Hi there -
I know this is a DIY Audio forum, so asking for commercial devices might not get me very far, but hopefully someone here can help.
Increasingly, searching for electronics online has become a confusing slurry, further complicated by language and geographic divides.
Essentially, I'm looking for the cheapest, best-sounding stereo amplifier I can find, around 100W-per-channel (or higher). I would veer more towards "cheap" than "great sounding", but I'm not sure where those trade-offs are in Class D amplifiers.
I don't want to design it myself, but I could assemble from kit, if necessary.
My only hesitation with the kit approach is that, once again, I'm at the mercy of hundreds of different trade-offs and details that I don't have the time or money to experiment with.
At the moment, I'm operating under the understanding that a Class D amplifier will be the way to go - but that different Class D chips produce very different qualitative results with regards to audio fidelity. Those differences are further exacerbated by the wide range of designs in the world. Beyond that, it seems like power supplies are a whole other area of inconsistency and trade-off.
This seems like a place where people know this stuff, inside and out. Can anyone make some suggestions for me?
Thanks!
I know this is a DIY Audio forum, so asking for commercial devices might not get me very far, but hopefully someone here can help.
Increasingly, searching for electronics online has become a confusing slurry, further complicated by language and geographic divides.
Essentially, I'm looking for the cheapest, best-sounding stereo amplifier I can find, around 100W-per-channel (or higher). I would veer more towards "cheap" than "great sounding", but I'm not sure where those trade-offs are in Class D amplifiers.
I don't want to design it myself, but I could assemble from kit, if necessary.
My only hesitation with the kit approach is that, once again, I'm at the mercy of hundreds of different trade-offs and details that I don't have the time or money to experiment with.
At the moment, I'm operating under the understanding that a Class D amplifier will be the way to go - but that different Class D chips produce very different qualitative results with regards to audio fidelity. Those differences are further exacerbated by the wide range of designs in the world. Beyond that, it seems like power supplies are a whole other area of inconsistency and trade-off.
This seems like a place where people know this stuff, inside and out. Can anyone make some suggestions for me?
Thanks!
If you relax your power requirements by 6dB then you can build a pair of classD mono amps from kits for around $30 (plus shipping). You'll need to add a power supply but that's a cheap laptop-style brick.
Transformer-fed TDA8932 25W/8R mono amp kits
Transformer-fed TDA8932 25W/8R mono amp kits
Apart from the TDA8932, I will suggest a TPA3116 based amplifier. A "classic" among DIY trainees.
You can look into TI's TPA3116.
Aliexpress selling PBTL configuration PCBA for less than $2.50. So get 2 boards for stereo.
IC spec: THD+N around 0.01% and 100W @ 1%. *3 ohm
More details look at the datasheet.
What's your speaker impedance?
Aliexpress selling PBTL configuration PCBA for less than $2.50. So get 2 boards for stereo.
IC spec: THD+N around 0.01% and 100W @ 1%. *3 ohm
More details look at the datasheet.
What's your speaker impedance?
I'm running 8ohm speakers. I'm not sure I can go lower with the wattage/fewer decibels, though- I'm also noticing there are speakers that claim to be able to handle 100w, but are actually only 20watt "RMS" ..
The TPA3116 looks powerful, but 1% THD is pretty high, isn't it?
The TPA3116 looks powerful, but 1% THD is pretty high, isn't it?
I believe 1% THD is about the level where an untrained ear will start noticing the distortion. But, look at figures 6-10 of the datasheet and you will notice that the THD is much lower unless you take the amplifier to a power level very near the maximum. Most of us have tried a TPA3116 board and it is not that a normal listener notice distortion.
I am not so sure, since my wife commented freely and unprovoked that the TPA3250 was "much better" than the TPA3116, after I had done a stealthy amp exchange while she was out to the grocery store. Lower than 90db/w sensitivity speakers.
Rare are class D kits using chips. This is not to start with but best one can get TAS6422 2.1MHz Class-D Digital Amp Project
I bought very cheap 100w Tpa3116 and modified it to sound as good as 300b SE tube amp
see Sublimed TPA3116D2.
I bought very cheap 100w Tpa3116 and modified it to sound as good as 300b SE tube amp
see Sublimed TPA3116D2.