Sonic impact MOD pics

faster100 · April 2005

I have needed something to do for awhile.. a project of some sort. well i needed a amp for the bedroom rig and had no money.. so i bought a sonic impact amp from think geek and for some reason it only charged me 22 bucks + ship, when it was posted 34.99, so great deal for me... Hooked it up when it came in, sounded great.. my homemade PS wasnt enough power so i happen to have a 13.5 volt 14 amp stand alone Ps i used to use when i was into CB's years back.. cut the cord and plug off a wall wort that didnt work and bingo!!! plenty of power... that works great. no distortion like when i used the underpowered supply first.. so i found a project box and went to Good ol radio shack for some parts... did the project last night. it still works so thats a good sign.

went to binding post, separete power switch w/blue LED power light.. at this point i just left the original volume pot inside the case glued down as i dont know how to bypass it.. I stuck with the pcb mounted audio input because i couldnt find any insulated rca panel mount jacks.. and also installed a new power jack, i just hooked it onto the battery power wires beings the stock one is pcb mounted and this wont use batteries anymore.. the box is small... about 3" x 4" x2" high nice and compact aND the LED even after i installed a resister is very bright.. that looks really cool at night... anyways here are the pictures for anyone interested in modding one.

I plan to have a guy i know make a custom logo/name out of vinyl sticker like the kind you get for your car, SO ANY SUGEGSTIONS ON A VERY SMALL GRAPHIC OR NAME LET ME KNOW..

faster100 · April 2005

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faster100 · April 2005

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faster100 · April 2005

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faster100 · April 2005

and yall know what the stock looks like

organ · April 2005

Nice, the new look is nice with the Dodd. If I were you, I wouldn't bother with the custom logo.

Maurice

faster100 · April 2005

actually this amp is for the bedroom rig with a parasound pre, but it does look cool next to the dodd.

I think it looks cool and for being so small it sounds good, surprised it didnt get more comments.. Not on my work but on the amp itself..

phoneisbusy · April 2005

There's been some positive feedback on the amp here. I think Madmax was playing around with one. Replacing the pot for the volume can apparently improve the sound too.

As long as you had fun with it.

regards

Dave

faster100 · April 2005

yeah waS a cool project, ive never really done any diy projects...

faster100 · April 2005

Im running the sonic impact on a pair of Rt25i's with a parasound 850 pre and my old fisher tuner.. I left the stock input and use a hard adapter 1/8" to 2 rca adapter to the interconnects.. sounds good and i power the Si with a nice power supply thats 13.5 volt 14 amp, so it never distorts... not so far anyways.. That blue led is bright as heck.. nice light and i like the simple plain front of the box.. it even has little vents on the sides.. its really smaller then the picture looks.. about 2 packs of Cigarettes thick and a tad wider

heiney9 · April 2005

Sweet little project...when are you going to mass produce them? At least make a limited edition run for the forum. Again nice tidy work...Enjoy!

H9

michael_w · April 2005

Looks good.... anyone know if there is a dealer in Canada that sells those amps? I'd like to get my hands on one and maybe try some diy modding but don't want to have to cross the border with it.

unc2701 · May 2005

Nice! I'm gonna have to give this a try... but with the P/S bolted to the top of it (I HATE wallwarts).

faster100 · May 2005

I want to make a matching power supply some how and to fit in a case like that... would look pretty cool, maybe with a red led for the PS.... this thing still amazes me and it drives the speakers albeit pretty small ones really loud and clean...

I say find your own project box and hit radio shack or parts express and build it yourself.. don't spend 400 bucks on a modded one.. ive seen several things online and the prices for what this is, crazy!!

faster100 · May 2005

Well tonight i did some more mods, I tore it all apart and removed the 1/8" input jack, redid the power to the board hard wired.. removed the volume pot/power switch and hard wired those wires back together for full volume with no pot in the circuit... Now it has a monster pigtail from a nice Y adapter i had , 2 female rca's out the back instead of the headphone jack... sounds pretty good, about the same but with better connections all around... I did away with powering it through the battery wires and wired it straight to the board... ok well should be fine for awhile till i find another article

audiobliss · May 2005

Originally posted by faster100
removed the volume pot/power switch and hard wired those wires back together for full volume with no pot in the circuit...

Does that mean that it's either 'on' or 'off'? Why would you do that?

....more pics.....!....:D

faster100 · May 2005

To take garbage out of the signal path, I wired a switch on the side of the case for off/on so it does have a off/on switch just not the cheap one that came with it. I'll have to take some better pictures and update the thread

audiobliss · May 2005

lemme clarify:

You said you removed the volume pot/swith and replaced it with an on-off swith; does this mean that you no longer have control over the volume?

faster100 · May 2005

Correct

Its now a full on amp, not an integrated type amp. I use it with a parasound pre, so no need for a volume.

audiobliss · May 2005

Ahh...I totally forgot about a preamp there for a minute. :rolleyes:

Can ya tell my experience has been restricted to receivers?

faster100 · May 2005

here are some new pics

faster100 · May 2005

and the power unit

audiobliss · May 2005

:eek: big power unit

faster100 · May 2005

for now, I'm going to get a wall wart soon and do away with the huge power supply

Sonic impact MOD *pics*

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Sonic impact MOD pics