Weekend Project: Mint Tin Amp

Build a powerful pocket amplifier for your headphones and put it in a "curiously strong" minty case.
Find more at the Maker Shed: makershed.com
Make: Electronics, 3rd Edition: www.makershed....

[@idontsmile666]

That intro brings me way back to my childhood, glad these videos are still up after all these years.

[@joshthorpe4916]

this is peak youtube, i remember watching all of these projects when i was like 9 years old, its what got me into electronics

[@zidanehadeed9229]

Same. Because of Kip and these videos I just got my EE degree!

[@joshthorpe4916]

@@zidanehadeed9229 congratulations mate! Well done

[@morphman86]

How this video felt to me 1) Get some mints in a tin 2) Eat the mints 3) Solder a pre-made amplifier circuit on a board 4) Done

[@Luciffrit]

You could lay out the circuit board yourself you really want to. I know I do. =D

[@tobortine]

Excellent - an Altoids tin premature hearing loss device, just what I've always wanted.

[@Michael-w8v]

Sadly, it is not for 250 Ohm headphone :(

[@butre.]

I have a pair of 600 ohm studio headphones that don't work without amplification.

[@Michael-w8v]

春日歩 Not all device have amp chip inside that would limited to 30 OHM. Good thing is my Samsung S2 and Lenove Lynx does have AMP chip.

[@evaldaskowka]

how strong is this amplifier in video? would it support 2x 4.4ohm and 2ohm speakers?

[@tobortine]

RedTriangle53 A Swede ? I'll have you know sir that I am not a common vegetable.

[@glennzone12]

The intro song is eargasmic

[@sickb2200]

Damn. I thought we were going to hear a guitar amp.

[@Chsch5]

i bet he spat it all off after the eating of the mints

[@slipstreamgaming1553]

Ethan White yes

[@itsthinking]

Ethan White uhhhh no? I guess I must have an iron stomach then.

[@AndyLishious]

mmmaltodes

[@iiceman14]

haha he said it as soon as i read this

[@baseballdude2348]

we can here the music when the headphones were in your ears!! thats a good amp!! good job!!

[@ayanaabella]

professional headphones have high impedance values, that's why we need to amplify the signal to achieve the required gain of the sound. correct me if i'm wrong. higer impedance value = more quality sound

[@mirrorimageuploads]

lol 0:57 now thats the look of someone stifling back true pain in side their mouth, he should have done it with the cinnamon ones that would have been funny.

[@silviamayorga8862]

True

[@headlessjoker98]

Who would like to admit that that thing probably has ALOT of distortion

[@Lacrossanator1]

Great job, just wondering where I could find the schematics and parts list for this build?

[@V_Dgt]

2008! Duudez! I didnt even notice until I notice Great video!

[@Kulderzipke123]

Yeah😂

[@Shadowcloud1]

The mp3 itself has an amp, so hes essentially double amping. It doesn't necessarily improve audio quality but it does provide more power for hard-to-drive headphones and earphones which may need lots to reach its potential.

[@Globss]

I mean can't you just plug your headphones into the mp3 player? Seems counter intuitive.

[@RossMitchellsProfile]

Some headphones require more power than a phone, mp3 player or even a pc can output, then again, I doubt that this amp in particular would be any good for that.

[@xiuxiu1108]

SeeWaffle9 Try powering a 60 ohm pair of headphones with your MP3 player and tell me what happnes

[@chrisnguyen1186]

Say you have some high impedence headphones, wouldn't it sound like shit plugged into a mint tin compared to a legit pre-amp?

[@irishmusico]

Haaaaa! lol.

[@jankristijan5889]

@@chrisnguyen1186 actually no. I have a very good marantz amplifier and Grado GS1000 headphones, I made this amp which is actually called a CMoy Amp and well there is no real difference between them 🤷

[@joeplemmons]

Why would anyone build this when you can just plug your headphones into the MP3 player and save a lot of work? A schematic would have been way more helpful than a verbal list of components.

[@TheMightyKinkle]

4:36 'Oh it cranks'!

