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  3. 1153416583

Gainclone chip amp

This post is geared toward owners or previous owners of this diy amp. I probably should have inqired with the diy site but wanted to hear what A-goners may have to say. This is my first chip amp and after seeing many auctions and ads here and on ebay I decided to take the plunge. On the technical side of things the layout looks very simple. No huge caps or numerous parts. I do know that this design is from the 47labs camp but not all that familiar with the product. As for sonics this an amazing piece of gear. My amp is supposed to be 60w into 4 ohms and I suspect there may be more power to boot. I can't figure out where all this sound is coming from with the small caps and all Must be in the chips. Like I said amazing. For the rest of my system I'm using a nad 304 as the pre, nad tuner, philips sacd player, and epos ELS3 spkrs. I plan on upgrading my pre(used sugden)and possibly selling the 304. Well just wanted to share my thoughts and look for any advise or info on possible tweeks for this jewel of a amp. Enjoy the music!
south43
jtgofish's avatar
jtgofish
515 posts
 
Gmood,
I actually bought the SonicArt on Ebay.They are an obscure Aussie company-
www.sonicartaudio.com/

There is no mention of the 3876T chip amp on their site but you could email them for info.

Just last night I dropped off the 4780 amp at a friends.He has an M.E. 850 transistor amp which are monster things and very highly regarded in Australia,and found in many seriously expensive systems.The chip amp,at least to my ears,sounds vastly better.The soundstage went from being very box bound to having depth,layering and projection and the whole sound was just clearer,faster,more vibrant and more detailed.Like lifting several blankets off the speakers.

JT
gmood1
1,251 posts
 
JT,
Thanks a bunch mate! It's funny you mentioned Australia. I was just thinking I need to look closer at the obscure companies down under. I've had some great success with the Burson group from Australia. I never realized how good valued the gear is produced down there. It's quite a bit cheaper than I realized and the sound quality is top notch.
I'll shoot them an email.
south43 OP
386 posts
 
Wow looks like I started something here. Gmood1 thanks for the site info. I'll give him a look see. And a big thanks to all the other gain clone owners that responded. I really want to get one assembled soon so I'll be watching this post and diy for all the help and advice that may follow.
cdc
1,807 posts
 
Gmood1, where did your "system" link go? Any changes or have you found sonic nirvana?
gmood1
1,251 posts
 
Hi Cdc..just adding a couple of new components. Not quite done yet. Everything else is the same with the addition of three pieces. One being a Monarchy 48/96 upsampler,Burson HDAM Buffer and a 70 wpc battery powered integrated amplifier.If I can swing it, I want to add one of these Australian built Chip amps to the arsenal. That will give me 3 to swap out when the mood fits. As far as the nirvana part..I get closer every day.;-)

I'm trying to see how many different countries I can build my system from. Lets see I have Sweden,Germany,China,United Kingdom ,Canada ,USA and Australia. I just love the world wide web...LOL.The crazy thing is nearly everything is hand built from very small, sometimes one man companies.
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