Dayton Audio DTA-100a Class-T Digital Amplifier 50 WPC

[ericlp]

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-383

Just wanted to give a heads up that parts express has this amp for 89 bucks shipped tho you might have to use filler to ship it. Not hard to find something for 10 bucks more to qualify for free shipping.

Anyway....

Dayton Audio's DTA-100a utilizes the Tripath TK2050 chipset that delivers 50 watts of continuous power per channel (100W total) into an 8 ohm load. The Dayton Audio DTA-100a's Class T mini amplifier offers the audio fidelity of a Class AB amplifier while providing the > 85% power efficiency of a Class D design.

The Tk2050 is a rather new chip but there have been a lot written about how great it sounds. I have not listened to it but there is talk that it produces the great 2024 tube like sound but at higher wattage. I am going to find out since I have one on order.

I would imagine that the power supply is the weakest link of this setup. Switching to Batteries would make this amp perform a crap load better and you would no doubt have a bit more power.

Cheers--- Santa is coming early this year!

 

[Modelworks]

My concern with an amp that specs 24VDC is that no batteries produce that directly . Hopefully it is a wide range of input voltages like 22-28VDC. Otherwise you are looking at series wiring two batteries and attaching a regulator which will consume power.

 

[hans030390]

I wonder how the headphone amp is...

 

[ericlp]

My concern with an amp that specs 24VDC is that no batteries produce that directly . Hopefully it is a wide range of input voltages like 22-28VDC. Otherwise you are looking at series wiring two batteries and attaching a regulator which will consume power.

the tk2050 chip has a range of 10-36 volts. I'm sure an extra 3-4 volts won't hurt the amp. Ah well... Not a fan of switching powers supplies.

 

[EvilYoda]

My concern with an amp that specs 24VDC is that no batteries produce that directly . Hopefully it is a wide range of input voltages like 22-28VDC. Otherwise you are looking at series wiring two batteries and attaching a regulator which will consume power.

2 12V SLA batteries in series and you're good to go!

 

[NutBucket]

Batteries are so inconvenient. Just go here:

http://www.acopian.com/single-l-goldbox-m.html

And order an A24MT550

 

[Rifter]

You could not pay me to buy that POS, especially from them, i attempted to purchase one of those for my bookshelf computer speaker setup and went through 2 amps both defective in one way or another, decided T amps suck(give them 40 years and maybe they will be reliable like class A/B) and stuck with A/B amp.

Thread about PE's crap service here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1268014

End result was i finally did get my amp a few weeks later, the holdup with my order was apparantly since i paid the additional charge with a different paypal account they didnt link the two transactions together in their system(even with transaction numbers, e-mails with transaction numbers, and communication with paypal directly) and it still took me two weeks of bitching to get them to figure out that i paid them. Will never order from those idiots again, ever.

 

[joetekubi]

@Rifterut
Not going to get into a flame war here - but my and many folks experience with Parts Express is that they have excellent customer service. That said, I've heard of a few problems with Class D and Class T amps. I think the Chinese supply chains are going through a rapid evolution of product designs and manufacturers. Agree that reliability should get better in the future.
regards,

 

[Rifter]

@Rifterut
Not going to get into a flame war here - but my and many folks experience with Parts Express is that they have excellent customer service. That said, I've heard of a few problems with Class D and Class T amps. I think the Chinese supply chains are going through a rapid evolution of product designs and manufacturers. Agree that reliability should get better in the future.
regards,

I have no doubt their service is usually good as i see it posted alot, and they were fine with me during the RMA process twice, up till the point i tried to upgrade to a new amp. But they way they accepted my payment and then told me i had not paid even with overwhelming evidence to the contrary turned me off them as a company and i will never support that kind of lack of service. It should not take a company 2 weeks to figure out you paid them when within 24 hours they had confirmation numbers/e-mails, and a phone call from paypal themselves stating i paid them. Hopefully there customer service has improved as i would not want anyone to have the experiance i had with them, from start to finish including shipping time was over 3 months till i had a working amp in my possestion.

 

[ericlp]

I've spent a lot of money with parts express and never had a problem... I own a few t-amps and bought the very first one sonic impact even over volted it to 14 volts and never had a problem still using it today! Sucks to be you I guess.

So, now that you got yourself a working amp... how do you like it?

