Peachtree new GaN-1 all "Digital Amplifier" the future?? (and it's not Class-D)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Jump to Latest
#45
HAYK said:
See post 1.
On simulator using the same GaNs in bridge with 5ns dead time it measured 0.007% with 200khz carrier.
Click to expand...
This is at least an order of magnitude worse than the state of the art.

Nevertheless the reduction of the dead time is a property of using the GaN devices not the digital input. Much better to use GaN in an analogue input class D with post filter feedback.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cab and chris719
#46
I know that at high speed, miltiple gigahertz analog solutions are needed most of the time. But are we really there with GAN audio amps?
I also know there are som very clever analog feedback designs out there. But is the speed/timing really that high? So those analog designs can’t be ported to digital domain
 
#48
5th element said:
There's no need to try and combine the two and TI have even given up on this concept with a lot of their single chip amps. Most of them now contain a traditional DAC plus class D amplifier together in the one package.
Click to expand...
I still have the old Panasonic SA-XR55 "all digital" PWM amp using the TI chip. It still sounds darn good when fed a clean digital signal (forget about analogue inputs). I think these types of PWM amps have a great role when they are priced low and plenty available (like Panny was), so I wish TI would have continued to make such products.

Now what we have are "audiophile" companies making PWM products and charging orders of magnitude more money. "Audiophile grade" might as well spell "Hospital Grade" as far as pricing anomalities..
 
#50
Don't have the SA-XR55, but i have the Sony STR-DB900 with analog inputs for each chanel like the panny.
Its from 2004. So should not the digital circuits have speeded up to cope with GAN in 2023?
This is the amp part from the service manual of the STR-DB900
1695890246443.png
 
#58
jan.didden said:
They are the output devices. They operate in the voltage, current, time domain. That's analog.
Click to expand...
Correct, they're just doing a bit of marketing.
These Peachtree GaN-1 and Carina-GaN are digital all the way "up to the output stage", which is more digtal than anything else today.
Yes from what I've read the GaN output stage themselves the way Peachtree use them are analog, but because of their far superior switching speed and dead time figures, they allow the use of "everything before them to be totally digital", which Mosfets can't from what I gather. (correct me if I've understood it wrong)

Cheers George
 
#60
Another thing I should have added to the GaN output transistor superior switching speed and dead time figures over Mosfet, is it said that because of these advatages over Mosfets they can be used open loop (zero feedback) (as Peachtree do in these 2 amps) and yet still have great low distortion figure of .04% or was it .004%. Remember designers only use global feedback as a bandaid to bring distortion and output impedance down, most prefer and myself "the sound" of local feedback only if the distortion and output impedance are still kept low.

Cheers George
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom