Sir, I write to you from the opposite side of the planet, Krasnodar, Russia. I am very excited with the video, not only because of your knoledges in D class amplifiers, but mostly because of your huge power of life! Your are great wise man! God bless you!
Greetings.... I chuckled a bit when I saw you show the image of the Aiyima A07 with its sealed box. I am a huge fan of this little TPA3255 Amp, but you are correct about its limits. I have posted extensively as a layman in regards to what this Amp needs. My current model has a vented chassis. One audio friend understood and believed enough to create a proper set of convective holes on the upper shell. On the sides, above the heatsink and at the back. He drilled out 2 shells for me. Another upgrade is that I used thermal reflective tape rated for 800 degrees F and the Adhesive is rated for 320 degrees F. I wrapped the 2 larger nichicon caps with this on the one side and the caps on the other side of the heatsink as well. I also put this tape on both outer edges of the entire length of the heatsink. I also used Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Extreme and repasted the chip. These are all necessary changes. I am now running this newer released A07 in my little rig with Drok 48v 10A power supply. I have it dialed in at 34v although 36V is kind of a sweet spot. I run a silent Noctua 120mm fan across my little rack. It stays quite cool now. I also use SparkosLabs Dual Discrete Op Amp SS3602. I have 3 of these... One has higher voltage caps but lower quality components. I appreciate your endeavors here and just wanted to chime in, say hello, chat at you a bit and say thanks...
Your comments and contributions are always very welcome. What makes me so angry is the basic product is really very good but the out of the box experience is very poor. Just a little more effort from the manufactures and instead of a fair product you might have a very good product.
@@MichaelBeeny I agree 100%. The investment I've made is substantial. Overall my little A07, to get it right cost me nearly $600+ Custom PSU, Custom Enclosure, components for enclosure, Custom Canare DC Cables, Custom DIY power cables. The opamps, the tape, the paste, the work done on the chassis for the vents, the custom solid aluminum knob. The fan to cool it. SHEESH... Yeah, makes me a little mad too... But you know, I was glad to be busy and do these things. Thanks for the reply... Just watched that video on that massive 3255 with the heatsink and fans.. Might look into that beast. Chat soon, be well...
@@Scrufboy I really like the bridged version, I have it working right now with music background. It does work out of the box. The only change I have made is to wire the fans in series. Still runs cold but completely silent. Lots of power but as for 600 watts FANTASY!!
You knocked the aiyima a07, while i don't own this, i bought with me a SMSL SA-50, a class D amp about 20-25 watts into 8 ohms, most or less the same size as the Aiyima. I have been running this as my desktop amp for about 10-12 hours a day, the top of the case gets warm but not toasty but i do not really hammer it. By the way I am from the uk now living in the Philippines maybe slightly older than You. The SMSL sa-50 still sounds really good,maybe not that powerful, not bad for something that is over 10 years old. The point I trying to make is that Chinese manuafacturers such as smsl, aiyima are capable of making cheap good quality amps that sound good and are reliable.
Hi Ken, I agree with you than some of the Chinese amplifiers are extremely good value for money. Sadly there is more that's full of fake and unreliable components. You commented on the A07, a fine well made amplifier but it's NOT 300 watts. If they said it's a good 65 watt amplifier, which it is, I have no issue. Regarding heat. if your amplifier is 20 watts and you use it for average music level. I doubt it will dissipate 2 watts in heat, so an enclosed box is fine. A 65 watt x 2 at 90% efficiency is quite a few watts and it will get hot and throttle back the power and shorten the life of the caps. I know the Philippines well, my wife is from Pampanga. Thanks for watching and your comments.
I also have the SMSL SA-50. I've run it 24/7 for the last 4 years. I have an Amazon Echo Dot that has an output that I run into the amp. I have split the output from the Echo so I can also run a subwoofer. I'm using a cheap Elac subwoofer with JBL Studio 530 speakers. It sounds superb and I can control everything with my voice.
Check my reply and see what I did to my A07. Vents, new thermal paste and reflective thermal tape on the caps... A07 barely get warm now... Stays cool in fact. I love this little Amp!
Thanks for your review. I bought the cheaper one FAJIA TPA3255 a month ago for £35.99 inc postage. It replaced a smaller, different predecessor which failed after a short time. Basically my SMPS delivers 35.5V which was too close to its upper limit, so I changed to the TPA3255 rated at 48V to give me some headroom. I still give it 35.3V though. It's worked for an hour or so. It's in a closed box (I know), but it has a 6cm fan blowing through the heatsink full time. It got vaguely warm after half an hour running pretty loud into a pair of 200W speakers. I think part of your message is to pay the price for genuine components if you want a reliable amp. As a live performer I want to avoid equipment failures!
I’m guessing TI doesn’t give out specifics to authenticate their chips from fakes to prevent better counterfeit attempts of their products, specifically addressing the validation points they (TI) may use if give out to the general public. (If they validate their products from fakes out there at all...)
Ok, sorta makes sense but not. The consumer needs a real indication of authenticity. Those who counterfeit should have no problem buying one authentic chip to copy details, don't you think?
@@ceeweedsl Certainly any attempt to counterfeit a chip will require this step to get started from scratch but may not be as straightforward as it seems. The more complex layered I.C.’s could have multiple parameters to function in specific modes, kind of like over clocking a CPU in steps. Without sophisticated equipment and specific knowledge of how a complex chip may function under various specific parameters it could/would be prohibitively difficult to nail down exact means of operation. With that said, for a relatively simple amplifier chip it may be possible to sort out with clever application of an oscilloscope and bench-top multimeter.
@@George.___ Ah. Sure it must be quite a job to counterfeit. I was just thinking about how to check exterior markings. After all the work to make a fake, the label may not be very hard.
