[Rclark]

There are tripath's with hundreds of watts, is why I said that. Ok, so this is a low power variant of the chip. Didn't know that.

[Rclark]

I've had my Virtue nodded as heck too, and on that amp batteries are certainly superior, but I didn't get a "40%" jump with any if the changes. Large improvements yes, but I wouldn't go so far as to claim such a leap. I hope you are shipping the regular supply with the TBI so I can too experience this enormous jump by switching supplies with the TBI.

Going to batteries on the Virtue did increase refinement but I wouldn't feel comfortable saying 40% improvement.

[wushuliu]

Just unboxed the amp and yeah that power supply is the kind I normally I toss in a bin right away  (speaking of which, gotta empty that thing out!). Not hard to beat that with a little effort. Too bad the valley is in the 100s this week, won't be able to do much listening until late tonight when we can give the a/c a break.

[Rclark]

well, if it's the same power supply connector as the Virtue, I have a linear supply and also a 30v/90watt switching supply to compare to the battery supply with the TBI.

I also have my 8ohm GR Insignia monitors as an easier load as well.

[OzarkTom]

I've had my Virtue nodded as heck too, and on that amp batteries are certainly superior, but I didn't get a "40%" jump with any if the changes. Large improvements yes, but I wouldn't go so far as to claim such a leap. I hope you are shipping the regular supply with the TBI so I can too experience this enormous jump by switching supplies with the TBI.

Going to batteries on the Virtue did increase refinement but I wouldn't feel comfortable saying 40% improvement.

Both power supplies are in it. If your system is resolving enough, you will hear at least 40%. I told that to my buddy Rex, and he thought it was a lot more like Freo-1 did. I was being somewhat conservative when I quoted 40%, I figured most people would call me crazy if I gave what I thought the real figure was.

[Rclark]

 Looking forward to it! I didn't realize there were so many flavors of Tripath.

[wushuliu]

There are tripath's with hundreds of watts, is why I said that. Ok, so this is a low power variant of the chip. Didn't know that.

If you mean the TBI, I don't know what it uses. I don't think that's been disclosed.

[wushuliu]

Ok, initial impressions: Love the mids. Vocals pop out and I agree with OT on the 'live' nature of the amp. With certain tracks I feel like I am behind the console at the studio. Lots of low level information is now audible and channel separation is impressive. Tight bass. Clean and clear delivery.

As far as power: yes, stock power is meh. However I also compared a 12v (13.9v) Pyramid linear supply  I have lying around w/ 12v battery (8xAA) and so far prefer the Pyramid by a hair due to dynamics, so that bodes well.

Please note that this is NOT OzarkTom's modified TBI, but stock I ordered myself. So stock binding posts and NO 24v SLA setup.

Gear: Usher 2-ways (~85db, 8ohms), Pioneer D912 as preamp to help w/ ht duties, PC->ODAC as source, VHAudio Airlok ICs, Sonicraft Neotech UPOCC speaker cables.

More later

Crazy that this amp has been out since 2008. with no buzz until now...

EDIT: Clare Torry has never sounded better on Great Gig In The Sky, and Rick's playing never been as clear.

[OzarkTom]

If you have a 12V car battery sitting around, you can also try that to get a feel on what the amp sounds like with batteries. The vocals and guitar just gets better.

[wushuliu]

If you have a 12V car battery sitting around, you can also try that to get a feel on what the amp sounds like with batteries. The vocals and guitar just gets better.

I listened with AA batteries as mentioned above. Lol, the boss is not going to be down for a car battery in the living room! The Pyramid (with a Felix attached) provided the same experience to my ears as the AAs, with the batteries being a little quieter perhaps but not by much. The Pyramids have a little more slam though, are inexpensive and easily available from Amazon. I bet Paul Hynes could whip something up that would be amazing. Batteries are probably the best way to go but there's plenty of room for exploration.

At any rate I think I will keep the TBI. I love my Classdaudio CDA254 and in my setup there are certain things it does really well: really wide presentation, full, organic, transparent, lots of power. You just can't accuse their amps of sounding digital. I love them. BUT, vs. the TBI it's kind of like using a cap vs. no cap in a circuit. No matter how good the cap, unless you're looking for flavor you can't beat no cap at all. The TBI to my ears is more like no cap at all. Hate to use the word veil but I looked up thesaurus.com and couldn't find anything better. So uh yeah, some serious veil removal. And other stuff, but I think other people have covered it well: holographic, you are there, master tape...Kind of trippy really. I'll leave it other folks to wax lyrical.

