Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Gonna Try Building a 1kW Class D Amp for Only $396

We are in VERY loud territory here, but I wanted to see if I was getting what I "paid for". In reality, I do not think these amp modules can deliver 250W per channel @ 4 ohm, no matter what. I'd say they comfortably can deliver 60W per channel constant. The sound is definitely better than the AVR-3806 though. During normal listening conditions, I am keeping the receiver at -12db, which is about 87-90 db in the room. So, there is plenty of headroom. It has been a fun experiment though!

I suspect there's still a relatively constant ratio between total sustained power output in watts and total power supply weight in pounds, but I no longer remember what the constant was

Anything further to add to this thread Steve? Are you using this amp in the "new" theater?

I'm using the amp in the bar area now. I did buy a switched mode power supply that seems to keep the amp "happier". I'm going to build an enclosure for the amp when I get some free time and keep it in the bar area permanently. I have my bluetooth receiver hooked into it, so I stream my iPhone music to it. It works pretty nicely.

Damned with faint praise.

Well, I can't say I "love" the amp (I like it a lot), but it is a very nice amp for the price. I'm proud I was able to build it myself. In that regard, I think it will serve it's purpose entertaining guests in the bar area. It has not clipped with the new power supply.

Mr. Roode, congratulations on building an amp which did not burn your house down. You are a braver man than I am.

However, I am curious in that I have been informed by those who know that all well designed solid state amps perform identically within their specified performance paramters. Do you have any amps which have superior sound quality to your DIY effort?

So it is pretty close to his receiver's built in amp, just the performance increase you'd expect from more power.

The problem is, it gets outside of its specified performance parameters a little too easily with the power supply he was originally using.

Thank you ClubNeon. I didn't read all 12 pages.

I have a bunch of low power Class D amps (T-Amp types).

~5 wpc into 8 ohms. They drive M3s very nicely. M22s, not so much.

I like them a lot.

I finally did finish off the amplifier! I bought an unfinished maple box on E-Bay for about$15, and drilled it out, then stained it. It took a good weekend to put everything together, but I'm really happy with it. I decided to use only one of the amp modules, so it's rated at 125W a channel 8 ohm, 250W a channel 4 ohm. The switched mode power supply is rated 500W continuous. I've been able to crank it all the way up and it does not trip out and sounds great. I keep it propped open slightly when I'm usingit so the air has a place to escape. It's a very low speed fan, almost silent, and the amp stays nice and cool (the heatsinks are barely warm to the touch). It's a nice little converation piece for the bar area.