Is this article an expansion of Rob's Project09?

• http://sound.westhost.com/project09.htm

How's the chip amp project coming?

I'm working on several chip projects simutaneously. Rotating them depending on what parts have come in and what I'm in the mood for. Finished wiring up a Carlos-Snubberized PS and a pair of LM3875. Let me tell you. Stop playing around with your itzy-bitzy power supply from the "classic" GC design and move up to the big boys. Huge difference in the weight of your sound. Big improvement on the midbass and sub-bass with no ill-effect on midrange.

I've also finished plugging 2 out the 4 LM3886-based boards I ordered from Marchand (2 channels per board). Tried them out on the Snubbed-PS and I love them. I'll give more detail as the project progress.

g.

Does the $90 include powersupply? If so, that's a great deal.

Marchand's prices aren't pricey. I just looked at ESP's pricing for boards and they're in the same ballpark ($20-$30). What I can say is that Marchand's boards are very high quality. Thick and rigid, double-side and teflon coated. The brackets and heatsinks you can order with his amp boards are drilled and tapped to fit the boards perfectly.

Marchand's version of the GC (PM21) is available as a stereo board for just $20. $100 gets you all the parts and the board. Sounds a bit pricey, but the design gives you the flexibility to run the amp with inverting, non-inverting, or differential inputs after it's been assembled. You can also get a power supply unit that includes a 160VA toriodal with 20,000uF per rail for another $100.

I know this sounds like a commerical for Phil, but I think his stuff has been overlooked and underrated.

g.

The second project I'm working on is an all-chip integrated amp, based on a pair of "classic" GC and opamp-based preamp with tone control and separate opamp headphone amp. The theme of this project is "how good can an all chip system be without using "boutique" components.

g.