A Class D amplifier is similar to a switching power supply.
Supposing a new company in UK or Europe or USA set out to make Class D amplifiers supplied by SMPS.
Then can you agree that this is simply not possible?
After all, it is simply not possible to start an SMPS company anywhere in the world outside of the Far East.
So how could it be possible to start a company that makes Class-D-amplifiers-powered-by-SMPS's outside of the Far East?
Labour costs are simply too high outside of the Far East for it to be possible to design and manufacture SMPS's
Also, the Far Eastern mentality of fantastic dedication coupled with workaholicism which is necessary in switching amp/PSU industry means that a Western company simply cannot compete in the design and manufacture of SMPS.
So why are Western companies now starting to try to design and manufacture Class-D-amplifiers-powered-by-SMPS's ?
-they will never be able to compete with the Far East.
Supposing a new company in UK or Europe or USA set out to make Class D amplifiers supplied by SMPS.
Then can you agree that this is simply not possible?
After all, it is simply not possible to start an SMPS company anywhere in the world outside of the Far East.
So how could it be possible to start a company that makes Class-D-amplifiers-powered-by-SMPS's outside of the Far East?
Labour costs are simply too high outside of the Far East for it to be possible to design and manufacture SMPS's
Also, the Far Eastern mentality of fantastic dedication coupled with workaholicism which is necessary in switching amp/PSU industry means that a Western company simply cannot compete in the design and manufacture of SMPS.
So why are Western companies now starting to try to design and manufacture Class-D-amplifiers-powered-by-SMPS's ?
-they will never be able to compete with the Far East.
OK Thanks,
I can assure you that in UK, there are virtually no SMPS design and manufacture companies.....apart from a few very small ones, which are mostly in Military sector, since for obvious reasons, that sometimes has to be done close to home.
Icepowers 250ASX2 costs $499................
BO ICEPower 250 ASX-2 Bare Module
...realistically speaking, you could not put that into a guitar amplifier and hope to compete with something from the Far East.
Also, SMPS/Amplifier combo modules are too inflexible for general design of Class D guitar amplifier products.......you need a separate SMPS unit.........to which you can attach any one of your Class D designs.....depending on the particular amplifier product requirement......combo modules are just too inflexible for guitar usage.
Besides...what if icepower suddenly stop making a certain power supply/amp module that you are putting in your product?.........thats big problems.
The Far East is the centre of SMPS DESIGN in the world....especially Japan...but more so in China now, as well as India which is getting into design too.
I am afraid western companies that try to compete with the Far East by designing and building Class-D-Amplifiers-supplied-by-SMPS's (i mean the whole product, not just the Class D/SMPS PCB) will not survive..........
......Just look at Flat screen televisions.............
......Not one single western company exists in this field........almost all are Japanese (Panasonic, Sony, Hitachi)...........with some Korean (Samsung), and one is Turkish (LG)
If Western companies cannot compete in terms of televisions, then why are guitar amplifier products different.?
I can assure you that in UK, there are virtually no SMPS design and manufacture companies.....apart from a few very small ones, which are mostly in Military sector, since for obvious reasons, that sometimes has to be done close to home.
Icepowers 250ASX2 costs $499................
BO ICEPower 250 ASX-2 Bare Module
...realistically speaking, you could not put that into a guitar amplifier and hope to compete with something from the Far East.
Also, SMPS/Amplifier combo modules are too inflexible for general design of Class D guitar amplifier products.......you need a separate SMPS unit.........to which you can attach any one of your Class D designs.....depending on the particular amplifier product requirement......combo modules are just too inflexible for guitar usage.
Besides...what if icepower suddenly stop making a certain power supply/amp module that you are putting in your product?.........thats big problems.
The Far East is the centre of SMPS DESIGN in the world....especially Japan...but more so in China now, as well as India which is getting into design too.
I am afraid western companies that try to compete with the Far East by designing and building Class-D-Amplifiers-supplied-by-SMPS's (i mean the whole product, not just the Class D/SMPS PCB) will not survive..........
......Just look at Flat screen televisions.............
......Not one single western company exists in this field........almost all are Japanese (Panasonic, Sony, Hitachi)...........with some Korean (Samsung), and one is Turkish (LG)
If Western companies cannot compete in terms of televisions, then why are guitar amplifier products different.?
Yes, -There are certain non-Far Eastern companies (eg Vicor) which design and build SMPS.....I agree, but.....
....these are heavily funded by the taxpayer in order to make them competitve with Far Eastern Equivalents.
Western governments do not want to loose all contact with Electronics design and Manufacture, so they provide funding for certain industries in this field....
...for example, take Tridonic......a huge Austrian lighting company, heavily in receipt of goverment funding, because low-and-behold, what would become of the West if we could not even light up our own homes and factories with our own lights?
Tridonics lighting products could not otherwise hope to compete with super cheap Chinese imports.
However, Western governments are not inclined to thinking that guitar amplifiers are so crucial to everyday life that they should receive some of this lovely government funding.........so there is no way that designers and manufacturers of Class-D-Amplifiers-supplied-by-SMPS's in the West will be able to compete with Far Eastern competition.
....these are heavily funded by the taxpayer in order to make them competitve with Far Eastern Equivalents.
Western governments do not want to loose all contact with Electronics design and Manufacture, so they provide funding for certain industries in this field....
...for example, take Tridonic......a huge Austrian lighting company, heavily in receipt of goverment funding, because low-and-behold, what would become of the West if we could not even light up our own homes and factories with our own lights?
Tridonics lighting products could not otherwise hope to compete with super cheap Chinese imports.