On the critical side: the no cap thing is a blessing and a curse for obvious reasons. Also I do detect just a slight, slight treble emphasis. Not digital or artificial in any way and *very* slight. This could be for any number of reasons gear-wise. Not to mention break-in. Likely culprits are speakers (pretty flat with slight rise in tweeter) and/or the ODAC. But it was there so I'll mention it. Finally, the amp has a lot of gain and I can't run it with the pot wide open, so some purity may be lost there? I'm stretching here obviously.

I do not have the high end retail experience most of you guys have - for whatever reason I just end up building stuff. So all I can compare to are other amps I've built, including tripath and tube amps. I would have built a Pass F5 by now if I didn't live in toasty LA. I did buy an Onix SP3 though. So I can't say if the TBI kills giants dead or no, but it is a new kind of aural experience for me and that's exciting.

Now, let's see about those binding posts. Maybe some wiring changes. Hm, and the rca's...

[DaveC113]

I listened with AA batteries as mentioned above. Lol, the boss is not going to be down for a car battery in the living room! The Pyramid (with a Felix attached) provided the same experience to my ears as the AAs, with the batteries being a little quieter perhaps but not by much. The Pyramids have a little more slam though...

Now, let's see about those binding posts. Maybe some wiring changes. Hm, and the rca's...

The pyramid supply has more "slam" because it uses capacitors with a lower ESR than the internal resistance of the battery. If you put some caps across the batteries you will get the same "slam".

As far as binding posts, I just ordered some Pomona 3770 binding posts. They are gold plated tellerium copper, same material all copper binding posts are made of including the Cardas copper posts. Price is $8.60 each, so about $35 for a set of 4 vs. $75 for the Cardas posts. The Cardas posts do look nicer but nobody can see my binding posts anyway... I have not installed the Pomona posts yet so I can't comment on their performance yet. But everytime you get rid of a brass connector it makes an improvement IMO.

http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?qs=yih5jomMvb3Uhbdu3XO%2FAg%3D%3D

[OzarkTom]

I listened with AA batteries as mentioned above.

I tried the AA's also, I was not very impressed. I guess it is great if you take the amp on the road to use it on a camping trip or hotel room.

[Rclark]

Wushu, it doesn't have to be such a big deal to have batteries. I have my two 24volt batteries (the setup is NOT that big, in fact my linear supply is monstrously huge compared to batteries and a charger) and charger tucked away nicely out of view. The charger is a CTEK and is plugged in 24/7 with absolutely no issues.

I think you are making a mountain out of a molehill. Heck if necessary you could even make yourself a nice looking case to hold the batteries in if they must be in site. It doensn't have to be ugly. Hate you see you not get the most out of your amp.

[munosmario]

I tried the AA's also, I was not very impressed. I guess it is great if you take the amp on the road to use it on a camping trip or hotel room.

OT, again, you are right, but please keep in mind the following to get a proper perspective (from the TBI website):

“Into an 8 ohm load the MILLENIA MG3 amplifier provides 8 watts of power per channel at less than 1% distortion and 10 W at 10% with controlled clipping recovery when operating on 8 internal AA batteries. When using the AC power supply, which provides twice the voltage of the battery, this unique product delivers 32 W of power per channel for musical passages at less than 1% distortion while having a maximum power rating of 40 W at 10%.”

As you can see, the AA batteries (12 volts of DC power) provide 8 W of amplifier power at 1% distortion and 10 W at 10% distortion…namely, trying to extract merely 2 extra watts increases distortion to 10%!! Now, if you use the AC power supply which provides 24 volts of DC power, or a 24 volt external battery arrangement, then, you get 32 W of amplifier power at 1% distortion and 40 W at 10% distortion. Granted, there is “controlled clipping recovery” but clipping is clipping and no matter how controlled, the effect of clipping will be audible once it shows up and distortion starts to increase at whatever ratio the clipping-control circuit allows.  Accordingly,  besides the inherent SQ differences between battery power and AC power, some of the differences in SQ heard (by users) with higher voltage DC power (24 volts instead of 12 volts, AC or battery generated) are most likely the result of different/higher degree of clipping as the power demands on the amp increase---larger rooms, highly power-demanding musical programs, not so efficient speakers, etc.

