I'm happy with mine as well - for the price. I'm waiting for the second to arrive so as to experiment with using the low/high pass filters to actively bi-amp a pair of Leak speakers. The ability to dial in a parametric eq could also help with particular drivers in certain frequency ranges. For example the Leak tweeter/squawker has a rising upper mid-range. I think that you can also save 'profiles' that would enable swapping between speakers (for example) - but I'll wait for the 2nd unit to arrive before properly experimenting.
One thing I did notice is that I'm pretty sure that the amp resamples everything to 48KHz (courtesy of the onboard DSP) - and that would rule it out for some people.
I am intrigued by this little amp so please post your findings. The Rega R3s I have also sound a tad peaky in the upper mid range at times so I sometimes use the Dolby app.
Over forty years of messing with hifi audio kit tells me it should not sound this good at anywhere near this price. Admittedly the inbuilt Bluetooth does veil things a tad compared to plugging in a decent DAC. I downloaded the DSP app but haven't gotten around to messing with it yet. Maybe next week...
Over forty years of messing with hifi audio kit tells me it should not sound this good at anywhere near this price. Admittedly the inbuilt Bluetooth does veil things a tad compared to plugging in a decent DAC. I downloaded the DSP app but haven't gotten around to messing with it yet. Maybe next week...
@Puffin
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004895645420.html
You should see the link if you scroll down the listing page a bit
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004895645420.html
You should see the link if you scroll down the listing page a bit
@Puffin No problem, I'm happy to help when I can but i,m in the same boat as you when it comes to the software. Think I might wait to see what others post before I make any attempts. It would probably amount to guesswork not having the gear to properly measure room effects etc but it could still be fun to play with.
A guy on another forum compared his bru5 with a Fosi V3, said he couldn't hear any difference untill he did the room corrections on the bru. Then it sounded better than the fossi. I've long believed chasing vanishingly low amplifier distortion figures becomes pointless when in the real world they are literally swamped by distortion from loud speakers and room effects anyway.
I have put together many amps over the years, some of the Class D ones have been the subject of modifications on this site e.g TPA3116 and others. I have done it because many years ago I knew that chasing a dream that an amplifier well reviewed in mags and costing what I would call expensive was not necessarily going to cure my craving to hear a lot of different amps. Not only has DIY allowed me to do this but the fun of the chase has been far more fun than spending loads of money. Gainclones were fun to build.
As as far distortion in amps is concerned I recently built a couple of Pass ACA amps and a Mini. With the Mini you have the choice of hearing some 2nd order harmonics or not, wouldn't that be classed as some kind of distortion? They all sound great by the way.
I started on ClassD years ago with the Tripath 2024 based Sonic Impact amp and modded that to within an inch of it's life. Then had 2 more TA2024 boards and the list of amps now includes TPA3116 x2, IRS2092 x2 (dual mono and a monster stereo with 500va tranny) TPA3255 and possibly others buried away and forgotten
As as far distortion in amps is concerned I recently built a couple of Pass ACA amps and a Mini. With the Mini you have the choice of hearing some 2nd order harmonics or not, wouldn't that be classed as some kind of distortion? They all sound great by the way.
I started on ClassD years ago with the Tripath 2024 based Sonic Impact amp and modded that to within an inch of it's life. Then had 2 more TA2024 boards and the list of amps now includes TPA3116 x2, IRS2092 x2 (dual mono and a monster stereo with 500va tranny) TPA3255 and possibly others buried away and forgotten
I found my way to DIY and here in an attempt to cure my affliction, I was a chronic box swapper, I spent a small fortune which I couldn't really afford. I bought and sold on loads of kit including numerous amps. Some quite expensive valve amps among them. One of the worst sounding amps I had was a Sonneteer Brontë Class T integrated that was marketed as high end. The only thing that sounded decent was Kate Bushes Ariel that had just been released. Everything else sounded poor and it totally failed to reproduce the lowest bass notes for some reason. It put me right off class D for a long time. I built My-Ref mono blocks and a DCB1 for my first proper attempt at DIY audio but even they weren't exactly cheap to make.
I had to sell off most of my original gear at a loss after my business failed in the 2008 crash and a period of severe illness. It left me regretting all the money I wasted on hifi gear and since then I have been very cynical about the whole industry.
The first class D amp I heard that actually sounded good to me was a cheap wee tpa3116 board I got from China. Things are now advancing so fast that I don't think it's sensible to spend big on technology that will be left way behind in a few years. Good sound reproduction can now be achieved more cheaply than ever imo the one area to actually invest decent cash is in loudspeakers. Wish I still had access to a decent workshop because it's the one area I can't do anything DIY.
I had to sell off most of my original gear at a loss after my business failed in the 2008 crash and a period of severe illness. It left me regretting all the money I wasted on hifi gear and since then I have been very cynical about the whole industry.
The first class D amp I heard that actually sounded good to me was a cheap wee tpa3116 board I got from China. Things are now advancing so fast that I don't think it's sensible to spend big on technology that will be left way behind in a few years. Good sound reproduction can now be achieved more cheaply than ever imo the one area to actually invest decent cash is in loudspeakers. Wish I still had access to a decent workshop because it's the one area I can't do anything DIY.
It is indeed but I ended up with three aluminium boxes just for the amps, it didn't go down so well with the mrs but I used them for 5 or 6 years anyway. Eventually I got hold of a half decent TPA3116 board to play with and that was an eye opener for sure. The case from the DCB1 got refused for that board and I still have it somewhere. I gave the My-Ref mono blocks away to a friend but I don't think he has ever used them. I still have a pair of working My-Ref boards somewhere because I ended up assembling four of the things. I also still have the DCB 1 board too. I had plans to build an integrated using them but that's for another day maybe. I am still distracted by cheap class D at present. That and the potential of using Bluetooth LDAC with a tablet for sheer laziness sake if nothing else haha.
Well yeah, not having any speaker/room/subjective correction in 2024 is a really weird thing. Sure having a proper room with absorbers etc is always the best for sound quality, but you can come quite a long way with just an EQ. Actually almost indefinitely more than going from a random 10 euro amplifier to a 100k one.
Odd how matters repeat themselves... what goes around comes around. It's not that long ago before 10 band graphic EQs were commonplace - within some amps for example. Then they were 'banned'. Now they're back in the form of DSP!
@DartmoorDad Yeah it was the so called audiophiles that 'banned' them, claiming that you shouldn't alter the sound since that's not what the artists intended, ironically though using an EQ/DSP have the potential to make it way closer to what they actually intended.
Speaking of which, how good is the DSP in this one btw? I was close ordering it but went for a 2.1 TPA3116 version instead since I wanted the option to use a subwoofer for my desktop setup, it's using some ACPWorkbench software which can do quite a lot of stuff (though much of it is mostly gimmicks) but it's missing some delay and crossover features. Of course a stereo version doesn't really need delay and crossover, but is it fully featured otherwise?
Speaking of which, how good is the DSP in this one btw? I was close ordering it but went for a 2.1 TPA3116 version instead since I wanted the option to use a subwoofer for my desktop setup, it's using some ACPWorkbench software which can do quite a lot of stuff (though much of it is mostly gimmicks) but it's missing some delay and crossover features. Of course a stereo version doesn't really need delay and crossover, but is it fully featured otherwise?
You can download it from here:
http://files.sure-electronics.com/d...00023.11.2ae5xkvSxkvS6y&file=BDM&BRU_PCUI.zip
It needs no installation and will run from a memory stick - it'll run without the USB connection to the amp but all the controls are greyed out. Nevertheless you can see what it can do. There are controls for mic input (useless in this case) complete with autotune for tone-deaf celebrity 'artists', phasing and so on...
