I was recently asked by a customer to repair and service his Marantz CD-63 KI Signature CD player. The player was misbehaving, not reading the table of contents (TOC) with some discs and was also skipping occasionally. I was actually really pleased to work on one of these classic disc spinners again. The Marantz players […]
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In this article, I discuss the history of the LM3886/chip-amp/gaincard and run through building my own dual-mono LM3886 gainclone amplifier. The LM3886 is one of Texas Instrument’s single-chip monolithic amplifier integrated circuits. It’s almost an entire amplifier-on-a-chip, with only a few extra parts required to build a fully functional, high-performance amplifier. The LM3886 features low
I recently restored this gorgeous Luxman M-4000A power amplifier and matching C-5000A preamplifier. Let’s start with the beautiful M-4000A. Apparently, the legendary Tim De Paravicini designed the original M-4000. The improved and even rarer Luxman M-4000A probably also came from De Paravicini’s hand, but nobody seems to know for sure. UPDATE: Check out my recent
I recently modified a Musical Fidelity X-CAN V3 headphone amplifier. My goal was to see what sort of improvements I could make without spending too much cash. The Musical Fidelity X-CAN V3 uses bipolar output devices, with a tube driver stage. The tube driver stage is a JAN (Joint Army/Navy) 6922 mil-spec dual-triode tube, per
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A lovely customer of mine rang me to tell me that his beloved Pioneer SX-1250 monster receiver had died in a cloud of acrid smoke. Naturally, he was devastated and asked if I could restore the old beast for him. The Pioneer SX-1250 is a monster receiver in the truest sense of the term. There
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Come along as I repair and restore a beautiful Thorens TD-125 Mark 2 turntable that gathered dust and dirt for many years. The Thorens TD-125 clearly hadn’t been operational in a long time and when my friend’s father – Neil, the owner – expressed disappointment that he wasn’t able to play his records anymore, I
After successfully building my LM3886-based gainclone project amplifier, I’ve decided to build a version that is better suited to driving low impedance loads. This lead me to the LM4780 chip from TI, which is just two LM3886 dies in the one package. It can be used as a stereo amp, or a bridged or paralleled
