Upgrade from a 40 dollar musical T-Amp...

[ericlp]

Ok, well, I have an onkyo 706 and had a few other onkyo products and they are great for movies... And great for music too, unless you were spoiled and listened to a T-Amp.

But my CD's sound like SH!T compared to my tamp. I guess you really need to spend 3K dollars to get the detail of a Tamp... I'm not gonna go into how I enjoy it and how great it sounds. This isn't a review of a T-amp.

But, I wanted a little more Juice going to my speakers using ACI Sapphires and considering one of these amps.

I hear it's very good and even better then the 2020 Tripath chip. I find it hard to believe but...

Subtle power, 2X30W @ 8 ohms / 0.007% THD+N




Wow, .007 THD. Gotta like that. My current 2020 tripath chip is so efficient and clean powered that you really don't need much power and it's doing 2x15. So, I'm thinking twice the power or if I boost up the transformer to 30Volts I can get 2X50W. This Amp is using s TA2050. Anyone know anything or heard anything from it?

http://www.41hz.com/shop/item.asp?catid=14&itemid=6

about 100.00 shipped. I am about to buy this soon, but I thought I'd ask here to see if anyone has dealt with this company or knows maybe even more recommendations for me. Money really isn't much of an issue, I mean, I'm not gonna waste 3K bucks on an amp. But, I could possible go up to around 700-800 is my budget.

Thanks...

I'll post some pics later after it's built and show you the new setup.

 

[Tiamat]

A good example of the type of amplifier you are looking for (if price is truly no object) are designed by Nelson Pass. You can read about his methodology at the following link. The speaker spends most of its time drawing less than 1 watt of power, and his design philosophy focuses on that first watt. If you are unfamiliar with this, I think it would be worth your time to read it.

http://www.firstwatt.com/

Ok, well, I have an onkyo 706 and had a few other onkyo products and they are great for movies... And great for music too, unless you were spoiled and listened to a T-Amp.

But my CD's sound like SH!T compared to my tamp. I guess you really need to spend 3K dollars to get the detail of a Tamp... I'm not gonna go into how I enjoy it and how great it sounds. This isn't a review of a T-amp.

But, I wanted a little more Juice going to my speakers using ACI Sapphires and considering one of these amps.

I hear it's very good and even better then the 2020 Tripath chip. I find it hard to believe but...

Subtle power, 2X30W @ 8 ohms / 0.007% THD+N




Wow, .007 THD. Gotta like that. My current 2020 tripath chip is so efficient and clean powered that you really don't need much power and it's doing 2x15. So, I'm thinking twice the power or if I boost up the transformer to 30Volts I can get 2X50W. This Amp is using s TA2050. Anyone know anything or heard anything from it?

http://www.41hz.com/shop/item.asp?catid=14&itemid=6

about 100.00 shipped. I am about to buy this soon, but I thought I'd ask here to see if anyone has dealt with this company or knows maybe even more recommendations for me. Money really isn't much of an issue, I mean, I'm not gonna waste 3K bucks on an amp. But, I could possible go up to around 700-800 is my budget.

Thanks...

I'll post some pics later after it's built and show you the new setup.

 

[ericlp]

A good example of the type of amplifier you are looking for (if price is truly no object) are designed by Nelson Pass. You can read about his methodology at the following link. The speaker spends most of its time drawing less than 1 watt of power, and his design philosophy focuses on that first watt. If you are unfamiliar with this, I think it would be worth your time to read it.

http://www.firstwatt.com/

Money really isn't much of an issue, I mean, I'm not gonna waste 3K bucks on an amp. But, I could possible go up to around 700-800 is my budget.

Thanks for the reply...

For some reason I have a hard time thinking that I'm gonna buy one for 800 bucks. I consider a grand to be the max I would want to even remotely spend, unless I had cash falling out of the sky, I'd probably take a listen but... I mean, when I say money is no object, I think for the 100.00 I'm paying now that is clearly a cheap amp, even the onkyo I have now is a cheap amp. I guess I should just be happy that I can buy a 100.00 amp that will sound better then my current 40.00 tamp!

Heck, you could say my ACI sapphires are cheap as well, even tho the price I paid I felt it was a bit much. Tho, the sound they produce is well... Very very good and I'm hard pressed to UPGRADE them, I think I'm pretty much at the top of the line. At least I feel so anyway.

About the only thing I can say and it's in my own opinion.... You really do get what you pay for in the speaker department. As for cables and amps? It's a wash. I find it absolutely funny that my speakers cost 1200 bucks, amp cost 40 bucks and speaker wire I use is regular lamp cord grade "sound king" copper wire. Yeah, I've tested monster and a few others..even borrowed a few so called high end cables from friends. Couldn't tell any difference then hand stripped, a roll of 100' 12 Gauge sound king speaker wire from parts express @ less then 2 bucks a foot.

