Benefits of Class-G and Class-H Boost in Audio Amplifiers [pdf]
ti.com
ti.com
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-amplifi... [2]: https://store.sure-electronics.com/
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-... [2]: https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tpa3221.pdf?ts=16560824848...
However, as other commenters have noted, this may or may not translate into audible benefits depending on one's use case.
I explicitly don't care how the non-linearity is corrected, just that it does.
But for hobbiest applications, which is better?
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.
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-am... [2] https://github.com/freeDSP/freeDSP-aurora
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 ^^"
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.
Then he rolled his own, using batteries to drive the amplifiers, independent of the AC mains electric supply. A 2007 deep dive at Six Moons warning very heavy audiophile reality
https://6moons.com/audioreviews/redwine8/
I have a base model Signature amplifier and I really like it. Rossi followed up with improved models that replaced the sealed lead-acid batteries with LiPo, and then ditched the batteries altogether with a super-capacitor design.
I can't find the old company, maybe it is no longer in business. But looks like Rossi has a web site still up at https://www.vinnierossi.com
The ideal solution would be to use a DC-DC buck boost power supply to directly supply the speaker. Get rid of the intermediate power rail and ESR losses by effectively converting the power twice.
Obviously you will need to do some work on the control algorithms, because rather than your power supply aiming for a nice stable output voltage, you're now aiming for a voltage waveform exactly matching the target signal. You also no longer care directly about ripple voltage, but do care about linearity and THD.
E.g.: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/t...
Those AHB2's are tiny and run cool while putting out a few hundred watts of power - I think that rules out class AB.
I understand that my Bluetooth speaker only lasts a few hours when cranked up to full volume. But when I have it on as quiet background music I'd really like it to last a week.
Audio is perceptually logarithmic, so quiet sounds use very little energy to produce. That means that with carefully designed stuff we should be able to get really long battery lives.
I hope to build a musical instrument someday with an integrated speaker.
Apparently, there were a bunch of class G amps that appeared after 5.1 setups got popular, just because of how much less heat they produce per channel.
If you want an efficient, small amplifier these days, class D is also an option. They're cheap, small, and powerful. Much more efficient than class G. If you are just trying to stick a speaker and amp in a musical instrument, I would start by getting an amp that is built into an IC with something that can work with a relatively simple power supply.
The amplifier that I use for playing the bass is Class-D, as are all of the audio amplifiers feeding speakers in my house.