The exact same thing happened to one of my Lepai recently. After troubleshooting, I found out both pins 2 and 8 were not getting the 5 VDC supply from pin 30 (all 3 points showing 0 VDC). This could be due to an internal fault. The rest of the components should be working fine. You can try replacing the bad chip.
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I am not sure as I live in Asia. Maybe the Europe-based members here can help.
Tripath Stereo 20 Watt Class T Digital Audio Amplifier Driver IC | TA2020-020 (TA2020020) | Distributed By MCM
Not Europe, but $399 plus postage.
If you buy five (5) they are only $3.79, plus postage.
Not Europe, but $399 plus postage.
If you buy five (5) they are only $3.79, plus postage.
Yeah... This price is about right. I paid approximately US$4 for mine, shipped from Hong Kong.
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Sorry to post somewhat OT again, but I thought someone might find this useful;
to recap, I'm using;
A Lepai TA2020 (recent revision) driving a stereo (dual voice-coil) JPW sub (12 Ohms).
An Indeed TA2020 driving Wharfedale Diamond 9.0's
The line-in is 'looped' through the Lepai and on to the Indeed.
I kept finding the need to twiddle the Lepai's volume-knob, which is effectively a bass "tone-control".
I discovered that there was a pronounced hump in the mid-bass response caused by the ports in the Wharfedales (I'm guessing they're tuned c. 50-60Hz) overlapping the output of the JPW sub.
So, I made some foam plugs for the ports in the Wharfedales, and ..... what a difference!
Damn - it sounds good. I can hear (almost) every note in the bass-lines in some of my favourite recordings (ETA >> as in, for decades), as good as I can remember; Wishbone Ash - "Live Dates", Kings of Leon "Youth and Young Manhood", Gong - "You". etc'.
It's been a long time since I looked forward to putting some music on as I do right now.
And movies are pretty good too.
ETA >> the JPW was designed to work with the company's Mini/Gold-monitors and Sonatas, which were all small, sealed-box designs, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the improvement gained in bunging the ports in the Wharfdales.
to recap, I'm using;
A Lepai TA2020 (recent revision) driving a stereo (dual voice-coil) JPW sub (12 Ohms).
An Indeed TA2020 driving Wharfedale Diamond 9.0's
The line-in is 'looped' through the Lepai and on to the Indeed.
I kept finding the need to twiddle the Lepai's volume-knob, which is effectively a bass "tone-control".
I discovered that there was a pronounced hump in the mid-bass response caused by the ports in the Wharfedales (I'm guessing they're tuned c. 50-60Hz) overlapping the output of the JPW sub.
So, I made some foam plugs for the ports in the Wharfedales, and ..... what a difference!
Damn - it sounds good. I can hear (almost) every note in the bass-lines in some of my favourite recordings (ETA >> as in, for decades), as good as I can remember; Wishbone Ash - "Live Dates", Kings of Leon "Youth and Young Manhood", Gong - "You". etc'.
It's been a long time since I looked forward to putting some music on as I do right now.
And movies are pretty good too.
ETA >> the JPW was designed to work with the company's Mini/Gold-monitors and Sonatas, which were all small, sealed-box designs, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the improvement gained in bunging the ports in the Wharfdales.
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I knew this problem some time ago and this is what I did to my Wharfedales...
I remember you mentioning this, although I didn't realise you had effectively completely blocked them. I've used light, open-cell foam plugs cut just big enough to keep them in place in the ports.
Another advantage is that this hump in response in ported speakers is seen in the impedance curve - IOW plugging the ports makes the speakers a less 'reactive' load, which must be a good thing with TA2020 amps, which I gather have a high output-impedance/low damping-factor.
This may well be part of the reason for the massive improvement it made - even kick-drums sound much tauter (but still deeper, with the sub powered up).
I should add that the 9.0's on their own don't have a really obvious 'boom', but the sub must have been at least doubling the peak in-room.
ETA >> KO (!), if you happen to come across a passive stereo sub (JPW, Bose etc') cheap, give this arrangement a go - I can't tell you how rewarding it is!
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I did try to block the ports partially with open-cell foam plugs which I fabricated from art supply material. Somehow, I still didn't like the sound (l am a trained bassist). I even tried blocking just one of the ports and switched around. But the lows were boomy and lacked definition. There was a good part in the upper mids missing too. The highs sounded muddy. These prompted me to block both ports totally. Now it is all good. Surprisingly, the lows are still there but without the boom. Midrange presence is back and the highs more extended.
My wife is a pianist and a flutist. She, too, feels they sounded more accurate with both ports completely blocked.
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I did try to block the ports partially with open-cell foam plugs which I fabricated from art supply material. Somehow, I still didn't like the sound (l am a trained bassist). The lows were boomy and lacked definition. There was a good part in the upper mids missing too. The highs sounded muddy. These prompted me to block both ports totally. Now it is all good. Surprisingly, the lows are still there but without the boom. Midrange presence is back and the highs more extended.
