Posted by Garlandgarland [ 71.233.29.222 ] on March 24, 2009 at 10:12:46:

In Reply to: Re: New amp and old Theater 4 Pi -Blown Away! posted by Champion on March 23, 2009 at 17:32:43:

From what I've gleaned from various web sources, you only really need a heat sink if you run the chip at full power at it's max rating. With a 12V regulated supply and at moderate volume with efficient speakers like our Pis you probably are OK without one. The assembly instructions say that mounting the chip to the metal chassis case is adequate in most cases. Since I built my case out of acrylic I opted for the heat sink. I had an old one lying around in the parts bin. I'll check to see if the chip gets warm after a good listening session soon and report back, if you like.
One other thing about the amp... If you plan on up-grading any of the components on the board such as the various capacitors or resistors you might want to add them in the first build since the traces on the boards are fairly fragile. I pulled one in dismounting the electrolytic input caps to replace with film caps and had to do some finagling to get back in business. Also check the lead diameter of new parts since the holes on the board are fairly small, though they can be drilled out larger with care.

Garland

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