I wanted a Pre-amp to go with my TA2024 chipamp and after seeing the products on offer from various Chinese eBayers I rather fancied having a go at building my own.

The USB MP3 Player and PSU came from Helder HiFi. Both were well packed in cardboard boxes and were delivered in about 2 weeks.







Adjustable 11- 14V @ 3.5A Switched Mode PSU




The Pre-amp module from Zoe Tsang which came bubble wrapped inside an unpadded buff envelope. Although seemingly inadequate, no damage done. Delivery took about 10 days.



Four inputs, volume, balance, bass, middle, treble and 3D. The board I received differed slightly from the one shown. The control pot on a separate board with a ribbon lead has been replaced with one integrated on to an extension of the display board. This made mounting the assembly much more tricky.



The metal case came from CPC.



During assembly I noticed that the MP3 module had an 'aerial' symbol on the board. Out of curiosity I connected a piece of wire to the marked hole on the PCB and was quite surprised to hear Radio2 coming through loud and clear. The product description does not mention an FM Tuner. Bonus.

It all works pretty well apart from a problem with the remote controls - they both operate on the same frequency! However the pre-amp remote revealed two more undocumented features of the MP3 module - FM station memory (not sure how many, on autoscan it stored 25 but only about 10 are listenable using a piece of wire as an aerial) and 6 sound 'equalizer' settings ranging from bassy to toppy with something inbetween. Now I can't decide which one gives a 'flat' response

As for the pre-amp module, no surprises although I haven't discovered how to alter the brightness of the display which apparently can be done using the remote.

All in all I enjoyed this little project but doubt I'll ever master cutting accurate openings in sheet metal.

Cheers,
Steve