![]() I've heard that setting it to the lowest 20dB gain improves noise level significantly. The TPA3116 can be set at various gain levels depending on resistors on the board, I assume it's one of the higher values being used here. I suspect it's best to drop it to about 1V peak. Make sure to pull down the volume fed into the amp. I'll need to check this out with measurements. At this level, the Yeeco amp sounds like it's clipping at the peaks, resulting in a rather harsh sound. The HiFiBerry DAC+ Pro's analogue outputs can go slightly over 2Vrms. This noise level generally is not intrusive or even noticeable once music starts playing.Īnother noticeable limitation was that one has to be careful to keep audio input level low. Typically I use balanced cables throughout the system so that helps. With my usual DAC to Emotiva preamp/monoblock set-up, it's dead quiet. From the listening position, I can hear a small amount of hissing from the speakers at regular playback volumes. It's not the same as using balanced output from an excellent DAC to a good pre-amp and having high power monoblocks of course! The most obvious notable differences are the turn-on click/thump and elevated noise floor. Notice the left amp has the top opened - I needed to replace the XLR connector as my cable was getting stuck and the locking mechanism wasn't letting go around the time I took this picture. Normally, my system looks like this with the two Emotiva XPA-1L 250W (rated into 8Ω 0.1% THD) monoblocks in front sitting on the floor. As expected, as a Class D amp, this thing barely gets warm after a couple of hours of playback at a good listening level. Remember the previous blog post about testing for oneself " How many watts do you really need?" We don't all need hundreds of watts for room-filling sound, in fact it looks like 70% of us can get by with a maximum of 25W into 8Ω or less. This still should be powerful enough for reasonably sensitive speakers. Given that I am using a 12V battery source instead of 21V, the power rating will be more like 20W into 4-ohms depending on how generously you accept the distortion value. The power specs are rated at 10% THD+N which is high (important to keep this in mind!). As you can see in the datasheet, the device is rated as 2-channel 50Wpc into 4-ohms using a 21V power source. The little amp is based on the TI TPA3116 Class D chip amplifier, released in 2012 and probably a product of TI's acquisition of Toccata in 2000. ![]() I have not used the Bluetooth much and the couple times I tried, I did not have any problems pairing the "F900S" to my Samsung Note 5 phone - while lossy of course, it sounded reasonable with decent bass and treble extension. ![]() There is no indicator otherwise except for a power LED and the input selection is automatic such as when you plug in a USB cable or pair it over Bluetooth. When turned on, the amp plays a little jingle and a female voice (of Asian accent) tells you which input is selected. The only potentially worrisome piece is the little plastic On/Off switch up front. As usual, you can loosen the screws and there are holes for bare wires. Physically it looks good with the robust gold-plated speaker terminals that accept standard banana plugs. As one might expect with inexpensive devices like this, quality control might not be the best, but Amazon's return / replacement policy is generous. I initially got the blue one but noticed within a few days that the USB input was not working reliably so returned it and got the gold unit instead which you'll see in the images below.
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