Heathkit 4.2 amplifer
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This amplifier has a long, weird history.  It got a digital tuner added many years ago, was bi-amped for a while, and then got a microprocessor for speaker switching and volume control.   At one time you could control it from four different rooms in our house, including the kitchen.  I used it for a while for four-channel audio on my computer, and then I gutted it and started to convert it to a "4.2" amp  (four channels with left and right LFE/bass channels). 

The amp now has a total of 14 LM3886 power amps.  The front channel is 3-way with bass (actually 4-way, although the bass is "shared") and the rear channels are 2-way with bass (actually 3-way with shared bass).  The details are in the project file in this link, but you will need Visio to read it.  There are some out of date notes on the amp in this Powerpoint file.  As indicated in these drawings, the amp uses 5 of the Alesis modules that have been modified to get the right crossover frequencies.  There is a front-panel switch that allows switching between 4-channel and 3-channel for the the front speakers.  This will allow crossing over from a 2" tall Heil tweeter to a tiny "Heil-type" micro-tweeter.  I've got the parts and a rough design for the micro-Heil, but I just haven't had the time to finish it off.

The only picture I have right now is for the main heatsink plate that has the modified Alesis modules.  All 14 amps are working, but I've got a grounding problem in the circuit for the amplifier volume controls that I still need to fix.

Modified Alesis module

5 modules mounted to the right heatsink

Last updated Mar 18, 2004