Tripath Battery Powered Audiophile Amp: Initial Impressions

Dmason · « **Reply #180 on:** 19 Jan 2005, 06:10 pm »

JeffB,

You may wish to PM Bwanagreg. He has a batTery amp hooked up to his Omega Grande 8's, and told me that his big Adire sub runs out of steam long before the mains do. I have been using the ClariT with Fostex FE207E's in a .8 ft^3 cabinet, ie: identical driver and cabinet volume, and believe me, SPL is not an issue, at least in my place. I have written before that this combination offers a RARE synergy, and is addictive. I want MORE of it all, and plan on building some Fostex based horns to get it.

You can't go wrong is my vote, but get Greg's opinion as well.

maxwalrath · « **Reply #181 on:** 19 Jan 2005, 09:50 pm »

jeffB, I'm using the clari-T with 93 dB sensitive speakers. My room isn't very big, but I can't turn the volume much past 9:30 without worring about the neighbors. Those few watts go a long way, it shouldn't be a problem with Omegas at all.

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #182 on:** 20 Jan 2005, 05:39 pm »

All,

Some of you outside North America have questioned if the battery charger that comes with the Clari-T-Amp can be used with a 240Vac to 120Vac adapter, at 50Hz instead of 60Hz power.

After conversations with Universal Power and having them test this, it turns out that you CANNOT power these with 120Vac at 50Hz power.

I was hoping that a cheap 240Vac to 120Vac power adapter would work out, but it is the 50Hz that will cause these chargers to run too hot (according to Universal Power).

These were designed to run off of 120Vac 60Hz ONLY!

Does anyone outside of North America know of (or using) an automatic 12V SLA battery charger that runs off of 240Vac 50Hz? If you do, I can send the plug needed to connect to the Clari-T-Amp, and the other end would just need to be screwed onto the + and - output of the charger.

Sorry for the delay in getting this information out. They have been really slow at responding and a few of my phone calls to their engineering dept. were not returned. I just kept calling them until they realized that I wasn't going to back off until I got the information from them

-Vinnie

mcgsxr · « **Reply #183 on:** 20 Jan 2005, 06:07 pm »

Quote

I just kept calling them until they realized that I wasn't going to back off until I got the information from them

Ha, welcome to selling... my 9-5!

Good for you for sticking to your guns, and getting the info you need - I am sure that your increasing customer base appreciates that you are a guy who is looking out for their best interests.

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #184 on:** 20 Jan 2005, 07:20 pm »

Quote from: mcgsxr

Quote
I just kept calling them until they realized that I wasn't going to back off until I got the information from them

Ha, welcome to selling... my 9-5!

Good for you for sticking to your guns, and getting the info you need - I am sure that your increasing customer base appreciates that you are a guy who is looking out for their best interests.

Thanks for the kind words Mark!

smargo · « **Reply #185 on:** 28 Jan 2005, 02:15 am »

I just wanted to chime in and say so often at least in the past when I've bought a piece of eqipment it always seemed to bring out the worst in my other components.

With the clari t and it might be true with other digital amps this is the first piece of equipment that i have owned that actually makes or seems like my other components enjoy playing at their best.

It's definitely a positive shift - and somehow seems so right

The clari t and others may be giving digital a good name again at least in amplifiers.

smargo

maxwalrath · « **Reply #186 on:** 28 Jan 2005, 04:48 am »

yeah, it's truly the good stuff. I sat down last night to hear a song or two off Radiohead's Amnesiac, next thing you know it's 2:00, the album's finished, and I want to buy new cd's.

btw...I'm using $250 used klipsch's for the time being.

Panelhead · « **Reply #187 on:** 28 Jan 2005, 11:58 am »

I have been using one of these for a couple of weeks now. The latest method used for power is a 13.8volt 1700 ma supply from PartsExpress.
This has not been compared to a SLA battery, but seems better sounding than some 2400 mah AA batteries tried in the player. The batteries are smoother and warmer, the charger louder and more exciting.
This morning I reinstalled my normal amp. While pulling out the SI the voltage coming out of the supply was checked. It is outputting 18.1 vdc with no load.
The SI has been running at least 30 hours at 18 volts with no ill effects. But this matchs what others have posted concerning the wallwart voltages.
I feel lucky that my SI has not gone up in smoke. The Tripath data sheet shows 16 volts as maximum level.
But this might explain why my tin ears preferred the sound of the charger. If others have found 13.8 sounds better than 12 volts, it follows that 18 volts should also sound better than the 13.2 volts available from a battery.
Guess I will pull the SLA from my daughters PowerWheel and give it a listen. At least it will not smoke my SI.

