Really Cheap Indian Amplifiers

malasar

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Starting this thread to discuss the extreme low end amplifiers ...

Here in Mumbai there are a lot of amplifiers sold for Rs.600 - Rs.2500 .... Common brands are Hi-tech, Samcon etc ....

I understand that these are extreme low end ..... However listening to some of the better priced ones .... the Sound is loud enough ... with a good balance of Bass and Treble ... Yet I am sure that to an audiophile, this is nothing but pure crap .....

The shop owners selling these products do not have much knowledge about the electronics inside .... Some use terms like single IC / Double IC, Others differentiate by saying that the product is based on LA4440 chip, some sell it by using the name of 'STK' (Sanyo) ..... the rest just believe that the quality is directly reflected by the price ....

My purpose of starting this thread is:

1. To understand the views of other members about these amplifiers

2. To understand the construction differences between these amplifiers and other decent ones (the ones which can claim to be the starting point for audiophiles .. eg. Norge). The differences can be noted as:
a. Basic Construction: Is there any difference in the basic structure of construction of the amplifier; Circuit Design etc
b. Amplifier Chip: Which Chip used ... whether IC, Transistor etc
c. Quality of Components Used: Capacitors etc
d. Transformer
e. Any other points of difference

Request experts to throw light on these points ....
 
Even for STK ... I believe that there would be a number of ICs available with different configurations and output capabilities ........ My question is ... which IC is good and which is not, assuming a power requirement of ~80 - 100 W RMS per channel ....

Also if you could throw some light on the construction differences between these amps an the slightly better ones ...
 
If you want to start with chip amps try the national semiconductor lm3886 or lm3887 or lm4870 etc ones like the myref rev c. They sound great. You can also try discrete class A Amplifiers from nelson pass. Both are better than any STK amps I have ever built. Plus obtaining genuine STK chips for 80 watts will be a problem.
 
I have no choice but to buy such cheap amplifier. Mine one cost 800/- recently. I use it for delivering low frequencies upto 300 Hz. It serves alright.

Now, there are two ways of being happy while listening music (this is the reason after all).
One is to know as much as you easily can and be happy with whatever gain in sound quality and quantity you get with your upgraded ears and stretched expenses.
Other way is to learn as much as you can, as long as you can and implement those knowledge in your upgradation of music system and your ears.
The second one is obviously more difficult and a long road destination.
It is important to choose which way you want the ride to be.

Any cheap amplifier is not completely useless. For some situation it is the best one.

I wanted active crossover system with minimum investment (right now). Since I have high efficiency drivers, and I needed an amlifier to have 40W or so power with bass control knob, a roadside cheap amplifier is doing a very good job for my bass sounds.

The day I find some way of making the sound quality any better than now with investment that I think acceptable, I will go for it.

If you do not have money yet want to have music, choose the best one your money can buy. Do not stop listening to music today in waiting saving money for tomorrow. Who knows, tomorrow you may have a friend to give you a used amplifier within your balance money.

You can not get back today.
 
LM3886 chip amps are cheap. you can build one within 1500 bucks. The chips cost 300-400 bucks each and a EI transformer and power supply will cost a few hundred bucks.
 
******maybe off the topic a lil bit*****

when you are going up to 2500 rs for these, you might as well buy something like Dayton Audio Dta1 or Lepai amps for around 30$ or maybe Dta 100a for around 90$. Only caveat is that you need someone to bring it from US for you. Otherwise shipping n customs spoil the party for you.
 
******maybe off the topic a lil bit*****

when you are going up to 2500 rs for these, you might as well buy something like Dayton Audio Dta1 or Lepai amps for around 30$ or maybe Dta 100a for around 90$. Only caveat is that you need someone to bring it from US for you. Otherwise shipping n customs spoil the party for you.

not at all n expert...i was also thinking of those t-amps.but r those 20-25w per chnl at 4 ohms amps can do justice to budget bookshelves/floorstanders or for a matter of fact the sound quality produced thru those t-amps.ne explaination??

on the original post,really if u can elaborate the fact,that budget amps can produce decent quality sound....ne user experience????

ne one from bangalore can give some expert reviews....buying a budget amp for home audio

regards...
 
not at all n expert...i was also thinking of those t-amps.but r those 20-25w per chnl at 4 ohms amps can do justice to budget bookshelves/floorstanders or for a matter of fact the sound quality produced thru those t-amps.ne explaination??

on the original post,really if u can elaborate the fact,that budget amps can produce decent quality sound....ne user experience????

ne one from bangalore can give some expert reviews....buying a budget amp for home audio

regards...

not much of a personal experience except using the Dta1 with my 6yr old creative sbs 400 ripped apart to take out inbuilt amps module. I see that they play awful loud and i get the sense these speakers are doing sheer injustice to the amps capability. However i need to wait for few months before i could afford to build my own speakers worth calling budding-aduiophile category! So my recommendation was solely based on my research and as far as i know these tiny amps are really good for near-field listening owing to the fact that you dont have to keep the volume at thundering levels! Budget amp is always a good start instead of buying costly one esp. if you are a novice and still use 2.1 or 5.1 speaker setup made for PCs within 5k budget. This way you slowly take baby steps in to better audio and you can understand few audiophile concepts better with every incremental upgrade you do. Atleast my plan is to build my setup over next few while fully understanding the capability of each setup and have expectations accordingly for future upgrades.

sorry about the delayed response i didnt actually come back to this thread since my last post. I amsubscribing now, so we can discuss more. :)
 
I remember a lot of el cheapo amps built and sold by Harman Radio Corporation (HRC) and TAKAI, from Delhi. HRC used to sell assembled kits as well. My first ever stereo amp was built using 2 HRC assembled kits based on the TBA810S IC. This was 1987,
 
Thats a 12V 5A supply! Parts express sells the Lepai 2020 with a 2A supply. The pic of the Lepai they have also asks for a 2A supply.
Lepai 2020 with power supply - See pics of the back of the amp
So 5A is not necessary. But it might be a good investment if you ever get a bigger amp that needs more power!

How is this Power Supply to complement the TA2020 Lepai Amps? It satisfy all requirements of TA2020. Only thing is we need to find cable and connectors for it.

60W 12V 5A DC OUT Switching Power Supply CCTV 110V 220V | eBay
 
Here in Mumbai there are a lot of amplifiers sold for Rs.600 - Rs.2500 .... Common brands are Hi-tech, Samcon etc ....


The shop owners selling these products do not have much knowledge about the electronics inside .... Some use terms like single IC / Double IC, Others differentiate by saying that the product is based on LA4440 chip, some sell it by using the name of 'STK' (Sanyo) ..... the rest just believe that the quality is directly reflected by the price ....

Samcon is actually not bad (i.e. used to be not bad)..LA4440 used to be decent back in time when original IC was available. Same goes for STK (when the chip used to be genuine).

I remember a lot of el cheapo amps built and sold by Harman Radio Corporation (HRC) and TAKAI, from Delhi. HRC used to sell assembled kits as well. My first ever stereo amp was built using 2 HRC assembled kits based on the TBA810S IC. This was 1987,

There were many amps that used TBA810 including BPL..It was used in botl amps. Poor man's amp I must say..Now a days it's 2N3055 instead of TBA810 it seems.
 
Even for STK ... I believe that there would be a number of ICs available with different configurations and output capabilities ........ My question is ... which IC is good and which is not, assuming a power requirement of ~80 - 100 W RMS per channel ....

Also if you could throw some light on the construction differences between these amps an the slightly better ones ...
in the past I've assembled some STK amps ( from the Sanyo application datasheets) STK41XX series , they are good . especially STK4191 with a large aluminium extrusion as a heat sink ( i've used 4" wide 12" long) and a good toroidal transformer ( dual power rails , with 10k uf in each rail as reservoirs) combined with a 4ohm 100 watt woofer (12') 4 mid range and a 3 inch philips dome tweeter with passive cross over network. i custom made TLO84 ic based tone control ( baxandall model) /graphic equiliser ( both sounded good , used only 5 band equiliser, low/mid/high tone controls).
 
A beautiful, well-constructed speaker with class-leading soundstage, imaging and bass that is fast, deep, and precise.
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