The MINT Headphone Amplifier
What is a MINT?
The MINT was a Jung multiloop type amp circuit designed similarly
to the META42
The MINT is obsolete, and has no current replacement. Please don’t email me asking if there are any boards left. The last ones were sold years ago.
The MINT board featured:
Very small board size: 1.9" × 1.5" (48mm × 38mm)
Pads for dual-channel SO-8 op-amps.
Burr-Brown BUF634U (SO-8) buffer on each output channel, with bandwidth adjustment
Very basic power supply circuit compared to META42: just two 10mm diameter electrolytic capacitors and an unbuffered TLE2426 rail splitter.
Reverse power supply voltage protection (crowbar method)
The board makes using 2× series power sources easy. This is ideal for 2×9V batteries or 2×AAA battery holders.
Accepts CRDs for biasing the op-amp channels into class A.
Pads for the Panasonic EVJ potentiometer
Most resistors are on 0.100" × 0.300" spacing so you can put a DIP socket in their place and socket the resistors for easy experimentation.
Board design allowed one to cut it in half and “sew” the halves back together, back-to-back for a kind of poor-man’s 4-layer design. It allowed the board to be used in short enclosures like mint tins and Serpac H-65s. (Picture)
Why Was It Called “MINT?”
META42 Is Now Tiny (or, “META42 Inna Tin”)
It fits into mint tins
It’s small and sweet :)
Where To Next?
Building the MINT Amplifier: