2.1 amp board with high pass?

[bcodemz]

Does anyone know of any 2.1 amp boards with a high pass filter or can take 3 channels of inputs? it should have at least 30 watts for the stereo channels and 60 watts for the sub channel.

The TPA3116 2.1 amp on eBay seems perfect: excellent power, cheap, and sounds great. Unfortunately, it seems like it doesn't have a high pass filter for the stereo channels.

Any other recommendations? Is there a way to mod it to have a high pass filter?

Thanks

Brian

[jonpike]

Re: 2.1 amp board with high pass?

You could add one, it would be a bit of a project. Ideally, you'd add a crossover/preamp stage in between the input and the stereo main amp channels. Depending on your electronic building skills, it wouldn't be very difficult. Building it in the simpler, easier way, (no knob adjustment) would make it harder to adjust, but you only need to set it up once for a system anyway.

I've been down this route, if you're interested, I could get you more info. Nowadays, most would say to go digital, get a MINIDSP and call it a day, (and rightfully so) but there's still a place for really simple and somewhat cheaper analog filters, I think.

[bcodemz]

Re: 2.1 amp board with high pass?

I think I'll wait a bit more for others to chime in on possible other amp boards before leaping into adding a high pass filter to an amp.

I do have a miniDSP. However, using it as a 3 way crossover would mean I need 1 miniDSP for each speaker and 2 amplifiers instead of just 1. I'm kind of OK with the extra costs of an extra miniDSP and amplifier, but it adds a lot more complexity into the setup than necessary. Plus, having 2 amplifiers per speaker is quite a pain: Two amplifier bricks, 2 (or 3) input cables instead of one, and extra internal space for the second amp.

[[email protected]]

Re: 2.1 amp board with high pass?

The 2.1 board i bought has a crossovef adjustment. Is that what you mean?

[Liberator of Magic Smoke]

Re: 2.1 amp board with high pass?

I think the cheaper ones just have an adjustable low-pass for the .1 channel, if that. It's not hard to find claims that the low-pass doesn't work well, either. I've been looking at 2.1 boards for quite a while, and haven't found one that seems like anything I want to fool with. Of course, I'm pretty disgusted with sleazeBay these days, too, and don't go there much.

Caps are cheap, at least the ones I would use on a $20 to $40 board, and I've cobbled together some test outfits that just use a single cap on each of the main speakers. Those worked pretty well but then the speakers I was using don't do a whole lot below 100Hz anyway. It's fun playing with the random stuff I pick up at Goodwill and such places, but I'd like to see some really good 2.1 boards that have all the parts on board to make a really nice amp. Seems odd that they are still trying to sort that out. I brought home a big steel cased shortwave radio in bad shape but the housing is pretty bombproof and just needs paint and a new face plate. Got some good old car amps with built in filters that I'm planning to put in there to make a very heavy 2.1 beast. That's getting closer to the top of the project list, but who knows when I'll get to it.

[jims]

Re: 2.1 amp board with high pass?

I've browsed these online, but haven't actually tried any of them. The best solution might be to buy two dual channel boards, or one dual channel and one mono or bridgeable (if two 2-channel you would only use one channel on the sub amp), and build a line-level crossover before the amp inputs. Better, but more expensive, would be to use a car audio crossover before the amps. That would give you a bunch of options for crossover frequencies and a lot of them have equalizers as well (not totally necessary but nice to have). Auto crossovers will run fine on fairly low-amperage 12V power supplies.

[tyger23]

Re: 2.1 amp board with high pass?

The best solution might be to buy two dual channel boards, or one dual channel and one mono or bridgeable (if two 2-channel you would only use one channel on the sub amp), and build a line-level crossover before the amp inputs.

I feel like someone's done just that....

And I feel like Melby posted the same thing in the similar thread bcodemz asked last week.

Read through this thread. Pay close attention starting around post 78. Post 98 contains a link to the build instructions. You can have a well designed 2.1 amplifier that meets your specifications, and you can pick your own crossover point and slope, and it can be done from less than ~$150.

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/sh...uld-you-buy-it

[jims]

Re: 2.1 amp board with high pass?

I feel like someone's done just that....

And I feel like Melby posted the same thing in the similar thread bcodemz asked last week.

Read through this thread. Pay close attention starting around post 78. Post 98 contains a link to the build instructions. You can have a well designed 2.1 amplifier that meets your specifications, and you can pick your own crossover point and slope, and it can be done from less than ~$150.

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/sh...uld-you-buy-it

I've seen the thread on your amp. While it looks awesome, it looks like the OP wants something more off-the-shelf that possibly could be modified, rather than a ground-up assembly.

[bcodemz]

Re: 2.1 amp board with high pass?

^Yeah. tyger23, while your amp looks amazing, I don't want to do a ground-up assembly. It actually seems ridiculous to me that there isn't a high pass filter for a 2.1 amp, otherwise what is the point of having the subwoofer channel???

[tyger23]

Re: 2.1 amp board with high pass?

I've seen the thread on your amp. While it looks awesome, it looks like the OP wants something more off-the-shelf that possibly could be modified, rather than a ground-up assembly.

I would have much preferred that as well, but it didn't exist. That's why I built it ;).

[jims]

Re: 2.1 amp board with high pass?

I would have much preferred that as well, but it didn't exist. That's why I built it ;).

The configuration is so useful that it's surprising that there aren't a bunch of off-the-shelf options.

Are your forum name and avatar inspired by an Alma Mater? I went to Clemson for grad school, so the orange paw is quite familiar to me. Or did you go to that other orange tiger school?

[tyger23]

Re: 2.1 amp board with high pass?

The configuration is so useful that it's surprising that there aren't a bunch of off-the-shelf options.

Are your forum name and avatar inspired by an Alma Mater? I went to Clemson for grad school, so the orange paw is quite familiar to me. Or did you go to that other orange tiger school?

I grew up orange and graduated from Clemson in 99. I got my master's at UT (west of the Mississippi), and I still live in Austin. Hook 'em Tigers!

[thekorvers]

Re: 2.1 amp board with high pass?

Does anyone know of any 2.1 amp boards with a high pass filter or can take 3 channels of inputs? it should have at least 30 watts for the stereo channels and 60 watts for the sub channel.

The TPA3116 2.1 amp on eBay seems perfect: excellent power, cheap, and sounds great. Unfortunately, it seems like it doesn't have a high pass filter for the stereo channels.

Any other recommendations? Is there a way to mod it to have a high pass filter?

Thanks

Brian

The simplest solution would be to put a capacitor in series with each of your L & R outputs. This would give you a 1st order high-pass with a 6 dB roll-off, which I believe would be adequate for your purpose. Yes you could put the cap in between the pre-amp and power amp, but that would require cutting into the circuit (board), requiring more knowledge and work. The only difference between that cap and the one after the output I suggested would be the voltage rating of the cap. Caps are relatively cheap.

Read this thread:

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/sh...6-PR-micro-sub

[jims]

Re: 2.1 amp board with high pass?

I grew up orange and graduated from Clemson in 99. I got my master's at UT (west of the Mississippi), and I still live in Austin. Hook 'em Tigers!

Excellent! M.S. Environmental Systems Engineering, '94.

[jims]

Re: 2.1 amp board with high pass?

Back to the OP. I saw this new amp board in the flier today: http://www.parts-express.com/yuan-ji...oard--320-6516

Not as much power as you would like for your sub, but it has a separate input for each channel.