Speaker

By dboruta, 6 July, 2012
Forums
The Stella Amp!

I'm a definite novice, but just finished wiring my Stella amp. Yeah. I was hoping you could provide some information on what speakers are appropriate. I wired it to a few I had around and noticed big differences. First, I wired it into a 4 inch 10 watt 16 ohm speaker from an old television. To keep it clean, it had to be almost inaudibly quiet. Otherwise it was extremely distorted. Then I wired it into a 4 inch 10 watt 8 ohm speaker I have in a different cigar box amp kit. It sounded good. Then, for fun, I clipped it to the 8 inch 10 watt 4 ohm speaker in a Fender Champ replica. There it probably sounded the best, but I'm not sure how much of that is due to the size and enclosure.

So again, as a novice to all of this, how does speaker impedance affect the amp sound, and what do you think is the ideal for the Stella? Is there anyway to damage the amp with the "wrong" speaker?

Member for

13 years 3 months

John

12 years 2 months ago

I've tested it with 4 and 8 ohm speakers. The speakers I use and like are all 4 ohm speakers, but the ones I use and like are higher quality than the "spare parts" 8 ohm speakers I had lying around the house.

I haven't tested it with a 16 ohm speaker. But whether you use a 4, 8, 16 or up ohms speaker, it won't damage the amp. Maybe if you short circuit the output entirely you could damage it, but I put the amplifier chip in the socket so you can replace it if you fry it by accident.

Adam (not verified)

11 years 8 months ago

Hello, I tried using a 10ohm 5w speaker from an old PC speaker set and it seemed to work, but the power LED on power up fades to nothing. I don't think it's the speaker, but any troubleshooting hints/tips? The LED will start off bright then fade out in about 3 seconds.

Member for

13 years 3 months

John

11 years 8 months ago

Weird! What kind of power supply are you using? And does it still exhibit the same behavior when the speaker is disconnected? (I would expect it to, but I'm just checking.)

Adam (not verified)

11 years 8 months ago

Yeah, same behavior with no speaker. I am using a 4x AA battery pack.

Member for

13 years 3 months

John

11 years 8 months ago

Does any part of the board get hot? Using fresh batteries?

Please take a well lit, clear photo of the front and back of your board and I'll take a look at it.

Member for

13 years 3 months

John

11 years 8 months ago

Well, lets start with the easy stuff. Clip your extra wires you have hanging off the level pot on the bottom of the board. :)

All the parts are in the right places, and the solder joints look good. The only thing that concerns me is the black ground wire right by the V+ wire. There's not as much insulation on that wire as it should have, and it looks like it might short out if the board gets nudged the wrong way.

Try powering on the board while making sure the ground wire is not touching V+.

One quick question: does the amp work after the power light turns off?