Not an amp, not a pedal sort of both

[djaaz]

What's better than an amp?
Two amp.
I've been lucky to be able to play two good tube amps at once for a very long time. With time and age, it became difficult and stupid to play tube amps. So for the price of a tube set, i bought a boss katana 50W a few years ago. it is always on, cope very well with low volume and was very lonely.
So i decided to build this just for the test:



The gutshot is awful but it's basically a unbuffered klon that i decided to use as a preamp & volume control



The amp itself is one of this poweramp card sold everywhere from ebay to amazon for around 20 zargloubs from EU or US that i decided to test. Obviously it is given for 10 000 Watts and is probably closer to 10W never pushed past 1/3rd. Enough for home use.

A fireaxe or a B65 would have been a better choice for the preamp section, the klon works.

I thought it could give a few idea on how quickly to build a cheap stereo setup. I use mine in a dry / wet setup where all modulation effect are going to the katana and the dry sound goes to this tiny box. I plan to build another one to add stereo to my delay.

[Willybomb]

Some of those little amp pcbs are surprising loud.  I've built a couple and gigged with them.  Push them through a 4x12 and they'll keep up with acoustic drums.

https://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=33275

[jimilee]

How easy was the transition, sound wise, from tube to SS.


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[djaaz]

Some of those little amp pcbs are surprising loud.  I've built a couple and gigged with them.  Push them through a 4x12 and they'll keep up with acoustic drums.

https://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=33275

Cool, yours looks more serious than the one i built. So does the board you use. At least the heatsink makes it look like it. Never gigged with mine and not likely to happen.

How easy was the transition, sound wise, from tube to SS.

Awful, but it is more complex and nuanced as always. It was a transition from "Thou shalt be loud" to "Thou shalt not be heard".
It took me 20 years to transition from gig player to home studio musician, 1 hour for it to happen, 20 years for me to acknowledge it.

I still have 4 tube amps in my home office and i'll switch them on when it's recording time.

[djaaz]

But the bottom line is i built two amps these last couple of months. A SLO100 clone and this. There's two galaxies and a half between the two objects.
I'm very happy with both but looking at the ratio usage/cost is insane. This tiny box is on all the time, that is a 30 buck thing that works very well for what it's used for: an complementary amp.

[Aleph Null]

Do you have recommendations for class D power amps?

[JackSkellington]

Is this maybe a good alternative to the TPA3118? (Do you know it?)

[djaaz]

Do you have recommendations for class D power amps?

Not really. I just built this one. I can't compare to anything else. Willy has, if he sees the question.
The one i used is a Wondom AA-AB31471 very much a TPA 3110 based board. I bought after a few minutes of research and founding this post:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/wondom-aa-ab31471-1-x-30-watt-class-d-amplifier-board-review-and-measurements.46972/

I did buy it from a serious webshop as it seems that there's plenty of fakes flooding the different market places.

[JackSkellington]

In fact, I stumbled upon a fake TPA3118!

Next time I know where I can buy a real one.

[Willybomb]

Is this maybe a good alternative to the TPA3118? (Do you know it?)

It might be alright, but the TPA3116/8 are 50 and 30watt per side amps (allegedly).  This is a 3110, 15w a side.

Lately I've been messing with Aliexpress amps pcbs.  Hit and miss, had one that was great, but only one side worked....