I elivated this amp to a whole new level, by adding a new preamp - the Zen Mod Iron Pre. Listening to all my music all over again. So darn musical, insane fine details not heard before. Never heard such tight and clear bass before. Jawdropping improvement.
The Iron Pre replaced a Pass H2 preamp. Before that I tried a B1.
Maybe it's transformer magic? The Iron Pre has transformer outputs, and the TDA8932 amp has transformer inputs.
All I know is - they work so well together I can live with this setup for the rest of my life. Beautiful match. 🏆
The Iron Pre replaced a Pass H2 preamp. Before that I tried a B1.
Maybe it's transformer magic? The Iron Pre has transformer outputs, and the TDA8932 amp has transformer inputs.
All I know is - they work so well together I can live with this setup for the rest of my life. Beautiful match. 🏆
Nice report.!
I always use a preamp and mine is a Salas DCG3. Indeed it pairs very nicely with Richards amps.
I've been reading about the M2X and it too has an input trafo as voltage gain. 600:15k so a 1.5 step up. They have swappable input boards. No idea if they're compatible but it gets me thinking!
I always use a preamp and mine is a Salas DCG3. Indeed it pairs very nicely with Richards amps.
I've been reading about the M2X and it too has an input trafo as voltage gain. 600:15k so a 1.5 step up. They have swappable input boards. No idea if they're compatible but it gets me thinking!
Always interested when an amp's using a trafo.... I looked up the M2X and its using an Edcor steel trafo. Might be interesting to try a permalloy one in that role, like these : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32810469047.html. The ferrite trafo on monoamp is step down by a not-too-far-off ratio, I doubt it could be turned around to use as step-up because its windings aren't interleaved so leakage inductance would likely be a problem.
Wishing you many hours of delighted listening @twocents!
Wishing you many hours of delighted listening @twocents!
Thank you Richard. The next (maybe final) upgrade to my system will be the DAC. Eyeing the Abbado for a while now.
I'm curious, would this amp play nicely with a USB-C PD power source stepped up using one of these Wondom boost converter boards? TBH, still a DIY audio newbie, so still figuring things out! Just thought with the ubiquity of USB-C PD now, is there a way to clean up the power from a USB-C PS that many folks have, especially for low power amps like this one.
I can't see why that wouldn't work - certainly if the 100W power output is real it should have a current limit about 4A with 24V output, which is plenty for a single monoAMP. A pair would play nicely so long as the volume wasn't pushed to the limit.
An LC filter is what I use when I need to clean up a switching PSU's output. I happen to have PCBs for it too -
An LC filter is what I use when I need to clean up a switching PSU's output. I happen to have PCBs for it too -
You can do it (I've tried it) but you will need to check that the gain of the paralleled channels are similar enough to make it worthwhile. I measured - DVM on AC range - to check that there was better than 0.5% matching of gain and then used 0.5R on the output and a largeish 'lytic as the DC offset can be significant.