this is peak youtube, i remember watching all of these projects when i was like 9 years old, its what got me into electronics

That intro brings me way back to my childhood, glad these videos are still up after all these years.

Excellent - an Altoids tin premature hearing loss device, just what I've always wanted.

How this video felt to me 1) Get some mints in a tin 2) Eat the mints 3) Solder a pre-made amplifier circuit on a board 4) Done

The intro song is eargasmic

i bet he spat it all off after the eating of the mints

Great stuff! Showing the way to go from a consumer to a producer! :)

now i can say that, this video contributed to my formation as an engineer, thanks Kipkay!

Great job, just wondering where I could find the schematics and parts list for this build?

Damn. I thought we were going to hear a guitar amp.

Excellent project. Loved the "Lunatic Fringe" song as your test :) I Love Red Rider

we can here the music when the headphones were in your ears!! thats a good amp!! good job!!

4:36 'Oh it cranks'!

lol 0:57 now thats the look of someone stifling back true pain in side their mouth, he should have done it with the cinnamon ones that would have been funny.

i got the Make electronics kit #1 and it helped me out and gave me a ton of parts

Wow this video brings me back.

I wonder if its possible to overdose on all those mints ;-)

what pdf

These videos are so nostalgic for me

Nice tip on the dollar store tip cleaner. I also keep a dollar store glass jar half full with water to shoot my desoldering iron into. Since that ROHS scrap solder is usually 50% silver or better.

Who would like to admit that that thing probably has ALOT of distortion

Can it be plugged to speaker? That would be nice since you can just plug your earphones in the mp3 player.

Kipkay, saving the day as I look for amplifier designs.

This guy has an awesome sense of humor. It's the only reason why I watch his videos.

Aaand why not put the headphones directly into the mp3-player?!

lol never saw ads actually implemented in a clip

In place of copper scrubby pads For my solder iron I use a copper brush head, (two opposing each other) works great like a boot/mud scraper. I just stick the tip in < LMFAO and it cleans the oxide and such of very well

Nice Tin Amp Type in : Making a Tin Box Sound Amplifier Very cool

This looks neat, but I must be missing something? I have a bunch of MP3 players, and they all play through headphones plenty loud. Why would anybody need this?

I mean can't you just plug your headphones into the mp3 player? Seems counter intuitive.

it is not bad, I made one with a kit and it is distortion free. you use an amp to push cans that your mp3 player or cell phone can't. It is going on 3 years and it still works.

I have a "Tiny Tuna" which was original built in a tuna can but later adapted for an Altoids can amplifier. Great "radio voice" too.

mmmaltodes

cant you just plug the head phones in to the Mp3 player?

dude this an awesome video and looks like a fun project to build. (but FYI your mp3 player already has an amp stage and can drive your headphones without an external amp)

Actually this amp is quite good ... if you use just a little different amp chip and impulse resistant super fast capacitors (price just 8% higher) and maybe hook up 2 piece 9V batteries you have a mean amp. The industrial ones use 90% same parts maybe they have extra EQ circuit but normal listener wouldn't hear the difference. This is a good project! I made my own variation of this and I'm 100% loving it and I consider myself an audiophile!

Why would anyone build this when you can just plug your headphones into the MP3 player and save a lot of work? A schematic would have been way more helpful than a verbal list of components.

who else thinks its a terrible idea to stuff the tip of your soldering iron into a copper scouring pad? a wet sponge is cheaper and less abrasive.

here i am again...15 year later...good old memories :D

Fun project & by the way - great tune! Lunatic Fringe... We all know you're out there!

I HATE THE INTRO ON THESE VIDS

i love it... smallest device the best one..

another lesson. very good

Great Project. When I was A kid We used to mak Crystle Sets

Thanks :) I maked my own and its sound verry good :)

May try and make something similar to this, but with two inputs like a tiny mixer

Hey KipKay! I would love to see you making a mini amp with mini vacuum tubes! can you make one of these mini-retro-amps?

@elverte9 Yes, you can plug them into your digital sound files, that makes sense. The purpose of an external amp is to give your PMP more juice to power headphones that are harder to drive or to provide a different option for your music files to be amped. For example, the iPhone's internal amp sucks, and some people would like to bypass it to get cleaner audio out of their iPhone. Or without an amp, the iPhone wouldn't be able to drive one of Sennheiser's hi-fi headphones.

This was made before I was born!!

it boosts audio output source x2 ,, also you could connect the output to small speakers instead of headphones ,, if you would like to make your mp3,, mobile or whatever more audible ..

Is it easy to fry the lm386? I think i followed the schema wrong twice and both boards I made had sound for a few minutes... now nothing ... but the 9v does pop in the speaker when connecting

there are many other uses for a headphone amp, the main one is that it lets you have maximum input for a clearer sound, or if you want to run high resistance headphones (needs an [expensive] amp to work) on a dime. also it'll give little un-powered speakers an extra boost.