@@ceeweedsl Oh yeah for sure, the label is easy. Depending at which stage of production the chip is marked, (labeled) it can show if it’s a fake. Large OEM’s mark their chips in the “assembly line conveyor” or while several are still in a fastened aligned grid with labeling systems being incorporated as part of the rolling process, leaving labels perfectly aligned on each chip. Fake chips often use stand-alone label marking systems, like a laser engraver for example. They can be used for many different products but require setup and removal of the items to be marked, often resulting in slight misalignment of text position and labels. Easy to spot if you know to look for it, assuming there isn’t a heat sink covering the label on top.
@@George.___ thanks for the education! I really know nothing about such things and had no good reason to even comment. Do you think that the chip in the video is authentic?
Sorry to say you won't get 600 watts out of either of these modules. They cannot be wired as a mono block because they are already in bridge mode. Even if they could you will NEVER get anything like 600 watts into any load. These typically will give you about 65 watts. The smaller unit is just trash. Prone to blowing up. Most of these class D amplifiers don't give anything like the stated power. Usually about 30% of the rated power is really correct. Look for a unit with a fan, these little heatsinks are useless. I have reviewed a fan cooled unit on my channel which is available in a mono version but again no 600 watts, more like 100 on a good day.
Here's something you will just have to try at some point. I was using a class d amp some time ago, and we were using it with our Dali iKON 6 floorstanders. These are quite revealing speakers and the amp just didn't quite sound right. One day, I paralleled two amp boards so that it essentially had two sets of filters per channel. The sound was transformed. Normally, these amps are paralleled before going through one set of filters. But using four separate complete amps, then connecting the outputs, worked amazingly well. It sounded like the frequency response on my 6 ohm speakers, using this method, was improved.
I think it would be a good idea to drill five holes along the side of the units casing to allow hot air to escape and allow air flow in through one side and out the other.
I have the smallest one! I've modded mine to have lower gain and reduced noisefloor. I have a alu block on chip to the amp lid. Paste on the chip and a giant heat pad in between block&lid. I use it with a good 400w 48V fanless psu with phase control. No turn on/off thumps at all. Sounds guite good and sounds like way more than stated 60w here. I wonder if the stock gain structure clips the amp early ? I run mine unity gain in the opas. It was difficult to change the feedback resistors to about 1kohm and 330pF smd caps, but I like a challenge. I can also recommend this 48V 8.5A psu since mine been running each day for 3 months without problems so far. Its a very expensive psu but its what you need to run at high volumes for extended periods of time without a fan. My board works as advertised to far I got it for dirt cheap. I've also soldered speakers wires and psu wires directly to the board and it seems very resistantto static voltage since I've worked on it for hours with a earthing strap. But I do keep an eye on which clothes I wear while soldering, and I touch my bathroom pipes often to get rid of static electrisity. Static electrisity is known for weakening components and they can often die some later because of it. I've built 4 different amps with the Tpa3255 and none have died except my friend's which was killed by lightning^^. So its a fairly solid chip if you keep cool. I link my psu if someone is after a quality unit: www.ebay.com/itm/124625220029?hash=item1d043df1bd:g:8ncAAOSw2z9gSZGU&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAABIJKDTlzDP%2FyUpzgGMwc0IML2VNqpBB2bBNyoszlIaAFG2utjUqIXIShv4rCbbTwi7iA9vyNfh16ENhGBF3mMk3i3gv0mzgYapGsGUXsgCcG4RSm0suyCvJHgQnJ0Fu9JHpgDrRUpAMvKEdrJDqrqB3I%2FK761QU7dMMxJtIzdITDKTiiMTaswaaYbkThcT%2FPrrrlLkSr5mykSiPeTcnJTZwxW2K1SXi44pTBOLS4yE%2BVmuMKq7WZ9HF%2FePTaWRet9jTmxCJUJMzJd3TUAAOCGgF1FDdz%2Fc2BnvsPmgdPWydpadNOugYeYcsMugy473m4wp9arBfOl4b0k8lCkw0rEQHInmLznMAGDqdTw%2BUBd1nYDPm5ml8B%2B0KzMwdn3brge8w%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBM_v617LZg
Thanks for all that info, it's always good to hear of a recommended SMPS. Maybe if you have some photos of your mods you could send them directly to me here tas.audio49@gmail.com love to see them
I don't recognize those markings on that "TPA3255DDVR", but if they're selling more than 2000 units in 3 months they may have purchased a tape & reel version. I doubt it, but you never know. I did buy an Aiyima A07 to mess around with. It was on sale, and I have a drill press. I also ended up shaving down an old file server heatsink, and using better thermal paste. So many of these board makers just love putting heatsinks right up against caps. Not cool.
Looking to buy one of them to drive a subwoofer with two 2 Ohm windings. I think I can lower the switching frequency to get better efficiency, move the capacitors to the opposite side of the board, so i can install my old GPU heatsink. I wonder what power will I get, preferably before going to stupidly high distorsion rate.
If you go below 4 ohms you will be in almost always in current limiting. You cannot get the heat away fast enough from such a small chip size. Don't even try the smaller amplifier, very un-reliable.
The first amp that burnt usually does it because it shorts parts out under the heat sink it hits on the bottom people add card board so it doesn't touch if you can get one with out problems and sound ok it's not to bad
@@ВладимирЯковенко-б2з Distortion does rise at high frequency to a degree in almost all amplifiers, it's just a fact of life but some amplifiers are better than others. With these the issue if fake and cheap components.
... sorry, but it is really not nothing killer - i have a07 with a swapped opamps (chosed by me for best possible sound for me) a years and compared to 20 (or probably older) old middle sized denon upa-250 (not epic sounding amp allready), a07 is not literally garbage, but produces mediocre sound in best case scenario...u can read - grandpas denon sound is much more better (more vivid, not annoying, smoother, makes wider and deeper soundstage, there is non digital treble, ...)...despite of all of this, a07 is one of better low cost amps based on tpa3255 ...