I'm definitely going to try solidly blocking the ports in the 9.0's, even though things as they stand really do sound very good - I have an album by Simon Philips called "Another Lifetime" (recorded and mixed entirely with analogue equipment) with Anthony Jackson on 6-string 'contrabass' which has a bottom 'B' string - and it's all there, tight and in tune!
As I said, I wonder how much of what you're hearing is due to changing the acoustics of the speakers, and how much to the change in the load/reactance seen by the TA2020 (assuming you're using one)?
ETA >> a couple of other details - as well as sitting on slab of limestone on an inner-tube, I have 2 2-1/2" thick phone directories on the sub. I intend to experiment with a bit of port-tuning on it some point.
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I am using both the Exposure 2010S and Lepai LP-2020A+. They sound very much similar, with the Exposure having better authority and control in the lows. The Lepai sounds cleaner, clearer and more detailed though.
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Sorry, but I've got to share this;
My introduction to jazz-rock/fusion was Stanley Clarke, back when he released his first albums in the early 1970's.
I got home at 6.30 this evening, nicely relaxed from a productive day, and I've just this minute finished listening right through "Stanley Clarke" and "Journey to Love", beginning-to-end (from the un-adulterated, first-release CD's), those first two albums that I know so, SO well, via my pair of TA2020's, and I've NEVER heard them sound better.
Just stunning!
My introduction to jazz-rock/fusion was Stanley Clarke, back when he released his first albums in the early 1970's.
I got home at 6.30 this evening, nicely relaxed from a productive day, and I've just this minute finished listening right through "Stanley Clarke" and "Journey to Love", beginning-to-end (from the un-adulterated, first-release CD's), those first two albums that I know so, SO well, via my pair of TA2020's, and I've NEVER heard them sound better.
Just stunning!
I'm not surprised that the Exposure would have better control - it's a 'proper' amplifier with equally proper low output-impedance - much more voltage and current capacity - hard to imagine a more different beast to a TA2020.
But interesting that they have a similar sound, presumably with the Exposure practically idling and the Lepai running nearly flat-out
[Off-topic]
A tip;
Speaker cables; always seperate the +/- runs.
IOW, whether it's lighting-flex or "audiophile" figure-of-8 cable, split the two runs and let them dangle as they may.
And if it's multi-strand, solder the ends.
I've been doing this after experiencing DNM interconnects and speaker cable many years ago.
I guess it reduces capacitance, or something, but take my word - it's well worth doing.
[/off-topic]
A tip;
Speaker cables; always seperate the +/- runs.
IOW, whether it's lighting-flex or "audiophile" figure-of-8 cable, split the two runs and let them dangle as they may.
And if it's multi-strand, solder the ends.
I've been doing this after experiencing DNM interconnects and speaker cable many years ago.
I guess it reduces capacitance, or something, but take my word - it's well worth doing.
[/off-topic]
Thanks for the tip. I have been doing this for the past 30 years, so this is nothing new to me. Yes, separate your cables does make them sound better.
I use single conductor 22AWG Cu wire for speaker wires, Ag plated to save the CU from the heavy Teflon jacketing. Cu and Teflon argue 
The bare ends tarnish, so, I cut then off every year, or so. The freshly peeled new ends still look brand new. I bought a fifteen pound reel of scraps, over a decade ago. I have not made much of a dent in that reel. A "sound" investment.
My switching power supply wall wart delivers 12.75 V to the LP-2020A+.
It was really noisy.
I have now spliced in a C-R-C-R-C-R-C-R-C-R-C-R-C "Pi" filter into the wires from the wall wart to the LP-2020A+.
It is now a bit quieter. And delivers 9.48 volts and 300 mA.
9.48V*0.3A = 2.8 watts to the chip.
2.8 watts * 80% worst case efficiency is 2.25 watts to the speex.
That is ~96 dB on my woofers at 430 Hz. crossover point, to ~80dB at 30 Hz @1W/1M.
It sounds OK.
The bare ends tarnish, so, I cut then off every year, or so. The freshly peeled new ends still look brand new. I bought a fifteen pound reel of scraps, over a decade ago. I have not made much of a dent in that reel. A "sound" investment.My switching power supply wall wart delivers 12.75 V to the LP-2020A+.
It was really noisy.
I have now spliced in a C-R-C-R-C-R-C-R-C-R-C-R-C "Pi" filter into the wires from the wall wart to the LP-2020A+.
It is now a bit quieter. And delivers 9.48 volts and 300 mA.
9.48V*0.3A = 2.8 watts to the chip.
2.8 watts * 80% worst case efficiency is 2.25 watts to the speex.
That is ~96 dB on my woofers at 430 Hz. crossover point, to ~80dB at 30 Hz @1W/1M.
It sounds OK.
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