Wednesday, 3 November 2010

Very, very low cost HiFi amplifier

Can you believe I paid 0.99euro for two of these kits to build a 50+50W HiFi audio amplifier!!! (eBay from HK).

TDA7294 amplifier.jpg

I have also ordered a power supply (rectifiers and capacitors), this is £16. And all I need now is the expensive UK part, the 22-0-22V mains transformer, £38 from Farnell UK.

The Amplifier



Putting this all in a box should bring the total spend to less than £70 for a high performance HiFi amplifier. Can't be bad!

I plan to assemble it in a 10cm square aluminium tube, that will match the footprint of the new Apple TV. But I have one circuit to find before I can connect the two - I need a DAC to convert the digital optical audio output of the Apple TV to analog input of my amplifier.

A DAC is needed



Hopefully I will find a DAC that will also fit in the box of the amplifier. But DAC prices look like £50-£90 or so (see Gefen one for example). Humph. I would design and build one but this will cost even more as the printed circuit boards are expensive. I wish some one in China would make a decent DAC kit at a decent price. Technically I want to use the best DAC chips I can and I think these are the Wolfson WM8742 ICs... I will keep searching the web and eBay.

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