[dboy]

I would guess the Astron et al. is better, but if anyone has a spare 9 to 15v transformer and 4 MUR860 diodes sitting around then it is actually quite surprising how good a power supply this makes (assuming you have a decent capacitance on your amp input). Nothing fancy, but sounds sweet to my ears, much better than the cheap laptop style supply I compared to & very worthwhile for a second system, etc.

[lacro]

Very risky, one day you may want to push your amp more than required by playing the music extra loud then the 3116 Chipset gives way whereby 24Vdc will appear at the output------>then your speakers will pop....
No heatsink on 3116 is not a good idea.

Thanks for your concern, but this amp is not a TPA3116, It's the TPA3110 2X8 watt 'baby brother' that does NOT REQUIRE a heat sink on the chip which has always stayed stone cold. If you refer back to the beginnings of this thread, it was started about the 3110, and evolved into the 3116. My amp is powered by 12v.

Here's the amp:
https://www.parts-express.com/2x8w-at-4-ohm-tpa3110-class-d-audio-amplifier-board--320-329

[erikjan]

I followed dboy's lead and installed a pair of CineMag CMLI-15/15B input transformers on my modified Yuan Jing blue amp. This has to be the ultimate mod for these amps. The soundstage is huge and the tonality is so natural. I wouldn't recommend this for a desktop computer system, but if you use these TI Class D amps in your main system, this should be a serious consideration.

@ rhing - Now that you have had your unit for a while. Which by the way is the best mod ive seen. Can you council me that if i buy this board, I want to install the mods that that made an impact on the sound. What mods from your perspective, when you installed them, you could see a difference?

Thanks
Erik

[erikjan]

Turns out this $49 Chinese 6N3 tube preamp from ebay is absolutely stunning with the 3116.

I thought I liked the 3116 just as an integrated amp but there's no comparison to the sound with this tube preamp. I tried the 3116 with a Bottlehead Foreplay III expecting even more but the magic wasn't there.

If I hadn't already built them as separates I'd put both in the same case.

@  Poultrygeist Are you using stock tubes on this? Im thinking about putting in some tubes, do you anyone here suggest what tubes I can roll into this?

Thanks
Erik

[rhing]

@ rhing - Now that you have had your unit for a while. Which by the way is the best mod ive seen. Can you council me that if i buy this board, I want to install the mods that that made an impact on the sound. What mods from your perspective, when you installed them, you could see a difference?

Thanks
Erik

Erik, if you haven't bought an amp yet, you should probably consider the Sure TPA3116 amp. In stock form, it is a very good, musical-sounding amp. With replacing the 6x stock electrolytic power supply DC decoupling caps with 6x 330uF/25V Panasonic SEPF OSCON caps, it sounds much better and that's probably all you would ever need to do.



Since the above-photo was taken, I've removed the 4x Panasonic FM power supply off-board caps. This amp doesn't need them.

I've read where others have written that the amp from eBay seller "audiobah" sounds very good as well. I only have experience with the YJ blue/black amp, the Sure TPA3116 amp, the original Sure TPA3110 amp (no output LC filter), and the SMSL SA-36A Pro TPA3118 complete amp. With all of these amps, the single best mod was installing the Panasonic OSCON caps.

If you want a complete plug and play amp, I would recommend the SMSL SA-36A Pro TPA3118 amp. You can order one of these amps with the 24V power supply if you need the extra drive. You can always add the OSCON caps as I did with mine.



I'm actually selling this SMSL amp to a friend's friend. She's going to pair it with her MacBook, Audioquest Dragonfly USB DAC, and a pair of the Pioneer SP-BS22-LR speakers. That should be a fun PC-based system for a music-lover.

[Folsom]

Ya but.... Blue/black or Sure? (Modded)

[Poultrygeist]

@  Poultrygeist Are you using stock tubes on this? Im thinking about putting in some tubes, do you anyone here suggest what tubes I can roll into this?

Thanks
Erik

I replaced the stock Chinese tubes with Russian 6n3p-ev tubes. I tried vintage GE and Tung Sols but preferred the cheap Russians.

[skrstc]

Ya but.... Blue/black or Sure? (Modded)

+1
Moded YJ vs moded Sure??? Any one.

When I compared 6n3 vs 6n3p-ev first sounded better. I was wrong. Let 6n3p-ev warmup. Then listen them.

[johnvin01]

do tube buffers really work?
I have seen many mixed opinions.

[Markvdv]

do tube buffers really work?
I have seen many mixed opinions.

6n3 preamps used in this thread are no buffers, gain of this preamp is roughly same as tpa3116 amps.

