motorola dcp501

[thuthriller]

This unit has 5x100 watts of tripath power for as low as $125.00. Could it be modded to function as an amplifier only (5 ch)?

[Pano]

I keep seeing this thing on ebay. Would be nice if someone where brave enough to have look at one.

Sure looks like an interesting idea.

[john65b]

I have been thinking of doing the same, but all reviews I have seen on the Motorola unit are not very good...

I know this unit has had some major reliability problems, but I see no one praising it's sound quality...

If it sounds is good, as it should be, I would buy one just for the amp modules and forget all the other features (Cable box, DVD player, etc)...maybe rip out all of the good stuff (modules, power supply) and just recase...

K
Hmmm, too bad I just bought an AMP5, otherwise I would try it...

[john65b]

Well, finally picked up one of those New Motorola DCP-501 receivers - should be here in a few days. I will post some pics and see how it sounds. The receiver was a great idea - DVD/CD player, Cable Converter box and 6 channel Home Theater Amp, but a couple of things killed it - the DVD player has composite and S-video, but no Component - (Big mistake #1 - Why the hell not?) and also, no binding posts - all output channels are the crappy push in clip types.

Aside from the above and really horrible reliability issues, I can see why this never really sold very well. But, if I just look at the five TA3020 channels alone, well at least they hopefully could be extracted and re-housed into a nice chassis...

And since these TA3020 come in stereo pairs, there should be a hidden sixth channel somewhere like the Teac had.

Anyway more later.

[john65b]

Well, received the unit today. This thing is HUGE. The Amp board is on its side and takes up about 1/30th of the case volume (probably why Motorola went with Tripath). Pretty easy to take out the amp board if I really wanted to (except for a few Power and input/output wires that go deeper into the unit)

Anyway, popped in a Diana Krall CD and it sounded pretty damn good. Nice and clean. Tomorow I will attach my maggies and see how it sounds with a little more volume an power draw. So far I am impressed. It could have better connetors (5 way binding posts) and be a bit smaller, but I am digging it. For Brand Spankin' new, Digital Cable box, DVD/CD player and best of all three Tripath TA3020 stereo amps, all for $102 (with another $30 for shipping) I couldn't pass it up...I could really use the Motorola cable box too...hopefully Comcast will allow me to initialize it so it can be used...another story...

Anyway, I may get another chance to post some pics...

[Pano]

Cool!! Can you tell what Tripath chips it uses?

The Maggies should sound nice, they seem to make just about any amp sing.

Keep us informed.

Right now I'm listening to a stock Super-T at work on my big 2 ways. Giant room, and the Super-T is doing well. Surprising.

[john65b]

As far as I have read, they are using the TA3020, but they have a thin heatsink on them, so I cannot tell for sure...

But Like I said, so far, it was worth the $130 shipped. There is a common issue of crackling and popoing sounds, buit I have not yet seen these on mine. If I really get miffed at the noise issues (which is most likely RF and internal noise (this thing is PACKED with electronics), I will just yank the board and recase it.

Mele Kalikimaka!

And Aloha too.

[Pano]

Ahhh.. the TA2030. That's a driver chip that uses external Mosfets. Do you see the mosfets?

Mele Kalikimaka to you, too! Still waiting for snow here.

Aloha
Michael

[john65b]

The MOSFETS are under the board and attached to a sheet of aluminum heatsink.

I hooked them up to my Maggie MMG's today and at higher volumes, the OVERLOAD came on. I had to "reboot" the DCP-501 and everything was cool again. There are reports that this unit Overloads too easily, and the speaker connectors have 8 Ohms written near the speaker jacks, so I don't know if they can really run 4 ohm maggies without Overloading (I know the TA3020 is 4 ohm capable).

But it did sound very good. I will have my wife and neighbor do a listening test (my hearing is a bit shot) to see if there is a lot of static and the overall sound quality compared to a few amps I have...

Panny SA-XR25
Panny SA-XR45
Panny SA-XR50
Gainclone LM3886 (Brian GT)
LM3886 Gainclone (Generic)
Tripath TA2020 (Hypertech 6 channel Board)
Tripath TA2024 (SI 5066 slightly modded)

And I will have the following soon to compare:
Generic Gainclone LM3886 w/paralelled output 205 wpc (not yet complete)
Tripath TA2022 (AMP5 - not yet complete)
Tripath TA2350 (AMP2 - en route and not yet complete)

So far to me, the maggies sound best in this order:
SA-XR45
SA-XR50
Motorola DCP-501
Gainclone LM3886 (Brian GT)
Tripath TA2020
Gainclone LM3886 (Generic)
SA-XR25
Tripath TA2024

My wife prefers the sound of the TA2020 best...javascript:smilie('')
confused

Anyway, more later

[phone2]

Anyone have any further info on the box? How about the serial interface? Anyone using with Tivo, etc?
Thanks