[@flurng]

Fun project & by the way - great tune! Lunatic Fringe... We all know you're out there!

[@RacinJsn]

Nice tip on the dollar store tip cleaner. I also keep a dollar store glass jar half full with water to shoot my desoldering iron into. Since that ROHS scrap solder is usually 50% silver or better.

[@BilalHeuser1]

I wonder if its possible to overdose on all those mints ;-)

[@anujmchitale]

The overdosing on actual mint results in using the lavatory more. Since it's a laxative. Not death.

[@SciPunk215]

This looks neat, but I must be missing something? I have a bunch of MP3 players, and they all play through headphones plenty loud. Why would anybody need this?

[@prosincr]

Some "higher up" headphones require more power.

[@ianhayden2839]

A better use for this would be to plug it into your phone because the speaker may not be as loud

[@nick66333]

what pdf

[@MegaAfroGuy]

there are many other uses for a headphone amp, the main one is that it lets you have maximum input for a clearer sound, or if you want to run high resistance headphones (needs an [expensive] amp to work) on a dime. also it'll give little un-powered speakers an extra boost.

[@Foxkoun]

Kipkay, saving the day as I look for amplifier designs.

[@Sniperdude0121]

I HATE THE INTRO ON THESE VIDS

[@user2C47]

I actually really like it. It's definitely better than _some_ intros.

[@Exacom98]

Aaand why not put the headphones directly into the mp3-player?!

[@JesusUnoWTF]

Because it's supposed to be able to adjust the volume. It can make it louder than the mp3 player can make the volume, and hit intervals that go between the options allowed by the mp3. Example: mp3 has volume levels 1-10. 5 is too low, but 6 is too high. The amplifier can put the level between the two values.

[@TheHunChem]

***** But if you are using a simple LM358 as he does it will have a shitton of distortion and false sounds, just sayin' :D

[@TheHunChem]

***** But if you don't need much volume, why building a freakin amplifier? xD

[@TheHunChem]

***** I know, but then they will be either noisy or silent :/

[@TheHunChem]

***** Well, you can get a precision opamp for low noise, but it's 3 times more expensive. But hey, it's still only a 1$ IC

[@PierreRipplinger]

Can it be plugged to speaker? That would be nice since you can just plug your earphones in the mp3 player.

[@emilcarr7190]

Yeah it probably can be

[@GrindTheIdiotOnline]

Yes, since most speakers use the same port as headphones.

[@conanmiddleton925]

+Pierre Ripplinger This is a headphone amplifier-we use them to not increase volume, but to make sound a lot clearer. If you used a speaker that used the same connector-it would work, but it depends on the size of your speaker. It wont power a large 6 inch woofer for example(Well it would, but you would hardly get any movement in the cone).

[@PierreRipplinger]

***** Oh ok, it makes sense now, I didn't understand the purpose. Thanks.

[@B0rnles13]

+Pierre Ripplinger That's what I was thinking and it would've made a better video if he'd shown that

[@SaltWalkerOutdoors]

This was made before I was born!!

[@bestmode3890]

I have maxed out volume with my headphones on my phone, pc, and my 30 pound receiver amplifier. The loudest I have gone with my headphones is 112 DB. One night I had them on for 6 hours straight. It was amazing.

[@HappysFunPalace]

lol never saw ads actually implemented in a clip

[@HappysFunPalace]

cant adblock those >:(

[@Jonathan_Bradford]

who else thinks its a terrible idea to stuff the tip of your soldering iron into a copper scouring pad? a wet sponge is cheaper and less abrasive.

[@supahsekzy]

I guess, but those types of copper pads are marketed specifically for cleaning soldering iron tips.... I think it's more important for your soldering iron to be tinned properly and for your technique to be good.

[@Jonathan_Bradford]

Absolutely I agree about having your iron tinned, I just thought it odd that he mentioned using a dollar store copper scouring pad over a wet sponge. My humble opinion leans towards a wet sponge.

