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If anyone wants to easily get into Class D amps, Parts Express has private label Dayton Audio amps [1] with a variety of features and wattage levels. They use W

If anyone wants to easily get into Class D amps, Parts Express has private label Dayton Audio amps [1] with a variety of features and wattage levels. They use Wondom/Sure as their supplier [2]. They are pretty feature rich: they support I2S, Bluetooth, and Sigma Studio for DSP effects (using the Analog Devices ADAU170 IC). I myself am pricing out a kit so I can build a ammo-can speaker box. I'll probably go with Parts Express as it's a 1.5hr drive to visit the brick and mortar store, and I can get the speaker drivers as well (plus other components). [1]: https://www.parts-express.com/electronic-parts/audio-amplifier-boards-modules https://www.parts-express.com/electronic-parts/audio-amplifi... [2]: https://store.sure-electronics.com/ https://store.sure-electronics.com/

iancmceachern 4y ago
I love parts express. They have the stuff to make yourself very high end speakers and a lot of very high quality amplifier and other electronics modules.
flaviut 4y ago
I'm not an expert on audio, but what's the difference between [1], and the reference design of [2]? I know only a bit about electronics, but I would have figured the market would have driven those two things to be roughly the same price if they were equivalent. [1]: https://www.parts-express.com/ICEpower-200ASC-Class-D-Audio-Amplifier-with-Power-Supply-Module-1-x-200W-326-208 https://www.parts-express.com/ICEpower-200ASC-Class-D-Audio-... [2]: https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tpa3221.pdf?ts=1656082484819 https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tpa3221.pdf?ts=16560824848...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- digitallyfree 4y ago
  From what I know ICEpower chips are intended for (and used in) "high end" applications while the TI ones are intended for general purpose consumer devices. At least that's how they're marketed and an amplifier manufacturer will often state specifically that they use an ICEpower chip in their amp. Whether or not one can hear the difference is another story.
- Severian 4y ago
  Honestly, no difference besides a red PCB. Most likely the brand recognition and possible(?) warranty for US sales. Price probably includes the US support (if any) if you need help.
  - JohnBooty 4y ago
    ICEPower amps tend to objectively outperform cheaper Class D amps in terms of distortion while also putting out more power. However, as other commenters have noted, this may or may not translate into audible benefits depending on one's use case.
    - Severian 4y ago
      I bet. But for hobbiest applications, which is better? Wondom/Sure provides a wealth of application info. Most people aren't building something to power Hi-fi systems, but more to just be loud or portable. Low THD is good but it's a matter of finishing George. As someone over 40, I doubt i could tell the difference from .1% THD and 1-5% honestly.
      - Severian 4y ago
        finishing george = diminishing returns.. stupid mobile.
      - namibj 4y ago
        Meanwhile I'm wishing to have a local speaker setup that can hit 80 dB SNR... if you count all non-linearity-caused components as "noise". For comparison, your .1% THD is 30 dB. I explicitly don't care how the non-linearity is corrected, just that it does.
      - JohnBooty 4y ago
