Who is the No.1 in Class-D after Tripath?

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diyroger

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Joined 2011
#1
Tripath was no doubt the King of class-D before it's bankcrupt. But who is the new king now?

Still have several TA0105A modules. Don't know wether there's any other new semiconductor companies that can beat Tripath in this field.
 
#2
Define #1. Is this in terms of units shipped, revenue, company profitability, highest sonic performance...?

In this board, the most reputed (and for good reasons) Class-D amps would be Hypex. Do note that they don't come cheap. Hypex is about to launch a new product, the Ncore. Supposed to be a game changer, so we have new things to look forward to for 2012.

Required reading:

6moons industry features: The Class of D 2011

diyroger said:
Tripath was no doubt the King of class-D before it's bankcrupt. But who is the new king now?

Still have several TA0105A modules. Don't know wether there's any other new semiconductor companies that can beat Tripath in this field.
Click to expand...
 
#5
diyroger said:
Don't know wether there's any other new semiconductor companies that can beat Tripath in this field.
Click to expand...
IRS2092 with output FETs to suit your power need.

http://www.inductor.com/irf/iraudamp7s.pdf

Populated boards are available from several vendors, "kits" (bare board and parts) are available from at least one. Sound is excellent, price is *low*. "Tripath" parts still seem to be available (made, apparently, someplace in China), but mostly for low power stuff. I lost interest in Tripath after working with the 2092 . . .
 
#7
That would probably be TI, as they make the Crown Drivecore...
Not that you or I could buy that custom chip without the whole Crown amp.

I don't know how much Crown technology bleeds into their own Class D devices?
I've auditioned a few recently (as I have to test the EVMs) that impressed me.
Some of the earlier ones, lets just say I couldn't wait to get home and listen to
my vacuum tubes. I think TI must have learned something along the way...
 
#11
Trevor White said:
If it was any good why did it go bankrupt ??
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It's not a pure matter of good or bad. Semiconductor is a industry depend largely on investment. Huge markets for class D are those low cost low quality mobile applications. They don't care about the THD is 0.02% or 2%. HiFi or DIY market is not large enough to support a semiconductor company.
IR is another story. It has a long product line. I believe they don't have much profit in audio drivers, but it doen't matter at all. The have a lot of other profitable products. They just want to keep in this market, waiting for chances.
 
#13
banglacx said:
Define #1. Is this in terms of units shipped, revenue, company profitability, highest sonic performance...?

In this board, the most reputed (and for good reasons) Class-D amps would be Hypex.
Click to expand...

Even though I am convinced of Tripath I would like to check up one day the other popular class-D techniques for comparing purposes. It should be a Hypex or an ICE Power board. Both show you nowadays reliable and solid reviews within the DIY scene. O.K. ICE Power is a little bit harder to purchase ...

And BTW regarding Tripath we never should forget the working mechanism of the global markets. Idealism is here out of place. Like in the pharmacy industry: if you can develope and produce a medicine in a cheap way which is strongly demanded by people: so increase the prices ! Customers will pay and no one cares what the manufacturing costs are. Otherwise your competition will use the bigger profits for marketing and you are out the game. It's just an example and should not transferred 1:1 to Tripath's situation.
 
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