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Headphone amplifier
by Milen on April 30, 2009

Table of Contents

License: Public Domain Dedication (pd) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Intro: Headphone amplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

step 1: Exctracting the audio amplifier board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

step 2: Shaping the amplifier board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

step 3: The research work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

step 4: Power supply connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

step 5: Connecting the mute signal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

step 6: Connecting the LED as power indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

step 7: Connecting the inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

step 8: The joy... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/
License: Public Domain Dedication (pd)

Intro: Headphone amplifier

This instructable describes how to "make" a simple audio headphone amplifier. It can be used with different devices - MP3 players, Walkmans, Radios, .etc. It can be
used also for your own designs - can be connected to the analog outputs of audio DACs, to the outputs of self made radios (for example using TDA7000, or TA7642) or
other gadgets. In comparison with the other instructables, this will not give you an exact instructions how to do the job, but will give you the idea and show you for
example how it can be realized in a particular case. The success of this project will relay on your imagination and capabilities ... The main idea here is - why to make
something from scratch, if it exists... Where an existing audio amplifier can be taken from? The answer is - from a defect computer CD-R,W, DVD-R,W reader, writer,
ROM-drive.. All they have audio output for headphones, which has almost always a volume control. When those devices broke, normally the malfunction is always in the
mechanics, in the laser system, in the optics, but, I think never in the audio headphone amplifier. Where to find a defect drive? You decide - at scrapyard, at the place
were you company throws away the broken equipment for recycling, in some garage sale, to ask your friends, eBay... Let's suppose, we have found our defected drive.
Let's go for the first step.

step 1: Exctracting the audio amplifier board

First step is to disassemble the drive. The audio amplifier board is normally placed directly behind the front panel of the drive. The PCB in most cases has a long narrow
shape. Between the audio amplifier board and the "main" board of the drive a flat cable connection is done. Unsolder it from the main board. May be will be possible to
use it, if needed. Do not forget to extract also the laser diodes and the electric motors - they can be used for other instructables. On the pictures can be seen the
extracted board, which was placed behind the front panel and contains the audio amplifier.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/
 Image Notes
1. The Audio output for the headphones Image Notes
2. The volume control 1. Skrews to be removed
2. Another skrews to be removed

Image Notes
1. The extracted PCB containing the audio amplifier

step 2: Shaping the amplifier board.

The second step is to investigate what you have. It is good practice to take a picture of the board by a digital camera in macro modus, to plot it, if possible on A3 sheet,
and to try to understand the structure of the board. You can see that also some additional electric components are placed on the board - switches, LED's for read/write
operations.. etc. You have to decide what should be used - do you need light indication of the supply presence, do you need the volume control.. Normally, for the low
noise reasons, the audio amplifier occupies a compact area, which must be identified. In this case it is about 1/3 of the whole PCB area placed at the end of the board
where the chip is mounted. The next action is to mark the part of the board which should be used, in the way that the signal paths and supply for the audio amp tracks
should be kept safe. There are always some tracks which connect switches, sensors, LED's placed on the other part of the board and can be cut without any influence on
the audio amp performance. For the marking I used a dark marker. Now the board can be cut. For that purpose I use usual scissors. You have to cut the board carefully
some distance away from the marker line - because of the cracks, which appear during the cut. After cutting the board, it must be shaped - all sharp edges have to be
polished. For that purpose an abrasive paper can be used.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/
 Image Notes
1. The cut line

Image Notes
1. Abrasive paper
2. This side to be polished also

http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/
 Image Notes
1. The LED - I decided to use it for Power indicator
2. The chip
3. The volume control
4. Audio stereo jack
5. Flat cable - can be used, but I decided to remove it

step 3: The research work

Now starts the real research work. We have to identify which chip is used for the audio amplifier, to find the technical data (the datasheet), and to track all connections. In
this case it is easy to see that the chip is from the type APA3541 (product of ANPEC - http://www.anpec.com.tw ). Using the "Google" the datasheet can be found very
easy. The APA3541/4 is an integrated class AB stereo headphone driver contained in an SO-8 or a DIP-8 plastic package with Mute feature . For us the most interesting
information, found in the datasheet is : 1)the block diagram with the function pin description ;2) the typical supply voltage -for this case it is 5V ; 3) the possible driven load
(can be 16 Ohm).