Thanks so much for the reply I will take it into consideration any other ideas would be greatly appreciated thanks!

well, i'm a begginer at this, i would like to know if i could experience some bass loss and if it has stereo outpu, i'll really apreciate the answers, thank you so much!

hello tommy, the purpose of the amp is to plug in the headphones to make the headphones recieve more power, when they have more power, they sound better! if you don't make the audio-in and audio-out, the amlifier can't do anything :0

You're so damn right, I just bought the Audio Technica ATH M-50's they are soo good :D

I could see this starting fire on the bus then some kids jumping around haha

2008! Duudez! I didnt even notice until I notice Great video!

this was actually interesting. not half bad.

You just gotto love kipKay

i would totally buy that

A nice little stereo IC is TDA2822; just google for the circuit. Also, the LM1896 will drive speakers or headphones. The both run on a 9v. TEA2025 is another. Altoid tins are cute, but a cheap project box works better, and they are at the local radio shack.

Ahhh the old but gold times when kipkay was in makezine!!

@elverte9 the amp is not for playing headphones from an mp3 player, it is for a guitar, the player was just to test that it works. Though plugging a guitar in would have been a little better proof of concept...

The mp3 itself has an amp, so hes essentially double amping. It doesn't necessarily improve audio quality but it does provide more power for hard-to-drive headphones and earphones which may need lots to reach its potential.

a lot of high quality headphones have very high impedance that most mp3 players have trouble powering. some netbooks also have trouble powering even regular headphones, so it could be used for that as well.

Kipkay I think you are doing really good with your electronics. I've been trying to do what you do and I made remote control led board but remember I'm only 11

Great one

Thank you so much!

good job

Good job

professional headphones have high impedance values, that's why we need to amplify the signal to achieve the required gain of the sound. correct me if i'm wrong. higer impedance value = more quality sound

And correct me if im wrong I think this is just like the bass boost circuits from back in the day with boomboxes ;)

The song in the headphones at the end of the video is "Lunatic Fringe" by Red Ryder. --- I think that song came out back in '81.

How is the sound quality on maximum volume? I want to make the same, could you show me the connection scheme?!

@SteerayeBliatProd it's an amplifier- it allows the audio that's maxed out to get even louder. I have a bunch of mp3s and some of them are recorded "quieter" than others and some extra amplification could help.

Thank you for posting these videos i actually find them interesting as im handy with a soldering iron, however, there are quite a few idiots on here posting dumb and pointless comments that try and ruin it for everyone, these are the people that have no lives by tring to disrupt other peoples.

@Ronni Santmyer I'm assuming that you do some heavy duty soldering at a bench which in most circumstances I would LOVE to have but most of my work is done in the field, mostly aboard ships and against weather and other elements. For the work I do and my projects and experiments at home, a wet sponge is plenty suitable for me. my hakko set up is nothing to really get excited about but you are right about the price haha! I personally haven't had any issues with my tips on a sponge with lead free solder as long as my sponge and tips stay clean and properly tinned. but to tell you the truth I don't use lead free too too much. The solder that I am allowed to use is either 62 or is rare cases 63. depends the nature of the job. So that being said a non-abrasive solder wicking copper pad developed for lead free soldering infused with flux, win. up on the 09 level of a ships mast in december in 30 degree wether building a connector with 70 solder cups and its really windy... ill spit on my jeans to get the job done if I have to. My tools are only at good as their owner and when Im so cold I cant feel my hands, I might as well glue the leads to the cups. I appreciate your input though and Im glad you know what you're talking about too

His breath was fresh,too fresh!

Is it possible (if i have the right size of jackstick) to connect an electric guitar to this amp??

pretty awesome

Can someone please explain what these small altoid amps do. I saw someone suggest them for a good pair of headphones to make the sound better.. But I don't get it.

an amp is for bypassing the amp of the player and giving (most of the time) a stronger and cleaner signal to use with power hungry headphones

Would this boost the signal coming out of a phones aux jack? i need a stronger signal for my stereo system with my currect setup

the speaker gets sound and power in the same two wires, so the amp is the power supply for the speaker

So I'm making these own portable speakers of a couple of old computer speakers I had laying around. I have cut off the electricity transformer and planning to connect it to a battery/battery pack instead. On the transformer in my speaker it says (among other things): "OUTPUT-AC 10.7V/0.8A". Now to my question. Is the output energy actually 10.7V? What should I use for this? If I use 12V battery pack, does it only use the amount it needs or does it somehow get to much electricity and overheat?

I don't really want to go out and buy a opa132 chip, Is there any way i can use something else or would i be able to de-solder this chip from a old computer, sound card or speaker?

Awesome!!!

I presume we can also use alternative jack sockets such as a 1/4 inch jack to either use our 3.5mm mp3 players with 1/4 inch headphones or vice versa, to use 1/4 inch guitar sockets with 3.5mm headphones/speakers, assuming the differences in power needed were adjusted for

Super cool

Thinking about making this project. My Asus N53SV notebook can't put out enough to really drive my Sennheiser HD 428 headphones like my old Toshiba notebook could.

Damn i love them kipkay vids

awesome it works

thats pretty cool

I m going to try that for my Bose Roommate speaker unit. It doesn´t have to much powerful volume output.

thanks for reply! ;)

this also works if you sodder the mints together and then plug the headphones into the mp3 instead

There are headphones which have volume control and whats more they are lighter and smaller

where can i find the pdf for this that was mentioned in the start of the video?

This increases the volume output of your mp3 player, if your player doesn't get quite as loud as you would like then you would use one of these.