YBM Audio currently concentrates on amplifiers and related gear. The product line consists of almost everything that AMB has to offer, plus one of the favorite hybrid tube-solid state designs - Millett Hybrid Maxed.
These amplifiers can be implemented in a wide variety of ways: pure headphone amp only, headphone amp/preamp, or even integrated amplifiers.
The prices below reflect the most popular configurations and options/upgrades on our completely finished products. However, in keeping with the DIY spirit, most of them can be altered to accommodate your needs.
Options and Upgrades: Options include parts and labor. No additional labor charge for Upgrades if specified before initial build; add labor otherwise. It is always helpful to specify Options before initial build since some Options are no longer possible without drastic and/or costly changes after the unit is built.
All prices are in US Dollars (USD). Freight charges and insurance not included unless otherwise noted. Paypal fee/custom duty/taxes, if applicable, not included.
Prices, designs, specifications, or configurations are subject to changes without notice.
- Description:
- A high-performance pocket-sized headphone amplifier with active ground channel. A perfect companion for your portable media player.
- Prices:
- US and Canada: $175. Battery charger is included.
- Elsewhere: $165. Battery charger is not included, it can be sourced locally (see required specs below).
- For specs of the battery charger, please see AC Adapter section in this link.
- Shipping is via USPS First Class International unless requested otherwise.
- High-standard features:
- High-quality Nichicon/Panasonic electrolytic capacitors.
- Precision 1% metal film resistors.
- Precision CNC-machined 2mm thick aluminum front and rear panels with engraved lettering -- a $40 value by themselves.
- Choice of 2x / 3x / 5x / 8x gain. 5x gain unless requested otherwise.
- High capacity 9V NiMH rechargeable battery.
- High Performance edition (Extended Runtime edition available as a special order option -- see Options below).
- Blue LED power indicator, red LED charge indicator.
- Aluminum knob with two "soft-touch" rings enable the user to "feel" the sensitive movement.
- Rugged extruded aluminum enclosure in black finish. Dimensions: 2.126 x 0.905 x 3.150" or 54 x 23 x 80mm (W x H x D).
- Stainless steel machine screws.
- Options:
- Spare battery: $12.50
- Extended Runtime edition: no additional charges may add a week to the delivery time.
- Description:
- A hybrid tube-MOSFET headphone amplifier biased heavily into class-A. The best marriage of tube and solid state. Craving for tubes?
- Price:
- Starting from $800. Configuration varies widely. Please inquire.
-
Description:
- A very high-performance opamp-MOSFET based class-A headphone amplifier with active ground channel. Wide selection of opamps available. It shares the similar topology as the mighty three-channel β22 and powered by the equally impressive, optional σ11 power supply!
- Price:
- Version 1 starting from $675, version 2 starting from $375, please inquire for version 3.
- Version 1: With external σ11 power supply (available worldwide)
- Oversized toroidal power transformer.
- Nichicon/Panasonic electrolytic capacitors (low ESR, low impedance, low noise, high ripple current, high temperature, and long life).
- Metal film caps.
- Military-spec metal film precision 1% resistors.
- Alps Blue Velvet potentiometer.
- Neutrik 1/4" headphone jack.
- Gold plated chassis-mount RCA jacks.
- Separate aluminum enclosures for amp and PSU (6.15 x 3.10 x 8.5"/154 x 78 x 213mm, W x H x D).
- IEC AC inlet fuse chamber and switch.
- Machined gold plated DIP sockets.
- 3mm blue LEDs.
- Aluminum knob.
- Stainless steel machine screws used thru-out.
- Silver plated, Teflon® insulated copper hookup wire used thru-out.
- Default op-amps are TI Burr-Brown OPA134. Others are available.
- 6x gain unless otherwise specified
- Version 2: With external regulated wall-wart power supply (for US and Canada only)
- Nichicon/Panasonic electrolytic capacitors (low ESR, low impedance, low noise, high ripple current, high temperature, and long life).
- Metal film caps.
- Military-spec metal film precision 1% resistors.
- Alps Blue Velvet potentiometer.
- Neutrik 1/4" headphone jack.
- Gold plated chassis-mount RCA jacks.
- Aluminum enclosure for amp (6.15 x 3.10 x 8.5"/154 x 78 x 213mm, W x H x D).
- Machined gold plated DIP sockets.
- 3mm blue LED.
- Aluminum knob.
- Stainless steel machine screws used thru-out.
- Silver plated, Teflon® insulated copper hookup wire used thru-out.
- Default op-amps are TI Burr-Brown OPA134. Others are available.
- 6x gain unless otherwise specified
- Version 3: Fully balanced with external σ11 power supply (available worldwide). This version can also be configured to have active ground output. Please inquire for configuration details, options and upgrades. Note: Options listed below are not applicable to this version.
- Options (for versions 1 & 2 only):
- Input pass-thru/loop-out -- $35
- Additional input -- $50/set, switchable via rear-mount toggle switch. Two inputs maximum.
- Variable gain
- Continuously variable -- $65 *
- Two positions -- $35
- Continuously variable bass boost -- $70 *
- Custom front or rear panel -- CNC milled, engraved, 3mm thick, black anodized aluminum -- $45 to $75.
- Op-amp options:
- TI Burr-Brown OPA627
- Analog Devices AD8610AR
*Note: options 3A and 4 are mutually exclusive as they use the same solder pads.
-
Description:
- A cost-effective, fully discrete, high-performance desktop headphone amplifier.
- Price:
- Production suspended until further notice
- Standard features:
- Toroidal power transformer.
- Nichicon/Panasonic electrolytic capacitors (low ESR, low impedance, low noise, high ripple current, high temperature, and long life).
