adept at building electronics, chances are good that you'll have trouble and settle for less than the best an amp can give if you go non-chip. Not because of voodoo or the Invasion of the Protection Circuits, but because there are a lot of manual construction things that have to be done right to get the best any SS amp is capable of. In a chip amp, at least a lot of those are tucked away inside the chip.

In my opinion - put a 50-60W chip amp in for each speaker, as most 100W's are at least dual 12's.   That will get you your 100W in an easier to build package, make finding parts (like transformers and capacitors) easier and at the same time give you some back up if your construction wasn't perfect or if the bass player spills a beverage into the back of the amp. 

And that's my opinion...

[joecool85]

Dual LM3886 would be what I would suggest.  They'll give a solid 50w RMS each, and just one with a good speaker is loud.  I can only imagine a pair with good speakers would be perfect for almost all gigging with the exception of stadiums lol.

Chip amps sound just like "the old stuff" so far as the power amp is concerned.  In SS amps, the tone is generated in the preamp and merely booster by the poweramp.

[jessadr]

I have a Peavey Standard 260 H to mess with. So I guess I will just build a couple of lm3886 chip amps. About time to build something an see how it sounds. Running a Pod, Guitar Rig, or Digtech RP150 in front of it will make it sound like anything I want anyway I quess. I'll post pictures somewhere as I start to build. Going to have some new projects for the winter.
I quess no one had a Holmes Minipicker 12 to talk about. That is what I am working on now to fix.

Jess Rogers
near Nashville