Blaupunkt 2150 Tripath Experiment?

Horizons · « **on:** 15 Jun 2004, 06:25 pm »

Can anyone report back that has tried the Blaupunkt 2150 Tripath car amps with a 13.8V power supply?

I was going to try this but had some huge distractions come my way. I still see the amps under $100 on e-bay and elsewhere.

Buy two amps + decent PS ($88 + $88 + $100) = 400W dual mono tripath amps for around $275. OR, one amp (150W x2) for $188-ish.

ooheadsoo · « **Reply #1 on:** 15 Jun 2004, 07:15 pm »

Wouldn't you need two power supplies if you went dual mono? Even if you could have the singly supply powering both amps, I'm not sure you would want to.

tyee · « **Reply #2 on:** 15 Jun 2004, 07:30 pm »

That's what I did, ordered 2 power supplies. Got one, the other is coming soon. Haven't had time to hook up the amps yet though. Maybe this week.

lt5dude · « **Reply #3 on:** 30 Jun 2004, 01:36 pm »

I hooked up one of these amps in a secondary system and am very happy with it. The rest of the system consists of a Heart CD 6000 with NOS Seimens tubes, a Sansui TU-717 tuner, an Adcom GFP-750, and Paradigm 40 v2 speakers. It mixes very well with these components and in no way sounds like a weak link.

For $170 altogether it's a great deal. I have a couple of other systems I want to try the amp in but so far have been too lazy.

tubesguy · « **Reply #4 on:** 30 Jun 2004, 02:10 pm »

Hey guys -

I bought one of these, but I've had no experience with auto amps in the past, and their connections. Do I just jam big-ass wires into the connectors and screw them down? I'm kind of a small-gauge solid wire speaker wire guy, so this is somewhat daunting to me.

I did find an Astron 20 amp PS on ebay for $50, and I'm looking forward to trying this thing out. Any help would be appreciated - Pat

lt5dude · « **Reply #5 on:** 30 Jun 2004, 02:55 pm »

I bought some 10ga multistrand wire to connect the PS to the amp. You also need a small length of wire to connect the (+) lead to the input of the amp that tells it to turn on- forget what it's called. This latter wire need not be a beefy one. Hope this helps.

mcgsxr · « **Reply #6 on:** 30 Jun 2004, 05:27 pm »

I know this idea has been bandied around before, and I recall wondering if the affordable power supplies could swing the amps that amp will want for volume.

Can you comment on this?

I have some leftover car audio gear that I would consider using as a second system, if it would work out...

Mark

lt5dude · « **Reply #7 on:** 30 Jun 2004, 05:40 pm »

The power supply I bought is a 20 amp model from Pyramid- the PSV-200.
Although the blaupunkt's manual says that it will draw a max of 30 amps, I decided I could probably get by with 20- mainly because you can get one of those for less than $70 delivered.
Now, if you're bridging the blaupunkt into 4ohms and really cranking it, it may draw too much for the 20 amp supply, but I'm not and it will play far louder than I'll ever listen too without straining the PS.

tubesguy · « **Reply #8 on:** 30 Jun 2004, 08:29 pm »

Thanks for the reply on the connectors. I'll try to give this a shot soon

I agree with the advice on the power supply. I looked at the info on current draw vs output power in the manual, and concluded that, for any reasonably easy to drive speakers, 20 amps would be adequate. - Pat

lt5dude · « **Reply #9 on:** 17 Aug 2004, 05:03 pm »

I continued to enjoy my blaupunkt PA2150 in my secondary system, and decided to try it out in my main system.

The latter consists of a modwrighted pioneer universal player, a pass aleph p preamp, a pass aleph 30 amp that I swapped the blaupunkt for, and tyler acoustics linbrook monitors. I also have a bryston crossover, behringer eq, and two rel strata iii subs in this system.

Anyway, the amp sounded very good in this system too and I was satisfied with it as a summer amp (less heat than the aleph) right up until it blew up. I guess it didn't literally blow up, but it did let out a puff of smoke and emit some terrible sounds through the speakers until I shut everything off. I was listening at very low volume when this happened, btw.