Mario

[Freo-1]

Based on my listening impressions to date, a 24 volt battery setup seems to be the way to go with this amp.  It would be interesting to compare the battery to a good liner power supply.  I do think the battery is an elegant and simple solution.  Just have to house it in an appropriate case for the spousal acceptance factor.
 
I have not noticed any tilting of the treble.  If anything, I’ve noticed that the treble is very clean, and does not call attention to itself.  Considering most all Class D amps I’ve heard to date have a somewhat etched treble, this is remarkable.  The one spectrum that really grabs one’s attention is vocals.  My goodness, I can’t remember when I have heard such realistic sounding playback of vocals (much like the best of a SET tube unit), only coming from a dead quiet background. 
 
Detailed write up to follow…..

[wushuliu]

Wushu, it doesn't have to be such a big deal to have batteries. I have my two 24volt batteries (the setup is NOT that big, in fact my linear supply is monstrously huge compared to batteries and a charger) and charger tucked away nicely out of view. The charger is a CTEK and is plugged in 24/7 with absolutely no issues.

I think you are making a mountain out of a molehill. Heck if necessary you could even make yourself a nice looking case to hold the batteries in if they must be in site. It doensn't have to be ugly. Hate you see you not get the most out of your amp.

Lol, not making a mountain out of anything and I haven't rule batteries out. I know my habits and it would be easy for me to forget to charge them. I am not new to battery power for audio  . I am trying to be thorough in exploring all options and sharing what I find. Also I have never built a linear supply from scratch before so it will be a learning experience for me. I'll move on from discussing PS...

@ Freo-1 The treble thing was really, really slight. I am just being thorough in bringing it up. I have been used to the CDA which is very forgiving in the top end. With a new component in the mix there's always some reassessments that have to be done and break-in and yadda yadda. Plus my gear is modest. So please take my early impressions as just that for now.

More later
 

[Freo-1]

Lol, not making a mountain out of anything and I haven't rule batteries out. I know my habits and it would be easy for me to forget to charge them. I am not new to battery power for audio  . I am trying to be thorough in exploring all options and sharing what I find. Also I have never built a linear supply from scratch before so it will be a learning experience for me. I'll move on from discussing PS...

@ Freo-1 The treble thing was really, really slight. I am just being thorough in bringing it up. I have been used to the CDA which is very forgiving in the top end. With a new component in the mix there's always some reassessments that have to be done and break-in and yadda yadda. Plus my gear is modest. So please take my early impressions as just that for now.

More later

No worries, mate   
 
It does take some time to sort out a new component in a given system.

[wushuliu]

Replaced binding posts w/ Cardas. Replaced RCAs w/ DH Labs CMR-1s. Internal speaker wire replaced w/ vhaudio airlok. Don't know what solder Jan uses but it is easy to desolder, melts quickly.

Btw, the TBI uses a TI TPA3100. Pretty much zero info on it available aside from technical pdf.

[OzarkTom]

Replaced binding posts w/ Cardas. Replaced RCAs w/ DH Labs CMR-1s. Internal speaker wire replaced w/ vhaudio airlok. Don't know what solder Jan uses but it is easy to desolder, melts quickly.

Btw, the TBI uses a TI TPA3100. Pretty much zero info on it available aside from technical pdf.

Nice, I love those RCA's.

Your amp probably sounds better than mine now.

[OzarkTom]

My buddy Rex was looking all over Ebay and found this great looking wood box to store the 2-12v batteries and charger in. And it only costs $12.95+$10.75 shipping. You will have to drill some holes to run your wires out of it.

I told my wive that it was also an ash box, so when she cremates me, she can take the batteries out and put my ashes in it. But she came back with, "I will just leave the batteries in it and when I think you need a charge, I will just plug it into the wall and turn it on."

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mahogany-Craft-Jewelry-Ash-Keepsake-Storage-Boat-Personal-Box-/280933821569?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4168f5ec81