hifix
Active Member
I sold my Volt+ with the intention of buying an Amptastic
The amptastic certainly reviews well.
I sold my Volt+ with the intention of buying an Amptastic
A couple of more questions about the Volt+D.
Is it a significant step up in quality over the normal Volt+?
Can you leave it on all the time, or does that shorten the life of the amp?
What is the purpose of the 20/26 db gain switch on the bottom of the unit and what setting should I have it set to?
When I first saw this new unit, I saw the switch on the front and was excited because I thought that it was a power on/off switch and it's a mute switch! Wouldn't it make more sense and people would get more use out of it if it were a power switch? Why don't they have that option unless they know it's okay to leave the amp powered on all the time.
Battery power helps most when you have a noisy AC line or grounding issues, something you tend to notice right away since batteries will tend tol give you a darker more silent background. Because batteries can deliver very high current (think of them as a giant capacitor), they almost always tend to at least subjectively improve a system's bass performance. Most people who've messed with these things seem to come to the conclusion that if you have clean AC and a really well designed well implemented regulated supply, the results are close if not better with the regulated supply that runs off the mains. I do find that battery supplies tend to sound sort of velvety (not sure why and it may just be me), like the way tubes sometimes sound vs. solid state. It's actually not completely natural, but it's really appealing.
Most of us here, however, aren't listening with well designed well implemented regulated power supplies. We're listening with laptop power supplies or under voltaged supplies primarily designed for 2 way radio hobbyists. If you can deal with the nuisance factor, you'll probably find it pretty enjoyable.
Another thing. I have been reading a ton of reviews on TPA and Tripath amps, digital amps and so on. Why does the reviewer always say things like, this is a great amp for a desktop system. Or a secondary system. I hate that they give a good review but then delegate it to some sort of secondary system. Like it isn't worthy of being the heart of a primary higher quality set up.
I sold my Volt+ with the intention of buying an Amptastic. But they don't respond to inquiries and their social media went silent in late summer 2017. I wonder if they closed up shop. Purchased a Sure TA2024 (finished version with case) instead. It's on the slow boat from China.
Still no real answers to any of my questions?
45rpm spinner, what was the voltage of your battery?
Maybe someone here can jump in about why batteries seem to do that.
One of the pains of using lithium ion batteries for an amp is that, I think, they lose voltage as they discharge. They also over voltage at the beginning, so a 3.6 volt cell charges to 4.2. The voltage rating is sort of an average. I think that's why the folks who are into the battery thing tend to use lead acid batteries, which have some issues for indoor use, like clouds of poisonous smoke.
Batteries dont have high frequency noise on the voltage line. Despite the TPA311x having a degree of power supply noise rejection, noise on the power line is not the best thing to have.
Commonly, switched mode gear has noise on the DC line which increases with load.
The noise can show itself as harsher sound (artificial detail perhaps). This will be more evident on the boards without the capacitance multiplier.
The pic below gives a rough idea of the switching noise..
Thanks for the explanation!