I put the aleph back in and thankfully the speakers still made music. However, the music didn't sound quite the same and it didn't take long to figure out that one of the midrange drivers in one of the speakers was not functioning.

So basically my <$100 amplifier seems to have self-destructed and damaged at least one far more expensive component in the process. Needless to say, I'm rather less enamoured of the whole cheap amp experiment now and am somewhat nervous about hooking up the the other blaupunkt (yes, I bought two) even in my secondary system.
Just a word of warning to others who may be tempted...

ooheadsoo · « **Reply #10 on:** 17 Aug 2004, 05:11 pm »

Ouch, sorry to hear that. Could it be the power supply, rather than the amp itself? I've heard that the amp runs REALLY hot with the pyramid power supply, but cool as a cucumber on an automotive battery.

lt5dude · « **Reply #11 on:** 17 Aug 2004, 05:15 pm »

Well, I wondered about that, but I really don't know. Maybe I should try the battery route.

Thanks for the idea.

tyee · « **Reply #12 on:** 17 Aug 2004, 05:24 pm »

Gee, I've got the same setup, with the Pyramid PS and the unit does run quite hot.

ooheadsoo --

How do you know it runs cool with a Battery? Does this mean it is being starved of current with the Pyramid??

tyee

ooheadsoo · « **Reply #13 on:** 17 Aug 2004, 05:44 pm »

I don't know. I just read it here on the circles somewhere, but it was a while back when this amp first surfaced.

lt5dude · « **Reply #14 on:** 17 Aug 2004, 05:48 pm »

I did call blaupunkt about it although I doubt I'll try to return the unit for repair. The guy I talked to said he had heard of this happening with a few amps but it was not his impression that it was a common problem.

We did not discuss power supplies or even the fact that I was using the amp in a home system so I didn't get any info on whether or not the power supply could have been a problem.

tyee · « **Reply #15 on:** 17 Aug 2004, 06:32 pm »

I just read the manual again and in the troubleshooting section it states that if it is running hot, reduce the gain by turning the control anticlockwise toward the 6Volt setting. Maybe we should try this and see if it runs cooler.

tyee

albee · « **Reply #16 on:** 19 Aug 2004, 02:16 am »

I tried both the Pyramid linear and digital power suplies with my 2150. I settled on the linear as it was adustable. I set the voltage to just under 15 volts and never saw it draw over 4 amps by its meter. No matter that I adjusted the gain close to 4 volts, my 2150 still runs Class A hot (not warm). I ended up taking off its perforated top then duck-taping an L-shaped paper clip underneath it to make a hinged prop. I used two small pieces of duck tape to hinge the top to the rear of the chassis so I could easily prop open the top from the front. This really seems to cure the heat dissapation problem and allows me to close the lid when finished--like a turntable dust cover.

My 2150, like most Tripath devices, seems overly warm in the midrange and upper bass. In fact, I use a preamp to subtract bass and tweek up the treble. Currently, I am playing with the Teac L700 which does not seem to have that overly warm sound--we'll see.

tyee · « **Reply #17 on:** 19 Aug 2004, 04:46 am »

albee
Thanks for the report. Mine is still running hot at the 6 volt setting. Please let us know about the Teac too! How hot does the Teac run??

tyee

albee · « **Reply #18 on:** 19 Aug 2004, 06:16 am »

The Teac is in a very big enclosure but is warm to the touch. Nothing at all like the 2150. I'm mostly breaking it in watching movies and can tell it doesn't have that typical midrange warm of other Tripaths I've tried.

There is a thread here on the Teac.

ogp · « **Reply #19 on:** 19 Aug 2004, 07:13 pm »

albee,

How "loud" does the Teac get? I'm thinking of getting a pair for driving active speakers (probably 2-way, possibly 3-way), but I'm a little worried about the 30W power rating... Do you think this amplifier would work fine in such an application?