Expandable instrument amplifier from 70W to 300W

Posted Dec 15, 2011 at 2:32 pm

PROJECT SUMMARY

The TDA 7293 and 7294 integrated amplifiers are not the best for home hi-fi, but very good solution for guitar, vocal, or any instrument amplification if 70 to 300W musical power is enough on the speaker output. The benefit of this amp, no other circuit required for bridge setup, and very easy to make paralleled application, because the preamp section powered off if the 7293 switched to slave mode. Lot of "official" instrument amplifiers using TDA729x solutions, for example Carlsbro GLX100, Marshall MG series, and Marshall Mode Four head. With loud and hq guitar speakers like Eminence have very good results with this simple and cheap amplifier.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION

I using stereo bridged TDA7293 amplifier on stage with dual digital effects, and same solution for vocal amplification (with Eminence speakers :). The bridged 2150W output power is more than enough for guitar, but the same solution for vocal is not the best. This is the reason why I made modular version of my current one-pcb solution. With three simple and small modules, I can build several versions of this amplifier. One module is the one-IC 75W schematic, second is for bridged, third is for paralleled setup what can be duplicated if required. My current one-PCB solution:

Figure 1 Stereo-bridged TDA7293 amp

The modules for single, bridged or paralleled maybe double-paralleled setup can be connected via 15 pin connectors, connectors soldered to the left and right edge of thePCB. The 4th optional module is the speaker protection. The speaker protections have 2 15pin male connectors on the left and right edges.

The one of the header connected to the last module of left channel, the second is connected to the first module of right channel. The speaker protection is on the middle of stereo setup, protects both left and right channels. With this 4 modules I have numerous variations to build several amplifier setup: Single amplifier with only one module with 1 TDA7293 or TDA7294 / channel Bridged amplifier with 2 modules / channel Paralleled amplifier with 2 modules / channel Combined bridged and paralleled with 4 modules / channel Paralleled simple or bridged amplifier, but with 2 paralleled module / channel The most simple solution is using only the first module with or without speaker protection. This module contains stereo audio inputs and the single and bridged speaker outputs, power supply inputs, and clipping LED connector (for TDA7293 only). This one module is good solution for small guitar combos, for example Carlsbro GLX100 using this, with Eminence Red Coat guitar speaker have perfect solution for small live gigs.

Figure 2 Main module

All modules can be continued with speaker protection, the main module can be continued with bridge module or with parallel module. For example, now I have stereo bridged amplifier, what can be build with these modules like this queue: Main module -> bridge module -> speaker protection -> main module -> bridge module. This setup can be modified with parallel modules, if the parallel module inserted after all main module and all bridge module. Because 2 paralleled slaved amplifiers can be used for all master TDA ICs if more output current required, two paralleled modules can be inserted after all main and after all bridged modules if needed. Here is the benefit of parallel connections:

Figure 3 Bridged power of TDA

This table contains the output power of bridged application. 1) means with one paralleled TDA7293 2) means with two paralleled TDA7293 The another table is for single (non-bridged) setup:

Figure 4 Single power of TDA

This table shows the output power of single application 1) means with one paralleled TDA7293 2) means with two paralleled TDA7293 Because all of the amplifier modules really simple and the official datasheet is available for both 7293 and 7294 with examples, here is the speaker protection with UPC1237 what I really like. The PCB contains AC 24V and DC 24V inputs, output connectors for LEDand high current relays to switch speakers on and off on errors controlled by Rel1 24V DC relay.

Figure 5 Speaker protection schematic

The speaker protection PCB contains 215 pins male connectors on the left and right edges. The pin 11, 12, and 5 are the inputs of speakers, pin 2 between left and right edges is the path for right channel audio input for stereo setup.

Figure 6 Speaker protection PCB

The idea will be tested on the beginning of next year with stereo bridged, and stereo bridged-paralleled setup. The blogpost with all schematic, application examples, PDF manual and PCBs is here: http://custompcb.blogspot.com/2011/12/modular-tda7293-bridgeparallel.html