In my case I want to use it actively biamping. There are 10 filters you can set up (including low and high pass, notch etc). I'm waiting for the second one to arrive and then I'll start experimenting. Thus far the low/high pass filters work well - very easy to take a good speaker and make it sound like a 1970s transistor radio!
Soundwise. No real idea yet as the one I have is in the (unheated) workshop and hooked up to a set of Leak 16 Ohm Sandwich speakers that have minimal bass and a nasty upper-midrange - not yet played around with the EQ to cure this. What I can say is that it drives these 16 Ohm speakers into a medium sized room ok with a 24v PSU.
@zek So did I. However the file, when unzipped, will run from a USB stick - it does NOT install in the normal Windows manner, so does not write anything to hard disc (unless you want it to). So unzip to a memory stick and run your anti-virus over it for peace of mind.
Better still...I'm now running this on Linux and the security on that is better than government so that's another way to do it. Similarly it may be persuadable to run on a Mac - or set up a small VM on a Windows machine just to run the software.
It's problems like this that persuaded me to jump ship from MS WIndows almost entirely. The only Windows machine I now have connects on to our network but is prohibited from contacting the internet in any way.
Better still...I'm now running this on Linux and the security on that is better than government so that's another way to do it. Similarly it may be persuadable to run on a Mac - or set up a small VM on a Windows machine just to run the software.
It's problems like this that persuaded me to jump ship from MS WIndows almost entirely. The only Windows machine I now have connects on to our network but is prohibited from contacting the internet in any way.
Can anyone that has used the BRU5 DSP programme comment as to how easy or not it is to play with? I have never used anything like this before and I am going to have a go soon. If you set some parameters and they are not right, is it easy to correct them or return the amp to factory settings?
I may have a go this weekend, but I have to find my supply of Mr Clarkson's "Brave Pills" first.
I may have a go this weekend, but I have to find my supply of Mr Clarkson's "Brave Pills" first.
@Puffin - it's not that bad, looks like an old WIndows 3.1 programme and it helps, just from the POV of confidence, that you're happy with using various PC programmes.
Thyere are three main tabs - of which I'd ignore the first (leave that at defaults as it seems to mainly concern itself with inputs) and concentrate on the second - labelled 'effects' - I think. There are various modules all of which are 'collapsible' (look for the arrows) and all are turned off by default. Turning each one on merely involves pressing a small symbol in the upper left of each module.
There are various modules - compression, flanging/phasing - most are music/instrument production orientated. Ignore these as I guess you're interested in the EQ module - there are two - pre and post music (not sure on the difference yet). I tried the former and was able to set up low and high pass filters, notch filters etc. There are some presets for 'rock', 'pop', 'classical' as overall EQs. You could play with these and see how the frequency response graph alters - and then dial in your own settings.
Note that nothing is saved until you actually save it. Close the programme, turn off the amp and it resets to factory unless you save to the amp. I'd suggest not doing that until you're happy with the interface.
Any problems drop me a message on here and I'll send you my phone number and talk you through it.
Thyere are three main tabs - of which I'd ignore the first (leave that at defaults as it seems to mainly concern itself with inputs) and concentrate on the second - labelled 'effects' - I think. There are various modules all of which are 'collapsible' (look for the arrows) and all are turned off by default. Turning each one on merely involves pressing a small symbol in the upper left of each module.
There are various modules - compression, flanging/phasing - most are music/instrument production orientated. Ignore these as I guess you're interested in the EQ module - there are two - pre and post music (not sure on the difference yet). I tried the former and was able to set up low and high pass filters, notch filters etc. There are some presets for 'rock', 'pop', 'classical' as overall EQs. You could play with these and see how the frequency response graph alters - and then dial in your own settings.
Note that nothing is saved until you actually save it. Close the programme, turn off the amp and it resets to factory unless you save to the amp. I'd suggest not doing that until you're happy with the interface.
Any problems drop me a message on here and I'll send you my phone number and talk you through it.