That looks sweet Bob. How does it sound cranked up?
The DIY chip amps mentioned above were calling out to me. I don't know if it will be the final answer, but it seemed like the best path to try first, in terms of potential sound quality for the price. I like the idea of everything in my system being DIY, too. The reviews of various quality midfi amps mentioned above were not convincing enough for me to take a chance.
I ordered a pair each of Twisted Pear Sympatico and Neurochrome Modulus-86. I will compare them and buy a third pair of whichever wins. They have excellent performance specs for low price. They are both using the same concept: a line level opamp providing gain and driving a power opamp (lm3886) to drive the speakers, all wrapped together inside a single feedback loop. This is called a composite amplifier because it is two separate IC amplifier systems linked together to make a new amp better than either can do alone.
The Sympatico uses LM4780 power opamp for the "output stage" which is two LM3886 amps bridged together in one IC package. The Modulus-86 uses a LM3886 "output stage." So the Sympatico has twice the power of the Modulus, it is rated 100w while Modulus is rated 35w. 35w is enough for my mids and tweets, should also be enough for woofer, but Modulus can be paralleled and/or bridged as necessary for more power. All my drivers are 8ohms, with no passive crossover components eating power.
More to come...