George

nature boy · « **Reply #188 on:** 28 Jan 2005, 11:29 pm »

Here is a nice aluminum amp box for you DIY'ers planning on doing mods to the Sonic T-amp: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ampbox/page2.html

NB

Sean · « **Reply #189 on:** 30 Jan 2005, 09:50 am »

Panelhead: While i'm not familiar ( at all ) with the Tripath IC's, most transistors can easily sustain measurably more than their rated breakdown voltage. This is true so long as current levels and thermal stress is kept low. With that in mind, i've got customers using Toshiba RF output devices that are 20% above rated voltage and delivering over 4X their rated power output. This is done on a daily basis with minimal problems. As such, some devices are severely de-rated in terms of both output capacity and ruggedness.

As a side note, the increased input voltage will increase the max output power, resulting in greater dynamics with less potential for compression, clipping or slewing induced distortion. One could very easily build a voltage divider that would not only load the transformer down a bit, but also reduce the potential for damage to the Tripath device. Sean
>

Panelhead · « **Reply #190 on:** 30 Jan 2005, 02:07 pm »

Quote from: Sean

Panelhead: While i'm not familiar ( at all ) with the Tripath IC's, most transistors can easily sustain measurably more than their rated breakdown voltage. This is true so long as current levels and thermal stress is kept low. With that in mind, i've got customers using Toshiba RF output devices that are 20% above rated voltage and delivering over 4X their rated power output. This is done on a daily basis with minimal problems. As such, some devices are severely de-rated in terms of both output capacity ...

Sean,
You right on this. The 18 volts did seem to hurt the SI amp after over a week of daily use. The amp did sound louder and more punchy. Could be from the increased amount of energy stored by the 330 ufd on board filter cap. The amount of stored energy is close to double with the rail jacked up so high.
Another interesting tidbit was found when tearing one apart yesterday. The AA batteries have been left in the amp when playing with other power sources. I had assumed the plug in disconnected them.
Looking at it apart, the AA battery and the M plug both are hardwired to the supply. When running an external power supply the batteries are still connected.
This may explain why I have liked the sound of the supplies. The batteries are acting like another filter.
This is another potetential problem with the out of spec power supply sold by Parts Express for use with the SI. The rechargeable batteries I am using cost more than the SI amp. The 18 volts applied by the power supply cannot be doing them any good either.
I have since found a Lo Duca supply sold by Best Buy. It measures 12 volts and is rated 1700 ma also. It has an inline choke to help remove some nasties. It sounded real nice during a 4 -5 hour listen last night.

George

Sean · « **Reply #191 on:** 30 Jan 2005, 11:05 pm »

It is not uncommon for an unregulated "wall wart" type transformer to show much higher voltage with no load on it. If you checked the voltage with the wall wart plugged into the wall but with no load on it, your readings aren't very accurate during normal use.

One would literally have to have the device being powered under normal load in order to measure the working voltage of the wall wart / power supply in a more accurate manner. In order to to do this, you would have to remove the batteries from the circuit, fire the amp up, play music at normal volumes and then check the voltage on the circuit board as the amp sees it. Due to the efficiency of the amp and the lower than average power consumption, i would not doubt that the voltage will remain somewhat high. So long as it doesn't remain well above 16 volts ( as quoted by the manufacturer of the chip ), you shouldn't run into problems.

If the voltage isn't falling enough, one could very easily wire a few high powered resistors across the pos & neg inputs on the board. By increasing the amount of current draw via using lower impedance resistors in parallel with the amplifier draw, one can bring the voltage down to the desired level. There are also benefits to doing this as it will tend to reduce ripple voltage AND act as a broadband resistive shunt for RFI / EMI induced noises. Just make sure that the resistors that you use are NOT wire-wound as the stray inductance will reduce their bandwidth, negating their effectiveness as an RFI shunt.

