Yes and NO. Most speaker protection boards/kits that I came across are for the speaker protection against excessive power, clippings and maybe DC voltage protection. They may employ the 'anti-thumping' circuits.. so depends on the design again.

nice...

Aha! Something for your project huh?

no like something for my 'head'...hehehe thak you bro for rejoicing me this morning....

Not at all. This is what the forum is for.. I think we have slightly detoured from the thread topic but I guess it's ok!

ok ok sorry.....people talk talk about your T-amp talk..talk.....

sayonara!

This post has been edited by gabanyayaya: Sep 6 2008, 08:35 AM

good morning all

nice speaker protection reading in the morning

anyway kinda related to t-amp with its popping issue

relay at the speaker terminal? wont tht dgrade the sound?

I think it's still related because we're talking about the pop/thump thingy that T-Amp also demonstrates...

hey morning to you!
hehehe.. can't sleep after my sahur

there's 2 schools here with regards to relays.. 'purist' would go against it I think..
Still I want some protection to protect my investments in that pair of great speakers of mine! It has been discontinued and I don't think I can get anothet pair! The company has also gone 'bungkus'

3 of my commercial amps have relays.. I guess we have to use quality relays like the OMRON for example.. thats what my sifu says...

There is a good readup on Class D Amplifiers: Fundamentals of Operation and Recent Developments
esp. the eliminating of external filtering.. interesting!
Its from MAXIM website. There are even free samples from the website too!

The LINK

This post has been edited by jazzy939: Sep 6 2008, 08:52 AM

Hey, this thread is extremely quiet today! I shall start the ball rolling again by posting my short review (in heeding Jazzy's suggestion that I do so)

I finally assembled my own T-amp today although it is still yet to be fitted into its wooden casing. I made a power wire with some AWG26 multi strands wires (doubled and twisted per side) soldered to a DC male connector for use with my computer-notebook-styled 12VDC 2.5A SMPS. I then proceeded to de-solder out the 3-pins input connector from the T-amp board, thoroughly sucked away all the stale solder and cleaned the 3-holes area with paint thinner before soldering in a pair of Neutrik RCA-plugs plus a 50KΩ (Vishay-Dale resistors) 24-steps attenuator.

I connect the T-amp to a pair of Q-Acoustics 1010 bookshelf loudspeakers (sitting directly on the wood flooring) with some el-cheapo hotwires. Source is a sub RM200 mass-market LG DVD player. After ensuring all connections are proper, I powered up the T-amp, hit the play button on the DVD machine and waited eagerly. No sound, the whole setup is dead quiet, no hum, no buzz – either a very good sign indeed or I may have wired-up the whole thing wrongly somewhere. Momentary suspense. I cranked up the volume and now the sound comes about, softly at first but gradually turns louder as I turn the knob of the attenuator. Great!

What did I hear?
- Initial impression is a well defined and clean sound with highs a little lacking and some boom to the lower mid / upper bass region. Nothing spectacular as yet.
- Midway playing the third CD, I began to notice both macro and micro dynamics have improved significantly with great swing from the quietest passage to loudest passage. The forceful rendition of voice by a female vocalist, her breathing with sound of her lips parting came out so well pronounced.
- Playing the fourth CD (a female vocalist rendering some 90s pop songs in jazz style), timing and rhythmic swings are thought to be great. Sibilance associated with this CD is almost all still there. Hey, wait a minute, bass digs deeper now with boom less than earlier.
- Tonality / tonal balance and timbre of acoustical instruments are thought to be good. Liquidity of vocals, a sign of great midrange, however, could not be attained, probably a limitation of playback through a DVD player rather than the T-amp.
- Scale of image is big, yet to position speakers properly to try out the 3-dimensional sound staging capability of the T-amp.

After listening through the setup described above, I opine that the T-Amp (with TA2024 chip) is a well-designed amplifier and in stocked form, it would easily surpass the sound quality of many entry level integrated amplifiers, my former Sony TA-F5000 (with some very good Japanese internal parts) included. Probably, after some modifications (change of few critical SMDs to decent-grade capacitors, resistors and inductors), its sonic qualities would be raised to greater heights with it sounding more relaxed and without altering its already good attributes.

And here are 2 associated photos:





Stay tuned, more follow-ups in due course!



This post has been edited by Y.C.: Sep 6 2008, 06:53 PM

bro Y.C,

Another "nice" review

Wow, look at the giant size 24-steps attenuator

Y.C nice casing there...you are truly a Malaysian using wooden casing from any usual metal casing...A true citizen is the one who help conserve nature...use wood....!!!!