[@RonniSantmyer]

Depends.. I solder maybe around 1,000 joints a day building our products.. Back in the day wet sponge was fine. But with Rohs and everything needing to be Lead Free Wet sponge bad idea.. Still ok when working with Lead only at your home.. but to sell items worldwide you have to be Lead Free. Water ruins a lead free tip in one day..which using Weller or my case Hakko tips is pricey.. But also wrong is him saying going to store and using copper pad very wrong too. The cleaning copper wire thing that should be used has flux in it a lot to help clean tip..and is less abrasive to your irons tip. Lead Free wears through tips faster using a store copper scrubber will where the tip down faster. And another negative to working with wet sponge even with Lead only..you can work faster with copper cleaner the wet sponge will cool tip down to much. If you need to work as fast as we do then that time matters greatly.

[@supahsekzy]

Ronni Santmyer So what do you suggest to clean your soldering tip if not a wet sponge? What is compliant with RoHS and lead-free?

[@RonniSantmyer]

What I was saying was the golden sponge thing in the grocery store is not the same as this.. this is what you use.. But I also said it's ok to use this with Lead solder as well..it will whole you to work with out cooling tip.. I use a Hakko and that puts the tip to sleep when it's resting in cradle.

[@Digitalinkarts]

cant you just plug the head phones in to the Mp3 player?

[@matthewhouse3866]

yes but the amp basicely double the volume of the sound

[@RealmOfFireMusic]

+Matthew House you're gonna get deaf with that

[@stalebreadtf2700]

+RealmOfFireFC ugh...youve never heard of high impedance headphones, have you.

[@jjznacks]

Kipkay I think you are doing really good with your electronics. I've been trying to do what you do and I made remote control led board but remember I'm only 11

[@peterbufano]

dude this an awesome video and looks like a fun project to build. (but FYI your mp3 player already has an amp stage and can drive your headphones without an external amp)

[@armanelgtron4533]

Not the higher end headphones that have like 500 ohms

[@TheDigileet]

The headphone jack in the iPod and iPhone doesn't put out enough power for high end headphones which need a lot of power to play at their best quality. This will boost the signal coming out of the iPod/iPhone so it's strong enough for those headphones

[@KSIMuskratLuv]

"Power up our MP3 player made out of an old remote control, some foil from a piece of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit, and a piece of duct tape which you can get at the dollar store"

[@SketchtheBoss]

I really hat it when ppl argue on KZbin:/ it's stupid and gets in the way of useful comments....but nice vid:) really helped

[@DubstepOnHD]

Yeah , you can but if your headphones sounds too low then you can make this simple amp and it will sound loud :)

[@mexiluvsw]

he must have had ice cold breath after all them mints

[@spaceghost5371]

You would definitely get diarrhea if you swallowed all those mints! Nice tutorial also :)

[@justinb93]

Thinking about making this project. My Asus N53SV notebook can't put out enough to really drive my Sennheiser HD 428 headphones like my old Toshiba notebook could.

[@Blakemartn]

this dudes breath probably smells like christmas now

[@gtraqs_]

Definition of the word amplifier is actually an electronic device that amplifies an electric signal

[@Erok9]

His breath was fresh,too fresh!

[@kiskiller3]

you dont need to split your voltage in haf just put a 100uF in parallel with the power line and connect it

[@mikrotronix]

here i am again...15 year later...good old memories :D

[@grembal.]

Some headphones sound better with a bit more power than what an mp3 player's built-in amp can put out. That's what the little headphone amp is for.

[@Protronics99]

Thanks so much for the reply I will take it into consideration any other ideas would be greatly appreciated thanks!

[@TaipazAkaSykoticz]

@Supadupa60 he was only using the headphones as a demonstrator im 1000% sure there are many more interesting ways to use this little gadget, just consider what your home theatre 5.1 amplifier does this is just a really small version

[@damiencaputo8378]

this also works if you sodder the mints together and then plug the headphones into the mp3 instead

[@CamTechTwist]

Imagine making a home cinema out of a couple of altoids tins.... the future! lol

[@miztamo]

@Metallica0912 Not really It’s a question of gain: you could increase the amp’s gain to around 100 to make it loud enough, but the noise floor will be unacceptably high. You need an amp design made for low noise with high gain.