The other alternative is to build a regulation circuit and / or a voltage divider. These are both more involved but can provide even better results than the resistive shunts mentioned above. That is, IF they are built and designed properly.

The first thing to do would be to check the voltage of the wall wart powering the amp under a normal load. Just make sure that you pull the batteries from the unit, so as to pull as much of a load from the wall wart as possible. In doing so, you might find that your voltage is fine without doing anything other than enjoying the music : )

As a side note, i've got three of these amps on order along with three 12 volt @ 2.4 amp wall warts. Both parts are currently out of stock from where i'm trying to get them, so i'll have to wait. I intend to use these in a vertically bi-amped mode for some actively crossed computer speakers that i'm going to build. The third will be for driving a subwoofer for the same system. By actively crossing the speakers prior to amplification, amplifier efficiency will be increased due to a reduction in bandwidth. This will further increase power availability, adding both more headroom and dynamics as needed. Due to the miniscule size of each amplifier board and having the power supplies outboard, all of the circuitry can be built into the cabinets with minimal loss in internal volume. On top of that, the signal path will be even shorter between the amplifier / driver interphase, which should result in improved sonics.

Given that i can do all of this for well under $150 total due to utilizing parts that i have laying around, doing my own woodwork and careful shopping in terms of the amplifiers / power supplies, i'm quite certain that the results will easily blow away anything that i can find on the market for many, many times the price. Sean
>

Tbadder1 · « **Reply #192 on:** 2 Feb 2005, 08:29 pm »

Very disappointed to find that in the length of time this thread took to come to fruition the price has risen 100 bucks. Alas, another purchase unmade.

Panelhead · « **Reply #193 on:** 3 Feb 2005, 01:40 pm »

Quote from: Tbadder1

Very disappointed to find that in the length of time this thread took to come to fruition the price has risen 100 bucks. Alas, another purchase unmade.

Availability of new units is the problem. PCMall still lists them for 19.95 each. They are coming, maybe on a slow boat from C___a.

George

dstroot · « **Reply #194 on:** 6 Feb 2005, 12:08 am »

What went up $100 bucks????

gary · « **Reply #195 on:** 6 Feb 2005, 01:02 am »

Quote from: dstroot

What went up $100 bucks????

I think he's talking about Vinnie's amp, as the price was increased to $499.
In all fairness, Vinnie mentioned this pretty early on.

Gary

MttBsh · « **Reply #196 on:** 6 Feb 2005, 06:30 pm »

At $499 Vinnie's amp is a steal.

To allow a $100 increase to keep you from getting the Clari-T - which many in this thread have stated they prefer over highly regarded multi-thousand dollar amps - is, at least in my book, absurd.

Dmason · « **Reply #197 on:** 6 Feb 2005, 08:55 pm »

I totally agree. You justify Modwright Level III highway robbery on your mass produced Sony, but choke on a hun, over one of the best amps out there?

Maybe Vinnie needs to get machined alloy faceplates or oiled Paduak front panels to entice and pull in the yuppie audiophool market. Make his offering more "substantial," and charge more, to make it a "better" product.

I recently read P.T. Barnum's biography. He understood Social Darwinism.

konut · « **Reply #198 on:** 6 Feb 2005, 09:58 pm »

Although not firmly on topic, is there any inherent reason why the Tripath chip cannot be bridged into a monoblock? I realise that this requires extra circuitry that may, or may not, negate the sonic excellence of this chip. This would certainly allow more inefficient speakers to be used with satisfactory results. Vinnie R, any thoughts on this?

Panelhead · « **Reply #199 on:** 6 Feb 2005, 10:54 pm »

Quote from: konut

Although not firmly on topic, is there any inherent reason why the Tripath chip cannot be bridged into a monoblock? I realise that this requires extra circuitry that may, or may not, negate the sonic excellence of this chip. This would certainly allow more inefficient speakers to be used with satisfactory results. Vinnie R, any thoughts on this?

The Tripath chips are already a bridged circuit. So bridging a stereo is not possible. Best option is to use two, and only one channel of each. But this only helps a little.

George