Let´s build our first amplifier; Pass Labs Aleph 5 - monoblocks!
Chapter 1: Broken back
Last winter I broke my back at work. I was laying down in my bed thinking is there anything I could do to kill some time, other than laying down and exercise my back. I had quite a physical job back then and I knew that it will take a while before doctor´s let me get back to work again. Pain in my back and left leg was also quite interesting..
Spending hours in internet I found myself scrolling through the diyaudio´s Pass Labs - forum and all those beautiful huge Class-A amps people had build. They seemed quite simple to build, atleast that´s what I thought.. I didn´t had any experience from any project like this, so first thing was the most important part to learn when working with electrics; SAFETY. But now I knew how to spent my time.
I managed to find heatsinks, capacitors, fet´s, pcb´s and toroidal transformers from Finland. How lucky I was, it seems that there is almost none of required parts usually for sale in here. And price wasn´t so bad either.
So, had a bunch of stuff now and still much to learn..
There´s heatsinks (15kg each!), capacitors and transformers for power supply, pcb´s for the amplifier part, inrush current limiters and all the necessary fet´s.
About fet´s; there are much more of them what you actually need in your build and there´s a reason..more on that later.
These monoblocks are ready and working, I´m writing this blog because I hope someone else will also get into this nice hobby and find some useful tips here to help :)
Chapter 2: Power supply
Ok, now we have some of the parts needed. At least we can start doing power supply. I got bridge rectifiers locally, those 35A versions. Also bleeder resistors (2,2k if I remember correctly) and bypass caps. Bleeder resistors are not must, but it´s good to have them in place; they drain slowly capacitors charge, so you don´t get to your fingers...
I was planning to build simple CRC-psu (=CapacitorResistorCapacitor), I think mine is actually CCRCC. I didn´t had any pcb for psu, so it took a little while to think about how to position capacitors safely. I tried PVC-plastic plates and glued capacitors there, it seemed to do the trick! You can´t rip capacitors off anymore, thats something to remember..
Bottom view of plastic capacitor plate.
Possible layouts.
Last winter I broke my back at work. I was laying down in my bed thinking is there anything I could do to kill some time, other than laying down and exercise my back. I had quite a physical job back then and I knew that it will take a while before doctor´s let me get back to work again. Pain in my back and left leg was also quite interesting..
Spending hours in internet I found myself scrolling through the diyaudio´s Pass Labs - forum and all those beautiful huge Class-A amps people had build. They seemed quite simple to build, atleast that´s what I thought.. I didn´t had any experience from any project like this, so first thing was the most important part to learn when working with electrics; SAFETY. But now I knew how to spent my time.
I managed to find heatsinks, capacitors, fet´s, pcb´s and toroidal transformers from Finland. How lucky I was, it seems that there is almost none of required parts usually for sale in here. And price wasn´t so bad either.
So, had a bunch of stuff now and still much to learn..
There´s heatsinks (15kg each!), capacitors and transformers for power supply, pcb´s for the amplifier part, inrush current limiters and all the necessary fet´s.
About fet´s; there are much more of them what you actually need in your build and there´s a reason..more on that later.
These monoblocks are ready and working, I´m writing this blog because I hope someone else will also get into this nice hobby and find some useful tips here to help :)
Chapter 2: Power supply
Ok, now we have some of the parts needed. At least we can start doing power supply. I got bridge rectifiers locally, those 35A versions. Also bleeder resistors (2,2k if I remember correctly) and bypass caps. Bleeder resistors are not must, but it´s good to have them in place; they drain slowly capacitors charge, so you don´t get to your fingers...
I was planning to build simple CRC-psu (=CapacitorResistorCapacitor), I think mine is actually CCRCC. I didn´t had any pcb for psu, so it took a little while to think about how to position capacitors safely. I tried PVC-plastic plates and glued capacitors there, it seemed to do the trick! You can´t rip capacitors off anymore, thats something to remember..
Bottom view of plastic capacitor plate.
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