Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 23rd May 2008 13:02 UTC
Many of us grew up with the idea of the component audio system. A receiver (or a separate preamplifier and amplifier), tuner (radio), record player, tape deck, and later on a CD player. If you were into more fancy stuff, you had a DAT or MiniDisc deck as well. While some of us cling on to this mindset like there's no tomorrow, the real world seems to favour a different method of consuming music. According to Erica Ogg (what's in a name), the component audio system is on its way out - thanks to the iPod and the commoditisation of music.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Tripath is a Class-D PWM amp. PWM amps are digital right up to output FET which is hooked to the speaker wires. They have made up a Class-T but it is just a Class-D PWM amp with a feedback line. The feedback line is important. It allows the amp to compensate for things like ripple and droop in the power supply. Digital plus the feedback loop is why Tripath amps sound so good. BTW Tripath is close to going under, a similar amp is the TI TAS5706.
Tube and analog amps are very vulnerable to power supply issues. That's why they have those giant toroidal transformers that weight 50lbs. A 50lb toroid trys to stabilize the power supply.
In the long run the digital amps will win. It is simply much more efficient to use a feedback loop to compensate for power supply variance than it is to build a power supply that doesn't vary. They are lot more power efficient too consuming up to 50% less power to generate the same music volume.
MP3s don't represent all of digital audio. MP3s sound bad because a big chunk of the music has been thrown away in the compression process. Better compression schemes like AAC sound better. No compression sounds best. 192K/24b audio contains more information than the ear can hear.
Speakers are the most critical component. No matter what the amp does it still has to move air for you to be able to hear it. Speaker placement and room acoustics are key. Make sure your subwoofer has enough low end range.