[wushuliu]

If we're talking tube kits I'd recommend Glassware over anything on ebay:

http://glass-ware.stores.yahoo.net/acpcbandusgu.html

[Markvdv]

Looked at that one too, higher voltage, even better, very clean, but also little more expensive.

[Markvdv]

...kingrex $500 supply
Is this a customer request specification model or are kingrex models more expensive in USA then in Europe? Most of times here in Europe we pay more for all kind of electronics, would be fair if you guys pay a little more sometimes too

[OzarkTom]

...kingrex $500 supply
Is this a customer request specification model or are kingrex models more expensive in USA then in Europe? Most of times here in Europe we pay more for all kind of electronics, would be fair if you guys pay a little more sometimes too

My mistake, the cost is $419.

http://www.moon-audio.com/kingrex-psu-mkii.html

[Markvdv]

Ok that one is converted to US$ $235 here in NL and $385 in UK. Our price here in NL seems way off then.

[rodge827]

The killer pre for these little amps is the IFI Micro Itube with an Astron SL11A PS running at 9V. I know this will set you back $299 for the Itube and $115 for the Astron, but after you hear this combo you will wonder why buy anything else. It has huge soundstage, great holographic imaging, and very smooth and organic SQ. This combo will send chills up your spine.

Just ask tailspinrex and rodge827 here on AC. They will verify.

Yep, what Tom said! 
With the addition of the Astron 11A modified (for free by Astron) to 9vdc, the iTube performance was raised considerably.
Deeper and fuller sound stage from top to bottom, front to back, and left to right. Subtle details are also more prevalent, not forward in your face prevalent, but as part of the recording. Such as mic bumps, piano string dampers, stage noise, tone decay, the difference between steel and nylon strung guitars, drum echo, singer's breaths, hall echo, emotional connection...
I run mine straight with the 0db setting without the 3D or Digital Antidote settings between a Dspeaker Dual Core 2.0 and TBI Millennia MG3 amp. Both the Dspeaker and TBI are powered by Astron 11A Linear power supplies.

I'm very happy with this set up, I took a leap of faith on the iTube and it paid off BIG. 

Chris

[OzarkTom]

My Itube just got back Friday from being Cryo'd. I have my buddy Rex to listen to it first this weekend, and all he said was he now wanted his cryo'd. Rex did say it is much more liquid and magical sounding and the Itube was great before I sent it off. I cannot wait to get it back, if Rex will send it.

By now, everyone knows how much I enjoy listening to the TBI and how great a value it is, but I believe this Itube with the Astron power supply represents 2-3 times the value that the TBI is.

Now why does Rex have my Itube and I don't?

Almost forgot, Rex says that he now hears more of the hall echo than with his stock unit.

[OzarkTom]

Is anybody here game to hook one of these to your TPA amp? 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200989265966&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en

[Folsom]

Is anybody here game to hook one of these to your TPA amp? 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200989265966&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en

Wow...

[wushuliu]

Question is how authentic are those caps...

[Markvdv]

14 Vdc connected to it would give total capacitance for board of 25.000uF? With 7 V over each individual 25.000uF capbank? Or how to connect DC ?

[wushuliu]

Got an Astron RS-12A. It does indeed open things up in a more 3D way. A little less oomph than the Meanwell but that's expected at half the power. Some tizziness in the treble but I think that's the very crappy Los Angeles power coming through, especially now that the weather's warm. The Meanwell was pretty good at handling that but does not have the same depth and sense of space.  I would say definitely worth the $50 off ebay.

Will absolutely be modded, starting with the power plug...

[rodge827]

Is anybody here game to hook one of these to your TPA amp? 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200989265966&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en

Question is how authentic are those caps...

Here's a thread on the Gon where a guy is using them he jumps in in the middle...

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?htech&1401737341&read&3&zzlCeltic66

Chris

[Markvdv]

The way he connected total capacitance of this 100.000uF cap bank is <25.000 uF and each 35V capacitor never sees more then ~6V?

