[raysracing]

This thread has motivated me to build an amp with a Sure 100wx2 with battery power supply. I will put a connector on it to run on a wall wart or separate power supply for when I am on the trainer  or just need background music. For critical listening I will use the batteries. I am very excited to have a battery pre (Warpspeed) and amp. Super inexpensive system too. I have read that battery operated stereo has a unique and very enjoyable sound.

[vinylb]

I picked up  a CDA-254L kit from Tom ad cassdaudio.com . I had many questions before purchasing and after and he responded to all, so wanted to give him kudos for it.  Several posts discuss extra cables coming from transfomer and I wanted to pass on my experience. I received the Antek AS-4434 with
brown/orange leads as well as a purple lead. Those brown/orange leads need to be capped off individually and the purple wire goes to ground
at the IEC chassis mount. Also as a precaution when wiring up first time, Tom suggested I wire up only the power pcb to the transformer to
prevent the audio pcb from damage in event I had incorrectedly wired up the power leads from transformer. Once you know its working
and no smoke or plastic melting around transfromer, disconnect and then continue wiring up the audio pcb.

I have had many amps  from Conrad Johnson, Rogue Audio, Odyssey Audio, Emotiva and this diy amp  bests them all with top to bottom soundstage, clarity. The only minor quibble I have is that the music is pushed a little forward. But I can live with it. I am now thinking of getting another CDA-25L so i can have two of these drive my Maggies 1.6. I am also waiting on the arrival of my Bottlehead Quickie.

Thanks to all who have contributed to this superb diy amp.

[DS-21]

Well, the IR2092 amp has gotten so popular that sure enough there is now a, er, Sure board. Just the amp module, not a kit...[/img]

What kind of PS would one need to make a 6-channel amp (to biamp LCR mains with active crossovers) out of three of those modules?

More generally, with these things does one need anything besides a PS with power cord, box, and SpeakOn jacks for speaker output (because they're both markedly superior to binding posts in terms of safety and usability, and cheaper)?

[krikor]

More generally, with these things does one need anything besides a PS with power cord, box, and SpeakOn jacks for speaker output (because they're both markedly superior to binding posts in terms of safety and usability, and cheaper)?

My ClassDAudio amps are the first I've used SpeakOns (as well as PowerCons) and I couldn't agree more.  I don't think I'll ever go back to posts, spades, bananas, etc.  I also like that the actual conductive parts are relatively small and low mass.  Plus they are easy to use for biwiring and biamping using the 4-pole models.  And the capper, the cost next to nothing compared to some of the binding schemes out ther... an absolute bargain in my book.

[.Marcus.]

Hi,
i had build a SDS-254 Kit and it sounds fantastic.

I would like to express my sincerest thanks to Tom and community to provide and support such great device.

Attached some pcitures of my DIY Stuff and Amp.

Regards
Marcus

[Barry_NJ]

Hi,
i had build a SDS-254 Kit and it sounds fantastic.

I would like to express my sincerest thanks to Tom and community to provide and support such great device.

Attached some pcitures of my DIY Stuff and Amp.

Regards
Marcus

While your cabinets aren't the prettiest, your component lay-out and wire routing are excellent 

[roymail]

Very nice job, Marcus.  Can you tell us specifics about the the power supply?d  Thanks!

[maxitonus]

To Marcus:
Is this power supply bringing an improvement if compared to the standard one ?

To Roymail:
Here in Marseille, France,we are 3 audiophiles really seduced by the sound of our sds470 's amps,even if compared to high end amps.

-   I am responsible for searching which are the best interconnects ,speaker bi-cables, and power cables ,to allow the sds to sound at the highest level
- My friend Emil is working on internal improvements aiming at refining the sound further.(if possible)
He already said to me that the wire lighting up the led located in the power switch can be favourably removed...he is also shortening all the signal wires and modifying the speaker
wires.
About the pots, he's been removing them for vishay resistors,but i dont agree with him since the adjustment allows first to balance the sound image between the speakers,..and overall second since the position of such posts changes significantly the sound...i connect directly a weiss dac2 and the dynamic effect is modified if the output level of the weiss is set to low with pots more open or if it is set to high with pots rotated counterclockwise.
I think the pots have to be conserved (may be replaced by higher quality ones) connected with very short litz wire.

