UCD180 questions

[peranders]

Tripath is the best and UcD not so good... but don't forget in combination with their speakers... and.. their taste.

If I'll get the time I will translate the review for you.

More UcD goddies here:

http://www.hififorum.nu/forum/topic....OPIC_ID=32073&

[classd4sure]

From what I could understand of a web-translation I would bet it's the sound of the op amp used on the UcD180 which they dislike, wonder how they might rate a UcD400 with the op amp upgrade... Also wondering how scientific their tests were, did they listen to them all at the exact same SPL, for instance.

All the same, you have to take a review like that for what it's worth, very little. Doesn't hurt anything at all unless you run out and order a few thousand Tripath amps, and no one will do that based on someone elses review.

Peranders I might have missed a few posts, but did you wind up trying out a module yet? If so I'd be interested in knowing what you think of it, I would think your reference would be other, non class d type of amps, would be intriguing.

Thanks

[peranders]

I was very interested in a UcD400 and I have also a "group buy" for all around Göteborg but I think I'll wait, both of time and money reasons.

Regardless of ACME's review I'm very interested in the UcD400 modules.

[classd4sure]

Yes, I've had dreams about it, but I as well, am waiting. I now have a hard drive to replace I didn't plan for either, I lost everything. Only thing that makes it bearable is that I posted the circuits I spent so much time on so they at least are not lost.

I also fear what they'd stick me with at customs for a few modules.

[Jan-Peter]

Hello,

Bruno is EXTREMELY busy with his job and his private company (www.grimmaudio.com), so sadly he has no time yet to post answerings on the Forum. I hope everybody can respect this, perhaps in future he can find again some time.

But........

He gave me this reaction as a small comment on the test of the Swedish guys;

"In my spare time I sometimes do some CD mastering. One fixture in my bag of tricks is to add a resonant boost of +2dB at 20kHz, Q=2. The effect of this is quite astounding. Unlike a shelf boost, which simply adds glare and harshness, this measure does not affect the tonal quality of the sound, but adds significantly to the depth and detail in a recording. More air, more lushness, whatever you fancy calling it, and curiously no noticeable added HF.
Incidentally this is pretty much the same effect as what is produced by an underdamped LC lowpass filter in a class D amplifier without post-filter feedback. The funny thing is that some other mastering engineers (who are much more famous than me :-) have fallen into this trap and have installed such an amplifier in their monitoring system - not realising it's something they should be doing to the recording (if needed!), not something the amplifier should be doing in their replay. Acme and brosan had better checked the frequency response of their test amps with the speakers connected."

Regards,

Jan-Peter

[peranders]

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...481#post518481
The translation is finished and I did it as good as I could.

ACME and his brother's review is the only one which don't floats on but the average opinion is pretty good so all that bad can't the UcD180 be. I wonder what have happened if they had used other speakers?

[classd4sure]

Hi

Don't laugh at me becasue translating text which is about emotions is really hard but I'll hope you will get spirit of what they are saying.

Laugh? Never, more like, thanks for your time and effort, job well done! I'm sure we all appreciate the difficulties, and believe me, that was faaaar more understandable (X100000) than a web translation could ever hope to be.

It kind of does seem like something was amiss with thier UcD module implementation, doesn't it? Exactly what, I coulnd't say. Due keep us posted should they decide to retry it with a UcD400

I don't think anyone will be cancelling their orders anytime soon based on their review anyway, to be honest.

Thanks again.

[stef1777]

All these amps are very sensitive to the PSU. No idea of what they used to test the amps?

[Jan-Peter]

Peranders

Thanks for your translating. I am born in Sweden (Lidköping, and my mother is Swedish), but sadly I have forgotten my motherlanguage, because when I was 6 years old we moved to the Netherlands and start to learn Dutch......

Can you tell me something more about the materials they use for the acoustical test like preamp, loudspeakers etc....?

Perhaps they have to get used to the different sound of an amplifier with constant loop gain, what has the same fingerprint (sonic spoken) as a tube amplifier.

The UcD has a complete flat THD versus Frequency curve whereby the ICE and Tripath rizes quit fast above 1kHz. And not to forget the Tripath doesn't have at all a pre filter feedback. So the Tripath can't compensate the outputfilter.

Regards,

Jan-Peter

[peranders]

Your name is very swedish but quite unusual.

I recommend that you search in hififorum.nu and if you find something interesting, point that out and I can help or you could register yourself there and write in english, 99% of all members speaks english.

http://www.hififorum.nu is the best forum in Sweden.... just so you know.....