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Comment by rubatuga | Hacker News Reader

If you just want the amp without building it, you can get a TPA3116 Class D amplifier. It is only $21 USD from aliexpress (with free shipping of course!). It accepts a supply voltage of up to 24V meaning that you can just dig around for your old laptop power supply (19V). It comes with a nice and sleek aluminum case, and has low enough noise floor that I can't detect it at all unless my ear is right up against the speaker. Although slightly less power output compared to the chip from the article, it gets loud enough to drown out someone yelling. This amp from aliexpress has gold plated banana plug terminals, RCA inputs, and a smooth volume potentiometer.

Link: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Breeze-Audio-BA100-Class-D-P...

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I know this isn't what the original article is about but for quite some time I used a Topping TP31 amp, it's the same technology you are talking about.

It's not the best amp I've had, it's not loud enough for parties, or even very loud music, and it doesn't drive my planar headphones well.

What it does do is easily fill my home/office room well above comfortable working & listening level, it drives my Sennheiser headphones pretty well, it's cheap & small and it just works.

For what it is, it's brilliant.

TPA3116 can do about double the power of the TA2024 in the TP31 at about the same distortion.

The TPA3250 from the article, and the TPA3251/TPA3255 that have higher power from the same range are in a different class to those IMO, with much less distortion, and are just ridiculous value for money.

That's interesting, thank you. I got the TP31 as it's got both headphone and speaker out plus it's own DAC. I've had it a few years so will have a look at the newer ones. Thanks.

I guess in technical terms this article is about "making" an amplifier as opposed to "building" an amplifier. "Making" as in "Maker", since the electronics come as pre-made assemblies connected together and put in a case.

Basically a model kit that inhibits your ability to generalize.

The first step of generalization is copying.

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." --Carl Sagan

"There are only two colors in the world: black and white." --Ansel Adams

Oh, that one looks neat. I've got another Ali module with integrated Bluetooth for use in my study room. Theoretically the parts have decent specs, but the module has a high noise level and the speaker makes a loud popping sound with a lot of movement on power on :(

Maybe I'll replace it with the amp you linked :)

Yes, you definitely don't want a bluetooth combo. Also, you don't want to buy the 100W version that combines two TPA3116 chips. These models are using a special sync pin/line, but when I bought this model, the manufacturers screwed up the design, it doesn't sync properly, and it's super noisy.

There also seem to be TPA3250 based amps all over Ali Express: https://de.aliexpress.com/item/NFJ-FXAUDIO-FX502S-PRO-HIFI-2...

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