Way back in 2005 one of the members of Diyaudio one Mauro Penasa decided to create what he called an "audiophile" circuit for the LM3886 gainclone. Some of you may be aware of an outfit called Twisted Pear Audio run by Russ White who designed stuff including Preamps and Dacs (Buffalo Dac). Russ White took on the business of making the PCB's for Mauro's design and I think added some expertise of his own. These boards were the subject of a group buy and I purchased two boards to see how different Mauro's interpretation was to the minimalist circuit first seen in the 47Labs Gaincard amplifier.

Fast Forward to 2020 and our enforced lockdown. As a way of relieving the boredom I got to work sourcing all the components and getting it done. With half a million DIY amps I can bung into the system at any one time it needed some perseverance. Why can't you get all the bits you require from one supplier! RS had most of what I needed but other bits were much trickier. I built up a massive stash of components about 10 years ago and I am glad I did as the prices have gone up markedly and the stuff stocked is nowhere near as comprehensive.

Anyway here are some pics of the finished article. It only has a few hours on it so the jury is out on the subject of SQ and to compare to a standard gainclone.