Dedicated headphone amp that is easy to mod, tweak, and learn about signal flow.

Hi guys and girls,

BLUF: Thinking about building a dedicated headphone amp to sit beside my computer. Curious, what would you look for in a dedicated amplifier?

Details:
Recently, I've been talking with a few of you and reading the thread about op amps, etc. There seems to be a lot of interest in modding/swapping parts and general customization. That's so inspiring! Since we like to build our own systems, I thought why not build our own headphone amp to set beside them.

The idea is a simple, analog amp that anyone can build. In the style of "Lego" building guides, there will be colorful 3D pictures of parts being assembled, schematics, and explanations of what each section of the circuit actually does using understandable language.

Thoughts?

 

There are DIY amp kits.
https://www.google.ru/webhp?client=opera&sourceid=opera#newwindow=1&q=diy+headphone+amplifier+kit

 

Yeah I guess you're right. I just thought it would be cool to have a kit that explained why certain components are chosen over others and what properties the circuit gains (or loses) when those components are changed to different values. Maybe a few equations here and there to help customize for specific headphone impedance. Stuff like that.

 

https://www.google.ru/webhp?client=opera&sourceid=opera#newwindow=1&q=headphone+amplifier+tutorial

https://www.google.ru/search?newwin...lebTAhWEDiwKHaQRBSwQ1QIIYCgB&biw=1920&bih=971

https://www.google.ru/search?newwin...1#newwindow=1&q=headphone+amplifier+schematic

 

All very good examples, those links. I see some class A, the Butte mentioned as well as Cmoy. How-to's are everywhere but it's not as clear as to why things do what they do within a Butte or a Cmoy or why the Cmoy is flawed to begin with. Knowing why something works makes it easier then to understand beyond the how-tos online. Like, why not to remove an output cap or why the Fiio specs say AUX IN after the SNR spec.

 

For that either specialist or geek is needed. :nerd:

 

http://sound.whsites.net/index2.html

Happy reading

 

Ahhh man thanks! I can't get enough of stuff like that. In fact, it looks familiar... I may have run into it a few times in the past month or so while researching. Been a while since I posted because I've been working on this very topic! I've managed to put together a pretty sweet amplifier.