[rhing]

In working with these TPA31xx amps over the last several months, I've come to the conclusion that the DC power supply decoupling caps closest to the amp IC are very critical to the overall sound quality. In most Texas Instruments schematics for these amps, these are typically the 220uF/25V caps in parallel with a couple ceramic SMD caps.

With wushuliu's idea of using hybrid organic polymer-electrolytic caps on his Yuan Jing TPA3116D2 2.0 blue amp, I started trying 330uF/25V Panasonic SEPF OSCON (formerly Sanyo OSCON) organic semiconductor in these amps. I've added these to my Yuan Jing TPA3116D2 blue amp and to my Sure Electronics TPA3110D2 amp, and in both cases, the sound quality was significantly improved with deeper, punchier bass, improved tonality in the mids and highs, a deeper soundstage and more focused imaging.

I opened up my S.M.S.L. SA-36A Pro TPA3118D2 amp and this little guy has the following caps inside:

• 2x 47uF/35V organic polymer cap, 8mm dia
• 8x 470uF/25V Panasonic M electrolytic caps, 10mm dia
• 4x Pilkor 680nF/450V MKP LC filter caps
• 2x 3.3uF/250V Epcos MKT film caps

The amp sounds great, and I think it can be improved with replacing and removing some of the caps. It does have an annoying turn-off pop, but I think making the changes will reduce it. I've tried this amp with the stock 12VDC/3.8A SMPS brick that came with the amp and my upgraded Astron RS-12A. The difference is night and day. For someone looking for a complete TPA31xx amp, this little $50 amp could be the one, especially with an upgraded power supply.

Is anybody here game to hook one of these to your TPA amp? 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200989265966&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en

I'm sure adding off-board capacitance helps, but that cap array from eBay is ridiculous. If anyone wants hyper-capacitance, then they should try one of those 1-5 Farad (yes, 1 Farad = 1,000,000 micro-Farads) car audio capacitors. There is a charging procedure associated with using these caps, and you'll read a whole bunch of raves about using them, but you'll also find some criticism about perceived vs. real benefits. Some of them have colorful LEDs to indicate charging status.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-DHgNAbydIsk/shopsearch/capacitor.html?awcp=1t2&awcr=28768559603&awdv=c&awkw=car%20audio%20capacitors&awmt=e&awnw=g

Got an Astron RS-12A. It does indeed open things up in a more 3D way. A little less oomph than the Meanwell but that's expected at half the power. Some tizziness in the treble but I think that's the very crappy Los Angeles power coming through, especially now that the weather's warm. The Meanwell was pretty good at handling that but does not have the same depth and sense of space.  I would say definitely worth the $50 off ebay.

Will absolutely be modded, starting with the power plug...

Glad you like it. Not sure what caps are in your Astron RS-12A, but when I upgraded the old ones that were in mine, it made a profound improvement in the sound quality of my TPA31xx amps. I need to replace the hard-wired power cord with an IEC inlet and better power cable.

[matt_garman]

Not sure what caps are in your Astron RS-12A, but when I upgraded the old ones that were in mine, it made a profound improvement in the sound quality of my TPA31xx amps.

Did you go into detail on the upgrades to your Astron in an earlier post?  If so, do you happen to have a handy link to that post?  If not, would you be willing to detail them here? 

I was previously powering my tpa311x amps with this $13 K-Tec 12V 2A Wall-Wart... util ya'll talked up the Astrons so much, I felt compelled to snag an RS-12A off ebay.

Well, I can't tell the difference between the el-cheapo K-Tec and the Astron.  I've tried swapping PSUs on both the tpa3110 and tpa3116.  I've tried both amps on two different sets of speakers now (recently swapped out my Overnight Sensations for a pair of Alpair 7.3eN-based speakers).  I got to where I could actually swap PSUs quickly enough on my tpa3116 that the music didn't stop (that suggests the input power capacitance gives me about a 2-second buffer of power).