Hello Micheal, Thank you very much for this interesting video series! I have received the small board from this video. Unfortunately, the small inductor (47UH) was damaged during transport. Can you give me a hint with which component I can replace it, with specifications? It seems to me that there are a lot of types of 47UH HF inductors to choose from :) Thank you and best regards from Germany. Alex
The most important part is the inductance, which you know. The size will be the next feature to consider and will more or less give you it's spec. I think I would write to your supplier, tell them it's damaged, with a photo if you can. Damage is their problem. Poor packing. Ask for a replacement part or your money refunded in full as it will not work without it. Could cost you a lot to place a small order, best to have exactly the right part. Good luck, tell me what the result is.
@@MichaelBeeny Hi Micheal, Thank you for your quick reply and your tips! I have been already refunded by Ali and could keep the defective unit for experimenting. If I find out anything regarding the component, I can get back to you. In the meantime, I used another board instead for my project I had lying around, based on a TPA3251. It was the same price but with better components than my TPA3255 board (looks I bit like your bigger board with bigger caps and coils, for instance). So far, I would recommend it. Maybe the peripherals contribute more to the sound than the chip itself. Best regards, Alex
Can I get away with 200W Meanwell PowerSupply for "normal" listening? SHould I go 48 or 36 (I already have tpa3255 3e audio). I did run it with 24V powersupply (bumped slightly) for 4 years, but it just died :(
All these class D amplifiers are abit hit and miss. They vary from batch to batch and manufacture. I would personally not recommend ANY of them. You stand more chance of them not blowing uo with a lower voltage. Personally, I would choose the Dual TDA 7293 but it requires more technical knowledge to put together. It should last a few more weeks also. Sound is considerably better.
@@MichaelBeeny I might try. My old TPA3255 did run for a good 4 years, but the power supply died (not sure if it took the board with it). I've order Meanwel RSP 200-36. Will see how it goes. If the board is dead I'll try TDA 7293. Thanks!
Michael, I haven't tried a TPA3255 board yet but I did get a cheap Infineon M12070-based amplifier which sounds pretty good. It's not as powerful as the TPA3255 but I'm impressed with it regardless. I was wondering if you would cover one of these M12070 boards in the future?
No plans at present, my problem is I have to pay for these items. On average I make about $5NZ on such videos. So unless I can sell these boards I have to absorb the cost myself. If only I was rich!! I do have a new high powered Class D 3255 coming soon. 600 watts?? joke I think.
I think TI gave a fair response. They can't vouch for supply chain variations or chinese products implementing their products. They sell a development board for these which you should try because then they might talk. It's a certified product if purchased from them or authorized dealer like Mouser/Digikey. I've seen a few very expensive transistors faked but not complex low value IC's. There are some poor quality components using and some are not setup correctly in the circuit design either thermally or electrically it it leads to premature failure. TL072 is a low noise JFET input opamp and if its setup circuit is not right it will be noisey but I never have a problem with noise on these. Of course they are not great by todays standard but the noise is often a product of something else and not the chip itself from my experience.
I agree and they responded and did not deserve the cranky old 'you are unhelpful' reply due to this guy buying garbage Chinese boards from ali express.
Michael, since you are pretty much equipped, have you ever consider an active crossover + a 4 ch tpa3255? Perhaps you can experiment it with one of your older speakers
That's a big project and speaker specific. Will cost be too much time and money. I'm lucky if I make $5 on a video. I'm thinking of winding down my UA-cam channel, health issues and just getting to old. Thanks for writing, I do very much appreciate my viewers.
Very good review. I think when TI mentions the max voltage as 52 volts then it should be able to handle because that won't be maximum voltage which it will fry.it should be about 60V.
@Michael Beeny I didn't understand what you meant by saying some fakes don't like 45 volts. What I meant was 52V should be safe as per TI if I am not wrong.
I am an old school electrical Engineer. But all you need is common sense to realize that Marantz, B&O, Technics, those shiny boxes that adorned our living rooms in the past are pretty much dead or dying priced out of existence. The ultra cheap speedpacks from China type equipment on the other hand... yes, it is a valuable thing you are doing, examining the components that they are putting on their "products" And then there is the approach of going to (semi) reputable mostly Chinese or Korean manufactured brands like Aiyima, Fosi Audio etc etc. They are pretty open about what components they are using and their prices are not at all so far more than the no brand components! Yes I do look at the ultra cheap no brand stuff directly from China, compare with an equivalent from, let's say, Fosi Audio...what is the difference between the 2, I see that the Aiyima comes in a nice box with volume and frequency buttons and has good components inside, and if this costs 30 US more than the bare bones no buttons no RCA connectors no brand bare cicuit board....well that is a "nobrainer" And in addition you mostly get a power supply in the box included in the price. So these are the strategies we use so we dont end up with stuff that ends up in the trash after 3 months.
I like your optimism that some of these amplifiers might last 3 months. It's quite common from just my experience and tests, some come with faulty components, wrong components, wiring errors. One guy on UA-cam purchased a L12/2 with power supply and a nice case that blow up on power on, internal wiring error.
@@danielh12345 Quite a few different company's use the basic module, often slightly modified. The main thing with the A07 is to only use the supplied 32-36v ish?? volt power supply as its case has no ventilation holes so can overheat if you use a higher voltage and/or 4 ohm speakers. On music should not be an issue.
@MichaelBeeny yeah, I agree, the thing is, I don't see a reason to go for higher power on these things either. It gives out plenty and sounds good doing it with the stock voltage of the psu.
The best Would be to buy the dev board from TI. It's a lttle more expensivethan the chinese boards but at least you are sure to get all original parts, and of the right values. Who knows if the output chokes of the chinese boards have the right impedance, for instance? And we all know that the output filter plays a big role in how well the chip interfaces with the load....
The smaller unit has sockets, so yes you can but why bother, it has poor performance at best. The larger unit uses a soldered on chip, but again why change something that makes almost no difference to the sound anyway.
