T-Amp sound/power - Am I missing something?

[seawalker]

Hello all, I just got my first T-Amp and Im kind of disappointed with the sound quality. I bought two to try out from parts express, the Topping TP20 and the Dta 100a.

My set up is a discrete soundcard to Tamp to a pair of paradigm atom bookshelf monitors. The Topping's 25wpc doesn't sound like it has enough current to drive these little speaker's woofers that well. I think they have an 89db sensitivity so I thought 25 watts would be sufficient. I have to turn the volume pot to the 2 oclock position to get a reasonable sound.

The dta 100a drove the speakers much better, but I still feel like the amp is not moving much air out of the reflex ports compared to a small A/B amp. The DTA amp came to the house with something rattling in the case and the hex scews on the face place were stripped :/ ... beside the point i guess, but another disappointment to all of the rave reviews.

The sound is indeed very clear which I prefer to a lot of warmth but it just seems too thin to me, lacking definition in the mids and kick in the upper lows. I saw another forum member was using a TP21 with a tube preamp and getting good results. But I feel like I am not getting the results I should be getting.

Any suggestions?

[Kjeldsen]

First of all, these small tripath manufacturers tend to use 10% THD+n at 4 ohm load. The 25 WPC is more like 15 real WPC in 4 ohm and even less i 8 ohm (maybe 10 WPC)

[seawalker]

Right. Distortion in the other problem but even with the dayton t. Some howhere is distortion in the base frequencies. I think that one starts to distort at 30wpc so maybe the peaks are going past this. At any rate I just dont get all the excitement. Maybe I should try the tipping t60 or just go back to solid state. But I read that a lot of folks find these little guys to be more than enough for reasonable listening levels which is what I do. Im also speculating that the input voltage might be an issue.

[Kjeldsen]

I have Arjen Helder 2024 based amp. It's only semi-finished, but requires only minor skills to get to work.

It's fine for small Behringer speakers with 5" woofers. I also have a 4 channel T.I. based amp (miniamp from MiniDSP) with 10 wpc in 8 ohms on larger speaker, and it's ok but not loud at all.

[Kjeldsen]

take a look here. It's some amps with decent power
CLASS D AMP - Wholesale products with online transaction

[jazzminded]

I have been happily using a KingRex T20U (with their PSU) for over a year now and wished I'd had this fabulous amp for the last thirty years of my listening life.
I do use a pair of Tekton Design 4.5en's, with the Fostex FE126En drivers. I wouldn't mind having an extra octave of bottom end but the clarity and acuity of this wonderful speaker more than compensates for it.

[dangus]

Add a subwoofer; it's not reasonable to expect real bass from tiny bookshelf speakers. Or use larger more efficient speakers.

[jazzminded]

I'm sure seawalker would be happier with a sub in his setup.
For myself, I have yet to hear a sub that doesn't sound thumpy and artifcial to my ears. The Tekton's do a fine job of giving me the illusion that all these musicians are in between my speakers!