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Are Class D Amplifiers really "digital"?


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1 hour ago, 57gold said:

Thanks Firedog -  Read the article, comprehension was low on my part.  Understood that the positive aspects of GaN is offset by some negatives...so they didn't want to use them in their Purifi product.  

 

Wish they would develop a higher powered Purifi module, like 400 watts into 8 ohms.

 

Yes, sandyk, would hope the Merrill Audio stuff sound great for the freight.  A lot of "audiophile jewelry" in these new designs, casework, fancy footers, contrasting metal panels, high polish...in the pricing.  Give me a plain black box, and I'm good to go.  Though I would like it to be significantly smaller than the DNA-500 in my music room.

 

I do not mean to criticize the newer amplifiers from Merrill, and I have not heard them, so i do not know how they sound.  But their published specifications are quite a bit worse than those of well implemented amplifiers using Ncore or Purifi modules, so there is that curiousity: if GaN was so much better, would we not expect GaN based amps to have at least equal distortion and noise specifications as Ncore and Purifi?

Mr. Putzeys has stated that it is the plan to produce more powerful Purifi modules, I am sure they are just waiting a bit for sales to offset some of their development costs before they can introduce more products.

SO/ROON/HQPe: DSD 512-Sonore opticalModuleDeluxe-Signature Rendu optical with Well Tempered Clock--DIY DSC-2 DAC with SC Pure Clock--DIY Purifi Amplifier-Focus Audio FS888 speakers-JL E 112 sub-Nordost Tyr USB, DIY EventHorizon AC cables, Iconoclast XLR & speaker cables, Synergistic Purple Fuses, Spacetime system clarifiers.  ISOAcoustics Oreas footers.                                                       

                                                                                           SONORE computer audio

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  • 2 weeks later...

As I build my own amps, I have not really spent a lot of time paying attention to the amps that are available with Purifi modules.  A lot of the offerings, from say, Nord et al, appear to have less than ideal internal layouts for some weird reason.  I do like the options which allow for the pro audio style discrete opamps, the pro audio discrete opamps from Weiss, for example, are very, very good.  How much does all this matter, I do not know, but I prefer an amp with a logical and well sorted internal layout.

SO/ROON/HQPe: DSD 512-Sonore opticalModuleDeluxe-Signature Rendu optical with Well Tempered Clock--DIY DSC-2 DAC with SC Pure Clock--DIY Purifi Amplifier-Focus Audio FS888 speakers-JL E 112 sub-Nordost Tyr USB, DIY EventHorizon AC cables, Iconoclast XLR & speaker cables, Synergistic Purple Fuses, Spacetime system clarifiers.  ISOAcoustics Oreas footers.                                                       

                                                                                           SONORE computer audio

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The Purifi amp is great.  I power the input board section with a custom linear power supply, this powers the input opamps, and the modulator circuitry of the Purifi modules.  I am liking this amp as is, with the Purifi Eval board as the input gain stage.  I will probably eventually try different input stages a well, as I suspect there could be improvements there, maybe...

SO/ROON/HQPe: DSD 512-Sonore opticalModuleDeluxe-Signature Rendu optical with Well Tempered Clock--DIY DSC-2 DAC with SC Pure Clock--DIY Purifi Amplifier-Focus Audio FS888 speakers-JL E 112 sub-Nordost Tyr USB, DIY EventHorizon AC cables, Iconoclast XLR & speaker cables, Synergistic Purple Fuses, Spacetime system clarifiers.  ISOAcoustics Oreas footers.                                                       

                                                                                           SONORE computer audio

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52 minutes ago, 57gold said:

Cool.  Your build layout looks great.

 

Kind of ironic that you chose a case that has so much heat sinking when these are supposed to run very cool. Guess its dimensions help with optimal layout.

Finding or building a decent chassis is one of the huge problems with DIY, unless one has some skills and access to a good machine shop it is slim pickens for nice chassis out there.  I chose this one because I could get it, the dimensions were about right, and it was made in the USA with high quality workmanship and materials.  The fact that it has heatsinks is not applicable to this build, as the Purifi modules are very efficient, and Hypex has improved the efficiency of the SMPS 1200 as well.  Even in this case. sealed with no ventilation holes, the amp runs barely warm in a 70 degree room when blasting for an hour at 88 dB average levels.  BTW, I have an NC-400 DIY in the same case, except with ventilation holes, and the Purifi runs much cooler than the NC-400.  I do not think there needs to be much consideration of heat sinking with an Eigentakt stereo build with a Hypex SMPS 1200 as long as the modules are tightly screwed to an aluminum plate.

SO/ROON/HQPe: DSD 512-Sonore opticalModuleDeluxe-Signature Rendu optical with Well Tempered Clock--DIY DSC-2 DAC with SC Pure Clock--DIY Purifi Amplifier-Focus Audio FS888 speakers-JL E 112 sub-Nordost Tyr USB, DIY EventHorizon AC cables, Iconoclast XLR & speaker cables, Synergistic Purple Fuses, Spacetime system clarifiers.  ISOAcoustics Oreas footers.                                                       

                                                                                           SONORE computer audio

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