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Does anyone make a small digital power amp ?.

#41
alexclaber said:
My largest hammer drill has the same problem - a real pain when you're doing DIY whilst listening to the radio! Surely I can't be the only person who does this?

Alex
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Haha! I guess it's probably acceptable for hammer drills to spew RF. Not so much for audio amplifiers. The particular amp that I was talking about is one of the highly regarded modules in the hifi world, too.
 
#43
Output filters are not that difficult to design given the switching frequencies of modrern class D amps.

Note that Tripath is no longer, they were dissolved after years of staggering financial losses. Their IP was absorbed by another company.
 
#44
alexclaber said:
Any thoughts on the various kits/modules available for the DIYer? There's some Tripath kits that look very good value for money (though labour intensive to complete). Pondering about the potential of this stuff for powered PA speakers...

Alex
Click to expand...

I'd heartily recommend Hypex. Their class-D modules perform quite well and they're very approachable and attentive to their customers as well. Bruno Putzeys is extremely technically astute and he's very enthusiastic about answering questions.

Once I started dealing with Hypex I kind of lost track of what the other guys were doing.
 
#45
agedhorse said:
Also, (well designed) class D amps can be much more efficient into reactive loads and generally have larger current capability due to the nature of the non-linear (either saturated or cut-off) output stage.

*Class D amps at low frequencies are indeed (relatively) a walk in the park these days, as are switchmode power supplies. **As the technology matures, we will see all kinds of these improved products hit the market.
Click to expand...

Hmm... *This may explain why Traynor is currently using Class D for the low end of their self-powered, bi-amped Invalid Link Removed PA cab, and Two Tier Class H for its high end.

**Do you foresee the day when the supply requirements for SMPS/Class D et al will diminish to the point where these technologies can run on power generated in real time by technology similar to this?:

"Invalid Link Removed"

A successful marriage of these two progressions could prove to be quite the boon for electric bass players seeking expanded portability. :cool:
 
#46
Mark Reccord said:
I can assure you that QSC has done their homework on Class-D and have a very good implementation on the market. I've recently been using a bunch of the class-D PL380s powering an EAW line array and I can honestly say that the PL380 gives up nothing in performance, even under very demanding circumstances. Plus it's super light and runs cool.

There are plenty of very good Class-D amps out there with suitably broadband output filters. There are also some very poorly engineered specimens. I had one of the popular modules on my bench a while ago and it spewed out enough RF to mask AM radio from 30 feet away.


"All power amplifiers are analog, but some are more analog than others."
-Bruno Putzeys
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Will defer to your more relevent hands on experience as to what modern class D amps, of good design are capable. Though still stand by my statement of output filter ( class D ) is a key area and design compromise will be a dominant factor, if nothing else cost of such a key element will be a mitigating factor when matched against a proper linear output stage of SS FET and the more design friendly bipolar. FWIW have worked on switching power systems to 4MVA ( yes, no typo 4MVA ).
Regards.
 
#47
agedhorse said:
Output filters are not that difficult to design given the switching frequencies of modrern class D amps.

Note that Tripath is no longer, they were dissolved after years of staggering financial losses. Their IP was absorbed by another company.
Click to expand...

Kind of caught me out with the filter statement, switching frequency is but one aspect that modern design notions ought to be higher and higher, i am not of that camp as such. Still your experience with filters may be more than mine, can see many factors placing constraints on the filter performance, with a view of good sonic performance, which to me, the later is paramount.

Switching frequency would be but one of many aspects to consider, at design stage, let alone real world performance and evaluation. Witness RFI mentioned in another post, just the thing you would not need with RF based Tx/Rx devices on stage or FOH.

Thank you for the effort in posting to my comments, regards.
 
#49
I have a pair of 1kW @ 4Ohm ICE D-amps and a couple of 3 channel ICE amps with a DSP engine. The sound great and are very clean. Distortion does increase a bit above 10Khz but your second harmonic is above 20Khz So Big deal.
 
#50
spode master said:
I have a pair of 1kW @ 4Ohm ICE D-amps and a couple of 3 channel ICE amps with a DSP engine. The sound great and are very clean. Distortion does increase a bit above 10Khz but your second harmonic is above 20Khz So Big deal.
Click to expand...

Precisely. And that's old technlogy.
 
#52
Inverters and VSD'd. Thyristor in the early days to IGBTs in later times. See your a tube man ( valve to us ), nice to see, have a soft spot for tubes myself. Have a bunch of 4CX250's here that were destined for a startling bass rig at one time... Started on valves in the late 60's, built my own all tube amps. Been lucky in my career, DC to Light so to speak. Was very interested in your tube performance comments in another thread. Regards.
 
#53
Designers having a wide range of experience helps propel individual industries like ours in a forward direction. This is exactly how class D amps came to be and how they migrated into the bass amp industry. They pretty much started in the pro audio industry (audio applications anyway) if you ignore very early attempts such as Clive Sinclairs "hi-fi" attempt.
 

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