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TPA 3116 vs the tripaths

Bottlehead crashes the TPA party

Bottlehead Quicksand ( TPA 3122 ) and partner to the Quickie tube preamp.

bottlehead-quicksand-solid-state-battery-powered-amplifier.jpg
 
jhoyt said:
Hey PG, congrats on a 1,500 (and counting) post thread! It's not often that a thread on AK or anywhere gets me to part with my money, but I'm glad this one did. It seems like the TPA3116 is really the beginning of maturity for a new Hi-Fi renaissance.
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Thanks jhoyt.

Wish we had a count of those taking the TPA plunge. Best part is it's allowed folks a creative and self rewarding experience for just a few dollars. And it's more therapeutic than Prozac :D
 
jhoyt said:
Maybe we need a roll-call thread just for kicks. :scratch2:
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Well, after following this thread from the beginning, I just pulled the trigger and ordered one! I've had some experience with T amps and am looking forward to playing around with this TPA3116 amp.
 
sa-36a_pro_pcb_1_1 - this is the A-36A Pro is TI (Texas Instruments) TPA3118D2DAP digital amp that I received yesterday. It sounds really good - easily as good as the Panasonic SA-XR55 (or better) that I have 2 of. Amazon has this for under $50.00 now although I bought them off ebay.
 

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Hey Poultrygeist, how do you like the sound of the TPA3116 vs your 2A3s? I'm seriously thinking about grabbing one of these boards. Would be amazing if they dethrone my GSG.
 
BadassBob said:
Hey Poultrygeist, how do you like the sound of the TPA3116 vs your 2A3s? I'm seriously thinking about grabbing one of these boards. Would be amazing if they dethrone my GSG.
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If one of the 2a3 died today I wouldn't think twice about using the 3116 in it's place.

Listening to the 3116 with a high quality tube preamp is jaw dropping.
 
Poultrygeist said:
If one of the 2a3 died today I wouldn't think twice about using the 3116 in it's place.

Listening to the 3116 with a high quality tube preamp is jaw dropping.
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I'll have to grab one, the price of admission is so little how can I resist? I'd run it directly from my Benchmark DAC as I do with the GSG.
 
phalanger said:
I'm curious if anyone has actually run the 3116 in PBTL Mono mode yet? And if there are any sonic or other advantages (or disadvantages) to that, other than increasing max. output. Also how many ampere PSU should ideally be used when doing that (10A?)

I kinda feel like ordering a 2nd green board and using them as dual mono, but then again 2x50w is pretty much enough for my system so I'm wondering if it would be a complete waste of time/money or not.
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phalanger said:
I'm curious if anyone has actually run the 3116 in PBTL Mono mode yet? And if there are any sonic or other advantages (or disadvantages) to that, other than increasing max. output. Also how many ampere PSU should ideally be used when doing that (10A?)

I kinda feel like ordering a 2nd green board and using them as dual mono, but then again 2x50w is pretty much enough for my system so I'm wondering if it would be a complete waste of time/money or not.
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Power is roughly the same, maybe 1 watt higher. PBTL amp could feel more comfortable driving low impedance speakers and less comfortable(3116) driving 8 ohm and higher.

Some 3116amp versions have lower noise level in PBTL, but your green version doesn't (some owners said noise of your green is higher then other amps, some claim it is lower, a guy that said lower has put it in PBTL and didn't notice a difference in noise). If you have noticed difference between left and right channel noise, that will disappear ofcourse.

If you feel image/soundstage isn't stable when music has climax or when playing louder, there is the improvement I feel PBTL brings me.

The mono PBTL can draw as much current from powersupply as stereo BTL can, TI 3116 datasheet doesn't show this graph I believe, other TI datasheet for BTL chips that have PBTL option do show currentdraw graph. That is funny because PBTL is said to be more efficient...more or less same power output and 2 times the current draw doesn't add up I guess, in practice 1 mono amp will need the same powersupply as the stereo one, low bass frequencies were attenuated when I used one 12V 6A Indeed brick for 2 PBTL boards.
 
That's interesting because someone put it otherwise regarding the power ratings between stereo vs. mono in the other forum.

Quote from: rajacat on 29 Jun 2014, 03:35 pm
Does anybody know what's the rated wattage of the audiobah board in mono PTBL mode @ 8 ohms?

Thanks

Between 3 watt and 40 watt @1% THD depending on supply voltage

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=122011.900
 
For those wanting a little more power, I would certainly try a decent 24V power supply before going the PBTL route. I'm running one of the $14 stock YJ Red Boards with a 7A 24V Meanwell SMPS, and I think it sounds great. If your running on 12V I think 24V is worth at least a try. I've tried just about every T/D amp at the high end of their rated input volatage spec without any issues.
 
micho said:
That's interesting because someone put it otherwise regarding the power ratings between stereo vs. mono in the other forum.

Quote from: rajacat on 29 Jun 2014, 03:35 pm
Does anybody know what's the rated wattage of the audiobah board in mono PTBL mode @ 8 ohms?

Thanks

Between 3 watt and 40 watt @1% THD depending on supply voltage

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=122011.900
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http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tpa3130d2.pdf page 10 has graph for BTL into 8 ohm. I believe TI showed measurements somewhere in TI forum where PBTL was 1 watt or 1.24 watt maybe sometimes 1.45 watt above BTL. That difference is almost the line in the powergraph. With lower impedances it has an advantage that will disappear towards higher loads. TI designed the PBTL advised outputfilter with 3.2 ohm load in mind, so outputfilter will also distort more with higher loads and TI sees no advantages for higher loads.
 
mr_light said:
For those wanting a little more power, I would certainly try a decent 24V power supply before going the PBTL route. I'm running one of the $14 stock YJ Red Boards with a 7A 24V Meanwell SMPS, and I think it sounds great. If your running on 12V I think 24V is worth at least a try. I've tried just about every T/D amp at the high end of their rated input volatage spec without any issues.
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With HE speakers, which is all I have, I can't tell any difference between 12v and 24v. I picked up a used Astron PS and hope to soon give it a try.
 
What you think about the Fiio D3, worth for a really cheap good audio configuration? Any DAC for around 30$ better?
Fiio D3> 6n3 Preamp > TPA3116 B. Board
 
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59volvo said:
this one
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the sabre is a good dac, but i wanted coax + spdif, use in tv and dvd player, or anything else

phalanger said:
That one does seem interesting as it has a Sabre DAC chip, however it can't be used in place of the Fiio dac because this one is a USB dac with no optical or coaxial digital inputs, while the Fiio is opposite, doing optical and coaxial but no USB.

This one will do the job, but is a little more expensive and not in stock: http://us.hifimediy.com/Digital_to_analog_converters/Hifimediy_Sabre_spdif_dac
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i liked it, sounds good, and the same CI used in Fiio d03k, i'll look in ebay, I live in Brazil, so it's a little bit trick to find stores that ship to here.

But thanks for the help guys, already ordered a red board for my grandpa, and a preamp, when I'm done I post some pitctures
 
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