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TPA 3116 vs the tripaths

The Rolls is quite small but here it is on top of a TPA3116 that drives the two 16" OB woofers on the floor. Unlike some actives the Rolls doesn't impart it's on sonic signature that I can hear.
You don't need a preamp with the Rolls as you can plug the source directly into its input. Very easy to use. In this case the source is a modified 5501 Playstation.

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Those two TPA3116's are from very early in this thread. I believe the one connected to the Pyramid power supply driving the Tektons is a dual chip while the other is my first 3116 from 2014 when I started this thread. Still amazed at how good they sound today.

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...had the Volt +D in my cart for about 60 days... Waited til a few days before Christmas to put the order in - after all other gifts were complete............ out of stock.

I ordered the Aiyima A07 TPA3255 to play with instead. And it was 20% discount! Score. $64.99

I got it today. Playing to begin soon. The reason I bought it was PG's appreciation of the aux being a sub output. That sold me.

I've read on this page that there are opamps in this thing. Which does it use stock? Are they dual and dip-8? If so they are interchangeable with the opamps in the FX Audio Tube03, correct? I'm hesitant to open it; altho, I'll likely keep it anyway.

...and I'll probably get the Volt +D when it's available again... lol
 
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I was unable to post over the weekend, but I've been playing with this new toy for a couple - three days now. The test system I have is rudimentary. A couple Polk T15's, the A07, an FX Audio Tube03, and my phone. :)

I tried the A07 all by itself and found it powerful, but missing a lot of the low end, so I added the Tube03. I fiddled and fiddled, but I couldn't seem to find the sweet spot. I finally chalked it up to the source material on the SD Card of the phone, so I played Sirius thru it instead. Good improvement there and with the Tube03 in the line.

I think it was @FrankSol who has said that the combination of these 3255 Class D's with a tube pre is stoopid-good. I agree. :) I finally tried something I haven't done in the past, as I was trying to dial things in closer to what I'm used to with my office system - and I don't do this in my office system either, mainly for fear of someone other than me doing something and blowing my speakers.

Somewhere on this thread, recently, I read that whoever had their A07 maxed and then used the preamp volume pot to control the volume. I know this is nothing new, but I figured I'd give it a go and this got me some really good performance. I listened for a couple hours to the Rockwalla channel on Sirius and with just a little tweaking to the Tube03 for tone and proper volume this basic setup sounded great.

I was hoping to put the A07 into my office system, removing my little Fisher 170, before going back to school tomorrow, but that's gonna have to wait a bit. I do want to change some speakers wires out on that system, so I imagine I'll screw around with it then.

For the meantime, success. Love the small footprint, the power, the pairing with the Tube03, and it's simplicity. I do intend to swap out the opamps to some that I've used with the Tube03 this weekend with the test system. Fun times.

BTW, the Aiyima A07 is still available on Amazon for $79 with a $15 off coupon for anyone in the market...
 
MCS upgrade I.jpg Hello everybody. Early on in this forum it was established that the blue black board was one of the better choices for an amp board. I had tried it with various preamps, and liked it. I decided that I would like to take it a step further. My idea was the use it to replace the amp portion of an integrated amp, or a receiver. I haven't read this entire series, but I haven't seen where anyone has tried this. So a perfect candidate came along. I got an MCS 3235 that was in beautiful cosmetic condition, but tripped the ckt breaker every time it was turned on. I couldn't find a schematic for this, so decided it would be perfect for this project as the power amp portion had it's own separate PC board. So I proceeded to remove this board, and installed the blue black board using the power supply in the receiver. This didn't work too well, as the 3235 is only a 35 watt receiver, and the power supply worked fine as long as the receiver was operated at normal volume levels. But when you cranked it up, the power supply couldn't keep up, and it would cut out. So I installed a separate 5 amp 24 volt power supply. I put a shield over the top of it, then mounted the blue black board on top of that. I then tied the inputs to the output of the preamp section, and the outputs to the speaker switch. This worked out really good. All functions of the receiver work as they should, and it sounds really good. I never heard the 3235 with it's original power amp, but I can't imagine it sounded any better than this combo.
 
Got a 3116 amp , ran it next to a 607XR Sansui alpha. Sansui is better detailed, wider sound, smooth , very balanced frequencies. But considering the price of the 3116, they do a pretty good job, paired with a tube preamp even better. I was surprised at the quality, if you need compact or on a budget, perfect solution. They should set one up like an alpha, 4 chips + - , + -, one chip driving each speaker wire.
 
Well, had a little more time this morning to play with the A07. I'm amazed at this little package. I'm not convinced yet that it's necessarily any "better" than some of my older equipment, but it is at least comparable. I've never had the bread for top of the line equipment, but I have been lucky - maybe - on the entry level and mid-level stuff I do have. And I also had the benefit of an uncle who was a bit of an audiophile who always had really nice - not TOPL, but better equipment than mine.

Anyway, I got into it today and removed the stock opamps. I replaced them with the LME49720NA's I had. They were not easy to change. It's very tight quarters between the heat sink and the caps toward the front. Nevertheless, with some patience, I got the LME's in. Took a look around a little and remain impressed with how small this unit is and the power that it produces.

The sound with the new opamps is better. Same impression I had when I swapped them into the Tube 03 a year or so ago. The clarity improved, the highs and mids are crisp, and the lows are about the same. Needed to dial back the treble a little, but kept the bass - on the Tube03 - the same.

So I guess I can now claim this thing as my own, since I operated on it. :) Was kind of struggling to get the first opamp re-seated, but the second one went in much more easily. I'm gonna leave it running for a while today and play with it here and there.
 
...I also forgot to mention that I had the A07 in the line from my computer with the Sabre DAC. Sounded way better than the phone did from the initial "testing." So the two differences, the new opamps and the superior DAC lead to far better results.
 
ig88 said:
Got a 3116 amp , ran it next to a 607XR Sansui alpha. Sansui is better detailed, wider sound, smooth , very balanced frequencies. But considering the price of the 3116, they do a pretty good job, paired with a tube preamp even better. I was surprised at the quality, if you need compact or on a budget, perfect solution. They should set one up like an alpha, 4 chips + - , + -, one chip driving each speaker wire.
Click to expand...

i bet the distortion is a lot lower for the TPA amp compared to a older receiver
 
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