Pass Amp Camp Amp

[mloutfie]

It's an amp so it would be one expensive LPS. The meanwell upgraded npower supply they are selling now are meant to be really low noise

[Mat-with-one-t]

3 minutes ago, mloutfie said:

It's an amp so it would be one expensive LPS. The meanwell upgraded npower supply they are selling now are meant to be really low noise

Oh ok. Yeah of course!  And I assume we’d just change the wall cable to an Aussie one?

Edited May 10, 2018 by Mat-with-one-t

[mloutfie]

It's just an iec power chord so yeah just pretty standard swap.

[iconic83]

I'm in Brisbane and am keen.

I've got a pair of fullrange speakers (coral beta 8 in bass reflex box) that had a diy first watt f4 but unfortunately blew up (and taking out one driver).

Would be getting one of the amp camps be sufficient or getting a pair be the way to go?

[Sub Sonic]

I'm a bit of a sucker for Class A amps, and have ordered one of these, looking forward to receiving it.

 

FYI it is actually slightly cheaper to purchase the Meanwell SMPS from Australia, the shipping from the US effectively drives the price of the PSU up to about $110 AUD when you include it in the kit. Shipped from Australia, you save around $10. The plug may not be the same though. I'm going to try a PSU I have here first and purchase the recommended one only if needed.

 

https://www.power-supplies-australia.com.au/MEAN-WELL-GST120A24-P1M

 

Regards,

 

SS

[mloutfie]

Did you purchase the meanwell? I was looking for it since the shipping was too expensive to get it from them and found the cheapest is from mouser https://au.mouser.com/ProductDetail/MEAN-WELL/GST120A24-P1M?qs=%2fha2pyFaduiiEL5gg2bVEnOBZvyzC0kGl%2f6UVAJTbViP5NLyjeoRdw%3d%3d PS add some random item for $3 and shipping is free

[Sub Sonic]

@mloutfie thanks for that. I already have a suitable PSU at work but if I need to get a Meanwell, the Mouser option is much cheaper than the one I mentioned. Cheers!

 

SS

[Dave Tomic Henry]

Ordered a couple of these as I've missed the last couple rounds and have wanted to build these for quite a while. Have opted to source my own cases as I felt the price plus shipping was pretty exxy (esp for x 2). Great stuff with the mouser link for the power supplies!

[Guest scumbag]

Hi,

Shameless plug warning.

I decided to not order one of these after a lot of consternation. I already have a class-a Nelson Pass power amp' and a 2nd one would be a pure luxury.

Anyway, I have a suitable power supply if anyone is interested. I would be happy to post it for $40 inside Australia if anyone is interested. It was one that I got with a Dayton DT100 Class-H amplifier. The power supply is great and is the same spec's as the meanwell. The amplifier started leaking smoke so the PSU has been sitting in a drawer unused.

It's as below but without the accessories:

 

[Guest scumbag]

6 minutes ago, scumbag said:

Hi,

Shameless plug warning.

I decided to not order one of these after a lot of consternation. I already have a class-a Nelson Pass power amp' and a 2nd one would be a pure luxury.

Anyway, I have a suitable power supply if anyone is interested. I would be happy to post it for $40 inside Australia. It was one that I got with a Dayton DT100 Class-H amplifier. The power supply has the same spec's as the meanwell. The amplifier started leaking smoke but the PSU is fine and it has been sitting in a drawer unused.

It's as below but without the accessories:

 

 

[Mat-with-one-t]

I’m gonna grab 2 of these kits.  I get USA stuff shipped with Shipitto.  

 

https://www.shipito.com/en/

 

Highly recommended and faultless so far.......

[Sub Sonic]

1 hour ago, scumbag said:

I already have a class-a Nelson Pass power amp' and a 2nd one would be a pure luxury.

Hmmm I have one already too and I love the sound, that is why I am getting a second one.  

[nzlowie]

Guys, just try your old laptop supply. I use a Lenovo 20v unit to power my ACA'S that are driving 116db horns, dead quiet. Quieter than my Weston.

I tried a few different ones, some noisy some not even from the same supplier. Also found that some like more load to quiet them down, had a 170w brick that was noisy powering 1 amp but dead quiet when powering 2.

