Phil Jones "Digital" Amps?

[TC5]

Anyone got the low down on what exactly is digital in the "solid state digital" Phil Jones amps such as the D-200?

[Bassman 100]

I'm using the D-200 with the 6B. Sorry I can't answer your technical question. However I can tell you I've got a tone to die for.

[bottomzone]

According to the manual, it is a Class D amp with a digital switch mode power supply. Here is an article from Wikipedia that may or may not help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_D_Amplifier

I have an EA Micro 300 that is a digital amp the also has a switch mode power supply. Otherwise, that is the extent of my knowledge.

A Groove is a Terrible Thing to Waste!

[GaryM]

From that Wikipedia article:

The term "class-D" is sometimes misunderstood as meaning a "digital" amplifier. While some class-D amps may indeed be controlled by digital circuits, the power stage deals with voltage and current in function of time. The smallest amount of noise, timing uncertainty, voltage ripple or any other non-ideality immediately results in an irreversible change of the output signal. A digital circuit also uses physics to operate, but those same errors will only lead to incorrect results when they become so large that a signal representing a digit is distorted beyond recognition. Up to that point, non-idealities have no impact on the transmitted signal. The difference between digital and analogue signals is that digital signals are subsequently interpreted as numbers whereas in analogue signals the exact waveform matters.[1]

Nevertheless, the term "digital amplifier" has gained currency to denote class D amplifiers with significant amounts of digital processing in them.

[TC5]

Originally Posted by bottomzone

According to the manual, it is a Class D amp with a digital switch mode power supply. Here is an article from Wikipedia that may or may not help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_D_Amplifier

I have an EA Micro 300 that is a digital amp the also has a switch mode power supply. Otherwise, that is the extent of my knowledge.

A Groove is a Terrible Thing to Waste!

Thanks. The Wikipedia info is a bit over my head...

Guess I'm trying to figure out if there's an AD/DA stage the signal is going through in the amp or is it a standard analog solid state audio circuit whose functions are controlled digitally (?)

[coyoteboy]

"digital" in this case is a misnomer, and there are no A/D/A conversions going on.