The "oh so great" Ruby amp.

[frank_p]

I would even say une canette.  (a can)
But, hey, if you don't like the Ruby, just throw your Korean Strat into it.
I mean, it's a less expensive alternative for that classic R&R behavior.
And it release tensions better than newage neobuddhism.

[petemoore]

  It does the exact same thing as any big tube amp does, inasfaras but not-exceeding:
 Drives the motor which moves the cone.
 If this is the only criterion, the little 9v passes all scrutiny, and could be used in place of JTM or SLP.
 The information [and tone] which the Ruby distributes may blow your mind, but is easily exceeded by the JTM or SLP...depending on the speaker of course.

[Lurco]

Could it be "W"?!?

no. different.

[Toney]

I would even say une canette.  (a can)
But, hey, if you don't like the Ruby, just throw your Korean Strat into it.
I mean, it's a less expensive alternative for that classic R&R behavior.
And it release tensions better than newage neobuddhism.

Or if your lazy just rub it down with Kimchi-puppy flavoring 

[Brymus]

No one answered my question about the power supply -but the n4001 diodes will be sufficiant- a wall wart I took apart uses them with ceramic 100p caps (snubbers?) across the diodes.

My research with the Ruby has been almost obsessive.
But I found that adding an 8 ohm 5 watt resistor in series between the speaker and the 220uf cap DRASTICALLY improved the tone when driving small diameter speakers as well as lower ohm speakers.
My little Crate amp has a 4 ohm 6 inch speaker that sounds horrible with the Ruby but after adding the 8ohm resistor it sounds great.
The best and loudest result with my modified Ruby is my 2x12 Crate cab with Celestion copies in it.Amazingly loud and detailed sound.

I have my Ruby hybrid set up (on the breadboard)so that  its a 2n5457 input going to a ne5532 dual opamp set up sorta like a Tube Screamer but switchable bewteen high gain clipping and clean lower gain no clipping diodes ( so the output sounds equally loud clean or clipped)-the second half of the op amp is a voltage follower going into a Ghia type tone control,
then it hits the 10k volume pot then the second 2n5457 followed by the lm386d.
The Ghia tone control gets rid of the dark sound and notches it just right to sound like a much bigger and complex amp.
It is also quite lossy so it brings the signal back down just enough to make the LM386 sound good.
This set up sounds REALLY SWEET!  But if anyone sees a way to improve it please speak up and show me the light

If I am driving my large speakers the 10uf cap across pins 1 and 8 make it rock SERIOUSLY I could jam with a drummer like this.
Its that loud, although the drummer would have to have a light touch or some brushes-1 watt is very loud with the right speaker!
Smaller speakers and a 1k5 resistor across pins 1 and 8 is the gain limit for good tone.
The smaller speakers tend to sound a little farty,
EQing the opamp doesnt get rid of the farty sound just makes the overall sound thinner.

I am working on some little speaker cabs for it 2 cabs using 4 x 3inch or so speakers salvaged from PC powered speaker sets I got from the local thrift shops.
So it will look like a little full stack when its finished
I actually built this one for a friend but i like it so much I am building a second one for myself.

I found you can pretty much convert a PC speaker set into a Ruby type amp complete with power supply and two speakers.
If you want to recycle some PC speakers look for ones the DONT have the rubber suspension like a woofer.
And the higher the ohms the better the tone.Two paper cone 8ohm PC speakers wired in series(16ohms) sound really good.
And will have much better break-up than suspended 4ohm speakers.

[Auke Haarsma]

The Ghia tone control gets rid of the dark sound and notches it just right to sound like a much bigger and complex amp.
It is also quite lossy so it brings the signal back down just enough to make the LM386 sound good.

Can you give me a link or so to a Ghia tone control? I am really interested after I read your description of its effects.

[Bubesz]

To the first question: My Little Gem has the same problem, I can hear a faint fuzzy sound even when it's set to clean. I use a 0,5 W 8 ohm radio speaker. I thought it's the problem, but I'll check it with my 12" Celestion speaker too, as soon as I get it back (it's not at home now).

[drivenover]

Can you put a ms-2 chip directly replacing a 386?

Sounds like a possibly interesting upgrade.

Mark

[Hupla]

Can you put a ms-2 chip directly replacing a 386?

Sounds like a possibly interesting upgrade.

Mark

Do you mean the Chip from the marshall mini amp?

[Brymus]

If your Ruby sounds fuzzy try leaving pins 1 and 8 open and adding the 8 ohm resistor like in my schematic.
You have to excuse the rough hand drawn schem ,I left out the power supply and filtering for the 12V I am using.
So my Vref for the NE5532 is 6V and I show the power supply for it.
Also I have an MPF 102 as the second transistor like the Ruby schematic shows.And a 470uf cap instead of the 220uf before the speaker.
I tried values up to 2200uf sounded fine not drastically better though.
I also should say that running a large 12" 16ohm speaker doesnt need the 8ohm resistor but it doesnt hurt the sound and makes smaller speakers sound better.
If I leave out the tone control the signal is way to much and it sounds awful slamming the 386 not to mention much darker.
Pure luck having it work the way it does.
Adding a booster in front of this will get even more volume I like the Omega in front of it.But a cleaner boost would proly be better.
Here is the schematic of my amp http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/pp276/Bry928/Pedals%20and%20effects/SSamps/3862channelamp-small.jpg
So any ideas to make it better?
You can always use pots to control the gain of the clean and OD channels a 10 or 20k pot +1k resistor for the clean side and a 500k-1m pot+ 1k resistor for the clipping circuit.

[anchovie]

Can you put a ms-2 chip directly replacing a 386?

Sounds like a possibly interesting upgrade.

Mark

The MS-2 uses a KIA6123 which comes in a SIP9 package, the LM386 is a DIP8.

[El Heisenberg]

Yet another ruby amp. Which is the "best" one??

How many desgins have you found? Take a look at lenngalassos practice man amp at ggg.com. Theres also the ruby and tube tricket.

Im gunnantry this out too, but if youll createba clearer schematic, then ill wait foor it

The japanese kia chips are cool. They wok good with small speakers. I have a few left, but tons of lm386-1s, lm386-3 and 4s and mostly JRC386s. I didnt likeb the they sound in stompboxes.

I hope you make this thing sound great. Itll be a frankenruby