And yes, these are bloody good! If anyone in Perth wants to check them out you're welcome to come around for a listen.

[Batty]

Just hope they are still available in a couple of months.

[astromo]

I've taken the plunge for 2 units and have opted for the cases as well - plan to go for balanced monoblocks.

 

Given that it's my first punt down this path, I thought I'd make it easy on myself and cop a bit of extra cost for a package deal and go along for the educational ride.

 

Thanks to @mloutfie for the PSU tip. 

Edited May 18, 2018 by astromo

[Sub Sonic]

9 hours ago, astromo said:

I've taken the plunge for 2 units and have opted for the cases as well - plan to go for balanced monoblocks.

 

Given that it's my first punt down this path, I thought I'd make it easy on myself and cop a bit of extra cost for a package deal and go along for the educational ride.

 

Thanks to @mloutfie for the PSU tip. 

Nice, monoblocks would be really cool (even though they're Class A... ).

 

I've also ordered the case - Was tossing up whether to or not and knew that I'd be kicking myself if I didn't, so I did. They look really nice.

 

Which case option did you go for?

 

Regards,

 

SS

[Mat-with-one-t]

I also grabbed 2 with black cases.  Will try as a dual setup.  Using my USA postal address, so will take a little longer I imagine.....

[Dreamwave]

I might as well "de-cloak" for this one... Jason from diyAudio here. I'm actually an Aussie, and live in Melbourne. This is my lurker account on SNA. Just thought I'd chime in to the discussion here in case any locals wanted information "straight from the horses mouth" so to speak.

 

To answer some of the previous questions, you're correct we don't make much on these kits, we only use genuine parts from US suppliers and there are plenty of expenses before getting to the cost of sales. Each kit now has over 60 line items and someone has to chop resistors and stick things in bags on their kitchen bench, so to speak. We want to keep the price of this kit down as low as possible so it is accessible to the widest audience.

 

We're working on improving the international shipping costs and that's something we'll improve in the near future. I'm thankful for all the international customers who have shown their support for us on this and other offerings over the years. As we grow new things become possible that weren't viable previously and the more international orders we get the better we are able to negotiable a better deal on shipping from our logistics partners. 

 

The PSU was always the heaviest part of the kit, and because it was included previously in the parts kit it made it harder for international customers to buy it due to shipping costs. Now we've made the PSU more than twice as heavy (and arguably ^2 as good in terms of quality), but people are free to either source it locally or just grab a dead laptop's power supply and whack it in.  It's great to hear that Upfront's 119DB horns demonstrated the old PSU was barely audible - the new Meanwell one is much quieter. I'm planning on going to Tassie in the next few months (maybe Dark Mofo?) and if I could arrange a listen that would be awesome!

 

None of the parts we use are "secret" and the Meanwell model number is right on the sales page for the PSU. The diyAudio store's focus is providing unique stuff you can't buy anywhere else, we can't (and don't want to) compete with billion dollar electronics companies on commodity items. At the same time we don't want to force international customers to pay shipping on a heavy PSU and not buy the kit, so we separated them and that's a win/win for everybody. Our price for the PSU including the cord is a dollar or two less than the combination would cost from Digikey or Mouser (disregarding international shipping for a moment, which is a separate issue), and 80-90% of our customers are from the US, so that's the pricing logic on that one. By the way, the PSU comes pre-packed with the US cord from our supplier into our 3rd party logistics warehouse in the US, which is why you can't choose an AU plug. We'll try to work something out for EU/AU/UK plug in the future.

 

Some people have commented on what a bargain the offer is, and used glowing terms to compare it to amps costing orders of magnitude more. I think anyone who has heard it with a complementary pair of speakers will be reconsidering their assumptions about what's important in an amp. Yes, that simplicity comes with compromises, everything does, but if you work around those compromises (like low power rating) you can get the cream. When it comes to numbers, a distortion figure is just a number, more relevant to your enjoyment of music is what kind of distortion it is. So the guys who just look for a .0000 distortion spec may fail to see the tree for the woods.

