If anyone happened to be wandering around the big bad internet wondering what happened to the Zot's Dream website, it is archived here:

http://zotsdream.hintersphere.com/

…and all of the flyer and music downloads should still be working just fine. I did take down the part where we were looking for a bass player though. This is available purely for posterity.

5e3 amp kit, see build thread for ongoing update

My secret santa for X-Mas 2009 was my Grampa Kriete. I thought it would be cool to make him a DIY Radio/MP3 Player pre-loaded with a bunch of songs he liked and also a bunch of songs I've played on.

Eventually settled on this circuit which worked out very well:

http://www.aaroncake.net/circuits/amp20w.asp

One cool thing about the circuit is that it can be powered using a recycled PC Computer power supply. In addition to powering the amp, it can be rigged up as a USB power charger, and also power a cpu fan which cools the TDA1554 chip. So not only is this thing a radio, it is also a charging station for anything USB.

The amplifier parts were mounted in a clementine box which can be seen in the pics. The clementine box was eventually velcro'd inside a decorative box from Hobby Lobby which has a pair of pawn shop JBL car stereo speakers mounted in both sides. At the top of the box is a sheet metal control panel which accesses 4 USB charging ports, the mp3 player/radio and a big on/off switch for power.

I only have pictures and video from before the final radio was assembled.

http://www.hintersphere.com/junk/tda1554_22watt.AVI