How much headroom do you have with this amp? Said another way, do you ever turn 
the volume up past half way (i.e. could you get away with a 2x20W setup since 
the speakers are 4ohm?). There is a nice adafruit breakout board [1] $20 for 
stereo at 20W but I can’t vouch for it directly. At least that way you can have 
the advantage of a more open circuit with possibility to replace or fix things 
that break.

-Andy

[1] http://www.adafruit.com/products/1752


On May 25, 2015, at 10:12 AM, Ward Cunningham <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> 
wrote:

Friends -- Along with some remodeling we've retired a nifty little (in its day) 
panasonic receiver/tape-deck/cd-player which was the centerpiece of our modest 
home audio/video setup. Now with all inputs going through tivo/apple-tv we 
replace the receiver with an inexpensive amplifier (pictured) and have been 
enjoying the extra shelf space this change made available.

<41SFsyTUhhL.jpg>

That is, enjoying until now.

The Amazon reviews warned that this unit had reliability problems which I can 
confirm. After a few weeks of service driving the panasonic bookshelf speakers 
(4 ohm, nothing special) the amplifier developed an unusual oscillation: 
Burrrrraaaap, burrrrraaaap, at maybe 2 Hz. I found I could squelch this by 
turning down the base. I didn't miss the base, I'm over that phase of my life.

But now, another week has gone by and it has started to hum. It is a nice clean 
60 Hz hum so I assume it is some related or not weakness in the built-in AC 
supply. No control twiddling or power cycling helps and it is too small to kick.

I wonder if anyone on this list has a suggestion as to how to repair or replace 
this equipment? I should note that I have at present invested sums equivalent 
to my monday night bar tab. I'd spend more but not much more because after say 
$50 all the money goes to unwanted features in bigger (and still empty) boxes.

If I can't find something good soon I might just have to recover my Dynaco 
Stereo-70 (a David Hafler design) from cold storage in the basement. This would 
not make Karen happy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynaco#Products

Best regards -- Ward
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Andrew M.C. Dawes
Associate Professor of Physics
Pacific University
amcdawes.com<http://amcdawes.com>

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