Recently received the 2.0 board, should say sounds just great with 7.3 (sounded harsh at first, needed about half-hour break-in). Compared to my sustained UCD180 amp TPA3116 board is maybe tad warmer/darker and less detailed but that's barely noticable and might depend on PSU/wires. Overall very clean, melodic and dynamic. I'd rate it excellent especially considering the price, great "poor man's hifi" being combined with ES9023-based DAC from hifimediy, no-brainer for CHR-70-based budget system at least.
In fact, after longer break-in (or just careful listening) I gotta admit it's practically undistinguishable from UCD180 in mids and highs, but has slightly better bass (tighter and cleaner). This can be explained as UCD180 are used with preamp which can affect sound this way (TPA3116 got volume pot solely), gotta look deeper into this issue but anyway I'm very impressed by these tiny beasts (got two of them to save on shipping). Absolutely best $33 spent on two HiFi power amps ))) Good power supply costs more than board itself though.
Zia, which amp will you compare it to? Would be very interesting to hear about your experience as all my previous amps except UCD180 were not so hifi (NAD, H/K...).
Zia, which amp will you compare it to? Would be very interesting to hear about your experience as all my previous amps except UCD180 were not so hifi (NAD, H/K...).
Yuri,
In my case I have a UcD180 too.
Have a Tripath TK2050 somewhere, plus a HifimeDIY DDX320 2.1 amp to make further comparisons. Have a Tubelab SSE too, but George himself has already compared that.
The UcD180 can sound very strong in the bass area, while the TK2050 was a bit tighter sounding, but not that refined.
The volume pot of the TPA3116 is also likely to be influencing the sound, but what I am hearing from you and other folks on diyAudio is that these amps are very impressive.
In my case I have a UcD180 too.
Have a Tripath TK2050 somewhere, plus a HifimeDIY DDX320 2.1 amp to make further comparisons. Have a Tubelab SSE too, but George himself has already compared that.The UcD180 can sound very strong in the bass area, while the TK2050 was a bit tighter sounding, but not that refined.
The volume pot of the TPA3116 is also likely to be influencing the sound, but what I am hearing from you and other folks on diyAudio is that these amps are very impressive.
And I'v got DDX320 too... oops ))) BTW don't you think it does not handle complicated stuff well enough (in comparison to UCD180) but great on details and has very dry and refined sounding at least on calm music?
Anyway I'm sure any of these amps is capable of showing the potential of MA drivers.
Anyway I'm sure any of these amps is capable of showing the potential of MA drivers.
Yuri,
The DDX320 has a digital signal processing function built in. So when it comes to "sound", the DSP is likely to be contributing to the output also. I am not sure if there is an option to bypass the onboard processing. Yes, I find the UcD180 to be more revealing on complex music with my other DAC (Xonar STX), and definitely with more oomph, dynamics, and headroom - which is expected, as is a much more powerful and well reputed Class D amp, plus the SMPS is good too
. The DDX320 is a decent performer with a nice tonal balance. Yes, the bass seems less powerful (tight and dry though), but I wonder if a better power supply unit can make the amp sound more powerful and dynamic.
You are right, MA drivers work pretty well with these amps and even compact and simple setups can make for enjoyable listening.
Yuri,
The UcD sounds more dynamic, muscular- it should - it is rated at 180 watt/channel vs the 5 wpc Tubelab SSE. The SSE works better with the higher efficiency drivers (Alpair 12P) and sounds sweeter - in mid and upper ranges. I mostly listen at moderate volumes (<75 dB), so the SSE works fine most of the time.
Will definitely update when the TPA3116 amps come in.
The UcD sounds more dynamic, muscular- it should - it is rated at 180 watt/channel vs the 5 wpc Tubelab SSE.
The SSE works better with the higher efficiency drivers (Alpair 12P) and sounds sweeter - in mid and upper ranges. I mostly listen at moderate volumes (<75 dB), so the SSE works fine most of the time.Will definitely update when the TPA3116 amps come in.
what powersupply you
Are using? From manufacturer I got to know that at output the 2.0 board has R-C snubber and L-C filter using 22uH and 470nF. I guess these are used for filtering out high frequency from smps power supply.
Not exactly, these are for filtering out 400 kHz modulation (switching) frequency. Class D amps being SMPS themself by their nature are less sensitive to supply quality than plain analog amps but input curcuits still deserve better power. Said that I'm using general notebook-type SMPS and results are quite good, better PS probably would yield even better, haven't tried yet.
Spent a week in comparison finally I gotta admit I am certainly prefer this amp sounding to UCD180 (which is powered by toroid with 30K uF ecaps btw). Bravo to TI, excellent work! Guess they targeted more to efficiency and BOM cost but happily it came out as such an amazing amp.
YMMV as always though.
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ordered a 2.0 board.
the original review of tbisound's amp has given impression that battery PS makes night-and-day difference to sound quality. will you be trying out battery PS? i am thinking of two SLA batteries in series, they usually come at 12v/7A rating.
Two 12v SLAs may be too much. My 2 SLAs came to 26.1v and the inductors became very hot. I am using higher rated inductors so I am sure the stock ones would not handle that very well. 12v will be *more* than plenty for full range.
And yes battery power sounds fantastic. Not that you can't get good sound from a SMPS, but I think it involved more attention and effort. 12v SLAs are cheap and last a while. My 18ah battery lasts about 11 days and charges in same amount of hours.
may be 12v is enough for alpairs at 87dB, but for some types of music, sometimes i feel there is lack of headroom. thats the reason why i want to keep plenty of watts i.e. 30W/8ohms available for alpairs. i guess with 12v, i could get around 10W of power. ofcourse SLA battery charging etc. is not user friendly unless there is dedicated controller for that.
Sorry I forgot I was thinking in terms of 4 ohms since that's what I have. But try out 12v first anyway.
yes. first will try with single 12v battery.
anyone here aware of auto-charging controller for SLA batteries?
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