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Hello and thanks for taking the time to read this post.

Can anyone advise on a good digital amp. I searched google for " digital amplifier versus analog amplifier " to gain a good knowledge of the subject, I like the idea of being able to insert a digital signal and have it amplified without the need for digital to analog conversion, essentially keeping it within the digital domain but cannot really find any specific lists of who the best manufacturers are or any model numbers.

I saw the name Tripath and also a few Tripath items on ebay, how do they rank.

Finally I purchased a digital amp out of curiosity (for the car) it did sound different but not particularly better when compared with my Audison lrx 4.300 which is analog.

For home use i have a analog quad 405-3, what kind of digital amp should i be looking at as a replacement for this.

Many thanks in advance. John.

Comments

goodguys Sun, 02/27/2011 - 06:15

Hi. Thanks for the reply.

Yes i am going to be connecting to a pair of speakers. Just to clarify i am talking about the ddx amplifier or sometimes known as pure path amplifiers. Would be interesting to hear from someone who was has heard this type of amp before, it offers a chance to hear pure digital sound without the need for dac's, adc's, pwm etc.

Many thanks. John.

Link555 Sun, 02/27/2011 - 13:48

ok are you sitting down?

There is no such thing a digital speaker. You amp may do the gain and control in digital but it will always have to converted back to analog to drive the speakers. It will need a DAC inside it to drive the speaker.

I think you are listening to marketing more than you probably should.

Anyway I have not heard nor used the amps you want to use. I use a cranesong DAC input an all analog amplifier built into my BM15A's. Sorry I could not be more help.

Boswell Mon, 02/28/2011 - 03:57

"Digital Amplifier" is a marketing term and has no real technical meaning. It's often applied to various forms of pulse-width modulated (PWM) power devices, as are the arbitary terms "Class D" and "1-bit".

Because a PWM data stream has history, there is no direct mapping between a conventional digitally-encoded sampled audio signal and the PWM output used in power amplifiers. However, the DSD format used in some newer audio products can be adapted to drive power amplifiers directly without conventional D-A conversion. It's this incorporation of time history that makes DSD audio difficult to edit, and, despite its recognised high audio quality, this may well be a reason for DSD's slowness in gaining widespread acceptance in the professional audio community.

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