- Metal film capacitors.
- Military-spec metal film precision 1% resistors.
- Alps Blue Velvet potentiometer.
- Neutrik 1/4" headphone jack.
- Gold plated chassis-mount RCA jacks.
- Aluminum chassis (8.66 x 6.3 x 2.03", D x W x H).
- Aluminum knob.
- 3mm green LED.
- Stainless steel machine screws used thru-out.
- Silver plated, Teflon® insulated pure copper hookup wires.
- IEC AC inlet.
- Options:
- Ground loop breaker -- $15. It's necessary if you experience ground loop issue in your particular system. Click here for an very easy to understand article regarding ground loops.
- Input pass-thru -- $20.
β22 with the companion σ22 power supply
- Description:
- This represents the ultimate in headphone amplifier design. It can be implemented as a high-performance preamplifier, as well as integrated amplifier that powers efficient speakers in smaller space.
- Configurations:
- The β22 amplifier can be built in one of the following configurations (see excerpt below from AMB's site for details -- edited for clarity). Price starting from $1500. For actual pricing, configuration details, options and upgrades, please inquire.
- Conventional 2-channel "passive ground" amplifier (2 β22 boards required)
This is a minimal configuration for those who have limited chassis space and want to build a β22 at the lowest possible cost.
- 3-channel "active ground" amplifier (3 β22 boards required)
This is the recommended configuration for standard 3-wire headphones, and offers improved performance by having an active ground channel amplifier for the headphone's shared "ground return" wire. The ground channel amplifier sources or sinks the return current from the transducers, which would otherwise have been dumped into signal ground or power supply ground. This shifts responsibility for the high current reactive load of the headphones from signal ground to the tightly regulated power supply rails, thus removing the primary source of signal ground contamination. The headphone transducer "sees" symmetrical output buffers with equal impedance and transfer characteristics on both sides, rather than an amplifier on one side and a capacitor bank of the power supply ground on the other. This results in lower output impedance, greater linearity and reduced stereo crosstalk.
- 4-channel differential "fully balanced" amplifier (4 β22 boards required)
This configuration is recommended if your signal source (such as a CD player, DAC, computer sound card, etc.) has XLR balanced outputs. It can be used to drive headphones or speakers, but the headphone plug and wiring modifications must be made to convert it into a 4-wire device (with separate and isolated negative wires for each channel).
In this configuration, each stereo channel has two amplifiers, a positive amplifier and a negative amplifier to handle the two differential signals. The balanced scheme is preserved from the source all the way to the headphone transducers. Like the 3-channel system, this configuration does not contaminate the signal ground because both terminals of each headphone transducer is actively driven and the return current is not dumped into signal ground.
This configuratin also nearly doubles the output voltage swing as seen by the headphone load, resulting in great output power increase, and doubles the effective slew rate of the amplifier. With adequate heatsinking and power supply current, this configuration will deliver in excess of 50Wrms of output power into 8Ω.
Headphones will need to be re-terminated (usually to either dual 3-pin male XLR connectors or single 4-pin male XLR connector) and may also need to be re-cabled (to separate the left and right ground returns) in order to be used with a fully-balanced amplifier.
- Standard features:
- Very high quality Japanese Nichicon/Panasonic electrolytic capacitors (low ESR, low impedance, low noise, high ripple current, high temperature, and long life).
- Vishay-Dale military-specification 1% metal film resistors.
- German-made EPCOS metallized polyester film capacitors.
- Audiophile-approved, high quality Alps RK27 potentiometer with Goldpoint stepped attenautor as an upgrade.
- Over sized, low noise toroidal power transformer.
- Silver plated, Teflon® insulated pure copper hookup wires.
- Swiss-made heavy-duty Neutrik connectors.
- Industrial grade shielded IEC AC inlet with integrated EMI filter, fuse chamber, and power switch.
- High quality aluminum knob made by Goldpoint.
- US-made high quality, heavy-duty, extruded aluminum enclosure. Black anodized finish. Panels are professionally fabricated by Front Panel Express with engraved lettering.
- Stainless steel machine screws.
- Prices:
- Featuring extremely high quality parts (see Standard features above), prices starting from $1600 for 2-channel, $1900 for 3-channel, and $2550 for 4-channel. Many options and upgrades are available. Please inquire for details.
σ22("sigma 22") power supply
- Description:
- A high performance, high bandwidth, discrete, dual-rail, linear regulated, auto-tracking power supply with extremely low noise and ripple. An ideal companion for the β22.
- Please inquire.
σ11("sigma 11") power supply
- Description:
- A high performance, high bandwidth, discrete, single-rail, linear regulated power supply with extremely low noise and ripple. A power supply is the foundation of any electronic equipment, but often t ime, manufacturers choose to cheap out on it. Is your gear still powered by a DC wall-wart?!
- Price:
- $300 to ~$425. The σ11 can be configured in many different ways to suit different applications (i.e. SqueezeBox, Apogee Mini DAC, and almost anything that uses a DC wall-wart.)
- Standard features:
- Nichicon/Panasonic electrolytic capacitors (low ESR, low impedance, low noise, high ripple current, high temperature, and long life).
- Vishay-Dale military-specification 1% metal film resistors.
- Toroidal power transformer.
- Ultrafast recovery diodes.
- Shielded Delta IEC AC inlet with EMI filter, fuse chamber, and switch.
- 3 mm blue LED.
- High quality extruded aluminum enclosure (6.15 x 3.10 x 8.5"/15 x 7.8 x 21cm, W x H x D). Black finish.
- On-board screw-mount 1.5" heatsinks.
- Stainless steel machine screws used thru-out.