The UK had a similar idiot - Sinclair - made the first personal computer. Created the C5 bike without consulting experienced cyclists. Should have been locked into a comfortable environment supplied with 'professional ladies' and good food and wine but never allowed to market anything.
I'm a bit late to the conversation but I recently ran into some issues with my regular TV amp, a MiniWatt 2.5w tube amp, that powers a pair of Fostex uFonken full rangers. I grabbed the Lepai 2020A+ from storage and hooked it up as a quick replacement. My god it sounded awful. Even at very low volume TV dialog sounded grainy and harsh. My wife couldn't take it. We had the volume well below our normal listening level and it was still bad. I thought the class-T amps were a thing of wonder back in the day but this particular Lepai really only saw minimal duty in the garage so I guess I never noticed.
So I went back to my storage bin and pulled out my SonicImpact 5065 amp, the one that really turned me on to Tripath back in the day. Same power supply as the Lepai, same cables, same everything. Wow. This little amp still delivers the goods. That led me down the rabbit hole of learning that Tripath and Class-T aren't the same. Thanks for the history lesson guys. I'll be hanging onto this little SonicImpact amp for a while, the Lepai is going back in the bin.
So I went back to my storage bin and pulled out my SonicImpact 5065 amp, the one that really turned me on to Tripath back in the day. Same power supply as the Lepai, same cables, same everything. Wow. This little amp still delivers the goods. That led me down the rabbit hole of learning that Tripath and Class-T aren't the same. Thanks for the history lesson guys. I'll be hanging onto this little SonicImpact amp for a while, the Lepai is going back in the bin.
Same here, I bought my first Tripath amp from you 😀. It was an evaluation board from Tripath TA-2022. Powerful stuff. That year I brought it to a DIY gathering and people couldn’t believe it was a class D amp.
Unless someone here knows this for a fact, is what drew listeners to the original Tripathi amp was its apparent ability to simulate the addition of 2nd harmonic distortion and/or what other aspects of 300B tube amps? But if yes, how might Tripathi have accomplished this? And assuming that result was deliberately created feature, how might that circuit be replicated in a discrete Class D or other amp?
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...de-to-black-aka-movie-maker-on-dvd-bd.382419/
Using one of these 6SN7 preamps http://www.dsachsconsulting.com/custom line stage.html
http://www.tubes4hifi.com/pre12.htm#SP14
https://tubecad.com/2018/03/blog0415.htm
to drive https://www.firstwatt.com/product/f4/
Or this amp https://www.firstwatt.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/prod_sit3_man.pdf
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...atts-class-a-4-ohms-nelson-pass-design.19562/
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...t-3-review-in-stereophile-jan-22-2019.332964/
Of course, they're not Class D amps.
Do you happen to know if its sound resembled anything commercial or DIY recently available?
Using one of these 6SN7 preamps http://www.dsachsconsulting.com/custom line stage.html
http://www.tubes4hifi.com/pre12.htm#SP14
https://tubecad.com/2018/03/blog0415.htm
to drive https://www.firstwatt.com/product/f4/
Or this amp https://www.firstwatt.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/prod_sit3_man.pdf
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...atts-class-a-4-ohms-nelson-pass-design.19562/
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...t-3-review-in-stereophile-jan-22-2019.332964/
Of course, they're not Class D amps.
I have had a few tripath amps over the past 15 or so years, including TA 2020, TA 2022, and the Sure Electronics TK2050- based amps.
I rather like them and feel they provide similar musical satisfaction to my various high-bias Class AB amps(and even my vintage St70). NOT equal musical satisfaction, mind you, just similar. A real step up from the TP3116's I got from Shenzeng, and more "polite" than the classis chip amps.
My current system is a quad- amplified one with a line of 3" full rangers between a 12" DSP sub and a pair of my DIY Wedgie"clones (93.5dB/2.83v,) The Impedance loads are ~4 ohms per branch The 4 channel Sure board (I'm using omly 3 channels) does a nice job driving my speakers to ample loudness levels. Detail, but not "inyerface".
So I'd say, yes, T-amps are still contenters for those of us who DIY on a budget, and can still find them .
I rather like them and feel they provide similar musical satisfaction to my various high-bias Class AB amps(and even my vintage St70). NOT equal musical satisfaction, mind you, just similar. A real step up from the TP3116's I got from Shenzeng, and more "polite" than the classis chip amps.
My current system is a quad- amplified one with a line of 3" full rangers between a 12" DSP sub and a pair of my DIY Wedgie"clones (93.5dB/2.83v,) The Impedance loads are ~4 ohms per branch The 4 channel Sure board (I'm using omly 3 channels) does a nice job driving my speakers to ample loudness levels. Detail, but not "inyerface".
So I'd say, yes, T-amps are still contenters for those of us who DIY on a budget, and can still find them .
