I built a 41Hz amp4 a while back, and like the sound quite a bit. So much so that I don't mind getting another TK2050 based amp. But the 41hz build was a bit confusing (small parts; some part # don't follow any order; the board has power supply section built-in which I don't use/need, etc). Now 41Hz support site is down, without knowing when it will come back on, I am not sure if I want to do another amp4 anytime soon.
About a weeks ago I was browsing ebay and noticed that there are quite a few 2050 based boards. One of them piqued my interest, the layout seems to be very straight forward with common sense (which is a good sign, suggesting they probably did manual routing instead of auto-route) , components are minimalistic (which is good since I will replace a lot of them anyway), the whole arrangement/ parts spacing also seems quite promising for easy modification.
So I bit the bullet and bought one from this listinghttp://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...io01-20&ipn=psmain&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg. I suppose $25 is a no-brainier for a fully built TK2050 board. (for that kind of $ I can't even get another amp4 parts kit).
** I don't know if my case is typical or not, but the seller shipped my order at lighting speed, I did the "buy it now" around 4PM and by 6:30pm I got an e-mail with a tracking # indicating the board was shipped. According to the tracking system it should show up in my mail box within the next couple of days, which will make the total ship time around 10 days, to the US.
Since I have done Tripath based stuff before, I will go straight to the good stuff, here are the planned mods:
-- Replace input caps with good quality film caps. Judging from the auction photo, the stock caps are electrolytic's.
-- replace bias-cap (the 0.1uf that goes to the ground, yes I know there must be one, it is on the TK2050 spec sheet) with good quality film cap.
-- Replace output inductors with toroidal air coils.
-- Replace output filter caps with good quality polyprop caps.
-- Do a linearly regulated 22V power supply to power the board. ( 20V so it is safe to drive both 4 ohm and 8 ohm speakers. ). I will use 4x 7812, float the reference/ground pin to 8V using a 4-LED string, that should provide the 20V/4A I need.
-- Maybe add a volume control, if so it will be a shunt type with an Alps pot and AudioNote resistors.
Stay tuned, if you are interested in doing a similar project.
About a weeks ago I was browsing ebay and noticed that there are quite a few 2050 based boards. One of them piqued my interest, the layout seems to be very straight forward with common sense (which is a good sign, suggesting they probably did manual routing instead of auto-route) , components are minimalistic (which is good since I will replace a lot of them anyway), the whole arrangement/ parts spacing also seems quite promising for easy modification.
So I bit the bullet and bought one from this listinghttp://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...io01-20&ipn=psmain&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg. I suppose $25 is a no-brainier for a fully built TK2050 board. (for that kind of $ I can't even get another amp4 parts kit).
** I don't know if my case is typical or not, but the seller shipped my order at lighting speed, I did the "buy it now" around 4PM and by 6:30pm I got an e-mail with a tracking # indicating the board was shipped. According to the tracking system it should show up in my mail box within the next couple of days, which will make the total ship time around 10 days, to the US.
Since I have done Tripath based stuff before, I will go straight to the good stuff, here are the planned mods:
-- Replace input caps with good quality film caps. Judging from the auction photo, the stock caps are electrolytic's.
-- replace bias-cap (the 0.1uf that goes to the ground, yes I know there must be one, it is on the TK2050 spec sheet) with good quality film cap.
-- Replace output inductors with toroidal air coils.
-- Replace output filter caps with good quality polyprop caps.
-- Do a linearly regulated 22V power supply to power the board. ( 20V so it is safe to drive both 4 ohm and 8 ohm speakers. ). I will use 4x 7812, float the reference/ground pin to 8V using a 4-LED string, that should provide the 20V/4A I need.
-- Maybe add a volume control, if so it will be a shunt type with an Alps pot and AudioNote resistors.
Stay tuned, if you are interested in doing a similar project.
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IMO 🙂 The Best mod possible would be to source a proven Genuine Tripath chip and fit it.
Good luck with that tho 😉
Then proceed to replace ALL the other rubbish quality parts.
