Does the name GainClone ring any bells

There were an army of Do-It-Yourselfer's(DIY'ers) who committed themselves to figuring out the design behind 47 Labs famed amp a few years ago.

Checkout Since there were only 9-15 parts in the whole sheebang, it didn't take long. A decent working model really shouldn't cost more that GainClone.com, it is solely dedicated to DIY Gainclone designs. Also DiyAudio.com's ChipAmp forum.

Since there were only 9-15 parts in the whole sheebang, it doesn't cost a lot ot make one, although it did take a lot of experimentation over a a couple of years to get the best out of it. The evolution of the GainClone was an impressive group effort to watch. Some pretty talented people were actively involved along with a slew of beginners. Literally hundreds of permutations were tried. Which really stands as a testament to the effort 47 Labs put in because it was all done by a single person. (though, his prices - sheesh!)

Anyway, some of the DIY crowd went on to make actual commercial products. ChipAmp.com sells complete Gainclone kits of tried and true high-performance designs. Everything you need for ~$80.00, excluding chasis and knobs. Also, Peter Daniel, one of the mainstays and leaders of the DIY movement went on to offer the Audiosector Patek line of amps as reviewed favorably by 6Moons.com webzine. They also sell kits.

Sorry about the confusing 2nd paragraph, I accidently cut and pasted a section out of order.

Fascinating! Thanks for this post and answer.

I thank you for your reply and info. I did do a little research with the links supplied from the seller. I even registered with diy audio to see what's going on in that camp. The pics provided show a really nice build and with few parts as you mentioned. Sonics are the order of the day for me however and without a source to audition its a little tough to make a decision. The seller has decribed the sound of this piece and with my musical tastes(acoustic jazz,gospel,vocals)it seems that this might be something I could live with. Stay tuned.

South43 you must be very careful of the match between the speakers and the Gainclone. The closer the speaker load is to 8 ohms and of decent sensitivity..say 90 dB or higher. The better the results when using one. Gainclones are not designed to run tough or wild impedance loads.

With your taste in music and the right speaker match you'll have a great time with the GC. It stopped my amplifier hunt dead in its tracks for the first time in years. I don't even look at equipment for sell any more and haven't for nearly 4 or 5 months...that should tell you something. I swapped amplifiers atleast 11 times in the last three years.

A tubed preamp is a good match for these units. As long as it's not a noisy tubed preamp... the GC is very sensitive to upstream noise.

Great post Darkmoebius!

Have fun!