miniAMP sound quality

[otto88]

Who has compared the miniAMP to other amps, and can comment on the sound quality (and through what speakers)?

 

[twest820]

I've been wondering about this as well, but if MiniDSP documents which chip's used on the board I'm not spotting where. Neither am I finding any threads which mention it or pics of the board without the heatsink on. But from the specs, supply voltage, and shape of the heatsink my guess is it might be a TAS5601.

Tony, could you comment?

 

[minidsp]

The IC used for miniAMP is from the purepath series.. TAS5704 it is.

 

[twest820]

Ah, thanks. Datasheet's here for folks who are interested.

 

[otto88]

Thanks guys.

I had a look at PurePath and the TAS5704.

Totally different architecture and output, but the question is, how the harmonic distortion pattern (2 – 3 – 4 – 5HD) compares to the National based “chip amps”, eg LM3886, or even LME49713

 

[twest820]

Don't forget slew rate, GBP, PSRR, CMRR, and that while harmonic masking applies to THD it's not particularly relevant to IMD. Assuming a source with sufficient drive current, the 49713 beats everything I know of except the 49990 (though SEOs based on either op amp will generally performance limit on the output devices). However, that's a somewhat unfair comparison as it's tough to build one SEO channel for the price of the MiniAmp, much less four and the glue logic to attach to a MiniDSP---after all, a BOM of USD 5 per channel is insufficient to buy a single 49713 in DIY quantities.