For $20.. likely even the solder was recycled rubbish
Good luck with that tho 😉
Then proceed to replace ALL the other rubbish quality parts.
For $20.. likely even the solder was recycled rubbish
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hehehe, the price does seem awfully low, we just have to wait and see how bad/good the board turn out to be.
On the other hand, most of the cost on a class-D board is from the support components, and judging from the auction photo most components on that board look cheap (which is a good thing since I will replace a lot of them). Maybe that is why they can sell it at such a low $.
By the way, is there that many fake tripath chips out there? they aren't that expensive to begin with and I don't think the production has ever stopped even after Tripath went under as a company? I can see somebody repackaging the (less expensive) TA2021/2024 into DIP package, in a small factory using relatively simple machinery, and sell it as TA2020 (which usually demand a little more $); I don't see how one can easily fake a functional TK2050, it is a SMD chip set, and there isn't any lower priced chip set that one can use for repackaging. It is no garage-level work to fake a functional SMD chip (and this board is supposedly fully done and ready to use)....
We will find out soon enough, hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.
On the other hand, most of the cost on a class-D board is from the support components, and judging from the auction photo most components on that board look cheap (which is a good thing since I will replace a lot of them). Maybe that is why they can sell it at such a low $.
By the way, is there that many fake tripath chips out there? they aren't that expensive to begin with and I don't think the production has ever stopped even after Tripath went under as a company? I can see somebody repackaging the (less expensive) TA2021/2024 into DIP package, in a small factory using relatively simple machinery, and sell it as TA2020 (which usually demand a little more $); I don't see how one can easily fake a functional TK2050, it is a SMD chip set, and there isn't any lower priced chip set that one can use for repackaging. It is no garage-level work to fake a functional SMD chip (and this board is supposedly fully done and ready to use)....
We will find out soon enough, hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.
got the board in mail.
the good:
-- shipping was fast enough, 10 day to the US.
-- solder joints look good, the through-hole joints are good, the SMD soldering is really good, shiny and clean. No excessive flux residue. Definitely no "recycled solder". Much better soldering than what I see on my Muse TDA1543 Dac.
the bad:
-- packaging was just a padded envelope.....
-- board was wrapped in plain clear bubble wrap (then stuffed into the envelope). no ESD bag, not even the more ESD safe pink bubble wrap. I suppose the humidity in southern china is always pretty high so ESD is probably not a concern for them, but they should still have used some ESD packaging material to make sure bad things don't happen during the shipping. Even if the board works ok for now, there is no way to tell whether there is hidden damage caused by some low power ESD discharge which can still cause latent component failures.
-- heatsink is silicon glued to the chip. There are holes in the heatsink and in the board to accommodate two screws, but they opt'ed to just use silicon....
Will do a functionality test tomorrow before I start pulling parts off.
the good:
-- shipping was fast enough, 10 day to the US.
-- solder joints look good, the through-hole joints are good, the SMD soldering is really good, shiny and clean. No excessive flux residue. Definitely no "recycled solder". Much better soldering than what I see on my Muse TDA1543 Dac.
the bad:
-- packaging was just a padded envelope.....
-- board was wrapped in plain clear bubble wrap (then stuffed into the envelope). no ESD bag, not even the more ESD safe pink bubble wrap. I suppose the humidity in southern china is always pretty high so ESD is probably not a concern for them, but they should still have used some ESD packaging material to make sure bad things don't happen during the shipping. Even if the board works ok for now, there is no way to tell whether there is hidden damage caused by some low power ESD discharge which can still cause latent component failures.
-- heatsink is silicon glued to the chip. There are holes in the heatsink and in the board to accommodate two screws, but they opt'ed to just use silicon....
Will do a functionality test tomorrow before I start pulling parts off.
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update:
hooked up the board and it works, sound is clean without distortion.
The control chip has Tripath logo; The output stage chip is marked DDX.
The overall board gain is 30X. Gain resistors are easy to identify, at a convenient location (if I end up wanting to chang them).
Bias cap easily identifiable as well.
