T-Amp upgrades
So.
After a year of running my re-cased T-Amp it was time for the next step - improving the sound.
There are two small and easy things to do with this amplifier. Since the original is a very cheap battery-powered amp for the beach some components are cheap, small and not very good for the sound.
The input capacitors on the original board are tiny SMD-types. They can be replaced in various ways, mainly to improve the bass response. I didn't go nuts here: some guys put huge audiophile-quality Auricaps in their T-Amps. If you feel like it, go ahead.
A good description of three possible ways to do this can be found at Michael Mardis' site: http://www.michael.mardis.com/sonic/start.html.
You have to be reasonably sure of removing / bypassing the original SMD-caps on the board. For a primer on SMD soldering, check out the tutorial movies from headphone amp guru "Tangent":
http://tangentsoft.net/elec/movies/
The other easy improvement to make is to replace the coil-inductors on the board. The originals are of a cheap ferrite-core type, and are, I'm told, prone to saturation. There are various alternatives. A nice and easy way to do this is to order air-core inductors from Autocostruire, the front-end for Italian Audiodigit.
This improves treble and separation. It had a dramatic effect.
And when the whole thing was ready I ran it for a few hours, then gave it away. I need space for the next project...
There are a few more pictures on my Flickr-site.
After a year of running my re-cased T-Amp it was time for the next step - improving the sound.
There are two small and easy things to do with this amplifier. Since the original is a very cheap battery-powered amp for the beach some components are cheap, small and not very good for the sound.
The input capacitors on the original board are tiny SMD-types. They can be replaced in various ways, mainly to improve the bass response. I didn't go nuts here: some guys put huge audiophile-quality Auricaps in their T-Amps. If you feel like it, go ahead.
A good description of three possible ways to do this can be found at Michael Mardis' site: http://www.michael.mardis.com/sonic/start.html.
You have to be reasonably sure of removing / bypassing the original SMD-caps on the board. For a primer on SMD soldering, check out the tutorial movies from headphone amp guru "Tangent":
http://tangentsoft.net/elec/movies/
The other easy improvement to make is to replace the coil-inductors on the board. The originals are of a cheap ferrite-core type, and are, I'm told, prone to saturation. There are various alternatives. A nice and easy way to do this is to order air-core inductors from Autocostruire, the front-end for Italian Audiodigit.
This improves treble and separation. It had a dramatic effect.
And when the whole thing was ready I ran it for a few hours, then gave it away. I need space for the next project...
There are a few more pictures on my Flickr-site.
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