Tripath TA2020 with power supply - $19.80 WOW!

[Poultrygeist]

If you've lived in a cave for the past five years and missed the T-amp fun here's one at a price that's hard to pass up. This is the Lepai T-amp which has attracted lots of attention on other audio forums. It has real RCA inputs and easily drives speakers that are fairly efficient. Some say the TA2020 is the best sounding tripath chip.

Dang I love a good buy. Must be the Scot in me.


http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...n=%20Flyer_10F

[atomicAdam]

WOW - that is less expensive than a dinner out with the family.

[audio amateur]

I might it try out.

[audio amateur]

My question is, how did you ever go from purchasing a Classé amp to looking at this kind of gear

[Ajani]

My question is, how did you ever go from purchasing a Classé amp to looking at this kind of gear

It's the Democrats... They took 'ar jobs! (OK, hopefully that's not the reason)

It's fairly common for audiophiles to change course during their lifetime... I'm sure Mr. Peabody would be the first to admit that he'd have laughed at you, if you had suggested replacing his Dynaudios with Klipsch... In fact take it a step further: his Dynaudio/Krell combo to Klipsch/Conrad Johnson...

RGA was once a Bryston fan...

Our musical tastes change, our hearing changes, we try out different tech...

[Poultrygeist]

A.A.,

I love gear, low end, high end and everything in between. We're all audio whores but some of us are more discriminating than others. Guess I'm not very discriminating.

[Geoffcin]

I've actually hooked up a battery powered "T" amp to my maggies. The sound was actually quite decent if you kept the volume low. My only question about this amp is that it has tone controls, and that usually means that the audio circuit has to travel through some pretty cheap pots. Of course if everthing is handled in the digital domain then this wouldn't be that much of a problem.

[Poultrygeist]

They mount the Lepai on motorbikes in China. I'm thinking about one for my truck.

[LeRoy]

If you've lived in a cave for the past five years and missed the T-amp fun here's one at a price that's hard to pass up. This is the Lepai T-amp which has attracted lots of attention on other audio forums. It has real RCA inputs and easily drives speakers that are fairly efficient. Some say the TA2020 is the best sounding tripath chip.

Dang I love a good buy. Must be the Scot in me.


http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...n=%20Flyer_10F

I checked it out...looks interesting. I had the original t-amp and last year bought three of the Dayton t-amps for christmas gifts. I was about to order the Lepai but the shipping costs I thought were too high for a product that probably weighs under a pound to ship. Anyway, it's an interesting t-amp to ponder.

LeRoy

[RGA]

I heard a modified Sonic T amp (they modded the power supply) and for about $250 total for the unit and the mods the amp sounded better than several expensive amps including from Celeste and in some ways better than the separates from Odyssey (which is a Bryston like product for cheaper). For just sound quality I would have taken it over any Bryston I have heard. But this was with an easy to drive loudspeaker and obviously with hard to drive speakers the Bryston would be a lot better. Of course I feel the best speakers tend to be those that are easier to drive. This if you can spend $250 on an amp and $8,000 on easy to drive better sounding speakers that to me is a lot better than spending $5,000 on big power amplifiers and $3,000 on tough to drive overly complex worse sounding speakers. Further, it is usually easier to upgrade amplifiers or trade and sell than lugging around loudspeakers, boxing them up and trading them in. But that's just me.

[blackraven]

Here's some user reviews on this amp-

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/class...ta2020-22.html

I wonder if it would sound better than my son's cheap Pioneer VSX-515 125wpc AVR that he is using for 2ch audio.

[Poultrygeist]

With efficient speakers ( 90 db sensitivity and above ) the tubey sounding TA2020 will better any AVR I've heard.

I don't own the Lepai yet but I have the el cheapo plastic DTA-1 TA2020 ( same as original Sonic Impact ) from Parts Express. All TA2020 tripaths amps sound very similar.

[blackraven]

I'm going to buy one of these amps and mod it with upgraded op amp, 13.5V power supply and better pots for the tone controls. I've been reading about the mod's for this amp and these are the easiest and make a significant improvement in sound.

By the way, for any one interested on learning soldering, here's a great web site with video's and other info like using a multimeter-

http://tangentsoft.net/elec/movies/

[Poultrygeist]

Hey raven, thats a great site. I'm in the process of mounting and wiring the Sure Board amp and power supply in a DIY cabinet so it's good to watch those videos. I'm using a 24V PS with the Sure TK2050 which makes around 50 wpc.