Chienmortbb

I got it from Ghent Audio. At the time it made sense as it was hard to source JST connectors and the added cost of the crimp tool did not make sense. As I have three other modules, two of the 50ASX2 and a 125ASX2 I might look again at it although from past experience, crimping well is not as easy as it looks. Looking at the Preamp is like looking back in time You can see the mods on top and there is an added capacitor on the underside. It was already loaded so it seemed sensible to use it on this project.

Well the postman came and I now have almost all the parts I need. I will send pictures tomorrow but I now just need to connect about 26 wires. I hope I can get some sound out tomorrow.

I cannot do anything with the amp side until the new components arrive so I decided to cut the port hole. I have a Lidl (Parkside) rotary cutter, similar to a Dremel Trio. It has been used to cut the woofer hole for the prototype of the BC112 as it has a circular hole cutting attachment. When I went to set it up I realised it would not cut a hole as small as 40mm radius. So I had to do it free hand. Those of you that can tear their eyes away from those stylish slippers will see that the hole is not quite circular. However it will do. The test fit of the port is shown below. Now to wait for the postman?

Just for a laugh I checked on my package from Thailand and....... yes it has landed in the UK. The package will be here today, Wednesday!

The best laid plans......I got something in my eye and could not do anything for the last few days.I may get back on the horse later but I can fill in a few more details. I have removed the fan drive circuitry. I could not be sure the thermal pin on the ICEPower works as I, so it has gone. The options are, no fan, fan on, running from the +15V rail, fan on , running from the +25v unregulated rail, fan on , running between the +/-15V rails, As the fan is only needed if the module is used at a fair volume, I will leave that until the end. Initially this is only for use as a small prctice amp but it may well become my go-to for opon mic. If I do build an extension cab, the fan would be needed. All the circuits I am using, apart from the +/-15v power regulators and ill-fated fan drive circuit, were designed by other people. The power unit is ICEPower, the preamp is by @Passinwind and the amplifier bridging unit is from Elliot Sound Products. I am happy to answer any questions while respecting the intellectual copyright of the above.

Most of the mechanics are complete and I have started the wiring between the modules. The have done a quick audio test on the ICEPower module and connectedit to the pre amp power supply. Thankfully I get +/-15V as expected and music out of the speaker. I have added the green connectors to enable easy installation . They make it easy to connect the modules but the screw heads are tiny. As my parts order is still stuck in Asia, I va re-ordered the pots and a few other parts from a UK company. They should be here by the end of next week. You can see the mains and speaker wiring here. To keep things easy I have kept the jack extension speaker output on the top and wired it in parallel with the combo’s speaker. The ICEPOWER module can output 100 watts into 8 ohms or 170 watts into 4 ohms at 1% distortion. Many vendors quote 200 or even 220 watts for this module but that can only be achieved as high distortion levels (10%) still for what I want 100/170 is more than enough. Tomorrow I hope to cut out the hole for the speaker cabinet port as well as finishing the garden furniture.

I have made some progress although other, more boring projects, neede my attention. The chassis was stripped of everything except the IEC mains input socket/fuseholder and the on/off switch. The best part of modifying an existing amp is that most of the holes are cut. ON the other amp project the worst part was cutting the holes for the mains switch. In the picture below you can see the switch/fuse holder and IEC input socket. The transformer was attached on the right hand side. You can still see one of the mounting bolts. You xcan also see the bodge I had to do as the mounting spacer for the preamp ended up in one of the ventilation slots. Four washers and some superglue created a solid fixing. The smears are from the heatsink compound that thermally coup[led the original heatsing to the chassis. it gets everywhere but can be cleaned up with thinners or white spirit.

Thanks for the suggestion. I would rather keep 230V out of the way as muct as possible.The fan I am using has come from a piece of audio equipment so I am hopping it will be OK. I will be checking the disturbance on the supplies soon.

I have not tested it. My current plan is to run the fan only as the temperature rises and I was going to power the fan from the unregulated auxilliary supply (+25V) while the preamp is powered by the regulated =/-15V. This wsas because |I was worried about exactly what you describe. I am still investigating as I cannot find the information I need in the ice power literature, I might have to run the amp while heating it with a hairdryer to test the thermal performance. More later.

Don't tempt me Pete. Right the good news is that some of the parts reached Heathrow this morning. The others are still somewhere between Singapore and Poole even though they were ordered two days earlier. Anyhow I will not peer too intently into the oral cavity of a equine present. The chassis is now stripped (although the transformer is still fitted). The boards are laid out on the chassis as can be seen in the picture. On second thoughts I will move the bridge adaptor to the centre and rotate the ICEPower module so thate the airflow from the fan blows ditrectly past the whole of the power supply/amp module.

Well I got the sander out and thought I had not done very well. It was hard and there is still a lot of adhesive and carpet residue on the sides but it is much better than the picture above. The covering is not due untill next week so I think I will test wrap that with the cabinet as it now is to see how it will look. However I suspect, like paint, it will show all the lumps and bumps. My original thought was to keep this cabinet. It is supposed to be a low cost build made largely ftom existing components and materials. It is very heavy though and a ply cabinet would be much lighter. Thinking cap on. On to the electronic design for a while.

The carpet (why do the call it that, it's felt) has come off but it was a b*gg*r, took three hours and it looks a mess. Tomorrow, weather permiting I will get the sander out, clean it up and cur the porthole (no cruising or Jane MacDonald jokes please). The box is made from a sort of heavy chipboard, denser than we usually get and the baffle is MDF. I almost wish I had started from scratch and made a new cab from light weight ply.