The task is now to connect the amplifier in the correct way.

I removed the flat cable. I plotted the picture of the PCB with the metal tracks view on a A3 sheet - to be easy to follow each track and connection. You can use markers
with different color for each signal.
Let's start with the ground pin - normally the ground is the "fattest" wire on the PCB. It is chip pin #4.Using Ohmmeter you can check this. A suitable place where the
ground cable ( "-" of the battery) shall be soldered must be found. There the green lack must removed from the PCB. I scratch it using a big needle. A hole for the ground
cable must be drilled there.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/
 Image Notes
1. APA3541 - The pins are numbered on the PCB

Image Notes
1. To be plotted on a big sheet.

Image Notes
1. The typical supply voltage
2. You can drive 16 OHm load

http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/
 Image Notes
1. Drilling a hole for the ground cable

Image Notes
1. pin #4
2. Ground PCB contact
3. Zero resistance

Image Notes
1. Here the ground cable will be soldered

step 4: Power supply connection

Next step is to guarantee the proper power supply of the chip. We found that the chip must be supplied by 5V source. Such kind of batteries are not often seen. It is better
to use a voltage regulator , which will produce the needed voltage. The most suitable, I found to be a regulator from the type 78L05 - it has 3 pins and small package.
Practically it doesn't need an external components. To mount it on the PCB we need to scratch the green lack again in the proper places and to drill 3 holes for its pins.
After that we can mount the regulator, solder it and to bridge the ground line.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/
 Image Notes
1. Here will be the ground connection
2. Will be used as bridge for the ground connection
3. Floating tracks - can be used for the ground connection also
4. Here will be soldered the regulators ground pin
5. Here will be the input pin of the regulator
6. Here will be the Power supply cable coming from the battery
7. The output of the regulator
8. small resitor in the power supply chain
9. Power supply pin of the audio amplifier chip

Image Notes Image Notes

1. The holes for the regulator, the "+"cable, and additional hole to cut the supply 1. The ground bridge
track coming from the pads of the flat cable

http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/
 Image Notes
1. The mounted 78L05 regulator

step 5: Connecting the mute signal.

In the datasheet was seen that the audio amp has a mute pin - your decision : You can have a switch to mute the amplifier, or to connect the pin hard to the supply line
for continuous operation. I connected it directly to supply line.

Image Notes Image Notes

1. The mute signal connection will be done at this place 1. The connection

step 6: Connecting the LED as power indicator

Because of the existing LED - I decided to connect it as power indicator. Two connection must be done for that purpose : - the resistor limiting the current through the
LED must be connected to the supply line - the cathode of the LED must be connected to the ground line

http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/
 Image Notes
1. The LED cathode connected to the ground
2. Current limiting resistor of the LED
3. Connection of the LED chain to the supply line

step 7: Connecting the inputs

Now remains to connect the inputs of the amplifier. I used a cable of defected stereo phones. Depending on the way of use of the amplifier, different cable connections
can be implemented. Following the input tracks using the ohmmeter (the inputs of the audio amp chip are connected to the volume control potentiometer, after that
through electrolyte capacitors ) I identified the pads for the flat cable where the input signals come. Two holes for the left and right audio signals and an additional hole for
the ground cable wire were done there.The audio and the power supply cables were soldered.In the case, you want to connect the amplifier to a mono audio signal
source, it is better to short the both inputs together.

Image Notes
1. Holes for the audio inputs
2. Hole for the ground wire of the audio cable
3. The soldered ground battery cable

http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/
step 8: The joy...
It is good to find a suitable box for the amplifier and the battery. It can be plastic or metal - in the second case an insulation must be put between the internal walls of the
box and the PCB, to prevent a short. A hole for the volume control must be cut. I used a plastic box suitable for small radio, where a special place for the 9V ( 6LR61type)
battery was reserved. I added an ON/OFF micro switch at the cable from the battery "+". I cut a holes on the box side wall for the volume control, for the audio jack, for
the LED and for the micro switch knob using a dremel like tool. Finally I fixed the board using 3 small screws. I connected the battery, switched the amplifier on..... The
sound was quit good... Enjoy, you too!