However, Western governments are not inclined to thinking that guitar amplifiers are so crucial to everyday life that they should receive some of this lovely government funding.........so there is no way that designers and manufacturers of Class-D-Amplifiers-supplied-by-SMPS's in the West will be able to compete with Far Eastern competition.
I am not saying that SMPS is necessarily different from anything else.........the Far Eastern companies excel over the West in the design and manufacture of many other electronic products too.
I bring up smps, since there are billions of them built, and because, the Class D amplifier, is a switching amplifier, and has similarities to an smps.......
.....and so Class D amplifiers, like SMPS's will be cheaper designed and built in the Far East.
Gone are the days when the Far East just did the manufacture of products like SMPS............the Far East are the world's major designers of SMPS now.
-this is no surprise, because design and manufacture need to be closely coupled to get a good cost effective product.
How many times, when you are drawing out an smps schematic, you are actually visualising the component on the PCB, and thinking that would be a good schematic, -easy for the assemblers to assemble cheaply without them making assembly errors etc.....its "design-for-manufacture"
Perhaps western politicians do not realise this.
Soon the west will not have the capacity/capability to design-and-manufacture many things like SMPS......and then the lowly payed Far Easterners will raise their prices many-fold...and wake up the west
I bring up smps, since there are billions of them built, and because, the Class D amplifier, is a switching amplifier, and has similarities to an smps.......
.....and so Class D amplifiers, like SMPS's will be cheaper designed and built in the Far East.
Gone are the days when the Far East just did the manufacture of products like SMPS............the Far East are the world's major designers of SMPS now.
-this is no surprise, because design and manufacture need to be closely coupled to get a good cost effective product.
How many times, when you are drawing out an smps schematic, you are actually visualising the component on the PCB, and thinking that would be a good schematic, -easy for the assemblers to assemble cheaply without them making assembly errors etc.....its "design-for-manufacture"
Perhaps western politicians do not realise this.
Soon the west will not have the capacity/capability to design-and-manufacture many things like SMPS......and then the lowly payed Far Easterners will raise their prices many-fold...and wake up the west
This is verging on a political discussion. Let's not go there. Read the rules.
Hi eem2am,
Now you're back on topic.
The reason smps power supplies are made in places not in the far east is simply because that performance is the key issue in those cases. The typical consumer buys the least expensive item they can find that they think will work. That should explain a lot about the audio market. When you get into industrial and high reliability markets, those same market forces don't apply. Even less so in Military applications.
The second reason why smps supplies are built all over the world is the issue of supply for spares. So there you have what is called "intangibles", or things an accountant just cannot understand.
-Chris
Now you're back on topic.
The reason smps power supplies are made in places not in the far east is simply because that performance is the key issue in those cases. The typical consumer buys the least expensive item they can find that they think will work. That should explain a lot about the audio market. When you get into industrial and high reliability markets, those same market forces don't apply. Even less so in Military applications.
The second reason why smps supplies are built all over the world is the issue of supply for spares. So there you have what is called "intangibles", or things an accountant just cannot understand.
-Chris
OK , but lets look at the "performance and reliability" issue that you speak of.
Server power supplies have got to be very reliable, and very good performance....otherwise all that data can get lost etc.
So why, when i went to an (SMPS) job interview at IBM (A USA company) in Portsmouth, UK, did i find that every single server power supply at IBM was DESIGNED and manufactured in the Far East?
These server power supplies were "dual-redundant" SMPS's with two SMPS's sharing the load, and when/if one should break down, the other one takes all the load by itself......an application requiring high quality and reliability.........IBM is one of the biggest companies in the world.
....and they choose to get their high quality SMPS's DESIGNED and manufactured in the Far East.
Server power supplies have got to be very reliable, and very good performance....otherwise all that data can get lost etc.
So why, when i went to an (SMPS) job interview at IBM (A USA company) in Portsmouth, UK, did i find that every single server power supply at IBM was DESIGNED and manufactured in the Far East?
These server power supplies were "dual-redundant" SMPS's with two SMPS's sharing the load, and when/if one should break down, the other one takes all the load by itself......an application requiring high quality and reliability.........IBM is one of the biggest companies in the world.
....and they choose to get their high quality SMPS's DESIGNED and manufactured in the Far East.
There are numerous designs of SMPS's done in the UK, and also manufactured here. And with surface mount designs and good production facilities Europe and the UK can compete with far eastern manufacture. Though not as wide spread as they use to be there is still a surprising amount of electronics designed and produced in Europe, though not in the volumes Foxcomm etc produce.
There is still a lot of design that exists outside of the East, that then uses China etc as its manufacturing base.
There is still a lot of design that exists outside of the East, that then uses China etc as its manufacturing base.
Taking for example the UK.....
Outside of companies which do SMPS's for military applications, there is not one single SMPS Design and build company which is UK owned.
I think that says it all.
These are the ones that exist in the UK......but none are UK owned...
Lambda, Ilfracombe.
Martek, Cambridge
XP Power, Chipping Ongar,
Pulse Electronics, St Neots,
Delta, East Kilbride
There are billions of SMPS in use in the UK......hardly any of that huge quantity are designed and built here, or even designed here.
Outside of companies which do SMPS's for military applications, there is not one single SMPS Design and build company which is UK owned.
I think that says it all.
These are the ones that exist in the UK......but none are UK owned...
Lambda, Ilfracombe.
Martek, Cambridge
XP Power, Chipping Ongar,
Pulse Electronics, St Neots,
Delta, East Kilbride
There are billions of SMPS in use in the UK......hardly any of that huge quantity are designed and built here, or even designed here.
eem2am, you may like to read this article. It's specifically about HHDs, but the principles are the same.
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