 

Some people have commented on how expensive the offer is, to which the answer lies in the original article from Nelson Pass - you can slap together this bones of this amp for under $15 in parts and run it with a $5 surplus power supply if you hunt around. If you don't want to hunt around, we have a la carte options for you. The most important thing is that people actually complete it because once you've got something that works, and then start tinkering with it, you have a long and fun road ahead of you. Nobody should be unable to build this amp - hitting a $2 shop with a solder sucker and a multi meter you should be able to scavenge almost all the parts (best to buy something first, don't do it in-store). As for our asking price, it's less than it would cost you if you bought all the parts retail and had to pay for some machining of your chassis. So - every budget is catered for, it just depends how much DIY you want to do and how much time you want to spend hunting for parts.

 

Also to note, our intention is that future kits will re-use the same chassis and power supply, so people investing in that icing for the cake get to enjoy it a few times over!

 

If anyone has some Australian related questions feel free to ask and I'll answer to the best of my ability, otherwise, as you were ...

Edited May 18, 2018 by BlackStar

[soundbyte]

I'm sure @Upfront as well as others would welcome you to have listen to their systems.

Lincs horns are definitely worth a visit though.

 

May be able to twist Linc's arm for a GTG?

 

 

[Upfront]

I'm sure [mention=111049]Upfront[/mention] as well as others would welcome you to have listen to their systems.
Lincs horns are definitely worth a visit though.
 
May be able to twist Linc's arm for a GTG?
 
 

No GTGs planned just yet mate. Definitely with the new speakers. But all are welcome for a listen. Shoot me a PM.

[Sub Sonic]

@Blackstar thanks for that! I was wondering if you were on here... I’m on diyAudio too but more of a lurker.

 

Matt

[astromo]

7 hours ago, Sub Sonic said:

Nice, monoblocks would be really cool (even though they're Class A... ).

 

I've also ordered the case - Was tossing up whether to or not and knew that I'd be kicking myself if I didn't, so I did. They look really nice.

 

Which case option did you go for?

 

Regards,

 

SS

Black front with switch cut out.

 

I know the cases are not cheap but they will look schmick. For my first stab at this, I'd rather not mess about hacking into a generic case of billet alloy. Hopefully all I have to concentrate on is how neat I am with the soldering iron.

Edited May 18, 2018 by astromo

[OCD]

23 hours ago, Blackstar said:

If anyone has some Australian related questions feel free to ask and I'll answer to the best of my ability, otherwise, as you were ...

Hi Jason, any chances of Aus distribution? Or a group buy? I'd love to build one of these, even if its just the kit without the case.

[Dreamwave]

1 minute ago, Compass said:

Hi Jason, any chances of Aus distribution? Or a group buy? I'd love to build one of these, even if its just the kit without the case.

The diyAudio store is essentially just a small US-centric "kitchen bench" collective to serve the needs of the audio DIY community, that operates only by the grace of some avid independent DIYers in the US to put things together. We're not likely to have a permanent Australian distribution any time soon. EU would be the next distribution location, if ever. Too many SKUs and not enough sales/profit to warrant the investment. Things become possible as things scale up, but we're a still long way off from even having our first full time employee yet (though getting close...).

 

The current batch (Shipping ETA July 31st) is sold out and we're looking at when the next one can be done (likely looking to be Sep 15th), so perhaps that's something that can be arranged for next time. As I mentioned, in terms of human resources we're thin on the ground and organising these things takes time and a lot of risk is assumed by whoever is organizing it. If there was enough interest it might be viable. Something that is easily forgotten is that by the time you add Australian customs and associated fees that's another 6-10% on the price, plus the bulk shipping and then re-distribution from here (no worries, I could pop them in the mail). Domestic shipping would be much cheaper but the savings might not be as big as you imagine. I'll do the sums and get back to you.

 

The AUD1,000 Australian tax-free threshold is a good gig for us Aussie consumers to take advantage of so go for it (while its still around). It's also an incredible burden for Australian businesses who have to compete on an uneven playing field and pay ~10% import fees and charge customers 10% GST on top. How Australian inventory based businesses can survive with the game rigged against them I don't know, but that's another discussion. Also worth mentioning - the chassis ship from Italy with their own invoice and are a totally separate shipment, which helps keep things under AUD1,000 if you're buying 2 or more.

 

So... yeah let me get back to you on that.

[Batty]

My Q is .... are my 92dB / 1w/1m speakers sensitive enough for 5 watts or do I need to mono block these amps?