Mauro Penasa My Ref LM3886 Amplifier Build

This Mauro Penasa LM3886 amplifier is not typical Gainclone amplifier because it is not what it is.

This amplifier is published over 10 years ago and the designer name is Mauro Penasa. He was mimicking and redesigning this amplifier from his nostalgic good sounding vintage amplifier, the Musical Fidelity A370 amplifier.

If you read his design notes, he was really like the A370 amplifier so much and he think that today amplifier is not as good as it. The sound of A370 can only be compete with most linear class A amplifier that inefficient, hot, and heavy. That is why he redesign the A370 but using LM3886 IC for more economical approach. This LM3886 act as current pump and the op-amp is LM318 act as voltage gain.

Yes, it is using op-amp, same like the original design as well. The goal for this amplifier is like having a good class A sounding amplifier with the efficiency of class AB just like the A370 original design.

This amplifier is quite famous in DIY audio for years and I will try to build it now.

PCM1704 DAC Power Supply Upgrade

This post is the update from my PCM1704 DAC built.

As I always mentioned that a DAC will sound good if it is feed with a good power supply as well. It is all begin with the power transformer, regulator circuitry, the capacitors around it and the components layout. It will bring significant improvement to the DAC sound quality.

In this post, I will upgrade my previous PCM1704 DAC built with better transformer and I will make a small change to the power supply layout as well.

PCM1704 DAC Build

I still have several PCM1704 U-J DAC IC taken from the Pioneer unit here, so I think I will use a pair of it to make another DAC again.

As usual, this DAC build will never be the same like my previous built.

Lately I prefer the sound from the non-oversampling DAC and this will be in my first list when making a new DAC. The input will using the SPDIF because this is the only input that I feel more convenience since all my digital source support this input as well. The schematic will be the same like my previous PCM1704 DAC built here which is the same as the schematic on pavouk.org website.

The key difference is only on the analog stages after the current output from PCM1704 DAC.

Let's get started.