Attachments
Last edited:
For what it’s worth. I don’t know about a specific Tripath sound signature, as I‘m only have listening experience with my own Tripath amp. So, perhaps, I’m experiencing such a signature without realizing it. I do know, however, how my Tripath sounds compared to the other amplifiers which I own, or have owned. Those are solid-state (Forte, Denon and Sony), except for a pair of Audio Research M-100 tube mono-blocks.
First, as is true for other amplifiers, implementation plays a significant role in the sound character of a Tripath amp. I hand built my amp many years ago, but cannot for the life of me recall for certain which Tripath chip it utilizes. I don’t want to pull the amp apart to look inside and read which one it is. What I do remember is that it’s one of the early Tripath chips in a ceramic DIP package, probably the TA3020. The chip is dual-channel, so one chip could be utilized to make a stereo amp, or one chip could be configured as an H-bridge, producing at least 200W/channel. A 200W H-bridge is what I built. So, two dual chips were then required for stereo. Among the advantages of a differential H-bridge is that it works to help stabilize the dynamic loading effects of the opposing (+/-) power-supply rails against each other.
Before coming to the question of sound character, I want to highlight a component type change which, while I hesitate to use the word transformed, but it fairly transformed the sound character of my Tripath amp. It resulted in a significant subjective improvement in clarity and ease of reproduction. Or, perhaps, resulted in a less distracting or ‘busy’ sound character is a fair alternate description. That component type change was replacing the single-metallized, Panasonic branded film capacitors in the output filter, with double-metallized, BC components branded devices of the same value. While I can’t say for certain that the double-metallization is responsible for the improvement in sound character, I suspect that it is. Especially, since double-metallized capacitors are specifically targeted toward steep switching application by their manufactures. I highly recommend changing the film capacitors in the output filter of your own switching-amps, regardless of chip or brand, from single-metallized, to double-metallized.
Now, to the sound character. In short, to my ears, my Tripath sounds superior overall to any other amplifier I’ve owned, solid-state, or tube. It doesn’t sound like solid state, but sounds rather more like solid-state than it does tubes. The subjective sound is not easy to put into words, but I suppose I could say that I’m subjectively less aware of the Tripath amp when it’s in the signal chain. It seems to impose itself less obviously on the music that it’s reproducing than do my other amps. At least, that‘s how it sounds. The general effect is similar to that of other new components which prove an upgrade to an already decent system. You are not se much consciously aware of deficiencies in your system until you experience it with the better component in place. It’s then, that you notice what had all along been deficient. I could only speculate about why my Tripath sounds better, to my ears, than do my linear amps, so I won’t.
First, as is true for other amplifiers, implementation plays a significant role in the sound character of a Tripath amp. I hand built my amp many years ago, but cannot for the life of me recall for certain which Tripath chip it utilizes. I don’t want to pull the amp apart to look inside and read which one it is. What I do remember is that it’s one of the early Tripath chips in a ceramic DIP package, probably the TA3020. The chip is dual-channel, so one chip could be utilized to make a stereo amp, or one chip could be configured as an H-bridge, producing at least 200W/channel. A 200W H-bridge is what I built. So, two dual chips were then required for stereo. Among the advantages of a differential H-bridge is that it works to help stabilize the dynamic loading effects of the opposing (+/-) power-supply rails against each other.
Before coming to the question of sound character, I want to highlight a component type change which, while I hesitate to use the word transformed, but it fairly transformed the sound character of my Tripath amp. It resulted in a significant subjective improvement in clarity and ease of reproduction. Or, perhaps, resulted in a less distracting or ‘busy’ sound character is a fair alternate description. That component type change was replacing the single-metallized, Panasonic branded film capacitors in the output filter, with double-metallized, BC components branded devices of the same value. While I can’t say for certain that the double-metallization is responsible for the improvement in sound character, I suspect that it is. Especially, since double-metallized capacitors are specifically targeted toward steep switching application by their manufactures. I highly recommend changing the film capacitors in the output filter of your own switching-amps, regardless of chip or brand, from single-metallized, to double-metallized.
Now, to the sound character. In short, to my ears, my Tripath sounds superior overall to any other amplifier I’ve owned, solid-state, or tube. It doesn’t sound like solid state, but sounds rather more like solid-state than it does tubes. The subjective sound is not easy to put into words, but I suppose I could say that I’m subjectively less aware of the Tripath amp when it’s in the signal chain. It seems to impose itself less obviously on the music that it’s reproducing than do my other amps. At least, that‘s how it sounds. The general effect is similar to that of other new components which prove an upgrade to an already decent system. You are not se much consciously aware of deficiencies in your system until you experience it with the better component in place. It’s then, that you notice what had all along been deficient. I could only speculate about why my Tripath sounds better, to my ears, than do my linear amps, so I won’t.
Last edited: