Hi, first post here.
Whilst browsing an electronics parts site I came across some 50-something year old TAA300 1 Watt amplifier ICs. They inevitably ended up being purchased and added to the collection of vintage and obsolete semiconductors, but also calling out to me to wake a few of them from their slumber.
A few mistakes were made when designing the board, I think all of my first boards for any design always have at least one error on them (it keeps things interesting). You can see the first TAA300 quit after it broke into oscillation whilst I was still hooking up the test gear. I couldn't pry it out the heatsink until the replacement was inserted into the other end of it.
Power supply is a simple 6.3v heater transformer, bridge rectifier and a PI filter using 2x 4700uf caps with a 0R33 resistor.
The case is a PSU case I'd purchased for another project but never used. It's just a grey rectangular box essentially with the usual connectors you'd expect on a small amp.
I must say I'm a fan, that massive 1 Watt output per IC is enough to push my speakers far louder than I need without clipping. OK, it might struggle if I want to go loud on something with high dynamic range, but for most of the time I'm barely peaking at 2v P-P, and just tens of MV P-P in the main output domain.
I'm planning on making a revised PCB that performs better and incorporates the additional components I added to supress the tendency the thing has to oscillate under certain conditions, and fix the minor routing error. But for now, as it's almost showing signs of warming up here in England, the valve amp has been turned off and this is now going to be my main amp for the next 6 months or so.
Whilst browsing an electronics parts site I came across some 50-something year old TAA300 1 Watt amplifier ICs. They inevitably ended up being purchased and added to the collection of vintage and obsolete semiconductors, but also calling out to me to wake a few of them from their slumber.
A few mistakes were made when designing the board, I think all of my first boards for any design always have at least one error on them (it keeps things interesting). You can see the first TAA300 quit after it broke into oscillation whilst I was still hooking up the test gear. I couldn't pry it out the heatsink until the replacement was inserted into the other end of it.
Power supply is a simple 6.3v heater transformer, bridge rectifier and a PI filter using 2x 4700uf caps with a 0R33 resistor.
The case is a PSU case I'd purchased for another project but never used. It's just a grey rectangular box essentially with the usual connectors you'd expect on a small amp.
I must say I'm a fan, that massive 1 Watt output per IC is enough to push my speakers far louder than I need without clipping. OK, it might struggle if I want to go loud on something with high dynamic range, but for most of the time I'm barely peaking at 2v P-P, and just tens of MV P-P in the main output domain.
I'm planning on making a revised PCB that performs better and incorporates the additional components I added to supress the tendency the thing has to oscillate under certain conditions, and fix the minor routing error. But for now, as it's almost showing signs of warming up here in England, the valve amp has been turned off and this is now going to be my main amp for the next 6 months or so.
