my t-amp experience

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Hi Guys,
I'm new here-please excuse my lack of technical knowledge. ...hope i've posted to the right area

I got a T-AMP from ebay UK for £34.77 inc. P&P, it duly arrived about 9 days ago from San Francisco [very fast delivery!] My goodness it's small! It looks more like a £1.99p air purifier you would get from Wilkinson’s or Poundstretchers!!!

Actually the case is fairly well made and all the parts fit together okay, the spring-loaded speaker inputs are poor though, it came with a ridiculously short input lead and that’s it! I went and bought 8 AA batteries which filled up half the amps inner space, That’s how small it is! Anyway because I had no phono-to-1/8” jack adaptor I hooked it up to my Soundblaster soundcard, and Mission 731 speakers [89db allegedly] with some generic so-so OFC cable. I turned the wick up to 10 0’clock and played some tracks through Winamp. My first reaction was how intense and “brassy” thing sounded, not grating nor offensive, it just seemed to have a ‘chrome-plated’ sound, I noticed a presence and clarity on Nat King Cole’s’ voice I had never heard before, a glass-clear silkiness with gorgeous rich-sounding strings, drums on some U2 tracks sounded very much like wood hitting skin, the snares gave out a papery ring if you know what I mean, and yet some tracks sounded bloody awful! The bass was pretty dwindling…but all-in-all it was a good experience really, it was certainly different from my aged Cambridge amp which by comparison now seems very muffled and thin.

When I turned the volume up some more it quickly ran out of steam which I put down to the cheapo AA batteries. I think they have a lot to answer for! I got a 12v 2.2Ah battery from Maplin, hooked that up and immediately I was able to turn the volume up some more without any harsh clipping. And there’s bass too! I want to do some modding but before that I want to try an external mod by placing capacitor across the battery terminals, which I believe will give it a more welly: I’ve been offered a big 10,000uf 24v electrolyte to put across the battery terminals.
The T-AMP is definitely getting better by the day, it seems to have rounded-off all the hardness, it’s very listenable and musical, so all I can say is try one coz’ if it sounds this good in it’s ‘raw’ state how will it sound when it’s properly set up with a better source? I’ve just ordered another T-AMP for backup.
Update: capacitor fitted, now I have more bass and richness, this amp is phenomenal, it can only get better. I’m not asking you to throw your expensive old amplifiers in the bin, just you preconceptions.

Update: T-AMP #2 just arrived!

Eric
Runcorn4@hotmail.com
:xeye: :xeye:
 

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DcibeL said:
I've been contemplating getting one of these amps for quite some time now. I've been putting it off because shipping costs from Parts Express is quite expensive to Canada. At least it was expensive a year ago when I placed an order with them.

I think maybe it's time I got off my lazy ___ and bought one of these.


It's not the shipping cost that kills you it is the UPS Brokerage fees!
 
BRIDGING TWO T-AMPS

Although I know you can't bridge one T-AMP into a mono to increase power output I wonder wether I could bridge two T-AMPS? [I've got 2 now] Coupling the left channels of amps 1&2 together in & out and vice-versa may do it. At the moment it's just a thought, so before I go ahead I wonder If anybody has any precautionary advice, has anybody tried it?

cheers
eric:xeye:
 

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Hi.
As rightly said before, the T-amp is already bridged ie each channel consists of two amps in bridge mode. The output is therefore floating ( neither + or - is 'ground' ). Connecting the left of one amp to the left of another amp will not result in more power - just a complicated way of performing what is already happening. If you really want to follow this path, transformers are probably the only route - not one I would chose! Better is to buy a higher power version of a T-class amp from Tripath. These are readily available from the supplier for around the price of two T-amps (Southend is where they are based? I think). They are available in several versions, as chips or ready made, multi-channelled etc.
Cheers
Andy
 
...Thanks for that advice guys, I'll just mod the one amp instead!

I'm looking at the 'infra red' cases at MAPLIN see:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=33681&doy=27m11


they look beautiful & would be great for rehousing the T_AMP but i can't seem to find out how big they are so i'll go there on monday. BTW last time i went to Maplin they had sold out of ALPS dual 50k pots, must be a lot of modders out there!
 

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they look beautiful & would be great for rehousing the T_AMP but i can't seem to find out how big they are so i'll go there on monday.

They are getting quite pathetic! If you are going to buy an enclosure, the dimensions are critical, not an unimportant specification!

I was looking at their aluminium boxes the other day and had to dig out my 1999 Maplin catalogue to find out the dimensions. If you read this Maplin - GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER! :hot:
 
Eggzy said:
...Thanks for that advice guys, I'll just mod the one amp instead!

I'm looking at the 'infra red' cases at MAPLIN see:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=33681&doy=27m11


they look beautiful & would be great for rehousing the T_AMP but i can't seem to find out how big they are so i'll go there on monday. BTW last time i went to Maplin they had sold out of ALPS dual 50k pots, must be a lot of modders out there!

Hi Eggzy,
Follow your link and hover yer mouse over the wish list next to the required enclosure.

Try these for Alps:


rapid

HTH
evo
 
EVO you said

"Follow your link and hover yer mouse over the wish list next to the required enclosure" ...er .........why? :xeye:
NUUK I would'nt say the dimensions were critical i just wanna ballpark size about, say 10" x 6" x 4" but i've got a feeling they're a lot smaller than i imagine! anyways i'm going to maplin tonight so i'll let you know.

eric
 
Eggzy said:
EVO you said

"Follow your link and hover yer mouse over the wish list next to the required enclosure" ...er .........why? :xeye:
NUUK I would'nt say the dimensions were critical i just wanna ballpark size about, say 10" x 6" x 4" but i've got a feeling they're a lot smaller than i imagine! anyways i'm going to maplin tonight so i'll let you know.

eric

'Cos it gives you the info including case dimensions.

btw did you try the link to Rapid?
 
Well spotted Evo but if I ran Decibel Dungeon like that, ie hiding all the useful stuff away until somebody was lucky enough to hover the mouse over one part of the page, I wouldn't consider it very helpful!

Even more unhelpful, is the picture of the catalogue page that you can get up that is too small to read! Come on Maplin, it isn't difficult to organise a web site so that people can easily get the information that they want! :att'n:

Ha ha, I just read my signature - perhaps Maplin have read it too! :D
 

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T-AMP RUINED

When modding the pcb I was distracted & the iron rested on the pcb underneath the chip, it dislodged a tiny cap [c12 its possibly fixable but its so tiny.... any ideas for a replacement?] and maybe fried the chip in the process. I only noticed after I had wired up the pot leads [using cat6] to the pcb. I must plead guilty to impatience & a lack of preparation, I was originally using a small butane gas iron which gave up the ghost and then used a way too hot challenge 32w with a poor tip. This is'nt modding, this is microsurgery. So its onto T-AMP #2.

BTW I got a nice black case from MAPLIN and an alloy knob and other bits too
 
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