Posted on Sunday, 23rd December 2012 by Auw Jimmy

I was digging my component box to see if I can find some other opamp to be used in Xonar Essence One. Luckily I still have some obsolete (but my favorite) AD825.

I also bought a couple of new one few days ago (LME 49860 and JRC5532).

AD825 is still my favorite. It was on the generation of OPA627 as they are both share similar mono type opamp. Although quite obsolete, but price wise, this AD825 is not cheap at all as mono opamp. Need to use some converter in order to use them in DIP socket.

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Tags: AD825, gainclone, JRC5532, LM1875T, LME49860, OpAmp
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Posted on Friday, 18th December 2009 by Auw Jimmy

I have a short free time at the afternoon, and it’s time to test my Power Supply for my Gainclone. Powered by Talema dual secondaries, each rated at 18VAC/6.3A

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Tags: Black Gate, gainclone, power supply, talema
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Posted on Sunday, 6th December 2009 by Auw Jimmy

I will not use “Ultimate” or “Premium” project since no one knows (even me) the result of this Gainclone project. I would say… “Ridiculous Gainclone”. Is that OK? To be honest, this more likely a mini battleship (A-Wing?) on the StarWars movie than an amplifier.

A brief view of it, from the top. Powered with Mundorf Supreme Silver/Gold/Oil as input coupling capacitor (2.2 uF), Vintage NOS SCR 22 uF as feedback capacitor, and Black Gate F Series as power capacitor, bypassed with K40Y Russian oil capacitor. Isn’t that “ridiculous”?

Keep reading, I will show some things I have done today to assembly my Gainclone.

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Tags: gainclone, power amp, solid state
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Posted on Saturday, 14th November 2009 by Auw Jimmy

Some of you have emailed me asking to finish the Gainclone – Black Gate Power Supply project, and well, I’m about to complete it with some modification. Here is the “sneak-peeks”

The rectification section is made dual, total 8 pcs of MUR860 will be used here.

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Tags: BlackGate, diode, gainclone, MUR, power supply, rectifier
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Posted on Friday, 10th April 2009 by Auw Jimmy

As I’ve promised before, my Gainclone project will be supplied with special smoothing capacitors. Welcome, the Black Gate F Series 680uF/65V. Each rail (positive and negative) will have 30 pcs of Black Gate capacitor, with total around 20.000uF capacitance each rail.

The main rectifier will be MUR860 and I will also use Snubber circuit, with the help of Mills and perhaps some oil capacitor. Hope it will sound good…

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Tags: Black Gate, Capacitor, gainclone, power bank
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Posted on Tuesday, 31st March 2009 by Auw Jimmy

It was a nice session at DWA’s house located at Bintaro. We held a long session, from morning to night, from amplifier, preamp, DAC, to speaker. The event was started with a lunch ;)

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Tags: Aikido, Audio, Blind Test, clio, gainclone, solid state, speaker
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Posted on Sunday, 22nd February 2009 by Auw Jimmy

Some of people on the net says that Gainclone is one of the shortest amplifier in the world. Some people could make it less than 32 mm on the signal path. Check it here! But I don’t have any intention to match or compete with them. Remember, I do what people don’t, so don’t bother with what they are doing

The parts, most likely, are my old stock. Most of the time, I use what I have on hand (and also buy some if I do really need that). So you can see a lot of mixed brand here. I try to pick the best from what I have.

The first thing that I do is, to install the input ground resistor. Not just because this is the most important, but simply because I need to put two resistor in a “not common” way. The picture below will explain more than what I can say. It’s Vishay S139 (similar with S102) Ultra-High Precision Bulk Metal Foil Resistors. It’s 0.01% tolerance So 11K is 11K, not with additional value behind the dot. I need to use 22KOhm, but only have 11KOhm on hand, so I use two.

Not a genius job, just put two in series and they will do the job perfectly.

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Tags: Capacitor, DIY-Audio, gainclone, LM1875, resistor
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Posted on Sunday, 15th February 2009 by Auw Jimmy

I’m thinking of… a full Black Gate Power Supply

Well, it’s not a dream since I have enough Black Gate F Series stock on hand. One value only, 680uF/65V. I need to use at least 10 pcs each (symmetrical power supply, remember? We are not talking tube, this is chip-amp project!). So total is at least 20 pcs. The troops are ready!

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Tags: Audio, Black Gate, Capacitor, chipamp, gainclone, power supply
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (26)

Posted on Sunday, 8th February 2009 by Auw Jimmy

It was a nice day, a little bit rainy at the morning. I went to Bintaro (Mr. Didik home) to enjoy a Solid State Blind Test session. After around 1.5 hours traffic, finally I arrived there.

We used equipments as follow:

• NAD C542 CD Player and Aico top loading DVD Player (with External DAC)
• Aikido 6CG7/6072 Pre-amp
• DIY 3-way speaker (Woofer PL26, Mid P17, Tweeter XT25TG)

The contenders (first session)

• Unknown from Bandung (Mr. David SKP)
• LM3886 (Mr. Ado Bekasi)
• LM1875 Balanced (Mr. Ara)
• LM1875 Buffer 12SL7 (Mr. Budiarto W)

The contenders (second session):

• Lucky13 LM3886 (Mr. Dino Ary)
• LM3876 Buffer Nelson Pass (Mr. Dino Ary)
• MOSFET IRF (Mr. Ado Bekasi)
• MOSFET MP50Di (Mr. Didik WA)
• LM1875 Stasiun Bekasi (Pak Praka N)
• LM1875 Sentul (Pak Aip N Sentul)

It was a long sesssion. Although the session was ended at around 17:00, we still continued with some extra session, like loudspeakers and Pre-amp testing. We finally ended the session at 21:00.

Here is some photos. Enjoy!

“Filled the tank” before we started the session.

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Tags: Audio, audiophile, Blind Test, DIY-Audio, gainclone, LM1875, LM3875, MOSFET, pre amp
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Posted on Saturday, 13th December 2008 by Auw Jimmy

A Gainclone challenge? Why not? Solid state? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Wise man says ask “Why” five times. But I think I will end up with same answer Sorry! Just consider this as a small killing time, boredom destroyer project uh…

But remember, we are on crisis, so no budget!!! So, I also don’t want to spend any budget… Well, small budget is ok, but really-really small.

Let’s straight to the point and back to the topic: I want to try a LM1875 Gainclone Amplifier. This is not my first time building a Gainclone, but first time with LM1875. Gainclone becomes famous because this “simple chip amplifier” could sound beautiful – in 47 Laboratory 4706 Gaincard (retail price near US$ 3000) and Jeff Rowland Concentra (retail price around US$ 6500). FYI, Gainclone family has some models, like LM1875, LM3875, LM3886, etc. Each has different specifications, especially for power rating and speaker load impedance – but all amplifier with this chip will be called as “Gainclone”.

I’ve received the PCB from my friend at local DIY forum. Now, it’s time to pick my “agents” – I mean my components

“As always, should you or any of your IM force be caught or killed,, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim.”

Well, just suddenly remember those classic Mission Impossible warning on every end of its mission tape. Now I’m starting to pick my agents. Let’s open my shelves and see what I can find. A Gainclone only need very small amount of components, around 10 pcs each channel. I think I still have some in my drawers.

Some capacitors on my drawer. Umm… I’ve collected these for quite long time.

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Tags: Amplifier, Audio, Capacitor, DIY-Audio, gainclone, resistor
Posted in Collectible Stuff, DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (99)