 

[Rifter]

I've spent a lot of money with parts express and never had a problem... I own a few t-amps and bought the very first one sonic impact even over volted it to 14 volts and never had a problem still using it today! Sucks to be you I guess.

So, now that you got yourself a working amp... how do you like it?

I love it, its a dayton APA 150 watt.

Drives my speakers great. Sounds better than the first DTA 100 T amp i recieved(first one had bad left speaker, right speaker worked fine so i know how it sounded). Seems the APA 150 has more punch in the low end. The T amp did surprise me with the amount of power it had for such a small amp even with just the one working channel but the class A/B amp really shines with movie watching with alot of bass/low end noise. I would consider the T amp a good idea for 4 1/2" and smaller drivers in small speakers but my bookshelf's have 6 1/2" drivers and i think the added power of the APA 150 suits them better.

 

[ericlp]

oh... I guess I shouldn't be using my infinity reference 6.5" drivers with my 2024 6 watt amp???? It produces excellent bass btw.... I don't have any speakers that are less than 6.5", except for the 1" tweeters obviously. Tho, I've been thinking of going with an 8" full range driver or trying it out at least.

Hmmm, well, with out going into extremes I'll just let you read this review. It's pretty much the same effect I had that this reviewer had with his 2024 amp.

http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/t-amp_e.html

So you can see I having some high expectations with the new TK2050 chip. But from all the talk going around since it came out about a year ago... it sounds like it's going to be another listening session for me.

I guess 6watts of clean power is pretty much all I need.

 

[Modelworks]

2 12V SLA batteries in series and you're good to go!

You would be over the limit if the device requires 24VDC since two sla batteries are 13.8VDC each = 27.6VDC. That is why I said if it doesn't accept a wide range then powering from battery would require a regulator .

 

[EvilYoda]

You would be over the limit if the device requires 24VDC since two sla batteries are 13.8VDC each = 27.6VDC. That is why I said if it doesn't accept a wide range then powering from battery would require a regulator .

I guess I don't know enough about those batteries...if I buy batteries rated at 12V they're effectively 13.8...? That doesn't make sense...

Say, for instance, the first one I pulled up on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/B-B-Battery-7-.../dp/B0001XE11K

I'm genuinely curious as I plan on going battery powered for my B1 and Lightspeed attenuator.

 

[Rifter]

oh... I guess I shouldn't be using my infinity reference 6.5" drivers with my 2024 6 watt amp???? It produces excellent bass btw.... I don't have any speakers that are less than 6.5", except for the 1" tweeters obviously. Tho, I've been thinking of going with an 8" full range driver or trying it out at least.

Hmmm, well, with out going into extremes I'll just let you read this review. It's pretty much the same effect I had that this reviewer had with his 2024 amp.

http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/t-amp_e.html

So you can see I having some high expectations with the new TK2050 chip. But from all the talk going around since it came out about a year ago... it sounds like it's going to be another listening session for me.

I guess 6watts of clean power is pretty much all I need.

It all depends on the volume, 6 watts is going to clip real fast if you try and push the db level up. 6 watts would be fine with efficient speakers for close up listening without going over 90-95db(within 1 meter, typical computer speaker setup) but try and listen to a movie sitting on a couch a few meters away or push for higher volume and its going to require more power.

 

[Modelworks]

I guess I don't know enough about those batteries...if I buy batteries rated at 12V they're effectively 13.8...? That doesn't make sense...

The reason is because of the voltage per cell. All lead acid based batteries have a voltage of at least 2.25V per cell, so 6 cells x 2.25 = 13.5V . Without a load on the battery it will read anywhere from 13.5 to 14.1V . As the load changes that voltage can be anywhere from below 12V to 13.8V . It just depends on how tight the regulation needs to be on the load.

If you need 24vdc then adding two batteries increases the range of voltage from a low of 24V to a high of 28.2 . Most things will not have a problem with that but it pays to be sure.

If you need exactly 12VDC from a SLA battery then you need to use a voltage regulator between the battery and device.

 

[ericlp]

It's not just the load, but if a SLA battery is not charged up all the way the voltage will change as well. So it depends on the charge.