Oh well, I really like how the tripath's sound. So... if no one else has any suggestions I'll be buying that.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Well if I was buying a new amp today, I'd probably be looking at the traditional options from Emotiva or Outlaw first if those were the ones that fit my budget. Those are just "regular" amps though, so if you're looking for something non-traditional, that might not really suit you. I guess in terms of 2-channel specific options, that would be an XPA-2 from Emotiva or two monoblocks from Outlaw? (As an aside, I believe Anand himself is using 7 Outlaw monoblocks in his own Home Theater project)

If I had the budget for it, I'd be looking at the ICEpower offerings. D-Sonic appears to be the most affordable flavor of pre-made ICEpower amps. It's basically a utilitarian implementation of the ICEpower amp modules in customizable configurations with the 2-channel 2x250watts into 8-ohms (doubles down to 4) coming in at $1,290. I read through several threads on AVSforum about D-Sonic, Wyred4Sound, and a few others and they seem to be the real deal.

Of course that's 13 times what you're considering spending right now, so it would have to offer a lot more than what you're looking at to be a good idea.

 

[kornphlake]

Everything I've read about the T-Amp has been positive, other than supply shortages of the Sonic T-Amp before Parts Express started selling the Dayton. There have been an odd negative review or two but they're so few and far between I honestly expect they are either from people who don't own the amp themselves or people who wouldn't be pleased with anything less than Mcintosh.

There used to be some plans floating around for modding a 15w t-amp to give it a better power supply and improve the sound. I don't remember if it could be modified to give more output power as well. I'm a real DIYer and I realize that not everyone else is, but if you've already got a 15w t-amp, why not spend $20 on parts to hot rod your amp before spending a bunch of money on something entirely new.

 

[kornphlake]

Was looking around and came across this:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/class-d/143669-sure-electronics-new-tripath-board-tc2000-tp2050.html

2x100W class D Amp with a very reasonable price. Even once you replace a few capacitors, it seems like a good value. It would require some DIY to add a power supply and enclosure of some type.

 

[Modelworks]

The boards with the t-amps from china are worth about what you pay. They do not observe proper layout and the parts will overheat. Better to take the money and put it on something that will last. The tp2050 is .007% THD at 25W or less, after that it climbs higher arriving at 10% THD at rated power.

I build my own but I know that isn't for everyone. If I were doing it from the start now I would use the Tas5613 which can provide .01% THD @ full power. It wasn't available when I needed it so I used the TAS5162 which comes out to about .1% total THD but I think has a better sound, the response is almost flat.

Also while class D amps are nice, don't overlook good quality class A or class AB amps.
Don't forget that the amp cannot put out more than it is supplied in power, so for 60watts out you need 30VAC x 2A + 20% of room so you are not stressing the supply.

 

[ericlp]

Thanks for all the suggestions and I did Research a ton of it... Coming back to the same conclusion. I ordered my 41hz kit. They use good parts and the kit seems decent.

I use a 12volt SLA battery for my sonic amp. It should twice as good at least running on 13.8 volts (there about) with 6 amps. I won't even use a power supply, for my next project, instead I'll by two SLA batteries in series to reach about 27 volts...

I think the reason why some people had poor results with TriPath is because they are feeding it a shitty switching transformer signal. Blah. I believe that half the battle to good amp is the power supply and nothing really can give you a cleaner signal and reserve of power when it needs it with a good ol lead acid batt. IMO anyway.

Yeah know I almost bought 5 Mono blocks from outlaw. But, then I'm back to onkoyo sound again and I hate it... Sounds like shit...

I'll take my $40 T amp any day. Over that crap. It just sounds like garbage to me. I'll take some photo's when I get it together might take a while tho...

Thanks again for all the replies!


So, I'll leave you with the following to read. Enjoy!

http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/25chips

Titled: Special Report: 25 Microchips That shook the world.


Tripath Technology TA2020 AudioAmplifier (1998)
There’s a subset of audiophiles who insist that vacuum tube–based amplifiers produce the best sound and always will. So when some in the audio community claimed that a solid-state class-D amp concocted by a Silicon Valley company called Tripath Technology delivered sound as warm and vibrant as tube amps, it was a big deal. Tripath’s trick was to use a 50-megahertz sampling system to drive the amplifier. The company boasted that its TA2020 performed better and cost much less than any comparable solid-state amp. To show off the chip at trade shows, ”we’d play that song--that very romantic one from Titanic ,” says Adya Tripathi, Tripath’s founder. Like most class-D amps, the 2020 was very power efficient; it didn’t require a heat sink and could use a compact package. Tripath’s low-end, 15-watt version of the TA2020 sold for US $3 and was used in boom boxes and ministereos. Other versions--the most powerful had a 1000-W output--were used in home theaters, high-end audio systems, and TV sets by Sony, Sharp, Toshiba, and others. Eventually, the big semiconductor companies caught up, creating similar chips and sending Tripath into oblivion. Its chips, however, developed a devoted cult following. Audio-amp kits and products based on the TA2020 are still available from such companies as 41 Hz Audio, Sure Electronics, and Winsome Labs.