[@bobrulerofall]

do some mint tin stuff like this! your channel is has some neat stuff but you need some real complete projects up, it could be really cool. maybe ask your viewers for ideas.

[@CoolDudeClem]

But what's the point since things such as MP3 players, walkmans, CD players or whatever allready have a headphone ouput built in?

[@u2bst1nks]

this is an old headwize.com project by chu moy. guys like jas levois and mike "apheared" shelton were among the first to build them into altoids tins. kip is awesome for popularizing these projects, but credit should be given where it's due.

[@ethannnnnnnnnnnnn100]

@crazycuban456 if you bother to check the date of the video, you would see that it was made in 2008, so this was somewhat made before all his kipkay videos - therefore; not a sell out.

[@ZeppelinFan70]

Call me dumb, but should you already be able to hear through the mp3 player itself? If you want to really wow the folks, why not use the external amp to boost a set of speakers or something?

[@cssimeur]

He implied but didn't come right out and say it, but if you do a search on Makezine you find the PDF. It won't let me post the direct link, but just type in "mint tin" and I found it on the first page, second to last project. Hope this helps.

[@doodh_jalebi]

That is some MINTY amplification.

[@blarghblargh]

@Calebm90 Many laptop and mp3 player's built-in amps aren't gutsy enough to drive fancy headphones very well. If you have a crummy $20 set or plain iPod ear buds, you probably won't notice any difference. If you have entry-level "audiophile" headphones, this is a fun way to get more of a return on your existing investment, especially if you use decent quality parts.

[@ToggleSwitch13]

all those altoids in a row is a heart attack waiting to happen.

[@MonsterBuddy10]

The IFrogz Ear Pollution are so much better, they sound better and last longer!

[@SwampWater]

I'm guessing he found out the hard way that mints are a laxative.

[@uhfnutbar1]

a chip socket not going to make sound WTF can you tell us what's in it ?

[@kavindugilshan]

I think its LM386 ....

[@christianmoreton9326]

What sucks about this project is that the MP3 player already has a headphones amp. It would be better to make an amp for a portable loud speaker for that mp3 player.

[@HDRNX]

Just FYI, you want to use a brass sponge, not a copper sponge. Further, the copper sponge at dollar stores are only copper in color or if lucky micro-plated with copper (which almost immediately rubs away when exposed to a hot iron. Just buy a real brass sponge and save yourself the trouble.

[@ESTEBANTMAN]

now i can say that, this video contributed to my formation as an engineer, thanks Kipkay!

[@djcollados17]

Not suitable for begginers. pls. make it clear on how to wire,

[@kewlbns69]

bet this guy had fresh breath for a month lol...a friend of mine got something similar from a guy that was makin em in cig packs...till he got sued by big tobacco lol

[@theHuGoroN]

Actually this amp is quite good ... if you use just a little different amp chip and impulse resistant super fast capacitors (price just 8% higher) and maybe hook up 2 piece 9V batteries you have a mean amp. The industrial ones use 90% same parts maybe they have extra EQ circuit but normal listener wouldn't hear the difference. This is a good project! I made my own variation of this and I'm 100% loving it and I consider myself an audiophile!

[@skulkruncher122]

so how do you smuggle a stollen ferari im sooo tired of this ad

[@miceblue425]

@elverte9 Yes, you can plug them into your digital sound files, that makes sense. The purpose of an external amp is to give your PMP more juice to power headphones that are harder to drive or to provide a different option for your music files to be amped. For example, the iPhone's internal amp sucks, and some people would like to bypass it to get cleaner audio out of their iPhone. Or without an amp, the iPhone wouldn't be able to drive one of Sennheiser's hi-fi headphones.