I will let you informed about the results of improvements, ..however the original sds is soo good that i am not sure about the possible level of eventual improvements, except for cabling.

[.Marcus.]

To Barry :
Thanks.  I'm consistently planing to leave the breadboard phase, but it is never come true 

To Roymail :
The boards are PS Boards from Peter Daniel (Audiosector). Populate with Soft Recovery HFA Diods. The Caps are 4x FTCap GHB Types 63V / 15000µF / 105°C reated.

To Maxitonus :
Sorry i never compare it.   

[raysracing]

Marcus those look great. I wish i could go without tops, but till I have a pet free home I need the tops. I was thinking abiut building mine into my wood entertainment cabinet (to be build) then I could close off the front and back of that section for the amp wit just some access holes.

[Nick77]

Just talked to Tom and he wanted to share this brand new photo of the new ClassD cases coming out in the next few days. Looking good!!

[wushuliu]

Fully built CDA-254 for $430, SDS for $100 more. That's a heck of a deal.

[Nick77]

Couple more shots, looking good!!

[Vedder323]

Well, im joining the ranks of the Class D Audio users: I am placing and order for the SDS-470 with the new case this week! Will be using the amp to drive the Gallo 3.1s. As of now, I dont have a premap and Toms suggestion was just to use the amp with my Squeezebox volumes control, he said it sounds great so im gonna place my trust in him! Wish me luck.

[steve k]

Good luck! Let us know what you think after it's burned in.
steve

[roscoeiii]

Love those external gain pots.

[Redefy Audio]

just got my kits few days ago.

i will be using 2 SDS-470 with 1 EXODUS Hypex PSU with 1 600VA trafo.

excited 

[firedog]

Well, im joining the ranks of the Class D Audio users: I am placing and order for the SDS-470 with the new case this week! Will be using the amp to drive the Gallo 3.1s. As of now, I dont have a premap and Toms suggestion was just to use the amp with my Squeezebox volumes control, he said it sounds great so im gonna place my trust in him! Wish me luck.

That will work, just remember to turn the volume down when you stop listening. If you power up your system and the SB is at moderate to high output, you could damage your speakers. It's sort of non-intuitive to turn down the volume on a device like an SB every time you stop using it, unlike the volume control on an amp.

[Vedder323]

That will work, just remember to turn the volume down when you stop listening. If you power up your system and the SB is at moderate to high output, you could damage your speakers. It's sort of non-intuitive to turn down the volume on a device like an SB every time you stop using it, unlike the volume control on an amp.

Thanks Firedog,

I was shocked that this works. For some reason I thought the volume control on the SB Touch degraded sound quality below 80%? Maybe thats just a myth?

[krikor]

I was shocked that this works. For some reason I thought the volume control on the SB Touch degraded sound quality below 80%? Maybe thats just a myth?

It is a digital volume control, so there is a possibility of lost resolution even though the SB3 has a 24-bit architecture.  Not sure I've got this totally correct in my meager understanding, but basically you "throw away" 1 bit of resolution for every 6db of attenuation.  If you are playing 16-bit source materials, you've got 8 extra bits of what I'll call padding in there, so you can reduce the volume by 48db before encountering any resolution loss (8 bits x 6db). If you are playing 24-bit material there's no pad in there (but not sure if mild resolution reduction is noticeable at 24-bits?).

I've been reading up on this since I've just started using a DAC with volume control direct into my SDS-450 amps.  My Wyred4Sound DAC-2 has a 32-bit architecture so I've got a whopping 96db of volume reduction before resolution loss on 16-bit material, and still 48db on 24-bit material.

Make sure to set your gain pots at a point at or just above the maximum volume you would listen at if the SB was turn up to 100%.  This way you can minimize how much you have to turn the SB down and potentially reduce resolution during normal listening.  That's one reason I love having the gain pots... you can better match the SDS to your sources.   

Here's a thread I started with a couple of papers on digital volume controls that I found informative:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=103312.0