Will post pictures later, if my photobucket account still works.
hooked up the board and it works, sound is clean without distortion.
The control chip has Tripath logo; The output stage chip is marked DDX.
The overall board gain is 30X. Gain resistors are easy to identify, at a convenient location (if I end up wanting to chang them).
Bias cap easily identifiable as well.
Will post pictures later, if my photobucket account still works.
Hey! a good start then.
Quality (sounds ) can vary ..Dramatically.. between examples.
Hopefully you received one of the better ones?
Don't be fooled Tripath ceased ALL production ~8 years ago.
Unlikely that's a genuine chip, as there are copies of copies of copies being Fabrique en Chine.
Easiest identifiers, beyond substandard sounds and sudden death:
Logo is laser etched and Korea is on the logo , no gold pins)
Tricky though as the Rascals are becoming surprisingly adept at cosmetics.. yet ignoring all else
Genuine Tripath chips Were V good sounding.. the reputation was well earned.
Quality (sounds ) can vary ..Dramatically.. between examples.
Hopefully you received one of the better ones?
Don't be fooled Tripath ceased ALL production ~8 years ago.
Unlikely that's a genuine chip, as there are copies of copies of copies being Fabrique en Chine.
Easiest identifiers, beyond substandard sounds and sudden death:
Logo is laser etched and Korea is on the logo , no gold pins)
Tricky though as the Rascals are becoming surprisingly adept at cosmetics.. yet ignoring all else
Genuine Tripath chips Were V good sounding.. the reputation was well earned.
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the tip of screw driver is pointing to the gain resistor groups for the analog stage(two groups, each has one 20K (203) and one 47K (47k)) . This will give 47k/20k=2.3x gain for the analog stage.
The digital stage gain is the default 15x, I am not gonna change that.
To reduce gain, change the 47K to 20K (or parallel another resistor on top of the 47K).
The digital stage gain is the default 15x, I am not gonna change that.
To reduce gain, change the 47K to 20K (or parallel another resistor on top of the 47K).
the 5V line on the board is generated by a surface mount 7805. Nothing wrong with that. Except the reservoir at the output of 7805 is just a pair of ceramic caps, the uF value can not be very high. I added a 100uf tantalum cap to it. Might change to fancier cap later. (say, a BGNX).
the main purpose of this stage of mod is to test different output filter combinations (I know what input cap and power supply to use). So I added header block directly to the pads on the under side of the board. Added back V+ rail caps. I am using one 1000uf/25V BG std (why not, I have some), and one 5uf Avalon polyprop.
** At this stage I am connecting the stuff on the under side of the board, for the ease of swapping output filter sets and testing. Once the final output combination is decided, I will get another board and mod it on the top side, which is more convenient to solder to. At that stage I can give a step by step tutorial if there is enough interest for you guys.
** At this stage I am connecting the stuff on the under side of the board, for the ease of swapping output filter sets and testing. Once the final output combination is decided, I will get another board and mod it on the top side, which is more convenient to solder to. At that stage I can give a step by step tutorial if there is enough interest for you guys.
As for the bias-cap upgrade.... I took off the stock ceramic cap and soldered a wire to pin #1 of TC2000, and connected to a 0.1uf PCU. The other side the PCU is connected to the ground.
The main reason behind getting this board is that it is easy to work on, and fairly inexpensive. It will serve as test bed to test out different parts combinations. If it dies due to a wiring mistake or whatever, it is easy to replace the whole board. (verses if I use my Amp4 for testing and something happens, I'd have to replace IC's and it is not very fun to pull the surface mount chips.) .
Output filters to test:
*Set A: 22awg toroidal air core inductors, all capacitors will be FT2 Teflon caps.
*Set B: 18awg cylindrical foil coils (flat copper from Jensen inductor); all capacitors will be FT2 Teflon.
