Class D amplifier with TPA 3250 board
Hello,
I'm new to this forum. I recently purchased my endgame setup comprised of Closer Acoustics Ogy speakers (91 SPL), REL T5X subwoofer and a custom hand built tube amplifier with EL34 tubes. The tube amplifier is giving me trouble with hissing noises, so it's constantly at the artisan's workshop. Since my speakers are extremely efficient, I was wondering about smaller amplifiers as an escape route (if the artisan can't fix the amp, he surely can). The Octavio Amp looks nice on paper. So does the Atoll IN80. Is one obviously better than the other for my revealing speakers?
Folks on another forum I shall not name seem to heavily imply that all amplifiers should sound the same (or very similar). They rave about these cheap tiny Topping/Aiyima amplifiers with class D TPA 3250 amplifier boards. These same boards are used in Genelec active monitors, so they must be good? I'm flustered because there no direct comparisons between these TPA 32xx amplifiers and more conventional/expensive branded amplifiers. The same folks on the forum I shall not name imply that I'm a dunce for spending so much money on a tube amplifier (quote: it's a distortion factory and it can't play grindcore metal music so it sucks). If it weren't for the hiss I wouldn't post here.
Can I cheap class D amp replace a custom hand-wired EL34 tube amplifier for extremely revealing Closer Acoustics Ogy speakers?
News update: I got the amplifier back. It still has a hiss. But it disappears when music plays. It's still a little bit louder than I'd like and you can still hear that hiss on very quiet tracks. It's way more manageable now. I'll buy an A/B amplifier some day. Nothing too fancy. Or a good class D if the price is right. |
You could experiment with something like this (inline attenuators) between your music source and the integrated amp inputs. What is the rest of your system? http://www.rothwellaudioproducts.co.uk/html/attenuators.html
DeKay |
One other thought -- have you tried different tubes in your amp? I know nothing about the design of your amp, but if the hiss is equal in both channels, it may be a bad preamp tube. Ones like 12AX7, for example, are dual-channel tubes so one tube can affect both channels. Bad driver or output tubes typically affect only one channel unless the whole complement of tubes is getting old. |