As far as the amplifier is concerned (in fact almost all amplifiers) this will be an inductive short circuit and a very good way to blow up the amplifier. I would have expected such a headphone would have a transformer to run it or a special amplifier such as used to drive hard of hearing induction loops.
hello, I don't understand your video, I only know Spanish, I'm using the translator, I wanted to know what the real power is without distortion and how much impedance was measured
Supposedly the TPA3255 is bridgeable. There's a board out there that is bridged and has bass management but it costs more. I wonder if one of these can be bridged. Feel better... would hate to lose your insights.
Yes they can be bridged, I working on one such board right now. The issue is heat. If you bridge a board it's like running that board with 4 ohms even if the speaker is 8 ohms. Even worse if you really have 4 ohm speakers. A give away is if they are fitted with fans. A fan on such amplifiers is a must. I will have a couple of vids in the next week or two on this very subject. Good to hear from you Rob.
That is not maybe correct. That amp chip has 4 channels. 2 Ch is already briged (BTL) for left and the other two are briged for the right channel output. What you can do.. is paralleling those two bridged output channels. So you get something called "PBTL". Parallel briged.. One UA-camr has done it with the aiyima 07. But when increasing the volume it did go into protection.. I don't know if PBTL will benefit of resistors as usually is done when paralleling or that were the issue for the UA-camr ? But I suspect it were to ask little to much from the chip to push it into PBTL.. Thanks for the video! 😍
@Douglas Blake Yes, you can but not how you are describing it. And this "hack" is NOT applicable on all amps because the output terminals can be configured in a totally different way. (Not going into details here) here i a demonstration on a specific tpa3255: ua-cam.com/video/fPKvD2B5hZc/v-deo.html
@@Douglas_Blake What kinds of board modifications? Do they primarily all deal with the cooling system, like spacing the components further from the heatsink, doing a larger heatsink, adding a thermostatic fan, adding more ventilation/circulation to the amp, Or are there other things to be done, like a better voltage regulator, larger chokes and capacitors, inserting an output fuse, what more? I hope it's not too late for you to reply, and thank you in advance, because I am considering using a dozen of these to PBTL for active speakers, and want to be sure they are capable of handling the max possible, both for power and for durability/longevity.
I am very sure we must have identical Aliexpress wish lists lol. I have the larger board. I had hoped buying this would have been a drop in upgrade for a cheap TPA3116 I had set up in my office. But it has turned into just another project. Which I suppose is part of the fun but in this case was unwelcome. Damaged caps, clearly fake components, incredibly sticky with flux etc. To my mind if I need to be swapping out components I might as well have just bought a kit in the first place
Sorry I just realised that sounds very negative when I have not had a chance to listen to the board yet. I’m interested in hearing what others think about the sound too.
4 inductors both...the smaller Closed (magnetically shielded) are MORE efficient than the rings handwired ones and CLOSED COUPLED (one close to the other , which is BETTER...Linearity too imho PS: Power handling...that's another story Wire is better
@Douglas Blake i have fosi bt30d that im used only for sub, can that damage the AMP? do u have some reference article, web, blog? nb. BT30D 2.1 AMP have sparated sub control.
@Douglas Blake 1. i need proper reference article. somewhere else said its only for Tube AMP, some say also only for OLD amp. my amp doesnt connect L and R channell so basicly its not proper connected. thats why im concern. sorry for badnglish.
For moderate listening level, the tpa3255 is very competent. The amp I have reminds me of the audiolab from the 90s...clinical and sterile. Can't really fault it but it can be dry and boring.
Michael these boards have no enough power, it's good only for small speakers. A full bridged 4 channels TPA 3255 can provide more than 130 watts in one channel with 10A Power supply (per channel)
Size of speaker has nothing to do with it, it's the spl rating that is key, generally bigger speakers drivers are easier to drive. I use the little tpa 3110 chip ( 8 watts) and it drives my 96spl openbaffle speakers to anti social levels
No mention about inductor layout. Take a look at the bigger model. The 2 channels have 1 negative side inductor very adjacent to the other channels positive side inductor. So the current phases and therefore magnetic radiation / induction is opposing. Clearly not an expertly designed pcb layout.
I don't know why you buy these crappy Chinese boards with fake components. At least just buy the PCB and buy the genuine components from an authorised seller like Farnell or Mouser. We know these electronics are crap so I don't understand the purpose of continuous videos of you buying and testing them, otherwise your videos are excellent and well done.
Then just go and buy them and be done with it. For the price of 1 brand component you could buy 5-10 Chinese ones. Some of them might not be good, some will be only slightly worse and in the end it's much cheaper to just buy Chinese ones. Same with all kinds of tools, of course not for professional work, but for home use they are perfectly fine. China has their own brands, so as long as you don't buy complete no names, then you will be fine. I've been doing this for almost 10 years and if I didn't, I would own only a fraction of things I have now and I would be completely dependent on begging others to lend me tools...
Sir, I write to you from the opposite side of the planet, Krasnodar, Russia. I am very excited with the video, not only because of your knoledges in D class amplifiers, but mostly because of your huge power of life! Your are great wise man! God bless you!
Thank you for your kind words, but I am just an ordinary guy with an interesting hobby which I love to share with other people all over the world.
Andrey, Krasnodar Krai is only 3 timezone away from the UK so its not really the opposite site of the planet :)
@@AnasSuhaimi I definitely aware where the British Islands are, but what about New Zealand where Michael Beeny live for the past 20 years?🙂
@@smitushka Ah okay then. I thought he's a Brit from his accent. Chill Andrey, was just teasing you.
Very good review - I appreciate your honesty regarding the maximum clean power you are likely to obtain into an 8 ohm load.
Thank you
Greetings....