For kicks, I also tried powering the tpa3116 with the 20V Lithium battery pack that came with the string trimmer we recently bought.  I also couldn't hear a difference with this (although I only did a quick test).

So I have some guesses on why I'm not hearing any differences:

• My mains AC is clean.  Since this is my desktop rig, I'm running off the UPS my computer is connected to: APC Back-UPS RS 1500VA.  Due to having this problem with my printer, I know that at a minimum the UPS does voltage regulation.  The product webpage also says something about filtering as well.
  
• My listening levels are so low (roughly 70 dba at around 1m) as to make quality input power less important.
• Since my Astron RS-12A was purchased used, I have no idea what kind of shape its in.  I confirmed it puts out 13.8 VDC with my DMM, but haven't looked at its insides yet.  It wasn't in pristine condition like Rhing's Craigslist find (yes, I'm jealous), but after being wiped off with a damp cloth, it looks respectable.
• My critical listening skills just aren't there.

What do you guys think?

[rhing]

Did you go into detail on the upgrades to your Astron in an earlier post?  If so, do you happen to have a handy link to that post?  If not, would you be willing to detail them here? 

Matt, for my Astron RS-12A, this is what I upgraded:

Sangamo 17,000uF/30VDC electrolytic, ..........................Kemet PEH200MJ5220MB2
22mm lead spacing, 50mm dia x 100mm L

Elna 2,200uF/16V electrolytic........................... ..............Panasonic EEU-FM1C222

Elna 1,000uF/35V electrolytic........................... ..............Nichicon UKZ1H101MHM

For a DC power cable to connect the power supply to my TPA31xx amps, I use a DIY cable made from twisting a pair of 16 AWG Teflon insulated-Silver-plated, stranded Copper Mil-Spec wire terminated with a Switchcraft 2.1mm x 5.5mm DC power connector. I wrapped the twisted pair in spiral-cut tubing and put TechFlex-type expandable sleeving over that. On the power supply end, I stick the bare wires into the thru-holes on the 5-way binding posts on the Astron's rear panel.

I don't know why you don't hear differences between power supplies. I don't listen to enormously loud levels either. I am not familiar with the speakers you mentioned. I have a pair of 98dB sensitive Klipsch Forte II speakers, which I've modded and upgraded. In my listening room, these floor standing speakers roll off around 35Hz and top out at 20kHz. My sources are a Sony ES NS999ES DVD/SACD/CD player and a vintage Kenwood PC-400U belt/idler wheel drive TT with a Talisman Alchemist IIB MC cartridge feeding an Audio Research PH5 tube phono stage. With my amps that are used as power amps, I use an Audio Research LS7 tube line stage.

I am not sure what your sources are, but I believe a system must be strong and properly matched from source to loudspeaker to get the right balance of sound. My man cave hasn't been perfectly set up, but I am satisfied with how my system interacts with the room. Perhaps, you need to tweak your listening environment. I've been to many audiophile homes and show rooms with very expensive equipment that had horrid sound, because the listening rooms and systems weren't properly set-up to work well together. Conversely, I've heard budget hifi systems sound great, because the system interacted so well with the listening room. I also work with live sound reinforcement and I don't have golden ears, but I have a good idea of what instruments and vocals should sound like and use that experience for voicing my system.

[OzarkTom]

Don't forget about the Ten Tec 937 power supply. This is also made by Astron and does not come with a fixed power cord. The Pangea AC14 power cord fits right in.

[rodge827]

The Pangea AC14 power cord fits right in.

Any difference +/- with the Pangea?

[rhing]

Don't forget about the Ten Tec 937 power supply. This is also made by Astron and does not come with a fixed power cord. The Pangea AC14 power cord fits right in.

Good point. Most of the newer production Astron power supplies have IEC power inlets, so you can use your power cord of choice. The older production units like mine had fixed power cords.