Opinions on the Musical Paradise MP-303 Tube/CLass D Amp?

For the price, I'd honestly grab a few separates.

SMSL SA50, under a
FX Audio DAC X-6, under a
Dilvpoetry Tube preamp.

About $150 and you can upgrade bits as you see fit. Like bumping up to the SMSL SA98E for a solid 80wpc into 8 ohms. And it makes the cutest little stack!
 
It does include a DAC, albeit only usb. I wonder if it is related to the MP 1 tube dac, it's a nice unit. I'm a bit surprised that since it has the usb that there is no headphone amp. The one in the 301 mk3 is very nice.

The beefy toroidial power supply elevates this unit compared to a lot of the little chip amps.
 
I really like my MP-303 But I am wanting to try a solid state amp again. I miss the powerful midbass I got from my Marantz and Onkyo integrateds I've owned.

Its got great clarity and sound stage while being warm and musical. I put in a Western Electric tube I prefer over the stock GE.
 
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I really like my MP-303 But I am wanting to try a solid state amp again. I miss the powerful midbass I got from my Marantz and Onkyo integrateds I've owned.

Its got great clarity and sound stage while being warm and musical. I put in a Western Electric tube I prefer over the stock GE.

What Onkyo and Marantz integrated amps did you have?
 
Marantz 1060 pm5004 pm8005
Onkyo a9010 a9150 a9070

Moved to a small appartment wanted something that sounded good that won’t get me in trouble with the volume
 
Marantz 1060 pm5004 pm8005
Onkyo a9010 a9150 a9070

Moved to a small appartment wanted something that sounded good that won’t get me in trouble with the volume

I want it ALL! LOL. I can rock out as loud as I want to but want all of the sound quality there while doing so.
 
I have an MP-303, and I have a Volt+D. The sound quality is excellent from both. The bass seems to be a bit more robust from the MP-303, and the overall presentation is a bit more laid back. However, my guess is that the Volt+D paired with a tube pre would be more similar than different to the MP-303.

Also, I have found that tube rolling in the MP-303 does make a difference. It takes a single 2c51/5670 tube, and I have a Sylvania 2c51 in at the moment that sounds really good.

I toyed with selling the MP-303 about a month ago, but somehow it found its way back at my desk at work.:)
It's powering some Denovo Audio S2000 speakers (a Paul Carmody design), and the combo is excellent.
Forgive the messy wires and messy desk in the picture.

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Now that I'm thinking about it, I'd curious what sort of class D chip the MP-303 uses. I may have to open it up and see if I can figure it out. In the specs, it says it's some sort of TI chip.
 
Now that I'm thinking about it, I'd curious what sort of class D chip the MP-303 uses. I may have to open it up and see if I can figure it out. In the specs, it says it's some sort of TI chip.

I for one would love to know which chip is used.

The power supply [said to be 300W] is nice and beefy. Total overkill for TPA 3116.
So, maybe it's TPA 3250?
If so, that would be marvelous news as it would mean actual output is more like 50Wx2 into 8ohms....100Wx2 into 4ohms.

One major clue would be if the tranny outputs 24VAC prior to rectification.
If that's the case, it's too much voltage [post rectification] for TPA 3116.

Really intriguing. On the one hand, if it's something like TPA 3250, then why wouldn't they mention the higher output figure?
On the other hand, if it's TPA 3116 [in which case the output is 50Wx2 into 4ohms] why would it have such a big power supply?
I doubt the DAC and tube buffer use all that much current.
 
One major clue would be if the tranny outputs 24VAC prior to rectification.
If that's the case, it's too much voltage [post rectification] for TPA 3116.

Really intriguing. On the one hand, if it's something like TPA 3250, then why wouldn't they mention the higher output figure?
On the other hand, if it's TPA 3116 [in which case the output is 50Wx2 into 4ohms] why would it have such a big power supply?
I doubt the DAC and tube buffer use all that much current.

I may have to lug this home tonight and open it up. Now I'm really curious...
 
How is the DAC in the MP? Looking at the total price of the unit I wouldn't expect it to compete with a $100 stand alone.
 
How is the DAC in the MP? Looking at the total price of the unit I wouldn't expect it to compete with a $100 stand alone.

From my experience, your suspicions are correct. It's not an incredible DAC imo. It's fine, but nothing to write home about. I use the internal DAC in my office setup simply to free up clutter on my desk. I much prefer the DAC in both my SMSL m3 headphone amp and my FXAudio d802 amplifier over the internal DAC in the MP-303.
 
So, maybe it's TPA 3250?
If so, that would be marvelous news as it would mean actual output is more like 50Wx2 into 8ohms....100Wx2 into 4ohms.

I haven't opened it up yet, but am I correct in assuming that it couldn't be the 3250 chip based on when the MP-303 was released? There are reviews going back as far as 2015, and I received mine late 2016. Wasn't the 3250 chip released by TI after that time?
 
I haven't opened it up yet, but am I correct in assuming that it couldn't be the 3250 chip based on when the MP-303 was released? There are reviews going back as far as 2015, and I received mine late 2016. Wasn't the 3250 chip released by TI after that time?

Shoot! You're right.
I was just hoping. I'm a fan of the TPA 32xx family. It's a shame there aren't more production amps around that use them.
Even to build a 3250 based amp with Chinese boards and a nice 32V-36V linear supply is gonna run about the same amount as this unit.
 
I never bothered with the DAC mainly because I don’t use USB. I even disconnected the module from the board. It looks like a very simple little DAC with a Via chipset pretty cool to be included but I would have rather the money go to better capacitors.


Regarding the type of amp chip,The chip has a heatsink on it so I couldn’t read what it said. I always assumed it was the TPA3116?
 
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