        You're right to be skeptical about anything in the audio industry. The decades-long tide of absolute snake oil is massive and it is toxic. Additionally, you're absolutely correct about diminishing returns being an extremely real thing in audio land. But for hobbiest applications, which is better? For the purposes of this reply, I'm defining "correct" sound as "low in distortion, with good dispersion characteristics -- ie the sound remains the same over a wide listening angle" There has been some pretty decent randomized research from Toole, Olive, etc. that both trained and untrained listeners have a preference for correct sound. It is something that nearly everybody enjoys more, even if they don't know why. In the sense that most people who like butter would enjoy high-quality, grass-fed butter more than they would enjoy the cheapest possible stuff, even if they didn't give a whit about where the butter came from. For sound... as with any engineering challenge, it's always going to be a tug of war between desirable characteristics such as price, size, power consumption, sound quality, how loud it gets, etc. Anyway. If you're building some kind of portable boombox - I highly doubt the extra performance provided by ICEpower would be worth the premium. If you're listening to something at home in a decent listening environment... then maybe it would be worth it. Even a quiet room is going to have a noise floor of like 40+ dB. However, at the end of the day, the speakers themselves make the biggest difference.
archi42 4y ago
I wasn't happy with the cheap adau1701 boards. The integrated ADC isn't good, and they only have limited filter capability. I'm returned mine and got a hifiberry beocreate 4 [1]: DSP + four amps. The adau1451 is much more powerful, and the ADC is pretty decent. As a crossover I use FIR filters, so the four drivers of my small stereo speakers are hooked up to one dedicated channel each. But like with classical crossovers, you need a measurement mic to verify the correct behaviour; unless someone already did that for you. The adau1452 in the freedsp aurora[2] is even nicer (longer FIR filters), I use that for my big stereo speakers. What I really recommend/want is skipping the ADC altogether and getting something that connects the DSP (preferably adau145x) digitally to the amps. Both these devices fall short in the regard, as they feed the digital signal into ADCs. But they're both still really good. Hint if you consider the beocreate: don't use it with a rpi4, that one runs too hot; a rpi3 is perfectly fine for their OS. Once the DSP program is installed you can remove the rpi and use the optical input; or you can use the rpi as the source. [1] https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/beocreate-4-channel-amplifier/ https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/beocreate-4-channel-am... [2] https://github.com/freeDSP/freeDSP-aurora https://github.com/freeDSP/freeDSP-aurora
- pbronez 4y ago
  Thanks for the tip on the Beocreate 4! I’ve been looking for something with a digital input, DSP, and 4 amplified channels. This seems like a sweet spot for me because you can do an active crossover for a stereo pair of two way speakers in one unit. This is a perfect fit.
  - archi42 4y ago
    I did ask some questions about the custom DSP program in 2020, not sure if that still applies. You might still find this useful, especially toumas explanations: https://github.com/bang-olufsen/create/issues/116 https://github.com/bang-olufsen/create/issues/116 By now I just use their OS on a spare RPi. And of course I didn't get around to making Arch Linux AUR packages for their tools ^^"
- Severian 4y ago
  Very cool! I'll check these out!
fuzzfactor 4y ago
That ICEpower PCB amp looks like an affordable little unit. Big capacitor is 330uf 400V. You should hear what one of those caps "sounds" like when included in its own kind of vacuum tube circuit.