Jazzy,
I agree with your observation that the 'pop' could be due to the in-rush current /(charge) to the input caps. The caps are also not discharging fast enough during powering down. In most commercial amps, a relay would be employed here to solve the problem. By temporary disconnecting the speakers during powering on and later re-connect them MAY harm the T-amp as there is no load at speaker ends during powering up/down.

Some commercial amps also do have similar 'pop' sound during powering up/down, eg. my Simaudio Moon i-3 and Exposure 2010S. The lack of a relay is to ensure their signal path is cleared of items not benefiting how the amp will eventually sound. And the solution is to keep the amp permanently powered up as the amps will be kept fully warmed-up and ever ready to sound good during play and prolong the lifespan of electronics in caps, resistors and inductors. More wear and tear during powering up/down.


Ongbs,
Thanks.


Gabanyayaya,
Thanks on compliment on wooden casing. I like natural woods but most people will actually look at the issue here as it is people like me who caused more trees to be felled.

Hehe, not an issue as the box already there
You are not cutting a tree to make this box

ongbas is right....it's already there...you are not cutting trees....

but I'm a bit confuse here....using wooden casing would it be a problem for grounding as most casing is a metal thus ease for star grounding but wooden casing....???? how????

anyone have opinion on this....???

continuing with What did I hear? (Post 1011)

- Details through the T-amp playing at moderate level is good; sound of people talking, glasses clicking and sound of cash register at the background of beginning of Limehouse Blues (track 1) of Jazz at the Pawnshop 1 come out crystal clear. (When this track was played through a mid price Marantz integrated amp few years’ back, a friend had sarcastically asked me whether we were actually listening to silent music! ) Listen also to the ending passage of Randy Crawford’s Diamante to a dog barking and sound of waves hitting on shores in the background of Priscilla Chan’s chiqingyiwai.

- Bass – a lot of energy in this region but its definition is still vague at this juncture; the T-amp needs more hours to be run-in. However, I must admit with good recordings, the definition of bass is all there and well defined.

- Treble – Extended yet not harsh and ragged sounding.

- Overall, the T-amp is sounding much more musical and relaxed now after 8 hours of playing music non-stop compared to when it was just powered up for the first time. Its well-timed rhythmic swing and slightly forward sounding midrange certainly makes listening to music through it addictive enough to me in not wanting to stop listening to more. Currently, I am listening to Jazz in the Pawnshop - great music sounding even better through the T-amp!




This post has been edited by Y.C.: Sep 7 2008, 12:14 AM

Y.C.,
Thanks for the 'quick' review on your setup. You sure can write excellent reviews
How many hours have you clocked since?
I can sufficiently say that anyone who browses this thread will be(sufficiently)poisoned by our reviews

From the pix, I see that you're still on the stock caps.. Maybe you should burn in with the stock components and lets say around 20 hrs. you start the 'little' mods.. Let the stock sound etched in to your mind
Then you listen the improvements in leaps and bounds and all after your intended mods

I was in JP this afternoon, the reason why I can't make the afternoon appointment
Got meself TWO SMPS from the same shop, same price for the 12VDC 4.2A! This one is for mysghooi.
And I bought a smaller 12VDC 1.2A to 'play-play' .
Also got meslef a few 10000uF caps, white LEDs for panel pilot light, spares for my unserviceable bench PSU which I busted recently while testing my buch of LEDs, quick blow fuses for the PSU and some Elna 2.2uF caps!

Some good news.
I managed to make my bench PSU serviceable again! The regulator IC went kaput, drop in a new one and its a okay!

Change my first board input caps to Elnas.. am still burning in.. no quick review yet. First impression: Absolutely worthy replacement of the stock caps The midrange and highs was terribly superb.. the stock caps were a touch 'grainy', now super duper clear, clean and sharp. Complemented by the 'donuts' inductors.. simply super..
Still this one remains; although the bass is there, it is barely felt..

No changes to my second board. I think tomorrow will start to bi-amp the amplifier..

No 'star grounding' reqd. for the T-Amp unlike GainClone. Still it can be done by employing a 'floating' ground Sorry, my terminology hehe.. or make a 'ground bus' (borrowing an aviation term)

Still, if you want to use the wooden box.. shielding can still be done With a little ingenuity, problem solved
This one you gotta ask to get it.

Hehe, on subject of tree-cutting, if everyone of us do not buy wood products, box included (no demand), more trees would not need to be felled (supply to meet demand).

As far as I know on T-amp, there is no need for grounding and Charlize supposedly sounds better when placed in a wooden casing than a metal box.


Wow, at the background, music from Jazz at the Pawnshop is sounding so un-digital-liked, in fact I would say it is almost close to analogue.