Flutterby™! : Amp Plans

The standard for square dance amplifiers is Hilton Audio. They make a basic bomb-proof amplifier that has 4 mic inputs (though the impedance on them is kinda weird, so they work better if you use their mic cables, which provide an on-mic volume control and a mute switch).

But I use powered speakers (QSC K-8s), and find the sound from the Hilton amps is optimized for voice, which makes things sound kinda like a long-distance phone call. Great for "dancers have to hear my calls", but I aspire to better musical sound at my events (to the point that I've built collapsible frames with moving blankets to try to create some echo dampening that we put up in boomier venues).

So I've been fantasizing about building my own multi-input mixer.

I also occasionally call at venues with built-in speakers, and need an amp to drive those.

In the "encouraging bad life choices" department, IEEE Spectrum: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort of Cheap links to building your own class-D power amplifier, but then points out that the Texas Instruments TPA3250 power amp can be gotten assembled on a eTPA3250-2CH-50W val board from 3e Audio.

Pair it with an Xkitz XAPS-500W power supply fed by a transformer or a switching power supply (several examples in the article), and a few connectors and a little solder later you've got a total harmonic distortion plus noise (THD) < 0.0025% at 20 watts into a 4 Ohm load at 1KHz.

I mean, sure, it won't drive the 200W sustained of the Hilton, more like 130W peak, but if I need that much power I'll drag out my own speakers anyway...