Are T amps just over hyped Distorting noise boxes? Or am I doing it wrong?

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I though that grab your attention. I have been excited about them .With mainly the To2020 running on a large 12 volt sla. And at a time they have even replaced my tube amp in my main system when I ran out of output tubes. Playing a 94db 8 ohm speaker was fine.

Anyway I am trying to get some going for my mother. With very disappointing results. On close listening they really seem to distort heavily right through there power range increasing to supa heavy after 6 watts. Also I tried some basic vintage 2 ways. One 8 inch and a horn tweeter 15ohm. OMG they where terrible. I am guessing that possibly they are incapable of driving high impedance speakers. And indoors at my mums I have fe103's in needles and again they just cant turn up to even moderate levels with distorting to at least 2 percent of odd harmonic sporadic maybe distortion. What am I doing wrong??? I am not using the sla out there. She wont have them. I using a new meanwell indoors well over spec ed.

I will build a tube amp for the old girl out doors but inside I need a sleek SS solution. Have I hit the limits of D tech? Will going for bigger chip and higher voltages just give me more of the same? Or should I go for a chip amp or class A amp like a hirarga kit. I have built 2 chip amps before. One was awful . The one a built with out compromise and the second I threw together in a hurry was quiet good. Go figure. But neither had the glimpse of tube like magic the T amps have given me a taste of. I have a joey Roth driving Techinics SB-F2 speakers on my computer U tube system that sounds dam fine but only until you turn it up a bit. Maybe the little chips are just good low impedance 2 watt amps?
 
those old tripaths don't sound too good, no. i can't understand why people are so delerious about them either. they are very picky about the impedance of the speaker.

try a decent switching amplifier such as the ones from hypex before you've lost hope for class D. they are marvelous.
 
Strange.. I've found the Ta 2020 to be a pretty good Amp.
Driving even wee 4 ohm speakers to vintage 12 inchers (11.5 ohms, measured) with surprisingly good results.. certainly as good as with their 'regular' amps.
No.. not the best amps ever, but as good as or often better than 'at least' 80% of the old amps out there.
Quality Control however, from these Cheap Chinee made amp boards (as opposed to the Genuine Tripath Chips) is 'as usual': ABYSMAL.
One sounds Great! while another/brother unit sounds awful.
Is this the same module that worked well for you ? or another unit ?
Try your own 'previously working' unit in Mum's setup?
Beyond that? there may be something basic, being seriously wrong, at Mum's house.
G'luck
 
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They are over-hyped, but TA2020 is still a great amp, if built into a good supporting circuit. It really does rival very good tube amps. Not as good, but certainly in the same neighborhood.

As Bare says, not all implementations are the same. There is a plethora of bad, cheap amps out there using the Tripath chips. I do wonder where all those Tripath chips are coming from, since they've been out of business for years.
 
I started in DIY almost 8 years ago first modding Sonic Impact "T-Amps" and then building 41hz Tripath kits. I've never experienced what you describe. I think they sound just as good as any other chipamp in the same power range.

Yes, they sound bad when played into clipping (expected). Maybe you are just too used to the clipping characteristics of tube amps?

And the comment about the load impedance can apply to any pre-filter feedback class-d amps, so it's not a shortcoming specific only to Tripath.
 
The TA2020 is good into 4 ohms. The stock LP-2020A+ is not so good into 8 ohms because with the lower power, people need to turn the volume knob up, and with the op-amp in the volume section, the distortion rises really fast above half on the volume control. If you are driving full range speakers with a TA2020, you need a higher current power supply than many of them come with.

On the other hand, LM3886 based amps do better with 8 ohm speakers. Mine sounds harsh into 4 ohm speakers. Both types of amps do better with efficient speakers.
 
I started in DIY almost 8 years ago first modding Sonic Impact "T-Amps" and then building 41hz Tripath kits. I've never experienced what you describe. I think they sound just as good as any other chipamp in the same power range.

Yes, they sound bad when played into clipping (expected). Maybe you are just too used to the clipping characteristics of tube amps?

And the comment about the load impedance can apply to any pre-filter feedback class-d amps, so it's not a shortcoming specific only to Tripath.

Are you referring to Pano's post? Pano was one of the people who started the Tripath craze. He got me into it 5 years ago, and I've built many of them since.

That said, the Tripath amps do sound leaner than other amps, and even more so with capacitor upgrades. They also hiss if you put your ear near the tweeter. If you listen to other class D amps like Hypex, there are proper decays (ie. a "fatter" sound) and no background hiss.
 
I wonder the same thing. They went out of business long ago! Yet there is no shortage of the chips, not even a price increase.

I've been told.. repeatedly :) that Asian Makers will often do 'extra' product runs... long after the initial contract has finished.
Why not? the production line is already setup to make these .. it's wayyy too easy to make a couple or more additional 'runs'.
Copyright is a meaningless concept 'over there'.
Currently in the final stages of assembling a Ta 2020 DIY effort (point to point) Amp using a genuine made in USA ta 2020 Chip and with reasonable quality parts.
No.. not all Weenie approved bits, but nothing dubious either :)
Will post ..soon.. as to how well this careful/painstaking implementation of the Tripath Evaluation Circuit ...actually.. works.
Assuming of course, I don't bungle too many connections :)
 
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Let me know how you get on with that build, i would like to do the same allot of the components could be soldered directly to the Ic pins keeping the signal path very short. The ta2020 is my favorite amp i think it sounds amazing loves 4 ohm speakers, my Helder 2020 is driving a pair of totem model one loudspeakers with great results .
 
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You are so right about speaker efficiency.
Yes indeed. You just won't get much out of a 12V amp, no matter what the topology. 7 watts RMS into 8 ohms is about all you can expect from the amp running 12 volts on the power supply. 10 watts RMS if you push the supply voltage a bit. That's plenty for my speakers (Altec VOTT), but not for low efficiency speakers.

Clipping sounds nasty on these, so you can't really push it hard like you can a 7 watt tube amp.
 
@fatbattery:
If your trouble is caused by the impedance, then you can cure it easily.
Just connect an external resitor in parallel to the speaker to derive the optimum working impedance for the amp.
If the sound does not get better, we will at least know that it is not just about the speaker impedance...
 
I'm running a KingRex T20U with dedicated PSU and getting a truly fantastic result. I have a pair of Fostex based fullrangers and a pair of Lowthers. This wonderful little amp drives both speakers to sound levels that makes my wife ask me to turn it down a little. :)

I gave away all of my tube gear shortly after purchasing the KingRex!
 
@fatbattery:
If your trouble is caused by the impedance, then you can cure it easily.
Just connect an external resitor in parallel to the speaker to derive the optimum working impedance for the amp.

That won't work. It'll reduce the impedance to the amp, but it won't increase power to the speaker, which is why the amp works better with lower impedances.

12V bridged amp maximum power into:
4ohm = 36W
8ohm = 18W
15ohm = 9.6W

And those are nowhere near the actual, once you take circuit efficiencies etc into account. You are likely only able to get around 3W of clean power into 15ohm speakers.
 
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