I chuckled a bit when I saw you show the image of the Aiyima A07 with its sealed box. I am a huge fan of this little TPA3255 Amp, but you are correct about its limits. I have posted extensively as a layman in regards to what this Amp needs. My current model has a vented chassis. One audio friend understood and believed enough to create a proper set of convective holes on the upper shell. On the sides, above the heatsink and at the back. He drilled out 2 shells for me. Another upgrade is that I used thermal reflective tape rated for 800 degrees F and the Adhesive is rated for 320 degrees F. I wrapped the 2 larger nichicon caps with this on the one side and the caps on the other side of the heatsink as well. I also put this tape on both outer edges of the entire length of the heatsink. I also used Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Extreme and repasted the chip. These are all necessary changes. I am now running this newer released A07 in my little rig with Drok 48v 10A power supply. I have it dialed in at 34v although 36V is kind of a sweet spot. I run a silent Noctua 120mm fan across my little rack. It stays quite cool now. I also use SparkosLabs Dual Discrete Op Amp SS3602.
I have 3 of these... One has higher voltage caps but lower quality components.
I appreciate your endeavors here and just wanted to chime in, say hello, chat at you a bit and say thanks...
Your comments and contributions are always very welcome. What makes me so angry is the basic product is really very good but the out of the box experience is very poor. Just a little more effort from the manufactures and instead of a fair product you might have a very good product.
@@MichaelBeeny I agree 100%. The investment I've made is substantial.
Overall my little A07, to get it right cost me nearly $600+
Custom PSU, Custom Enclosure, components for enclosure, Custom Canare DC Cables, Custom DIY power cables.
The opamps, the tape, the paste, the work done on the chassis for the vents, the custom solid aluminum knob. The fan to cool it.
SHEESH... Yeah, makes me a little mad too... But you know, I was glad to be busy and do these things.
Thanks for the reply... Just watched that video on that massive 3255 with the heatsink and fans.. Might look into that beast.
Chat soon, be well...
@@Scrufboy I really like the bridged version, I have it working right now with music background. It does work out of the box. The only change I have made is to wire the fans in series. Still runs cold but completely silent. Lots of power but as for 600 watts FANTASY!!
You knocked the aiyima a07, while i don't own this, i bought with me a SMSL SA-50, a class D amp about 20-25 watts into 8 ohms, most or less the same size as the Aiyima. I have been running this as my desktop amp for about 10-12 hours a day, the top of the case gets warm but not toasty but i do not really hammer it. By the way I am from the uk now living in the Philippines maybe slightly older than You. The SMSL sa-50 still sounds really good,maybe not that powerful, not bad for something that is over 10 years old. The point I trying to make is that Chinese manuafacturers such as smsl, aiyima are capable of making cheap good quality amps that sound good and are reliable.
Hi Ken, I agree with you than some of the Chinese amplifiers are extremely good value for money. Sadly there is more that's full of fake and unreliable components. You commented on the A07, a fine well made amplifier but it's NOT 300 watts. If they said it's a good 65 watt amplifier, which it is, I have no issue. Regarding heat. if your amplifier is 20 watts and you use it for average music level. I doubt it will dissipate 2 watts in heat, so an enclosed box is fine. A 65 watt x 2 at 90% efficiency is quite a few watts and it will get hot and throttle back the power and shorten the life of the caps. I know the Philippines well, my wife is from Pampanga. Thanks for watching and your comments.
I also have the SMSL SA-50. I've run it 24/7 for the last 4 years. I have an Amazon Echo Dot that has an output that I run into the amp. I have split the output from the Echo so I can also run a subwoofer.
I'm using a cheap Elac subwoofer with JBL Studio 530 speakers. It sounds superb and I can control everything with my voice.
Check my reply and see what I did to my A07. Vents, new thermal paste and reflective thermal tape on the caps... A07 barely get warm now... Stays cool in fact. I love this little Amp!
Thanks for your review. I bought the cheaper one FAJIA TPA3255 a month ago for £35.99 inc postage. It replaced a smaller, different predecessor which failed after a short time. Basically my SMPS delivers 35.5V which was too close to its upper limit, so I changed to the TPA3255 rated at 48V to give me some headroom. I still give it 35.3V though. It's worked for an hour or so. It's in a closed box (I know), but it has a 6cm fan blowing through the heatsink full time. It got vaguely warm after half an hour running pretty loud into a pair of 200W speakers. I think part of your message is to pay the price for genuine components if you want a reliable amp. As a live performer I want to avoid equipment failures!
I’m guessing TI doesn’t give out specifics to authenticate their chips from fakes to prevent better counterfeit attempts of their products, specifically addressing the validation points they (TI) may use if give out to the general public.
(If they validate their products from fakes out there at all...)
Ok, sorta makes sense but not. The consumer needs a real indication of authenticity. Those who counterfeit should have no problem buying one authentic chip to copy details, don't you think?
@@ceeweedsl Certainly any attempt to counterfeit a chip will require this step to get started from scratch but may not be as straightforward as it seems.
The more complex layered I.C.’s could have multiple parameters to function in specific modes, kind of like over clocking a CPU in steps.
Without sophisticated equipment and specific knowledge of how a complex chip may function under various specific parameters it could/would be prohibitively difficult to nail down exact means of operation.
With that said, for a relatively simple amplifier chip it may be possible to sort out with clever application of an oscilloscope and bench-top multimeter.
@@George.___ Ah. Sure it must be quite a job to counterfeit. I was just thinking about how to check exterior markings. After all the work to make a fake, the label may not be very hard.
@@ceeweedsl Oh yeah for sure, the label is easy.
Depending at which stage of production the chip is marked, (labeled) it can show if it’s a fake.
Large OEM’s mark their chips in the “assembly line conveyor” or while several are still in a fastened aligned grid with labeling systems being incorporated as part of the rolling process, leaving labels perfectly aligned on each chip.
Fake chips often use stand-alone label marking systems, like a laser engraver for example. They can be used for many different products but require setup and removal of the items to be marked, often resulting in slight misalignment of text position and labels.
