Okay, sounds like I need to look at the circuit board on mine (may be an interesting journey here). I"m getting the funny feeling Aidieb that we mean two different things by "sibilant". To me, it's an issue with the "s" sound in male voices making everyone sound like Daffy Duck. with the hiss coming through the teeth getting louder and staying present rather than momentarily louder then decaying fairly quickly. My take is that I'm supposed to notice the "hiss", just that I shouldn't be noticing it three words later unless the speaker really is Daffy Duck. Is that what's happening for you?
I did get a 31 volt 3 amp supply for my Sure Electronics 2050-based board. Simply put, I like the 2050 better and it's pretty clear to me why Redwine, Virtue, and Winsome all chose to work with the 2050 and not the 2022 while no companies with high end pretensions seem to be doing much with the 2022. I also keep noticing that the companies that do 2022 amps have a hard time getting it right. When I got the Hlly 90 it was 180 shipped and I still don't think there's competition at that price point for a 90 watt into 4 ohm plug and play amp. I definitely prefer it to 3886 gainclones (as does Hlly apparently) and most any conventional commercial offering in that price range. Actually, the only thing I can think of is the Parasound Zamp.
I did get a 31 volt 3 amp supply for my Sure Electronics 2050-based board. Simply put, I like the 2050 better and it's pretty clear to me why Redwine, Virtue, and Winsome all chose to work with the 2050 and not the 2022 while no companies with high end pretensions seem to be doing much with the 2022. I also keep noticing that the companies that do 2022 amps have a hard time getting it right. When I got the Hlly 90 it was 180 shipped and I still don't think there's competition at that price point for a 90 watt into 4 ohm plug and play amp. I definitely prefer it to 3886 gainclones (as does Hlly apparently) and most any conventional commercial offering in that price range. Actually, the only thing I can think of is the Parasound Zamp.
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Lucky! That is a newer revision than mine (v2.3), and it does look like there's some gold plating peeking out from behind the solder mask. Without being able to test it, I don't know why you are hearing what you are hearing. But are those MP3s of yours high quality? I thought variable bit rate MP3 sounds okay, but I think Apple Lossless sounds better.
[chuckles]
Even if you are right and the 2050 is the superior-sounding chip, it may not be too difficult to drop one into the HLLY chassis. I figure the cost + shipping of 41Hz Audio's AMP32, AMP4 and AMP5 kits combined is still well below the cost of a single pair of good quality 300B tubes, and only a fraction of the cost of the higher-end ones like the Western Electrics
But I already have AMP5 on order and want to hear what a TA2022 can do when it's been properly sorted out.One thing that strikes me about 2020, 2024 and 2050 is that they all have bridged outputs. Who knows, maybe there's some advantage to doing a Class D amp that way.
4season,
I look forward to hearing about your experiences with replacing the board.
the 2022 is the one tripath chip that takes dual ended power supply and it's the one that sounds the most different. I liked the sound, but
I think everyone agrees that it's not a 2020 or 2024 with more power, it's something distinct.
I tried to open the case of my t90 tonight, but the front panel looks like it's using a torx or something like that instead of the phillips screws on the back.
I look forward to hearing about your experiences with replacing the board.
the 2022 is the one tripath chip that takes dual ended power supply and it's the one that sounds the most different. I liked the sound, but
I think everyone agrees that it's not a 2020 or 2024 with more power, it's something distinct.
I tried to open the case of my t90 tonight, but the front panel looks like it's using a torx or something like that instead of the phillips screws on the back.
Yes reading your words I would agree that that is what I think sibilance is, I´m sure my amp has changed somewhat since day one, I now notice the sibilance more with certain voices/recordings than others, and it never seems to be as noticeable as it was initially, this and me chasing better room/speaker setup has now got me to a place that I´m much happier with.
This is my first Class D amp, in fact my first amp purchase for about 10 years, so it's difficult for me to say anything objective. I think the T90 is revealing the deficiencies in my loudspeakers (Jordan JX92S VTL without BSC and in free space - not ideal), specifically their lack of bass production. The T90 sounds very clean and controlled, more so than my previous amp. It definitely has more high frequency extension but isn't at all sibilant. I was already planning to put my Jordan's into a better cabinet and I'm hoping that will balance things out better. With my previous amplifier I felt the biggest bottlenecks were in my amplifier and speakers, I think I've removed one of those bottlenecks with the T90.
Ali, that's not good. I ordered one on Thursday 4th March, it was dispatched on Monday 8th and arrived in London on Thursday 11th. I was suprised at how quickly it here. I guess your's is lost somewhere
Yes I'm pretty miffed.I contacted the seller and he said it had made it to London,and indeed the tracking on the Chinese postal service said it had left Shanghai,but I've been unable to track it since.Hope I get either another one sent or a refund!
