Right... so I couldn't wait for the mlord docking station special, and I built my own. It was intended to take the place of the el-cheapo stereo on my desk at work + wires. I hacked up the stereo, and fit it into the docking station, along with the empeg. While I was hacking, I got rid of the CD player (which didn't work), and the tape player. Unfortunately, while doing so, I think I may have clipped something I shouldn't have, as when I put it all together, and gave it a test, I was only ever able to get sound out of the left channel. I thought it might be one of the connections I soldered, but after double checking those, plus wiggling various wires around, I only managed to make the situation worse -- I'm not getting *any* signal now.

I've been looking around for another cheap stereo with RCA aux-in ports, and they just don't come as cheap as what the guy moving back to France who's getting rid of anything that can't be carried on a plane sold me the original one for. Then the idea hit me that I could scavange the harder-to-find parts for a simple amp from the now deceased stereo. I also get the benefit of for soldering practice before I have to try putting together pca's tuner kit.

The down side? Well, I know jack squat about electronics. I found the spec for the power amp IC online here, which includes a diagram for a test circuit. If I were to build that test circuit, would it have enough power to drive the pair of 8ohm (5W max) speakers that I have left over?

Any advice would be splendid.

Thanks...

I think that would be a little less power then you want. Have a look at something like this: http://www.elfa.se/pdf/73/734/07347024.pdf
A LM1876, costs about $10US and gives you 2x20W at 8ohm. THD 0.08% at 15W.
At least the specs look good, havn't used it myself.

Or you could just buy a small amplifier kit, gives you all the components and a pcb for it...

// Jonathan

Hmm... I'm not sure I see much difference between the two. I'll look around for a kit, though...

Thanks.

I mostly use a set of speakers wich were originally designed for a desktop computer, just cut off the small mini jack connector, and solder the proper connectors at it.
All you need is a power source...

Yeah, I was looking at that, but I've sort of decided against it for two reasons -- one is that I have already have speakers from an old desktop stereo that I mangled, and two, I like the idea of having one power cord coming out of the docking station. I haven't been in any real hurry, since the docking station was originally intended for work, but I've been streaming audio off the net for the last couple months while the docking station project has been underway, and haven't heard any complaints from the admins about resource usage policies, so the project has fallen by the wayside a bit. Oh, and three -- I need something to practice on before pca's tuner arrives.