My current stereo (hifi) amplifier is a self made LM3886 based amplifier (GainClone). It was built into the case of an old broken Kenwood amplifier. The transformer and input connectors from the broken amplifier were also used. The whole amp is star-grounded to the power supply with heavy-gauge wire.

The input stage uses relays for input selection and a DS1666-10 digital potentiometer for volume adjustment. This way the signal never goes to the front panel because all controls are made remotely. The signal path stays short and far away from the power supply keeping things nice and quiet. Each channel is driven by one OPA2134 op-amp. One stage for buffering the input and another for buffering the output. Proper buffering should keep the tone persistent in all volume and input settings.

The power supply uses MUR860 diodes for rectification. These slow-switching diodes should help keep the supply extra clean. Filter caps in the power supply include one 10,000µF capacitor per rail and one 3,300µF across the rails. Smaller caps are added parallel for stability. In addition to the power supply capacitors, each power amp has one 2,200µF cap per rail, mounted right at the chip.

The power stage is a basic non-inverting LM3886 setup. All components are mounted point-to-point very close to the chip, even though a piece of breadboard is used to make things stable. Also, the power stages are muted via a relay. The relay is driven from the preamp power supply via some diodes so that the power amp shuts down right before the preamp gets unstable. A red led is also mounted on both power amp assemplies giving the amplifier a nice custom look together with the point-to-point wiring ;)

All in all, the amp has been serving me well. I haven't had a chance to A/B-test it with other amps yet, but to me, it sounds good.

In the first image below, you can also see my speaker cables, which are made from heavy-gauge 4-pole mains cable. The cable is wired in a "star" configuration, which should reduce inductance.