iancmceachern 4y ago

I love parts express. They have the stuff to make yourself very high end speakers and a lot of very high quality amplifier and other electronics modules.

flaviut 4y ago

I'm not an expert on audio, but what's the difference between [1], and the reference design of [2]? I know only a bit about electronics, but I would have figured the market would have driven those two things to be roughly the same price if they were equivalent. [1]: https://www.parts-express.com/ICEpower-200ASC-Class-D-Audio-Amplifier-with-Power-Supply-Module-1-x-200W-326-208 https://www.parts-express.com/ICEpower-200ASC-Class-D-Audio-... [2]: https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tpa3221.pdf?ts=1656082484819 https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tpa3221.pdf?ts=16560824848...

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
digitallyfree 4y ago
From what I know ICEpower chips are intended for (and used in) "high end" applications while the TI ones are intended for general purpose consumer devices. At least that's how they're marketed and an amplifier manufacturer will often state specifically that they use an ICEpower chip in their amp. Whether or not one can hear the difference is another story.
Severian 4y ago
Honestly, no difference besides a red PCB. Most likely the brand recognition and possible(?) warranty for US sales. Price probably includes the US support (if any) if you need help.
- JohnBooty 4y ago
  ICEPower amps tend to objectively outperform cheaper Class D amps in terms of distortion while also putting out more power. However, as other commenters have noted, this may or may not translate into audible benefits depending on one's use case.
  - Severian 4y ago
    I bet. But for hobbiest applications, which is better? Wondom/Sure provides a wealth of application info. Most people aren't building something to power Hi-fi systems, but more to just be loud or portable. Low THD is good but it's a matter of finishing George. As someone over 40, I doubt i could tell the difference from .1% THD and 1-5% honestly.
    - Severian 4y ago
      finishing george = diminishing returns.. stupid mobile.
    - namibj 4y ago
      Meanwhile I'm wishing to have a local speaker setup that can hit 80 dB SNR... if you count all non-linearity-caused components as "noise". For comparison, your .1% THD is 30 dB. I explicitly don't care how the non-linearity is corrected, just that it does.
    - JohnBooty 4y ago
      You're right to be skeptical about anything in the audio industry. The decades-long tide of absolute snake oil is massive and it is toxic. Additionally, you're absolutely correct about diminishing returns being an extremely real thing in audio land. But for hobbiest applications, which is better? For the purposes of this reply, I'm defining "correct" sound as "low in distortion, with good dispersion characteristics -- ie the sound remains the same over a wide listening angle" There has been some pretty decent randomized research from Toole, Olive, etc. that both trained and untrained listeners have a preference for correct sound. It is something that nearly everybody enjoys more, even if they don't know why. In the sense that most people who like butter would enjoy high-quality, grass-fed butter more than they would enjoy the cheapest possible stuff, even if they didn't give a whit about where the butter came from. For sound... as with any engineering challenge, it's always going to be a tug of war between desirable characteristics such as price, size, power consumption, sound quality, how loud it gets, etc. Anyway. If you're building some kind of portable boombox - I highly doubt the extra performance provided by ICEpower would be worth the premium. If you're listening to something at home in a decent listening environment... then maybe it would be worth it. Even a quiet room is going to have a noise floor of like 40+ dB. However, at the end of the day, the speakers themselves make the biggest difference.

archi42 4y ago

I wasn't happy with the cheap adau1701 boards. The integrated ADC isn't good, and they only have limited filter capability. I'm returned mine and got a hifiberry beocreate 4 [1]: DSP + four amps. The adau1451 is much more powerful, and the ADC is pretty decent. As a crossover I use FIR filters, so the four drivers of my small stereo speakers are hooked up to one dedicated channel each. But like with classical crossovers, you need a measurement mic to verify the correct behaviour; unless someone already did that for you. The adau1452 in the freedsp aurora[2] is even nicer (longer FIR filters), I use that for my big stereo speakers. What I really recommend/want is skipping the ADC altogether and getting something that connects the DSP (preferably adau145x) digitally to the amps. Both these devices fall short in the regard, as they feed the digital signal into ADCs. But they're both still really good. Hint if you consider the beocreate: don't use it with a rpi4, that one runs too hot; a rpi3 is perfectly fine for their OS. Once the DSP program is installed you can remove the rpi and use the optical input; or you can use the rpi as the source. [1] https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/beocreate-4-channel-amplifier/ https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/beocreate-4-channel-am... [2] https://github.com/freeDSP/freeDSP-aurora https://github.com/freeDSP/freeDSP-aurora

pbronez 4y ago
Thanks for the tip on the Beocreate 4! I’ve been looking for something with a digital input, DSP, and 4 amplified channels. This seems like a sweet spot for me because you can do an active crossover for a stereo pair of two way speakers in one unit. This is a perfect fit.
- archi42 4y ago
  I did ask some questions about the custom DSP program in 2020, not sure if that still applies. You might still find this useful, especially toumas explanations: https://github.com/bang-olufsen/create/issues/116 https://github.com/bang-olufsen/create/issues/116 By now I just use their OS on a spare RPi. And of course I didn't get around to making Arch Linux AUR packages for their tools ^^"
Severian 4y ago
Very cool! I'll check these out!

fuzzfactor 4y ago

That ICEpower PCB amp looks like an affordable little unit. Big capacitor is 330uf 400V. You should hear what one of those caps "sounds" like when included in its own kind of vacuum tube circuit.