60W MosFet Audio Amplifier
60W MosFet Audio Amplifier
60W MosFet Audio Amplifier
Circuit diagram:
Parts:
R1______________47K 1/4W Resistor
R2_______________4K7 1/4W Resistor
R3______________22K 1/4W Resistor
R4_______________1K 1/4W Resistor
R5,R12,R13_____330R 1/4W Resistors
R6_______________1K5 1/4W Resistor
R7______________15K 1/4W Resistor
R8______________33K 1/4W Resistor
R9_____________150K 1/4W Resistor
R10____________500R 1/2W Trimmer Cermet
R11_____________39R 1/4W Resistor
R14,R15___________R33 2.5W Resistors
R16_____________10R 2.5W Resistor
R17_______________R22 5W Resistor (wirewound)
Parts:
R1_______________3K9 1W Resistor
To celebrate the hundredth design posted to this website, and to fulfil the requests of many correspondents
wanting an amplifier more powerful than the 25W MosFet, a 60 - 90W High Quality power amplifier design is
presented here.
Circuit topology is about the same of the above mentioned amplifier, but the extremely rugged IRFP240 and
IRFP9240 MosFet devices are used as the output pair, and well renowned high voltage Motorola's transistors
are employed in the preceding stages.
The supply rails voltage was kept prudentially at the rather low value of + and - 40V. For those wishing to
experiment, the supply rails voltage could be raised to + and - 50V maximum, allowing the amplifier to
approach the 100W into 8 Ohm target: enjoy!
A matching, discrete components, Modular Preamplifier design is available here: Modular Audio Preamplifier.
Notes:
In the original circuit, a three-diode string was wired in series to R10. Two of these diodes are now
replaced by a red LED in order to achieve improved quiescent current stability over a larger temperature
range. Thanks to David Edwards of LedeAudio for this suggestion.
A small, U-shaped heatsink must be fitted to Q6 & Q7.
Q8 & Q9 must be mounted on large heatsinks.
Quiescent current can be measured by means of an Avo-meter wired in series to the positive supply rail
and no input signal.
Set the Trimmer R10 to its minimum resistance.
Power-on the amplifier and adjust R10 to read a current drawing of about 120 - 130mA.
Wait about 15 minutes, watch if the current is varying and readjust if necessary.
The value suggested for C1 and C2 in the Power Supply Parts List is the minimum required for a mono
amplifier. For optimum performance and in stereo configurations, this value should be increased:
10000µF is a good compromise.
A correct grounding is very important to eliminate hum and ground loops. Connect to the same point the
ground sides of R1, R3, C2, C3 and C4 and the ground input wire. Connect R7 and C7 to C11 to output
ground. Then connect separately the input and output grounds to the power supply ground.
Technical data:
Output power:
60 Watt RMS @ 8 Ohm (1KHz sinewave) - 90W RMS @ 4 Ohm
Sensitivity:
1V RMS input for 58W output
Frequency response:
30Hz to 20KHz -1dB
Total harmonic distortion @ 1KHz:
1W 0.003% 10W 0.006% 20W 0.01% 40W 0.013% 60W 0.018%
Total harmonic distortion @10KHz:
1W 0.005% 10W 0.02% 20W 0.03% 40W 0.06% 60W 0.09%
Unconditionally stable on capacitive loads