Easy to spot if you know to look for it, assuming there isn’t a heat sink covering the label on top.
@@George.___ thanks for the education! I really know nothing about such things and had no good reason to even comment. Do you think that the chip in the video is authentic?
Hi! I am a bit confused about the wiring. I want 600w in mono. How should I connect the speaker wires? Thanks in advance
Sorry to say you won't get 600 watts out of either of these modules. They cannot be wired as a mono block because they are already in bridge mode. Even if they could you will NEVER get anything like 600 watts into any load. These typically will give you about 65 watts. The smaller unit is just trash. Prone to blowing up. Most of these class D amplifiers don't give anything like the stated power. Usually about 30% of the rated power is really correct. Look for a unit with a fan, these little heatsinks are useless. I have reviewed a fan cooled unit on my channel which is available in a mono version but again no 600 watts, more like 100 on a good day.
Here's something you will just have to try at some point. I was using a class d amp some time ago, and we were using it with our Dali iKON 6 floorstanders. These are quite revealing speakers and the amp just didn't quite sound right. One day, I paralleled two amp boards so that it essentially had two sets of filters per channel. The sound was transformed.
Normally, these amps are paralleled before going through one set of filters. But using four separate complete amps, then connecting the outputs, worked amazingly well. It sounded like the frequency response on my 6 ohm speakers, using this method, was improved.
Great comments, great advice. Love you work.
Thank you, Robert, much appreciated.
What about similar "BDM8-A TPA3255 2x300W HIFI" board? Is it better than these two?
And what about 3eAudio tpa3255 board?
I think it would be a good idea to drill five holes along the side of the units casing to allow hot air to escape and allow air flow in through one side and out the other.
I have the smallest one! I've modded mine to have lower gain and reduced noisefloor. I have a alu block on chip to the amp lid. Paste on the chip and a giant heat pad in between block&lid. I use it with a good 400w 48V fanless psu with phase control. No turn on/off thumps at all. Sounds guite good and sounds like way more than stated 60w here. I wonder if the stock gain structure clips the amp early ? I run mine unity gain in the opas. It was difficult to change the feedback resistors to about 1kohm and 330pF smd caps, but I like a challenge. I can also recommend this 48V 8.5A psu since mine been running each day for 3 months without problems so far. Its a very expensive psu but its what you need to run at high volumes for extended periods of time without a fan. My board works as advertised to far I got it for dirt cheap. I've also soldered speakers wires and psu wires directly to the board and it seems very resistantto static voltage since I've worked on it for hours with a earthing strap. But I do keep an eye on which clothes I wear while soldering, and I touch my bathroom pipes often to get rid of static electrisity. Static electrisity is known for weakening components and they can often die some later because of it. I've built 4 different amps with the Tpa3255 and none have died except my friend's which was killed by lightning^^. So its a fairly solid chip if you keep cool. I link my psu if someone is after a quality unit: www.ebay.com/itm/124625220029?hash=item1d043df1bd:g:8ncAAOSw2z9gSZGU&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAABIJKDTlzDP%2FyUpzgGMwc0IML2VNqpBB2bBNyoszlIaAFG2utjUqIXIShv4rCbbTwi7iA9vyNfh16ENhGBF3mMk3i3gv0mzgYapGsGUXsgCcG4RSm0suyCvJHgQnJ0Fu9JHpgDrRUpAMvKEdrJDqrqB3I%2FK761QU7dMMxJtIzdITDKTiiMTaswaaYbkThcT%2FPrrrlLkSr5mykSiPeTcnJTZwxW2K1SXi44pTBOLS4yE%2BVmuMKq7WZ9HF%2FePTaWRet9jTmxCJUJMzJd3TUAAOCGgF1FDdz%2Fc2BnvsPmgdPWydpadNOugYeYcsMugy473m4wp9arBfOl4b0k8lCkw0rEQHInmLznMAGDqdTw%2BUBd1nYDPm5ml8B%2B0KzMwdn3brge8w%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBM_v617LZg
Thanks for all that info, it's always good to hear of a recommended SMPS. Maybe if you have some photos of your mods you could send them directly to me here tas.audio49@gmail.com love to see them
I don't recognize those markings on that "TPA3255DDVR", but if they're selling more than 2000 units in 3 months they may have purchased a tape & reel version. I doubt it, but you never know. I did buy an Aiyima A07 to mess around with. It was on sale, and I have a drill press. I also ended up shaving down an old file server heatsink, and using better thermal paste. So many of these board makers just love putting heatsinks right up against caps. Not cool.
Looking to buy one of them to drive a subwoofer with two 2 Ohm windings. I think I can lower the switching frequency to get better efficiency, move the capacitors to the opposite side of the board, so i can install my old GPU heatsink. I wonder what power will I get, preferably before going to stupidly high distorsion rate.
If you go below 4 ohms you will be in almost always in current limiting. You cannot get the heat away fast enough from such a small chip size. Don't even try the smaller amplifier, very un-reliable.
The first amp that burnt usually does it because it shorts parts out under the heat sink it hits on the bottom people add card board so it doesn't touch if you can get one with out problems and sound ok it's not to bad
Hello. Should I use this amplifier at frequencies above 3-5 kHz? There is an opinion that class D amplifiers are not so good in this range ...
You can use class D for all frequencies in the audio bandwidth.
@@MichaelBeeny Quality is not lost at high frequencies?
@@ВладимирЯковенко-б2з Distortion does rise at high frequency to a degree in almost all amplifiers, it's just a fact of life but some amplifiers are better than others. With these the issue if fake and cheap components.
@@MichaelBeeny If you compare this amplifier with class AB amplifiers?
@@ВладимирЯковенко-б2з It's good for the price, but a good class AB like the L12/2 has so much detail and cleaner sound.
