Hi All,
What better sound quality build would you recommend after:
LM3875 - really happy with this, it was my first build
Class D 2020 - Sound was so so, not better than LM3875
I dont have massive power requirements, maybe around 50W max? I tend to listen on low-moderate volume and speakers are 8Ohm @ 90db sensitivity..
What can i bulid that is better sounding than what I have above?
What better sound quality build would you recommend after:
LM3875 - really happy with this, it was my first build
Class D 2020 - Sound was so so, not better than LM3875
I dont have massive power requirements, maybe around 50W max? I tend to listen on low-moderate volume and speakers are 8Ohm @ 90db sensitivity..
What can i bulid that is better sounding than what I have above?
Well . . . on the chip amp side you started near the top. A Modulus-86 would be a “better” amp, but you might not hear much, if any, difference.
On the Class D side either a IRS2092 based amp or the lower power TDA8932 would be improvements on the 2020, and will sound as good as a good LM3875/LM3886 amp.
Nothing is going to sound any better . . .
On the Class D side either a IRS2092 based amp or the lower power TDA8932 would be improvements on the 2020, and will sound as good as a good LM3875/LM3886 amp.
Nothing is going to sound any better . . .
Hi abraxalito, what does this approach do to the sound quality of LM3875? I am not that versed with electronics, so please can you explain a bit more?
Happy to have a go at answering your question, the answer might be a little long-winded 
In my experience with chipamps the PSRR is what limits the sound quality ultimately, once all possible care is taken with layout issues. PSRR is EE-speak for how sensitive an amp is to its power supply, it stands for 'power supply rejection ratio'. No matter which chipamp I've tried it has always been possible to improve the sound by adding more caps (once the supply is regulated) to the supplies. More caps means the operation of the amp itself results in less power supply noise.
There is a limit though to how many caps one can get close enough to a chipamp, so I've been exploring other ways to get around the PSRR weakness. It turns out that when a chipamp feeds a lighter load its PSRR is improved. The transformer gives the bridged amp 4X as light a load - so an 8ohm speaker turns into a 32ohm one.
The subjective difference I noticed is that the soundstage depth improved and so did dynamics. The amp with the trafo sounds more 'tubey'.
In my experience with chipamps the PSRR is what limits the sound quality ultimately, once all possible care is taken with layout issues. PSRR is EE-speak for how sensitive an amp is to its power supply, it stands for 'power supply rejection ratio'. No matter which chipamp I've tried it has always been possible to improve the sound by adding more caps (once the supply is regulated) to the supplies. More caps means the operation of the amp itself results in less power supply noise.
There is a limit though to how many caps one can get close enough to a chipamp, so I've been exploring other ways to get around the PSRR weakness. It turns out that when a chipamp feeds a lighter load its PSRR is improved. The transformer gives the bridged amp 4X as light a load - so an 8ohm speaker turns into a 32ohm one.
The subjective difference I noticed is that the soundstage depth improved and so did dynamics. The amp with the trafo sounds more 'tubey'.
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