Anyone tried Tripath class T

Unbeleivable, deep, wide, full, valve like, the most dramatic difference I have heard in 25 years of quality Hi Fi...

John

Since writing my last bit on Tripath, I have now completed the 100W per channel version, with latched relay inputs and have to say it sounds even better more bass slam and of course headroom.
I am suprised that this technology has not met with a wider audiance but the we are as a nation very conservative and resist anything new before giving it a fair hearing !
I have written elsewhere on this site about the technical differences and the reasons it shoud be different, a bit like compareing a raceing car engine to a jet engine, they both do the same job but quite differently...

There are very few hi-fi Tripath products in the market. Those that exist are mostly fitted into low-end 'digital amp' systems and ICE components from Sony and Panasonic, arguably hampered by the speaker system in the chain. The 15W Sonic Impact is not available in the UK, sadly.

The closest 'audiophile' amplifier is the Yamaha MX-D1 with a variant of Yamaha's EEE engine (called Power Engine), a Class D design with Class T-like DSP for distortion cancellation. It sounds very, very good, but has garnered little interest in the UK audiophile community. I suspect this is due to inherent conservatism.

As such, the only people experimenting with Tripath in the UK are engineers, amateur and those working for manufacturers.

Well John so much for your wonderfull Tripath as Alan says and I think he is correct they are only used in low end systems so cant possibly be used in high end systems, are you an amateur, endineer or working for a manufacturer I wonder I must see if I can find someone with a Tripath and some very good loudspeakers and see what they sound like.

Alan, I disagree. Are you calling Lyngdorf/TACT low end? I thought ECS were using Tripath as well but may be mistaken.

I haven't heard the Yamaha but it has a poor reputation. If I were looking for the high end in digital, I'd be thinking in terms of Bel Canto (Icepower), Channel Islands (Hypex) and Nuforce (Nuforce). The Rotels (Icepower) look interesting but I haven't heard them.

I bought a bag full of the Sonic Impact from the states and think they're slightly overrated but really enjoyable mid fi quality when paired with the right speakers. Their thunder has really been stolen by Trends Audio which does a very good cheap Tripath amp with better connections for about $100.

Please make no mistake class 'D' is not digital, any more than FM radio is digital. Is has no bits and no resolution limmits, it does not conver the analogue signal into a number.
It is simply a way of amplifying a pulse train rather than a delicate voltage and it does this by converting the voltage into time, as indeed does FM radio. The fact that it is used in many low end products has little bearing on it's ultimate sonic merits.
However it is low cost, does not require expensive heatsinks, and reduces power requirements therefore encoraging low end products to use it.
I suggest you take a serious listen before dismissing it out of hand...

How come everyone assumes that class 'D' is digital, certainly the concept is analog. Maybe there is another version that is digital, if so how many bits and at what sample rate ??
Having looked back over my forum postings I have asked many times, perhaps Alan or Chriss you would consider a reply to this ambiguity ???

Oh I think it's just a name. Noone actually cares. The name and the amp technology somehow got linked.

By linking it to the Analogue/Digital shift in technology it probably does reflect the paradigm shift that it represents in amp design so maybe it does have some relevance but strictly speaking, you're right.

Most users aren't that techie (and don't need to be) so correcting the misnomer isn't that important.

I completely understand that this irritates the tech community although in the general scale of things, it is less irratating than James Blunt.

Who said 11 million couldn't be wrong.

Everything's less irritating than James Blunt. Even those Cillit Bang adverts are less irritating than James Blunt.

In fact, the only thing more irritating than James Blunt is James Blunt. He's like an infinity of irritation.

Sorry a change here, just finished new listening room, looks great but sounds pretty bad. Any sugestions on sound deadening as it seems very 'live' and 'bright', however have not got curtains up yet and all walls are plain, no pictures and very little funiture etc. To-night brought the system into about one quarter of the room and a great improvement, so I think it's all down to reverb and damping.
Now looking for a 42-50" telly but again total confusion on all thats out there, any experiences welcome...

You can spend a fortune on room acoustics and make the sound worse. As such, I go for a more pragmatic approach.

The first reflection off the walls and floor (and ceiling, too) can make or break a sound. Next comes the reflections from the front and back walls. Fortunately, they are all relatively easy to overcome.

Put a thick rug on the floor directly in front of you and about a metre in front of your speakers (if that's possible).

Next, from the listening position, have someone who won't laugh walk along the side wall with a mirror at tweeter height. At the point where you can see the tweeter in the mirror, place something to break up the reflection there (try a rubber plant on one side of the room, and a metre or so high bookcase on the other.

Front and rear walls are easy to fix, too. A good collection of CDs along the wall will break up any rear reflections (especially if you stop the discs from rattling and if you can alternate cubes of records and CDs (or books and CDs) all the better.

Finally, place pictures behind and in between the speakers along the wall behind the speakers. Dick Shahinian (of the loudspeaker company) makes special absorbent posters for his demonstration rooms, with folds of carpet behind the poster, all fitted in a frame of 2x1 timber. Half a dozen of these placed strategically around the room (as suggested) and a good thick rug in front of the speakers and almost any room can sound good.

Many thanks Alan. All sounds good and pratical and asthectically pleasing, I do have oodles of books to place, and vinal records and plants etc. so put in the right places should tidy up my acoustics.
Will report back on progress...

Have since got curtains fitted and spread some funiture around sounds better already. Am on the look out for a 4M curtain rail to cover one wall entirely, I'm shure with curtains, will contain any 'left right' reflections, and by the addition of carpet strips on the back wall I will suppress most front to back reflections, will send update on progress in time...

Have to-day ordered 'sound diffusion' panels at a cost of over £100 for the rear wall, these are 'Skyline diffusers' so will wait for them and the results. This is a change from the curtain strips that I previously mentioned, and a suggestion of a BBC sound engineer friend, but at £100 for two, probably better than any interconnects. System now sounding stunning apart from some neighbour complaints. But I think that is down to my peak listening time of 11:30 on in the evening.
Have found curtain rail in 3.85M lenghts at 'Homebase' now demonstrations welcome...

I forget who or what thread recommended the book 'what we may be' but have now received it, looks interesting, will now read and take in, many thanks.
John...

Lavardin made an interesting amp a few years ago, that incorporating some kind of low distortion technology. It's a shame they haven't made a budget version for us mere mortals :-(

Take a good careful read of this, it blows the price/performance idea out of the water. And the technology changed my life!

http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/t-amp_e.html


John...