Thank you for this video....appreciate the effort
I got my ayima A07 for more than 2 jrs,the power serplay is 36V 5 A its an hi end killer.....very happy😊
... sorry, but it is really not nothing killer - i have a07 with a swapped opamps (chosed by me for best possible sound for me) a years and compared to 20 (or probably older) old middle sized denon upa-250 (not epic sounding amp allready), a07 is not literally garbage, but produces mediocre sound in best case scenario...u can read - grandpas denon sound is much more better (more vivid, not annoying, smoother, makes wider and deeper soundstage, there is non digital treble, ...)...despite of all of this, a07 is one of better low cost amps based on tpa3255 ...
Hello Micheal,
Thank you very much for this interesting video series!
I have received the small board from this video.
Unfortunately, the small inductor (47UH) was damaged during transport.
Can you give me a hint with which component I can replace it, with specifications?
It seems to me that there are a lot of types of 47UH HF inductors to choose from :)
Thank you and best regards from Germany.
Alex
The most important part is the inductance, which you know. The size will be the next feature to consider and will more or less give you it's spec.
I think I would write to your supplier, tell them it's damaged, with a photo if you can. Damage is their problem. Poor packing. Ask for a replacement part or your money refunded in full as it will not work without it.
Could cost you a lot to place a small order, best to have exactly the right part. Good luck, tell me what the result is.
@@MichaelBeeny Hi Micheal,
Thank you for your quick reply and your tips!
I have been already refunded by Ali and could keep the defective unit for experimenting.
If I find out anything regarding the component, I can get back to you.
In the meantime, I used another board instead for my project I had lying around, based on a TPA3251. It was the same price but with better components than my TPA3255 board (looks I bit like your bigger board with bigger caps and coils, for instance). So far, I would recommend it. Maybe the peripherals contribute more to the sound than the chip itself.
Best regards, Alex
@@gammel86 Good to hear you received your money back, well done.
Can I get away with 200W Meanwell PowerSupply for "normal" listening? SHould I go 48 or 36 (I already have tpa3255 3e audio). I did run it with 24V powersupply (bumped slightly) for 4 years, but it just died :(
I just watched your other film. Well, 36V 200W for 8ohm should be more than enough. And I probably will change the 12V voltage regulator.
All these class D amplifiers are abit hit and miss. They vary from batch to batch and manufacture. I would personally not recommend ANY of them. You stand more chance of them not blowing uo with a lower voltage. Personally, I would choose the Dual TDA 7293 but it requires more technical knowledge to put together. It should last a few more weeks also. Sound is considerably better.
@@MichaelBeeny I might try. My old TPA3255 did run for a good 4 years, but the power supply died (not sure if it took the board with it). I've order Meanwel RSP 200-36. Will see how it goes. If the board is dead I'll try TDA 7293. Thanks!
At one time I was toying with the idea of getting two mono tpa3255 amps, complete with built-in PSU... Only around nzd 200 for the pair.
Michael, I haven't tried a TPA3255 board yet but I did get a cheap Infineon M12070-based amplifier which sounds pretty good. It's not as powerful as the TPA3255 but I'm impressed with it regardless. I was wondering if you would cover one of these M12070 boards in the future?
No plans at present, my problem is I have to pay for these items. On average I make about $5NZ on such videos. So unless I can sell these boards I have to absorb the cost myself. If only I was rich!!
I do have a new high powered Class D 3255 coming soon. 600 watts?? joke I think.
Спасибо за очень хороший обзор. Удачи Вам, сил и здоровья. Вы хороший пример для молодежи.
Спасибо, ценю ваши добрые слова.
I think TI gave a fair response. They can't vouch for supply chain variations or chinese products implementing their products. They sell a development board for these which you should try because then they might talk. It's a certified product if purchased from them or authorized dealer like Mouser/Digikey. I've seen a few very expensive transistors faked but not complex low value IC's. There are some poor quality components using and some are not setup correctly in the circuit design either thermally or electrically it it leads to premature failure. TL072 is a low noise JFET input opamp and if its setup circuit is not right it will be noisey but I never have a problem with noise on these. Of course they are not great by todays standard but the noise is often a product of something else and not the chip itself from my experience.
I agree and they responded and did not deserve the cranky old 'you are unhelpful' reply due to this guy buying garbage Chinese boards from ali express.
Michael, since you are pretty much equipped, have you ever consider an active crossover + a 4 ch tpa3255?
Perhaps you can experiment it with one of your older speakers
That's a big project and speaker specific. Will cost be too much time and money. I'm lucky if I make $5 on a video. I'm thinking of winding down my UA-cam channel, health issues and just getting to old. Thanks for writing, I do very much appreciate my viewers.
I have tested and the results were out of any hope, simply unbelievable perfect
Thank you for sharing
Very good review. I think when TI mentions the max voltage as 52 volts then it should be able to handle because that won't be maximum voltage which it will fry.it should be about 60V.
I think only a very brave person would apply 60 volts lol. Some, possibly fakes don't really like 45 volts
@Michael Beeny I didn't understand what you meant by saying some fakes don't like 45 volts. What I meant was 52V should be safe as per TI if I am not wrong.
@@rajendrabareto8065 Correct, should be OK but I think some use fake chips that don't like even 45 volts.
I am an old school electrical Engineer. But all you need is common sense to realize that Marantz, B&O, Technics, those shiny boxes that adorned our living rooms in the past are pretty much dead or dying priced out of existence. The ultra cheap speedpacks from China type equipment on the other hand... yes, it is a valuable thing you are doing, examining the components that they are putting on their "products" And then there is the approach of going to (semi) reputable mostly Chinese or Korean manufactured brands like Aiyima, Fosi Audio etc etc. They are pretty open about what components they are using and their prices are not at all so far more than the no brand components! Yes I do look at the ultra cheap no brand stuff directly from China, compare with an equivalent from, let's say, Fosi Audio...what is the difference between the 2, I see that the Aiyima comes in a nice box with volume and frequency buttons and has good components inside, and if this costs 30 US more than the bare bones no buttons no RCA connectors no brand bare cicuit board....well that is a "nobrainer" And in addition you mostly get a power supply in the box included in the price. So these are the strategies we use so we dont end up with stuff that ends up in the trash after 3 months.
