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Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

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Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#151

Post by WalterBright »

mrob wrote: post #42

It's bizarre how none of these chips seem to have a digital input. All my music is digital, and despite the modern rise of vinyl, I don't think that's unusual. If I want an amplifier like this then I'm forced to have a completely useless DAC/ADC pair degrading the signal quality. Does anybody know of an easily available class-D amplifier with digital input? You'd think that would be an obvious feature for a digital a…

All stereo components, except the amp connection to the speaker, should be ethernet. Turntable, CD player, cassette, pre-amp, everything.

Then make it wifi.

Just think, you could eliminate that awful rat's nest of cables. The sound quality would be better. You could locate components where-ever convenient. Each component could have a web browser interface.

It'd be awesome.

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#153

Post by function_seven »

TylerE wrote: post #133
lelandbatey wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your statement that CDs have a very limited number of bits is false by every known objective measure (compared to any prior consumer analog medium). CDs afford a bit depth of 16, while tape provides at most 6, and vinyl at most 12. See this great video by signal engineers for more info: https://xiph.org/video/vid2.shtml I suspect this is a classic case of "you think you want X, but what you actually want is your yout…

Your statements about tape and vinyl are ludicrous and unsourced. What do you think most of your CDs were recorded on in the first place? (Hint: tape)

Not defending the bit depths in parent comment, but the tape a professional recording is made on and a cassette tape (which I assume parent meant by "tape") are a lot different, right?

In any case, I've heard some great sound from Type II and Type IV cassette tapes in the past. The worst part was that tapes I made myself from CD sounded way better than a store-bought cassette of the same album. That's when I learned they really cheaped out on those cassettes (brown-colored Type I tapes)

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#155

Post by TylerE »

function_seven wrote: post #153
TylerE wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your statements about tape and vinyl are ludicrous and unsourced. What do you think most of your CDs were recorded on in the first place? (Hint: tape)

Not defending the bit depths in parent comment, but the tape a professional recording is made on and a cassette tape (which I assume parent meant by "tape") are a lot different, right? In any case, I've heard some great sound from Type II and Type IV cassette tapes in the past. The worst part was that tapes I made myself from CD sounded way better than a store-bought cassette of the same album. That's when I learned…

It’s not that different. Usually 1/2” or 1” wide and run at a faster speed but the chemistry is the same.

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#156

Post by function_seven »

TylerE wrote: post #155
function_seven wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not defending the bit depths in parent comment, but the tape a professional recording is made on and a cassette tape (which I assume parent meant by "tape") are a lot different, right? In any case, I've heard some great sound from Type II and Type IV cassette tapes in the past. The worst part was that tapes I made myself from CD sounded way better than a store-bought cassette of the same album. That's when I learned…

It’s not that different. Usually 1/2” or 1” wide and run at a faster speed but the chemistry is the same.

Doesn't running faster and having that extra width have the effect of giving more physical space on the tape to the changes in magnetization? And therefore wider frequency range or more stable differences in amplitude?

Sort of like how SP (2 hour) on a VHS tape looks much better than LP (4 hour) or ELP (6 hour).

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#157

Post by jordanthoms »

WalterBright wrote: post #151
mrob wrote: post #42

It's bizarre how none of these chips seem to have a digital input. All my music is digital, and despite the modern rise of vinyl, I don't think that's unusual. If I want an amplifier like this then I'm forced to have a completely useless DAC/ADC pair degrading the signal quality. Does anybody know of an easily available class-D amplifier with digital input? You'd think that would be an obvious feature for a digital a…

All stereo components, except the amp connection to the speaker, should be ethernet. Turntable, CD player, cassette, pre-amp, everything. Then make it wifi. Just think, you could eliminate that awful rat's nest of cables. The sound quality would be better. You could locate components where-ever convenient. Each component could have a web browser interface. It'd be awesome.

Linn's exakt system is a little like that - the signal is sent into each speaker in digital form and then decoded and amplified there.

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#158

Post by batbomb »

irrational wrote: post #26
Matsta wrote: post #10

The majority of all active speakers produced nowadays are Class-D, it's nothing really new (and the fact they are super cheap). No idea how this guy wrote this article and didn't come across DIY Audio (or he just didn't mention it in the article). There is a tonne of information here: https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/class-d/

I have some questions. My son has been taking guitar lessons using a classic guitar. Using the advice of his instructor we are getting him a begginer's electric guitar for christmas. We also need to get him an amp. Is the amp in this article the same kind of amp that you could plug an electric guitar into? I know nothing about music or instruments, but I do know about electronics so I was thinking it might be fun to…

I used to build guitar amps for fun and repair them for friends. I have parts of a Sound City, Plush, Harmony, Gibson amps in my storage unit. I have some old heathkit thing from the 60s. I have two different Traynors.

Depending on your budget, I'd get a Vox Pathfinder, AC4, or AC10, and then take him to get a pedal or two after Christmas. You can usually find an AC4 used easily. Some of the digital amps are fun, but if he really gets into it, he's more likely to keep one of the amps I mentioned and buy pedals anyway. An AC4 (especially an AC10) will be something which usually sounds really good on it's own.

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#159

Post by [deleted] »

S_A_P wrote: post #123

Audiophilia is a study in contradiction. The ask is a flat "uncolored" accurate sound. The gear that sells for ridiculous prices is usually tube gear with limited bandwidth and makes ~15 watts at 5-10% (admittedly usually even order harmonic) thd. Hardly uncolored. That said, and Ive mentioned this before on HN. My (now late) uncle had a bunch of audiophile friends in Dallas. He hung around folks who had spent upward…

[deleted]

Re: Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort-Of Cheap

#160

Post by tobyhinloopen »

aidenn0 wrote: post #73
comboy wrote: post #18

Any DAC chip and some usb interface for it that you could recommend to go with this? And slightly OT, but does anybody know any ABX test of balanced input/output signal? I find it hard to believe that there is a single person who can hear the difference.

There are cases where the difference is huge; particularly when you have very long runs between the preamp and the amp. This is on reason why you usually see XLR inputs to monitors. Any noise induced is amplified and a long unbalanced wire is a big antenna. I've heard of cases where you could receive AM radio stations from such a setup; I lean towards "urban legend" for that though. While it seems theoretically possi…

It is absolutely not an urban legend. I experienced it myself with my Z5500 speakers! It was a bit soft but on max volume you could clearly make out what was being said
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