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here is an Ice Powered Hifi amp I built for $300. I personally love the Ice Powered chips, as they have been used by many high end companies in their own amplifiers. In fact, there are only two Class D amplifier boards currently that are called HiFi, Ice Powered and HyperX. Here is what I used to build it. along with a build video for anyone that wants to build one. It is a simple build that I think anyone could build. This will build one 200wx2 amplifier.
Parts Used
Ice Powered 200asc: http://bit.ly/200asc
Ice Powered 200AC: http://bit.ly/200AC
Ghent Audio Case with Pre-made Wires: http://bit.ly/2I5sXK2
Build Video
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And it’s definitely powerful enough to drive six ohm speakers. The way this about is built, it’s 200 Watts by 2 at 4 ohm. Probably cost to 150 x 2 at 6ohm.
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@123toid I was inspired by your YouTube video to build one of these ICEPower dual mono amplifiers. The build was strait forward and the amp appears to work however I do have a few questions that I would appreciate your feedback.
My current setup is a Yamaha TSR-700 AV receiver with full surround sound setup minus a center. I’m using the pre-out for front L&R speakers to the ICEpower amp to power Emotiva t-zero+ tower speakers (4ohm).
I’m running into two primary issues.
1. One, the FR and FL speakers are quieter then they where without the ICE amplifier. I have to turn the volume up much higher then before. Using the YPAO room correction on the receiver, the front left and right get a +3db boost while the surrounds get -4db cut. all of this just seems counter intuitive. My real issue is I’m turning the volume up on the receiver to hear dialog and quieter scenes and when action picks up I have to turn it way down. any feed back would be appreciated.
2. My second issue is the auto standby. I installed the jumper you recommend from Parts Express to the j4 header on the 200asc board but I don’t think the auto standby works. The LED on the amp never turns off and when I put my ear up against the speaker the faint amp noise never turns off. Is there an incorrect way of installing this. again any feedback would be highly appreciated
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These amplifiers are designed to be used with preamps so don’t have much gain compared to normal amplifiers. It’s probably that your analogue outs are providing a true line-level signal. Have you experimented with a preamplifier?
@123toid Do these have a gain adjustment? I know some amp boards allow you to adjust the default gain for different use cases, usually with a jumper or surface mounted switch.
As for dialogue clarity it’s either that your centre channel is too quiet compared to your other channels, the room itself masking the direct sound with too much reflected sound (usually echo like), try clapping your hands to hear if there’s any echoing/ringing. Or it could be your room EQ if you have it, or the speakers themselves.
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A very interesting morning…..At 9am FEDEX delivered my Ghent cabinet for an ICE amplifier build from China…..The amplifier boards showed up from Parts Express a few days ago. So I tear open the boxes and in 1.25 hours the amplifier is done. So simple to assemble, but no instructions. Using two YouTube videos I got it done. But it uses balanced inputs and I don’t have the adapters. I ordered them yesterday morning from Amazon……I plugged the amp in to just see it light up and as I did, like magic, my doorbell rang and the Amazon guy was handing me a package of balanced adapters!!!…….The amp works great. Lots of power and extremely quiet. Can’t hear a peep even with ear against speakers. Will be breaking it in and listening at length this evening…..A very interesting morning…..At 9am FEDEX delivered my Ghent cabinet for an ICE amplifier build from China…..The amplifier boards showed up from Parts Express a few days ago. So I tear open the boxes and in 1.25 hours the amplifier is done. So simple to assemble, but no instructions. Using two YouTube videos I got it done. But it uses balanced inputs and I don’t have the adapters. I ordered them yesterday morning from Amazon……I plugged the amp in to just see it light up and as I did, like magic, my doorbell rang and the Amazon guy was handing me a package of balanced adapters!!!…….The amp works great. Lots of power and extremely quiet. Can’t hear a peep even with ear against speakers. Will be breaking it in and listening at length this evening…..
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@RoyB THat is looking nice! You assembles that fast! THe more I look at the different cases, the more I like the two tone. I am wishing I did that with min. But I didn’t.
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No, the boards were bought from Parts Express….Not sure if they are the same boards as Ghent
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A quick article I wrote about my IVCE adventure:
http://rvbprecision.com/stereo/ice-power-amplifier-build.html
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This link is the one I was talking about.