*Set C: 24awg toroidal ferrite core inductor (T80 ferrite ring, this is the standard amp4 ferrite size; wire is 24awg HGA silver/teflon); all capacitors will be VitQ 96P. This is actually the output filter currently used on my amp4.
if set B yields the best over all results, which suggest the output coil wire's awg is important, then I will try an additional set:
*Set D: 20awg litz toroidal ferrite core inductor, (this is the inductor in 41Hz amp8, ferrite size T157, the largest 41Hz offers. High current capacity) all capacitors FT2 Teflon.
Output filters to test:
*Set A: 22awg toroidal air core inductors, all capacitors will be FT2 Teflon caps.
*Set B: 18awg cylindrical foil coils (flat copper from Jensen inductor); all capacitors will be FT2 Teflon.
*Set C: 24awg toroidal ferrite core inductor (T80 ferrite ring, this is the standard amp4 ferrite size; wire is 24awg HGA silver/teflon); all capacitors will be VitQ 96P. This is actually the output filter currently used on my amp4.
if set B yields the best over all results, which suggest the output coil wire's awg is important, then I will try an additional set:
*Set D: 20awg litz toroidal ferrite core inductor, (this is the inductor in 41Hz amp8, ferrite size T157, the largest 41Hz offers. High current capacity) all capacitors FT2 Teflon.
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Hi audiocats,
I am also just about to order one of those. Thanx for this thread, will follow it with eager to see what the limits is with modding these amps. 😉
Once you get the better coils for the output, can you please post some part numbers and where to order form?
I am also just about to order one of those. Thanx for this thread, will follow it with eager to see what the limits is with modding these amps. 😉
Once you get the better coils for the output, can you please post some part numbers and where to order form?
I have ordered onte of those too... from this page:
TK2050 50W 50W Class T HiFi Stereo Audio Digital Amplifier Board DC 12V Voltage | eBay
A am very interested in your project...thanks.
TK2050 50W 50W Class T HiFi Stereo Audio Digital Amplifier Board DC 12V Voltage | eBay
A am very interested in your project...thanks.
As for the bias-cap upgrade.... I took off the stock ceramic cap and soldered a wire to pin #1 of TC2000, and connected to a 0.1uf PCU. The other side the PCU is connected to the ground.
Why did you change this? what is the function of bias cap?? (perhaps basic questions... sorry a am newbie)
I can almost smell the extra inductance. Does it sound better, also to others (you know, placebo effect)?
TK2050 PSU
I hope I can use this thread for a question.
I ordered the same TK2050 on ebay.
Attached is a image of an old classic early (80's?) MDS computer regulated PSU that is set on twin 24v dc 2A output. I used the Power supply to test a JLH 10w project. Absolutely clear results but running near the 2A limits of the low, I think 120VA, transformers, getting hot.
When the TK2050 arrived (in its thin packed envelope!) I tested it with the PSU
the TK2050 amp blowed most of its smaller caps and one of the LM338K regulators. I was sure of polarity.
Should it work with this type of supply?
I hope I can use this thread for a question.
I ordered the same TK2050 on ebay.
Attached is a image of an old classic early (80's?) MDS computer regulated PSU that is set on twin 24v dc 2A output. I used the Power supply to test a JLH 10w project. Absolutely clear results but running near the 2A limits of the low, I think 120VA, transformers, getting hot.
When the TK2050 arrived (in its thin packed envelope!) I tested it with the PSU
the TK2050 amp blowed most of its smaller caps and one of the LM338K regulators. I was sure of polarity.
Should it work with this type of supply?
Attachments
Sure? I heard the Tripath chips are still produced Cirrus Logic Inc.
The boards can be also bought here for even less
is buynowchina.com a scam or legit | buynowchina.com trust reviews |check buynowchina.com for fraud and risk | is buynowchina.com safe or fake
(I've order one there and it arrived after 3 weeks later here in Germany)
It sounds better than my TP3116 board.
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Sorry, wrong link above
http://www.buyincoins.com/item/45650.html#.VHLCg8mKySo
http://www.buyincoins.com/item/45650.html#.VHLCg8mKySo
Did you use 4ohm speakers? Most sellers recommend 6-8ohm speakers only for this board. Maybe that's the problem?
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