How Do Simple DIY Amps Compare to Entry-Level Commercial Ones?

[Aria James]

Has anyone here tried building or testing small DIY amplifiers for home audio setups, and how do they actually hold up against budget commercial amps in terms of sound quality? I was going through this tutorial (https://www.theengineeringprojects.com/2021/06/simplest-lm386-audio-amplifier-in-proteus.html) where they used the LM386 to make a simple audio amplifier, and it looked surprisingly straightforward.
It made me wonder if projects like this similar to some Arduino forum discussions on Bluetooth speaker builds or Raspberry Pi threads about pairing Pi boards with mini amps. Can actually perform decently in real-world listening, or if they’re mostly just good learning exercises.

 

[Kingnoob]

I’d imagine building them is pretty complicated… this is definitely less common than diy speakers, and subs.

 

[lovinthehd]

Never tried a amp kit assembly. Be more interesting to see some specs/testing of the one you linked before building one...

 

[ryanosaur]

Hypex NC400 and Nilai 500 have been tested extensively. These are relatively easy to assemble assuming you are passably competent with various tools and perhaps a soldering iron. They perform quite well and should be able to do almost any task required of an amplifier short of driving a power hungry Sub.

 

[Happy Joe]

The last time I assembled an amplifier ; it had tubes... and integrated circuits were not yet common, maybe not yet available.
The last time I talked to the owner it/they (I made 3) was/were still working after many tube replacements; since the early 1960s.

Enjoy!

 

[MrBoat]

I built a gain card clone based on a pair of LM3886, point to point, around a decade or so ago and used it at work. It used a 24V power supply and scavenged heat sinks from some derelict amps and other electronics I had stripped over the years. I don't recall all the details as I have built a bunch of other things since, but I can assure you that the SQ was as good as anything out there. The only issue for me was it didn't have enough power for what I was into but to see that little mess of cobbled together parts sound that good was a lesson in how we can pay way too much for hi-fi equipment.

Now that I know that I can build a great amp from scratch, it's enough. In other words, I don't mind using pre-assembled class D boards and modules, as a way to circumvent mass marketed, or overpriced boutique products, or paying for a brand name.

The hot chip now is the TPA 3255 and it too, sounds excellent. I own some of the chips and I bought this Chinese module and a 48V SMPS to go with it. I am thinking about making a semi-portable boombox with this one, when the mood strikes me. For now, I have too many audio toys to play with. I have another module with the LM3886 somewhere around here, as well.

Here's an ICEpower, ICEedge based power amp (1200AS2) module kit I just assembled that is mostly plug and play and this thing sounds as good as anything out there, and with gobs of power. Why do I buy kits now? Because they can include all of the hardware and harnesses typically at a substantial savings of what I could source them separately for.

Here's a very simple pair of class A mono blocks I made based on the Pass DIY Amp Camp Amp. I just bought the circuit boards from diyaudio.com and sourced the parts from Digikey and the obsolete transistors and such I ended up getting from a friend of mine who builds ham radios who had retired from the communications industry and has boxes full of NOS parts. Amazing how good these things sound, all 8 watts of them, given how crude these circuits actually are, by today's standards. I loaned these to a friend to try and it took me forever to get them back from him. I have another complete set of parts to build another.