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@badz Really, the only limit to how far you can expand the build is your imagination on how to package as many units as you need, the space you have to work with, the power circuit you are plugging into, and your wallet.
The first and second pretty much go hand in hand, creatively fitting all the amps needed into the area alloted.
The third has to do with the total wattage available on the circuit you plug into. For example, a 110 V 20 A circuit will have 2200 watts available to the whole circuit. You have to take into account all other devices plugged in along the way. Subtract their average draws and that’ll be what’s left for your “master amp”. And really, you want to drop that down to about 80% availability.
And 4th, well, only you know what your wallet can handle.
So, yes, you can expand on the build.
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If you want to use the Ice Power supply, that will only power up to two more units each (so a total of three channels). I would imagine you could use your own power supply to power multiple boards if you want to. That is beyond the scope of what I normally do, so you would be better off talking to @tvor-ceasar or some of the other guys that handle more of that technical side. That is the great part of the community. Everyone brings a little something else to the table.
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After building the ice powered amp and using for a couple of weeks (sounds great), it suddenly developed a 60hz hum which I researched and found it sounded like a ground loop. Disconnecting the ground quieted it down a bit. I contacted Parts Express and they suggested several devices to clean up the power (which cost about as much as the amp). I tried a ground loop isolator amp noise filter with little or no effect. I am considering re-soldering the input connections. Do you have any suggestions for me? I’m not aware of anything I might have changed that caused the hum–all of a sudden it appeared. I’ve tried several pre-amps with no effect. It only hums if the preamp is connected. No hum with the amp on connected to speakers. Thanks.
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@charles if nothing has changed, (ie device you are hooking up to, the cabling, the outlets, ets) then I would be hard pressed to think it is a ground loop. However, you can connect it to a different outlet that is on another circuit breaker to check. If you have an extension cord, that is the easiest way to run this type of test.
Did any of your cables go over the Ice Power Amplifier? If so, move those beside the modules. They could be picking up noise from inside the case.
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Hello everyone. I have not been here in a while, but I need some advice.
I have built a few IcePower amps and so far I am extremely happy with them. I built a 500ASP+500A in a Ghent case for my towers in my HT set up. After hearing the great improvement I built a 3 channel using 200ASC+200AC+200AC. Ghent does not have a case for this but I emailed them and they set me up with a kit and even predrilled the case. The also provided a backing plate for a 3 channel. I was using the Art Clean Box to get from unbalance RCAs to balanced XLRs and get the signal up for the amps, but I kept having issues with the clean boxs, RCAs failing. So I switched over to the Rolls MB15b. These do the same thing, but no build quality issues.
I have a Marantz SR6013 receiver along with a couple FI 18″ infinite baffle subwoofer being pushed by a Crown XLi 3500 amp. And here lies the problem.
The Marantz and the Crown, both being AB amps, draw a ton of power. If i turn it up too loud the Marantz senses the low power from my mains and will shut off. That was one of the main reasons I was switching over to the ICE amps.
My question is, I want to run my 18s (single 4 ohm voice coil) off two of the 1000ASC modules built as mono block amps, but my 18s are running in an opposing manifold so I have been running them as an 8 ohm mono set up. If I run them on two amps, but they are essentially in the same box? How do I assure that they are running equally?
I know this is a convoluted question, but normally if I run multiple subs in the same box, then I run them bridged or on the same channel of an amp so they are balanced.
I need to replace the Crown AB amp with a class D for the efficacy. If not with two if the 1000 amp IcePower amps, what else can I use? I would like to stay with the ICE amps if possible.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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That is a really good question. Also I am glad to hear the Icepower amplifiers are working so well for you. I am assuming in the current arrangement, there is no center wall separating the subwoofers. So you are basically concerned that the signal they will receive will be a little off, thus throwing the system a kink. If this is the issue you are concerned with, I don’t think you really need to be. Let me explain why I don’t think this will be an issue. Whenever you run two subwoofers, there will always be some sort of delay, even in the same box. Just using a different length of wire will add a little delay. Granted this delay is miniscule and isn’t worth worrying about. But the same should be for the amplifiers. There may be a slight delay between the amplifiers, but it shouldn’t be anything that would be concerning. Just make sure to split your signal cable to the two amplifiers and away you go. Most people are more concerned when it is a dual voice coil subwoofer and they are trying to run two channels off of it. But in your case, I don’t see a problem. But someone correct my if you think I am wrong.
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