Class D

[Fran]

John,

What's the story with the various types of chips : lm3875 and so on? Is there a particular one that is better regarded than others??

[jkeny]

I think the two main chip families that are considered contenders for "best" sound in Class D amps are amps based on the TI truepath chips or amps based on the Tripath chips. Tripath went bust in 2007 but I think there is a lot of stock around. As I said, I've tried the Tamp (Tripath Ta2024 chip), I also tried another amp based on the tripath TA2020 chip. Both of these sounded very detailed & great sound but underpowered. The T4 I referenced is based on a Tripath set of chips TC200o & TK2050 & another output stage chip.

Edit: Got my PCM & PWM mixed up - the T4 accepts PWM digital input but the Hiface (& all other transports) output PCM digital data - so there can't be direct connection between the two :(

[HiFiFan]

Over the years I have built a number of Tripath based Amps using kits from 41Hz http://www.41hz.com/forums/content.php. It has been years since I have been back to the site and don't know what the current kits are like but the early ones were easy to build and gave good results. I bought a set of 1000W ICEPOWER mono blocks years ago and still use them in one of my system configurations. For the money they have never disappointed and they are cheap to run.

[Fran]

I heard one from diyparadise once and it sounded good, but that was years ago, and was about 10w.

Maybe I should go buy one of the audiosector ones to try out. John, do you know of any others like the audiosector worth looking at?

[jkeny]

Fran, those LM3875, LM4870 are chip amps - they are NOT class D but standard AB amps. If you want a class D amp I've been recommended the Tripath amp from HiFimediy - the T4 one ~$90 for 2 channels from here http://hifimediy.com/?page_id=18&catego ... oduct_id=2

With a good (overrated) power supply this is supposed to sound excellent. I'm thinking of trying one & I'll be using batteries to power it as an experiment.