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Solid State Guitar Amp Forum | DIY Guitar Amplifiers

Solid State Amplifiers => Amplifier Discussion => Topic started by: joecool85 on March 25, 2006, 07:05:15 AM

Title: What have you guys built?
Post by: joecool85 on March 25, 2006, 07:05:15 AM
I finished my TDA2003 amp yesterday (pics coming soon)

So here is my list

2x little gem (lm386 amp) 1/2w
1x TDA2003 5w
1x lm1875 2x20w
1x lm3886 1x50w

Eventually I may build a bridged parallel lm4780 which would yield 200w!!  But for right now 50w is plenty, that thing is loud!
Title: Re: What have you guys built?
Post by: nunocaldeira on March 25, 2006, 03:13:01 PM
Just a few stompboxes... I´m willing to make an acoustic amp...
Title: Re: What have you guys built?
Post by: DoctorC on March 26, 2006, 06:43:53 PM
whats the deal with the TDA2003? Sound good?
Title: Re: What have you guys built?
Post by: joecool85 on March 26, 2006, 09:46:51 PM
Actually, it kinda sucked.  Not horribly loud and practically no clean headroom.  Sort of a bummer because I put a lot of time into that amp and it really didn't work so well for bass.  It sounds ok with guitar though, so long as you don't mind some low quality distortion lol.  Overall I wouldn't recommend it though.
Title: Re: What have you guys built?
Post by: Crystallas on March 26, 2006, 10:03:14 PM
Just tubed amps. SS is new to me. MB Mark2/3/4 stuff is what Im used too. I like 6L6 power I guess. But Im here to learn and change that. I definately like a few SS amp setups better than a lot of EL34 amps. EL34, while a great tube, is just not for me.
Title: Re: What have you guys built?
Post by: DoctorC on March 27, 2006, 05:17:12 PM
Truthfully all i know is SS, so i think a might stick with building SS for a while. More comfortable. I'm about to build my first amp... a Ruby  :D
Title: Re: What have you guys built?
Post by: Christian G on March 27, 2006, 05:22:07 PM
I'm about to start an amp, its gonna be tube though.  After that I'm hoping to build a SS bass amp or acoustic amp or so.
Title: Re: What have you guys built?
Post by: Crystallas on March 28, 2006, 01:32:15 AM
Preamps is where the money is at for solid state. It would do nothing but compliment any configuration.
Title: Re: What have you guys built?
Post by: joecool85 on March 28, 2006, 07:46:58 AM
Yeah, its true.  Its all about the preamp.  I mean, you have to us a nice IC, or a good discrete circuit for power, but most of them are all the same, the only difference being how many watts you get.  The power supply is extremely important also, but thats mostly a matter of making sure its large enough more than anything.  Preamp gives you all of your tone and thats whats important.  It doesn't matter if your amp is loud enough to knock over a house if it sounds like garbage.
Title: Re: What have you guys built?
Post by: teemuk on March 28, 2006, 07:23:20 PM
Be careful not to focus on one thing [preamp] too much when you really should see the whole picture. Basically, i feel that the things that have an impact to the tone of a (solid state) amplifier are: a) the voicing of the preamplifier, b) the amount of distortion (and it's spectrum) in the poweramplifier and c) the speaker system. Mess up one of these three parts and you have an amp that sounds crappy no matter how good the rest of the design is.

Teemu K
Title: Re: What have you guys built?
Post by: joecool85 on March 28, 2006, 07:25:38 PM
This is a good point.  But what I was getting at, is a good poweramp sounds like any other good poweramp.  Low distortion and no coloring of the sound.
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