The story of this amplifier built is came 2 month ago when my friend asked me if I could build small amplifier that sound good enough to drive his 2 way bookshelf speakers.
He just moved to the new house and the living room design is now more minimalist. Previously those bookshelf speakers are connected to the home audio receiver, so he can watching TV, playing games, and listen to the music with the same setups.
In the new house, that home receiver cannot fit to the new cabinet. He replaced it with only using a Yamaha sound bar. It is sound good for movies and playing games, but not for music. That is why, he contacting me to build a small affordable good sounding amplifier that can fit inside his new cabinet so He can still using the bookshelf speaker just to listen to the music only.
Since this build is simple, I think this is a good share for everyone who want to build an amplifier.
First of all, this amplifier main components are only:
1. The amplifier module which I am using in this project is the Tripath TA2024 module.
2. The power supply using 30 VA transformer with output AC 15 volt.
3. The regulator power supply using LT1083CP and set the output DC to 12 volt as per Tripath TA2024 module required.
4. The volume control using potentiometer.
The Tripath TA2024 amplifier module is cheap. The installation is also straight forward. It only need 12 volt DC power supply, connecting the speaker out to the terminal, then add the potentiometer for the volume control before it's input and it is become a workable amplifier.
The more complicated circuit I think is on the power supply.
I prefer using the regulated power supply for this low current amplifier. With this, I can more flexible using any kind transformer output as long it is above 12 volt and not over 30 volt. The LT1083CP regulator is capable up to 7 ampere current. It is more sufficient for this 30 watt maximum power output. The schematic is straight forward as per datasheet recommendation.
Although I put the LT1083CP to the chassis as the heat-sink, but it is completely unnecessary. You can let is float without attaching to any heat-sink since it is not warm at all when the amplifier in operating.
If you don't want using the regulator power supply, then the transformer should have the secondary output at 9 volt AC. This will become 12 volt after the diode bridge and the capacitor.
I built this regulator on the universal board by point-to-point wiring. I only adding a diode bridge and 2.200uF 50v capacitor between the transformer output to the regulator input pin.
The casing is cheap unused steel box dismantled from others unit. The original color is white, it is dirty so I also need to clean it up first.
You will be surprised after I clean it up and spray the black paint on it, it is now look nicer.
The nest step is installing the banana plugs along with all the circuits connecting each others with cables.
The last steps is connecting to the input.
I will using 3,5 mini jack input for simplicity.
First, I just want to connect the input from the amplifier module straight forward to the mini jack input. The reason for this is again for the simplicity. My friend telling me that he will using his iPhone connected to the external DAC and then via a cable connecting to this amplifier. Naturally the Tripath TA2024 has low gain, it can using the iPhone volume control to adjust the volume without any issue at all. But I still using a potentiometer for the volume control just to make this amplifier more flexible to others source connecting to it in the future.
When it come to the potentiometer, I don't know why I always using ALPS blue. The price for this potentiometer is double than the price of the Tripath module itself. Any potentiometer will works for sure. It is only my personal preference to using this parts on any of my project.
That is all for this amplifier project.
It is a simple amplifier and the total cost for building this amplifier is less than US$50.
It is sound good as well.
Disclaimer: Any statement and photos in this article are not allowed to copy or publish without written permission from the writer. Any injury or loss from following tips in this article is not under writer responsibility.
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