[@SamCampbell]

Oh wow, now I'm really ready to power my HD 800. (I really hope people have a sense of humor here)

[@hollowearthreality]

I used to own a pair of those. I ran a macintosh valve amp through them. Very nice indeed... but I found some mr speaker mad dogs and sold the sennys soon after

[@Synthematix]

Thank you for posting these videos i actually find them interesting as im handy with a soldering iron, however, there are quite a few idiots on here posting dumb and pointless comments that try and ruin it for everyone, these are the people that have no lives by tring to disrupt other peoples.

[@RenaxiGaming]

Now make it all in one tin can

[@EYEONEVENTS]

it boosts audio output source x2 ,, also you could connect the output to small speakers instead of headphones ,, if you would like to make your mp3,, mobile or whatever more audible ..

[@bobrulerofall]

you should do altoid can synths and effect modules!

[@Burnningsoul]

be more interesting is he made it as a small guitar amp you could use to practice with so you don't wake up neighbors. Most likely all you would have to do is change the in, connector.

[@xXiLoveIndigoXx]

@BIGGREENDA you dont know what a headphone amplifier is

[@TheTBass]

May try and make something similar to this, but with two inputs like a tiny mixer

[@RobertLongM]

Is it easy to fry the lm386? I think i followed the schema wrong twice and both boards I made had sound for a few minutes... now nothing ... but the 9v does pop in the speaker when connecting

[@ciatzo]

Damn i love them kipkay vids

[@w0mblemania]

And here's one I prepared earlier...

[@JakTheLombax]

WHAT PDF? there is no download in the description!

[@TheAleVideo]

pdf is here: cdn.makezine.com/make/mintyamp.pdf

[@Alex1M6]

I do wish makemagazine/kipkay included schematics in their videos, it would be so much easier.

[@Exlr8Films]

These videos are so nostalgic for me

[@bulipap]

So I'm making these own portable speakers of a couple of old computer speakers I had laying around. I have cut off the electricity transformer and planning to connect it to a battery/battery pack instead. On the transformer in my speaker it says (among other things): "OUTPUT-AC 10.7V/0.8A". Now to my question. Is the output energy actually 10.7V? What should I use for this? If I use 12V battery pack, does it only use the amount it needs or does it somehow get to much electricity and overheat?

[@Barnacules]

Okay... I think I got this figured out... I need an Altoids can, a peice of rubber, some wires and random electronic components that dont have names and I can build a headphone amp? Sweet let me get started #sarcasm #thisainttwitterbuthashtagsarefun

[@ClevelandStorms]

i got the Make electronics kit #1 and it helped me out and gave me a ton of parts

[@mobytoss]

I presume we can also use alternative jack sockets such as a 1/4 inch jack to either use our 3.5mm mp3 players with 1/4 inch headphones or vice versa, to use 1/4 inch guitar sockets with 3.5mm headphones/speakers, assuming the differences in power needed were adjusted for

[@8-BitHeart79]

Thats just awesome! I wonder how much more boost that little bugger would give to my 300$ headphones LOL. How did he die? Apperently the Bass from his synth liquified his brain because of this little amp..... Well he looks happy.....

[@Albanez39]

@chrisgreece52 WHOA!!! I live in Albania and we have them here...do you have Rossman & Lala stores there ?? They have Altoids..not so special about the taste..but leaves a strong mint taste for more than half an hour after you've finished the mint :D

[@saikiran-zq9uf]

hi make i love u r all projects and i am from india i want 2 do a small led project at home please tell me hw to do and wt r equipments required please tell me

[@DonDubin]

@Calebm90 It isn't pointless if you are dealing with hi end headphones that require more power than the mp3 player can output.. This gives it the extra power therefor making the sound louder and more clear.

[@OverwatchSIX]

I could see this starting fire on the bus then some kids jumping around haha

[@CouchPotato343]

Some high quality headphones require amplification in order to reach high volumes and their max potential in terms of audio quality.

[@eNodeTG]

Playing music through earphones that loud can seriously damage your hearing, especially when you are older. Do you want to be one of those people that has to say "huh? whats that my boy? your mumbling!"

[@mrgungho]

I just plug my headphones directly in to my mp3 player...other than looking really cool why would this be practical? even more volume I assume, but the levels I get now are more than enough