I did think of that but as I understand it, unless the bottom is well clear of the floor ( much more than the amount Alex designed into the one10) the tuning will be affected. Now that can work for you, as it seems to on the one10, but I don't have the measurement gear to hand to check the tuning. So it has to be a side port.

After some investigation, it has to be a side port. as can be seen by the mock ups below, the port cannot co-exist with the top strap. Go to the side though and there is just enough room for the port. I have just realiswed I did not put the lip of the port on the side view but it is only 5mm Next step is to remove the carpet covering so I can cut the hole for the port.

I loved my old Thunder 1A and wish I had never got rid of it. That deserves another thread

How much is the faux maple adding to the Status? The Gotoh machine heads are a good idea IMHO they are the best you can buy. As for the bridge, again IMHO tyhe good old bent bit of tin is just as good as many a "high mass" bridge so ugrade the bridge for cosmetic reasons as it is the ugrade with the worst payback.

Yes but it is a lot of work, less that the four cornered triangular port but having worked with Phil Starr and Stevie I have seen and heard the benefits of a single large round port. Remember that the only access to the inside of the cabinet is through the hole in the baffle. Of course I could remove the baffle with some difficulty and that would also allow me to move the driver and also allow room for an HF driver. If I were to do that, I would prefer to start from scratch. There is some good news today, some of the parts from Thailand have moved to Singapore. Not a great leap but although reported last night, it happened on Wednesday. So maybe they will arrive in the not too distant future.

I think a side port is the way to go. I was thinking top port as it might throw up some mids, but then it would invite things to fall into the cabinet As for uprating the amp, I have tha parts. However I think it needs an uprated transformer to get 65 Watts. Also there is a fault on the amp, the main reason I am reworking it. However I will be looking at that at some point in the build.

Of course the dreaded lockdown is slowing down the supply of parts I have ordered. Some from the UK and some from the far east. Sadly the stuff from the far east seems to have stalled somewhere around Thailand and DHL seem to be washing their hands of it. First class post here seesm to be takling a week or more and my last UK order was delivered to the wrong address. As I am shielding I cannot collect it ( I know where it is). Never mind lots I can still do.

I did think of that but adding them to an assembled cabinet is not easy, the calculations for them are not easy. As we are on the subject, one thought was to rebuild the cabinet in light weight ply but this is difficult with te lockdown and also more work than I was thinking of. However the carpet covering has to go and will be replaced by either a tough vynyl (tolexish) or TuffCab.

The construction of the After Eight sees the amp chassis mounted on the back of the cabinet. As you can see below, there is nowhere to put the port except below the amp and that is a very small space indeed. Incidently, the white two way connector was put there by me, and in this photo, the loudspeaker leads are not connected. If you look closely at the printed circuit borad, you can see where the extra components for the bigger combos would go. You can also just see the small gap at the bottom between the chassis and the cabinet where air is allowed into the space below the chassis, aiding the natural convection cooling of the amp.

The new thread is at

I found a label inside the box that seems appropriate to share. Back on subject though: Despite the shape of the combo being a cube, the speaker cabinet is approx 29x29x14.5 cm. That is an internal dimension of approximately 12 litres. I want to put a new speaker in and I have chosen the P-Audio E8-200*. This is an 8", 200 watt neodymium driver that suits this cabinet well. Hovever unlike the Sica speaker it replaces, it does not work best in a closed cabinet. *http://p-audio.co.uk/products/P-Audio_E8-200N_200W_8_Inch_Low_Frequency_Driver_with_2_Inch_Voice_Coil.php As you can see the speaker sits centrally in the baffle and there is nowhere I can put a 75mm port on there. So the question is top, side or bottom? More on that later.

Firstly a warning: There are dangers in opening or building amplifiers. Unless they are battery powered, somewhere inside there are mains voltages that can KILL. Depending on your location these could be between 100V ac and 230V ac nominal. Only open an amplifier if you really know what you are doing. I worked in Electronics until my retirement and was an IEng (Incorporated Engineer) Electronics, having studied to degree level. Despite that, I do not know everything and have had to cram up on current safety requirements in order to make this amplifier safe. I have used commercial power modules form ICEPower that are built, and certified, to current standards around the world. DO NOT try to build amplifiers with low cost power supplies and/or amplifiers purchased from EBAY, Ali-Express, Bangood etc. Remember that you are connected to your amp when playing, don't save pennies, save your life. Now on to the build. The Trigger's Broom of Amps? I have one of the original carpet covered After Eight combos. It is rated at 15W and has an 8" Sica 35 watt speaker that is showing signs of wear. The amp makes a strange noise after a deep notet is allowed to sustain. It is hard to fault find and I have decided to rip out the guts and rebuild it. This project is related to my other project to turn the Basschat BC112 into an active FRFR cabinet and much of this design will be used (or possibly discarded) for that design. The existing unit is from the series that included the Perfect Ten and Five Fifteen and appears to have been codenamed the BakPac series. Eight Ten and Fifteen tells us the size of the speaker and the amp can have extra components added to increase the power output for the Ten and Fifteen inch variants. The powers abvailable from the amp is 15 watts, 30 watts and 65 watts respectively. The controls are shown below including the new handle that I had already replaced. You can just make out the outline of the old handle in the picture.

I have had to modify this project due to ........ guess what? So I am prototyping some of the bits, in a lockdown build renovating an Ashdown After Eight. I will post it in the builds area and post a link here as soon as I can. TheBasschat 1x12 Active FRFR Cabinet is still alive and will be completed after we get out of lockdown.