TPA 3116 vs the tripaths

Got a couple more of the red boards today. One board has a lifted inductor I need to repair.

Anyway - here is a mod for PBTL mode.

Left side of 20K resistor above the volume control is ground. Right side of 1 uF caps directly below the resistor are the positive and negative left channel inputs. Solder wire between all three to make a mono amp. Then use right channel as input, and tie the left +/- ouptuts together for speaker negative out, and right +/- outputs together for speaker positive out.


I'm not the best at soldering, but it works :)
 

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Originally I was going to use the old amp case and try to stuff a 3116 and tube pre in it. Think I'll just go with a dual mono power amp and input selector in on box and do something separate for the tube pre. Here's where I am at - waiting for blue LED power indicator and new selector switch from the bay. Shown without original face plate which I'll probably spray paint black. The brick in the middle is 19 V 10A. Both boards modded and tested. Work in progress....
 

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Originally I was going to use the old amp case and try to stuff a 3116 and tube pre in it. Think I'll just go with a dual mono power amp and input selector in on box and do something separate for the tube pre. Here's where I am at - waiting for blue LED power indicator and new selector switch from the bay. Shown without original face plate which I'll probably spray paint black. The brick in the middle is 19 V 10A. Both boards modded and tested. Work in progress....

The brick has bright blue led too:) Nice chasis!
 
Does the TPA 3116 come in mono block form? Sorry if I missed the answer in the previous 665 posts that I didn't read through.
 
If you like the b652s,dobthe suggested mods of bracing and fiber fill and install either the zaph or Dennis Murphy designed xover. That takes those speakers to a much higher level for like 30$ more.
 
Interesting yes, but way above my skill level.
some of it is on a level above me too:) but that is only relevant if you want to implement such improvements/mods to other designs. If you take the same ampboard doing the mods shown isn't more complicated then wiring a pot (I need to check and recheck everytime I do a pot)

removing 1 set ceramic output cap and putting in same value wima mks gives a difference in distortion that is really amazing, from 3% to 0.3%, especially considering PE and Sure sell you this rated at 0.2% distortion, which might have been why you considered buying it....
 
New toy

A year ago I picked up a couple of old 12V DC power supplies with metal cases for a few bucks at a garage sale. I had forgotten about them until cleaning out the garage last week. They both tested quite high for output voltage (20-30V), so I thought about recapping them, but decided not to do so. Coincidentally, I had a new blue/black board show up last week.

I generally prefer working with wood over metal, but I thought I'd try something different. The following is the result for the first power supply case:

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Bottle shown for scale.
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6CC07D9D-A1F1-48FA-9C0B-E4615A1F0CA8_zpsr9hlluw6.jpg


I'll leave this one as a power amp. I suppose I should put a preamp of some sort in the other case. To be continued...

Edit: By the way, I plan to add an in-line fuse shortly.

Thanks again to PG for starting this (I think :)).
 
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Very nice, I like it. Black spray paint works wonders. If I had a couple of those cases I would make mono blocks. Prefer metal over wood, the wood boxes are cool but nothing beats a nice metal case to house things in. That's where I am headed.

Inversion is from Oregon, think I had one a couple years back in Walla Walla. Colorado microbrews are best though :) Just kidding, the ability to make a good beer is kind of like making a good amp. Anyone can do it.
 
HI All,

I have finished the amp.

It has three inputs, 21 Step potentiometer progressive potentiometer dual 50k Volpot that sound better then my Alps blue and has a nice action.

Retro red LED fed from the LM338reg PCB, 6.6A transformer.
Russian 6N3EV valves.
Chassis damped with heavy rubber matting.

So far I am very pleased with the sound, very clean. It needs a few hours of burn in before knowing in full.

Many Thanks
Ian
 

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problem in paradise: had a guy over to hear the KLH 23s i had on craigslist. had them hooked up to my blue/black board 3-tube pre combo. he noticed that the sound coming out of the woofer in the right channel was lower than the left channel. i thought it might be the preamp, but i switched out the 3116 rig for another amp and the problem was gone.

so now i have to try to trouble-shoot this...
 
Ian,

Congrats on the build - could you give me an idea on how you wired this up? I am very interested in doing this as well. I am a newb to DIY construction and any help would be appreciated. By the way how did you fix the ground loop?

Tom


HI All,

I have finished the amp.

It has three inputs, 21 Step potentiometer progressive potentiometer dual 50k Volpot that sound better then my Alps blue and has a nice action.

Retro red LED fed from the LM338reg PCB, 6.6A transformer.
Russian 6N3EV valves.
Chassis damped with heavy rubber matting.

So far I am very pleased with the sound, very clean. It needs a few hours of burn in before knowing in full.

Many Thanks
Ian
 
I am working on my modest 3116 build next weekend. I am starting with a power supply brick to drive the 2.0 red board, but if I want to add a transformer later inside the amp to power the board from a wall jack, does anyone have a part spec for that?
 
Well I took the plunge- I have followed the many of you down the 3 tube pre and TPA 3116 hole. I ordered all last week, and received the 3116 in the mail yesterday (less than a week from Hong Kong to CA!!).

This is my first project (besides your standard cleaning/DeOxit)- one question at this point. I have a Mac power supply on hand showing: 24.5V, 2.65A and 65W. The voltage is right for this application but is the amperage? Seems lower than what I seem to recall seeing in this thread- around 4.5A I believe.

Will this power supply do the trick??
 
Well I took the plunge- I have followed the many of you down the 3 tube pre and TPA 3116 hole. I ordered all last week, and received the 3116 in the mail yesterday (less than a week from Hong Kong to CA!!).

This is my first project (besides your standard cleaning/DeOxit)- one question at this point. I have a Mac power supply on hand showing: 24.5V, 2.65A and 65W. The voltage is right for this application but is the amperage? Seems lower than what I seem to recall seeing in this thread- around 4.5A I believe.

Will this power supply do the trick??

I tried a 12V 3A PS and it didn't work well. My 12v 5A works fine. I have a 24 V 5A PS that actually measures 24.5V that works great, but the chip gets pretty warm. I have added some home-made heat sink extenders and they seem to keep the chip cooler. If you can find a laptop PS 18-20v 5-6A that should work good. A 12V battery also works.
 
I tried a 12V 3A PS and it didn't work well. My 12v 5A works fine. I have a 24 V 5A PS that actually measures 24.5V that works great, but the chip gets pretty warm. I have added some home-made heat sink extenders and they seem to keep the chip cooler. If you can find a laptop PS 18-20v 5-6A that should work good. A 12V battery also works.

I have tried a couple 90W laptop supplies - a 19.5V/4.6A Huntkey and a 19.0V/4.74A Meanwell. Both work great, and the heat sink on the TPA3116 doesn't even get slightly warm with either.

I also have never experienced the turn on/off pop/thump others have mentioned, but I have also modded my board with different PS caps, input caps and inductors.

I posted the full part numbers earlier in this thread for these two supplies, as well as a links to suppliers. Be aware, these are relatively expensive SMPS laptop bricks. I got mine for free as they were left over from a project at work. You may be able to find lower prices than the sources I linked. I have also seen a lot of Dell and HP 19V/90W laptop bricks at my local Goodwill for $3.99. I haven't tried one, but they may also be decent, and the price is certainly right.
 
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