The 2024 chip is rated at 12 volts but as others have found, some chips can take the 13.5 volts but some can not. I guess it really depends on the chip. Even tho the sonic impact was made to run on D-Cell batteries. I think small D-cell batteries have a tighter range of 2.5 volts and don't exceed it by much. Not like a lead acid battery does. But a lot of devices are fine with car batteries. It's funny that everyone just assumes your car is putting out 12Volts DC when you charge your phone or mp3 player but that's not true and most cables do not regulate the power so I'm sure a mobile device like a radar detector or a GPS is made to accept voltages up to 15 volts.

 

[ericlp]

It all depends on the volume, 6 watts is going to clip real fast if you try and push the db level up. 6 watts would be fine with efficient speakers for close up listening without going over 90-95db(within 1 meter, typical computer speaker setup) but try and listen to a movie sitting on a couch a few meters away or push for higher volume and its going to require more power.

2 channel isn't for movie mode... Movies can sound like shit, that's the job of my onkoyo that I would never play music on.

Anyway, my speakers are rated at 89 db and sound good enough for me in my large living room can't really clip 6 watts since it's only at half volume. But I agree, usually full range speakers are 98-100 db. I thought about getting some and making a fun box. One day.... I'll be in the market for some fostex or nirvana. But even at 15" drivers 30 watts is the max. So don't wanna burn up 300 dollar speakers.

 

[mossadacity]

I guess I don't know enough about those batteries...if I buy batteries rated at 12V they're effectively 13.8...? That doesn't make sense...

Say, for instance, the first one I pulled up on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/B-B-Battery-7-.../dp/B0001XE11K

I'm genuinely curious as I plan on going battery powered for my B1 and Lightspeed attenuator.

Slightly old thread, but I'm about to buy one of these and checked Anandtech

From previous research, this amp is rated up to to 30 volts. Running two car batteries (or other '12 volt' batteries) in series won't cause any problems.

 

[Howard]

You could not pay me to buy that POS, especially from them, i attempted to purchase one of those for my bookshelf computer speaker setup and went through 2 amps both defective in one way or another, decided T amps suck(give them 40 years and maybe they will be reliable like class A/B) and stuck with A/B amp.

Thread about PE's crap service here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1268014

End result was i finally did get my amp a few weeks later, the holdup with my order was apparantly since i paid the additional charge with a different paypal account they didnt link the two transactions together in their system(even with transaction numbers, e-mails with transaction numbers, and communication with paypal directly) and it still took me two weeks of bitching to get them to figure out that i paid them. Will never order from those idiots again, ever.

Class T (which is Class D) is not inherently less reliable than any other topology. What is to blame is the third-world design, manufacturing, QA, and QC.

 

[Harvey]

I guess I don't know enough about those batteries...if I buy batteries rated at 12V they're effectively 13.8...? That doesn't make sense...

Say, for instance, the first one I pulled up on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/B-B-Battery-7-.../dp/B0001XE11K

I'm genuinely curious as I plan on going battery powered for my B1 and Lightspeed attenuator.

Slightly old thread, but I'm about to buy one of these and checked Anandtech

From previous research, this amp is rated up to to 30 volts. Running two car batteries (or other '12 volt' batteries) in series won't cause any problems.

You quoted EvilYoda's post regarding the maximum expected voltage from an auto battery so I included his quote in quoting you.

You should be OK as long as the maximum voltage from each battery doesn't exceed 15 volts. Assuming the maximum possible voltage from an automotive battery is 13.8 volts, the maximum you can expect from two batteries in series would be 13.8 x 2 = 27.6 volts, leaving a 2.4 volt margin under the rated spec for your B1 and Lightspeed parts.

That said, my patents are in electronic audio volume controls (VCA's), and a number of years ago, I designed this LDR opto-attenuator based tube compressor/limiter for Groove Tubes.

Groove Tubes CL-1s​

Optical attenuator based systems have several characteristics that make them undesirable as audio level controls.

1. They have inherently high distortion that varies with gain and signal level.

2. They are not extremely repeatable. That is, the volume can change with signal level, temperature, time and other variables, even at the same control voltage or current. The variation is not extreme, but the level changes could be enough to be annoying.

3. For the same reasons, getting two or more LDR volume controls to track each other over their gain range is somewhere between difficult and impossible, again resulting in changes in volume and/or balance.

There are things that can be done in designing these products to minimize these effects, and I haven't evaluated the Lightspeed attenuator so I can't comment on its actual performance.

Hope that helps.

Note -- The strange color of the front panel of the compressor is because it's actually chrome plated so it's reflecting the colors of whatever was in front of it.