Image Notes Image Notes

1. The amplifier in operation... 1. ON/OFF switch added
2. Holes for the LED, the volume control wheel and the stereo jack cut

http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/
 Image Notes
1. The ON/OFF micro switch

Image Notes
1. The volume control

http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/
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Comments
21 comments Add Comment

admin says: May 4, 2009. 11:31 AM REPLY

This is a great Instructable, but you need to add a main image of the final project to the intro step. Please do that and leave me a message when you have
so that we can publish your work.

Thanks!

gnuoy says: Oct 29, 2009. 5:56 PM REPLY

Hello milen, great instructable
And I have a question: I dug some old Cd drives here (5 so far) and most of them had a single board with every controller on it, so I thought they wouldn't be
very easy to cut/find connections and stuff. But I did find one that only controlled the front of the CD reader. BUT the chip doesn't have a brand, it only says
"3543" and I couldn't fin the datasheet for it so far. Since the number is close to the number of the one you showed on the instructable, maybe it works the
same way?
I don't have a lot of knowledge on electronics, but I got some tools like a multimeter to test it, and could send you some macro pictures of the board if it'd
help; i'm at a loss here '
thanks for the attention!

Milen says: Oct 30, 2009. 1:05 AM REPLY

Hi Gnuoy,

I also was not able to find the chip in the Internet.

It can be some ASIC.
Normally those chips have the same pining as the standard, but it is not always true.
I would suggest the following:
The main task is to find the ground and the supply pins.
Outputs are connected to the phone jack.
The inputs you can find scanning all cable inputs with a signal source through capacitor ~ 10uF.
Usually the ground pin of the chip is connected to the biggest plate on the PCB. Decoupling capacitors between this plate must exist. Their "-" lead is
soldered there. Check which chip pin is soldered there. This is "vss".
Check also which other pin has connected capacitor to the ground plate.
This can be the "vdd" (supply) pin.
Try to apply there ~5 V.
Apply signal to the wire of the connection cable and scan all of them.
I hope that you can hear the signal when you touch2 of them.
But have in mind that this instruction will work in the case that the chip has single supply (mostly seen). In the other case it becomes more complicated.
I wish you luck
Milen

P.S. If it didnot work, you can send me macropicture of the PCB - both sides...

telekid says: Oct 21, 2009. 6:51 AM REPLY

Hi Milen!!

First, congratulations !! Very nice instructables!! I'm just about to build it up, but I want to know if it's possible to use another energy source..like two
AA batteries..does it really need a 9.6v current?

Thanks from Brazil!

Milen says: Oct 21, 2009. 10:13 AM REPLY

Hi Telekid,

I salute Brazil!
I have used 9V battery because I decided to use a linear regulator producing 5V supply voltage and it needs higher input voltage (min. 6.7V ) and the
easiest way was to use a 9V battery.
If your amplifier is able to work with voltages ~2.6 V you can use directly 2 AA batteries, for 4V you will need 3 of them...and so.
You can check the minimum supply voltage in the datasheet, when you identify the chip type and find the spec in the Internet.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/
 It is possible to use also boost converter - it will produce high supply voltage for the amplifier based on lower input battery voltage - on the homepage of
the National semiconductors ( http://www.national.com ) is placed "Wavebench designer". In the tab "Power" You can enter the input, the output voltage,
the desired current and it recommends you which chip can be used. But the circuit is normally complicated and I am not sure how nice the ripples in the
generated supply can be filtered in the way that they do not disturb the sound quality. So... my advice - the simplest way to use AA batteries is to connect
more of them in series ( min 3 if possible or 4 )

Regards
Milen

saad.dawra says: Aug 30, 2009. 7:17 PM REPLY

i have g1401 amplifier with following datasheet... which terminals are for the input.. i'm confused coz it has 3=input a pos 2=input a neg 5=input b pos
6=input b neg
here's the datasheet
http://www.datasheet4u.com/html/G/1/4/G1401_GlobalMixed-modeTechnology.pdf.html..

please help

Milen says: Aug 31, 2009. 1:24 AM REPLY

Hi saad.dawra,

I saw the datasheet - the chip contains 2 OpAmps. Each OpAmps has 2 inputs - inverting and not inverting - depends on the configuration - inverting or
not inverting - the inputs should be different
for noniverting configuration - inputs should be 3 and 5
for inverting 6 and 2.
You can try to identify which type of configuration you have...
But I will propose a different, more simple way to identify the PCB inputs of the flat cable. Take a signal source (some voltmeters have embedded signal
generator), MP3 player or radio - connect the ground cable of the signal source to the ground of the PCB, and through capacitor 10 uF apply the signal to
every input (solding pad) - simply scan all of them. Of course the OpAmp must be supplied and headphones must be connected - I hope you will here the
sound scanning all the inputs - for the right and left channel. Then - simply audio connect you cable to this pads. Do not forget, during the test to turn the
volume regulator wheel in the way that you have some acceptable level of amplifying. Good luck with the experiments...

Re-design says: Aug 20, 2009. 5:32 AM REPLY

Great work. Very interesting and useful, especially since most of us have half a dozen or so of these laying around doing nothing.

marc00703 says: Aug 17, 2009. 1:26 AM REPLY

Awsome 'tables, thanks a lot.

anand sharma says: Aug 13, 2009. 8:48 PM REPLY

how to make a portable guitar amplifier ?

Milen says: Aug 14, 2009. 9:13 AM REPLY

Hi anand sharma,

the amplifier can work also with guitar, but only usung headphones.
If that is not enough for you, look at this instructable:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Portable-Amplifier
or search in internet...
I found the following schematics for you:
http://mycaramplifiers.com/guitar-amp-lm391-189.html
http://freecircuitdiagram.com/2008/11/15/tpa2014d1-low-voltage-class-d-audio-power-amplifier-for-portable-devices/
....
and something realy small and simple:
http://www.redcircuits.com/Page96.htm

y001 says: Jul 11, 2009. 4:57 AM REPLY

Oh! Good iDEA

wsx587 says: Jun 25, 2009. 7:53 PM REPLY

where do u plug in ur mp3

Milen says: Jun 26, 2009. 1:58 AM REPLY

The stereo audio jack (the picture from the 7th step) is the input of the amplifier, which must be plugged in the mp3 player phones jack.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/
 lisaf82168 says: May 10, 2009. 8:59 AM REPLY
The board I got out of my cdrom has the ribbon cable on the opposite side away from the headphone jack and amp circuit. I'm just starting to look at it, but
do you think this means I won't be able to cut the board down? Thanks.

Milen says: May 11, 2009. 12:06 AM REPLY

Hi lisaf82168,
I am not sure before I have seen thw PCB, but I think that it can be possible to cut the board - after that you have to track the connections from the chip
pins, to make holes in the proper paces and to solder all needed cables there. It is not necessary that the connections are done where the ribbon cable is
soldered - better solution to wire them as close as possible to the amplifier.
I wishh you success.

Milen

lisaf82168 says: May 11, 2009. 4:05 PM REPLY

Thanks for your help. I started thinking the same thing after I asked the question.

Milen says: May 12, 2009. 12:12 AM REPLY

You are wellcome..

DanAdamKOF says: May 5, 2009. 3:34 AM REPLY

This is awesome, dead and discarded CDROM drives are everywhere. I wonder how this competes with a Chu Moy amp and similar.

Milen says: May 5, 2009. 4:27 AM REPLY

Hi DanAdamKOF,

I tool a look at Chu Moy amplifier - it is almost the same - in the project is used also a power OpAmp. In this case also, but , you have to have in mind
that in the different drives different chips will be used - I have mostly seen those from National Semiconductors - dedicated headphone amplifiers. The
main challenge is to find the datasheet, to "decode" the connections, to apply the proper supply and load, and to wire connections in the correct way.
And, it will always work (99%) :-). The advantage in this approach is that you have all components mounted, it is pay less, and the result is the same as
selfmade amp, starting from scratch...

Regards

Milen

Milen says: May 4, 2009. 1:12 PM REPLY

Hi admin,

I added the main image to the intro step.

Have a nice day!

Regards

milen

http://www.instructables.com/id/Headphone-amplifier/