[Poultrygeist]

do tube buffers really work?
I have seen many mixed opinions.

Haven't tried a tube buffer but my 6N3 preamp and TPA's are inseparable.

[dboy]

do tube buffers really work?
I have seen many mixed opinions.

I bought a cheapo unity gain 6n3 buffer kit after discussion here about the gain being too high on the 3 tube preamp. It was this one, although it actually came with Nichicon PJ capacitors:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pre-AMP-Kit-For-DIY-Tube-6N3-Buffer-Audio-Preamplifier-new-/121167438631?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_Amplifiers&hash=item1c36246327

I found that it improved my blue/black board a bit - made it sound warmer and more listenable. This board has been modded a little, although not to a very high standard. When I tried it with a better board - Audiobah stock except for Cerafine caps - I much preferred it without the buffer. The buffer made it less accurate and less transparent.

I found that when used with a rubbish old CD player the buffer did add a more pleasing analogue warmth to the sound, but with my better digital system this was unnecessary and counterproductive. I also noticed that any improvements were more noticeable with uncluttered acoustic recordings and anything more rocking quickly sounded congested. I tried one of the cheap Russian tubes, but by about 10hrs into this tube I had just lost interest. My impression was that this buffer would only ever be useful to hide the flaws in a system, not to remove those flaws. It wasn't ever going to get me closer to any original musical performance.

Please note that my experience is with a cheap 6n3 buffer and not the preamp that is so popular. I cannot comment on that.

[OzarkTom]

do tube buffers really work?
I have seen many mixed opinions.

This is pricey compared to these TPA amps, but the IFI Itube really adds a lot of pzazz when you use it as a pre and buffer. The 3D circuit is wonderful. I would even use this Itube if I owned a $100k system.

[dboy]

...adds a lot of pzazz...

I may be very wrong and I mean this with great respect, but my (largely uninformed) suspicion is that that particular choice of words gets to the heart of the matter.

[Poultrygeist]

I thought the 3 tube 6N3 preamp and this TK2050/Meanwell a pretty good combination.

Then I tried the 6N3 preamp with the TPA3116 and the difference between the two amps was night and day.

Doubt I'll ever listen to the TK2050 again.

[matt_garman]

Hey lacro, where did you get that nice-looking, perfectly-fitting volume knob?

[rhing]

I spent a good portion of yesterday at my friend's house trying out my modified YJ TPA3116 amp with my friend's Altec Model 19's. We compared it to his 6B4G P-P tube amp custom-built by Min of Tube Audio Lab.

http://www.tubeaudiolab.com/id203.html

If you've never heard these speakers before, they are some of the best professional monitors ever made. They are highly efficient and produce such a balanced sound from top to bottom. The soundstage is huge.





My friend's system sounds really great, and I could've just listened to vinyl all day playing on his Empire 208 fitted with an RS Labs RS-1A tone arm and Genesis low output moving coil cartridge. He has that feeding into a DIY D3A tube phono stage, which feeds into an Emotive Audio Erato tube line stage.







After a while, we decided to put my TPA3116 amp into the system. What was really impressive was the amp's level of transparency and detail. It was not analytical in any sense, but very musical. We played a variety of music and the amp had no problems driving the Model 19's 15" woofers in reproducing some pretty heavy and fast percussion. The soundstage and pinpoint imaging was remarkable. Every musician had their place in the image. I think these amps match very well with efficient horn-based systems.

Even though the 6B4G P-P amp sounded better to me, the TPA3116 amp held its own in a very high end system. To compare this Class D amp to a tube amp costing 10x more is quite a testimony of this amp's value.

[lacro]

Hey lacro, where did you get that nice-looking, perfectly-fitting volume knob?

Hey Matt... I got it from E-bay seller/China. Came pretty quick. It is very nice quality, but cost as much as the chassis it's on.

This seller:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1PC-30-25mm-Black-CNC-Solid-Aluminum-Speaker-Amplifier-CD-Player-DAC-Volume-Knob-/221464079507?pt=US_Amplifier_Parts_Components&hash=item339049ac93

[erikjan]

I got the magic 6n3 tube buffer today. Shipping was reasonably fast considering its coming from China. The build quality of the pcb and soldering is better than i expected.
It came with no instructions, im trying to hook up the transformer. Anyone know the wiring diagram for the trans?

[erikjan]

Since my transformer seems to be the latest version now is being shipped, its different than the ones previously posted on here. So im posting a pic for others here in the future who need to know how to hook this up correctly.

ircle.com/image.php?id=105387[/img]