I tried out my Hlly t-90 on a friend's Alon V version 1 speakers (very expensive stuff from the 90's) last night and compared it to his Sonic Frontiers 6550 based amp (75 watts 8 ohm). For some reason, the Hlly didn't fare well. Everything sounded very hooded and the mid and treble didn't sound especially well integrated with the bass. Details were there, but it was very grainy or cloaked.
This was not what I'd experienced on my home system at all. The Alons use a 10" sealed woofer with an open baffle mid and tweeter. The only two things that occured to me were that the Alons were tri-wired through one amp (definitely a pain and so complicated that there might have been two wires out of phase or that they're just not very efficient
I did put the Hlly back in my home system and it sounded "good" once again, but I'm not sure why the Alons were such a bad match. They're not supposed to be a difficult load etc. but any immediacy the amp had totally disappeared. The Alons also sounded fine with the tubed amp, though a bit too civilized for my taste.
This was not what I'd experienced on my home system at all. The Alons use a 10" sealed woofer with an open baffle mid and tweeter. The only two things that occured to me were that the Alons were tri-wired through one amp (definitely a pain and so complicated that there might have been two wires out of phase or that they're just not very efficient
I did put the Hlly back in my home system and it sounded "good" once again, but I'm not sure why the Alons were such a bad match. They're not supposed to be a difficult load etc. but any immediacy the amp had totally disappeared. The Alons also sounded fine with the tubed amp, though a bit too civilized for my taste.
My efforts to replace the stock HLLY v2.3 circuit board with a 41Hz AMP5 almost worked. Initial power-up tests were pretty much spot-on, and the completed amp worked perfectly on Friday.
But on Saturday, I made the install more permanent by drilling out proper mounting holes, etc, and shortly after taking the photo, I hooked it up to my system and got some rude crackling noises before the DC protection relay kicked in. Uh oh, I thought, this can't be good.
Hours later, I still couldn't find anything obviously wrong. It wasn't putting out DC anymore, but it *was* putting out about 2V of very high frequency sine waves. No response to signal input at all, just the ultrasonics. For want of a better idea, I figured maybe I broke something when I was bending the Tripath chip leads for a better fit with the heat sink. It did get flexed quite a bit. Tried resoldering, checking for shorts, even reverting back to the previous night's configuration, but it seemed like the damage had been done.
Aside from salvaging the toroids and the main power supply capacitors, it's a goner as far as I'm concerned. I'll start over with a fresh AMP5 board and try again in a couple of weeks. This time I won't manhandle the Tripath chip.
For the one evening when it did work, it was great: Despite the fact the Tripath chip is even closer to the power transformer than previously (AMP5 is about 20% larger than stock), it was very quiet. Same powerful- yet easygoing sonics, but I thought AMP5 did a better job making things sound real, whereas the stock v2.3 HLLY sounded innocuous but sort of bland and didn't do a particularly good job at differentiating different musical instruments. All in all, a worthy upgrade if I can get it right.
But on Saturday, I made the install more permanent by drilling out proper mounting holes, etc, and shortly after taking the photo, I hooked it up to my system and got some rude crackling noises before the DC protection relay kicked in. Uh oh, I thought, this can't be good.
Hours later, I still couldn't find anything obviously wrong. It wasn't putting out DC anymore, but it *was* putting out about 2V of very high frequency sine waves. No response to signal input at all, just the ultrasonics. For want of a better idea, I figured maybe I broke something when I was bending the Tripath chip leads for a better fit with the heat sink. It did get flexed quite a bit. Tried resoldering, checking for shorts, even reverting back to the previous night's configuration, but it seemed like the damage had been done.
Aside from salvaging the toroids and the main power supply capacitors, it's a goner as far as I'm concerned. I'll start over with a fresh AMP5 board and try again in a couple of weeks. This time I won't manhandle the Tripath chip.
For the one evening when it did work, it was great: Despite the fact the Tripath chip is even closer to the power transformer than previously (AMP5 is about 20% larger than stock), it was very quiet. Same powerful- yet easygoing sonics, but I thought AMP5 did a better job making things sound real, whereas the stock v2.3 HLLY sounded innocuous but sort of bland and didn't do a particularly good job at differentiating different musical instruments. All in all, a worthy upgrade if I can get it right.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Sonically, I was pretty happy with AMP5, and I've already ordered a new kit. I didn't get a chance to hook it up to the test instruments and check out the waveforms, but based on what I heard, I think it will measure pretty good. I'll be careful not to flex the TA2022 chip leads so much this time.
I'm not sure how to buy a HLLY v3 amplifier board as a replacement part.
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