I like your optimism that some of these amplifiers might last 3 months. It's quite common from just my experience and tests, some come with faulty components, wrong components, wiring errors. One guy on UA-cam purchased a L12/2 with power supply and a nice case that blow up on power on, internal wiring error.
I have an Aiyima A07 which uses the 3255 I believe. Its excellent and great value. Have had it for half a year now, 0 issues
@@danielh12345 Quite a few different company's use the basic module, often slightly modified. The main thing with the A07 is to only use the supplied 32-36v ish?? volt power supply as its case has no ventilation holes so can overheat if you use a higher voltage and/or 4 ohm speakers. On music should not be an issue.
@MichaelBeeny yeah, I agree, the thing is, I don't see a reason to go for higher power on these things either. It gives out plenty and sounds good doing it with the stock voltage of the psu.
@@danielh12345 I agree 100% Daniel, plus it's much better than making fire and smoke.
The best Would be to buy the dev board from TI. It's a lttle more expensivethan the chinese boards but at least you are sure to get all original parts, and of the right values. Who knows if the output chokes of the chinese boards have the right impedance, for instance? And we all know that the output filter plays a big role in how well the chip interfaces with the load....
If you want, you could make a new heatsink out of aluminum angle, that way there's lots of room between the heatsink and the surrounding components.
It's not worth any more of my time, like many products from China, they are what they are.
@@MichaelBeeny Fair enough :)
Mine is very low sound im using that tpa3255 the small one
No sure what you mean Doroy, does it not have enough gain. I found it about average gain.
Try 37v 7A power supply. I think it it blow your ears.
op amp replaceable?
The smaller unit has sockets, so yes you can but why bother, it has poor performance at best. The larger unit uses a soldered on chip, but again why change something that makes almost no difference to the sound anyway.
@@MichaelBeenythanks sir, im planning to build diy power amp hifi, what chipset could you suggest? n recommend?
@@jericlee1509 Try this one. ua-cam.com/video/bJWKy7e25wk/v-deo.html
I have headphone ribbon with 0.01 Ohm. I don’t know that can TPA3255 drive the ribbon. Thank you!
As far as the amplifier is concerned (in fact almost all amplifiers) this will be an inductive short circuit and a very good way to blow up the amplifier. I would have expected such a headphone would have a transformer to run it or a special amplifier such as used to drive hard of hearing induction loops.
Nice info, thank you for sharing it, keep it up :)
hello, I don't understand your video, I only know Spanish, I'm using the translator, I wanted to know what the real power is without distortion and how much impedance was measured
en si dice que no esta ni cerca de dar 300w, enrealidad da 60w antes de distorcion a 8ohm
Supposedly the TPA3255 is bridgeable. There's a board out there that is bridged and has bass management but it costs more. I wonder if one of these can be bridged.
Feel better... would hate to lose your insights.
Yes they can be bridged, I working on one such board right now. The issue is heat. If you bridge a board it's like running that board with 4 ohms even if the speaker is 8 ohms. Even worse if you really have 4 ohm speakers. A give away is if they are fitted with fans. A fan on such amplifiers is a must. I will have a couple of vids in the next week or two on this very subject. Good to hear from you Rob.
That is not maybe correct.
That amp chip has 4 channels.
2 Ch is already briged (BTL) for left and the other two are briged for the right channel output.
What you can do.. is paralleling those two bridged output channels.
So you get something called "PBTL".
Parallel briged..
One UA-camr has done it with the aiyima 07. But when increasing the volume it did go into protection..
I don't know if PBTL will benefit of resistors as usually is done when paralleling or that were the issue for the UA-camr ?
But I suspect it were to ask little to much from the chip to push it into PBTL..
Thanks for the video! 😍
@Douglas Blake Yes, you can but not how you are describing it. And this "hack" is NOT applicable on all amps because the output terminals can be configured in a totally different way. (Not going into details here) here i a demonstration on a specific tpa3255:
ua-cam.com/video/fPKvD2B5hZc/v-deo.html
@Douglas Blake Yes, you are correct. 👍
@@Douglas_Blake What kinds of board modifications? Do they primarily all deal with the cooling system, like spacing the components further from the heatsink, doing a larger heatsink, adding a thermostatic fan, adding more ventilation/circulation to the amp, Or are there other things to be done, like a better voltage regulator, larger chokes and capacitors, inserting an output fuse, what more? I hope it's not too late for you to reply, and thank you in advance, because I am considering using a dozen of these to PBTL for active speakers, and want to be sure they are capable of handling the max possible, both for power and for durability/longevity.
I am very sure we must have identical Aliexpress wish lists lol.
I have the larger board. I had hoped buying this would have been a drop in upgrade for a cheap TPA3116 I had set up in my office. But it has turned into just another project. Which I suppose is part of the fun but in this case was unwelcome.
Damaged caps, clearly fake components, incredibly sticky with flux etc.
To my mind if I need to be swapping out components I might as well have just bought a kit in the first place
Sorry I just realised that sounds very negative when I have not had a chance to listen to the board yet. I’m interested in hearing what others think about the sound too.
What a lovely chap ❤
thank you
i am building this board myself soon 😉😉
4 inductors both...the smaller Closed (magnetically shielded) are MORE efficient than the rings handwired ones and CLOSED COUPLED (one close to the other , which is BETTER...Linearity too imho PS: Power handling...that's another story Wire is better
Class D doesn't like playing with the SPEAKERS CABLES
@Douglas Blake i have fosi bt30d that im used only for sub, can that damage the AMP? do u have some reference article, web, blog?
nb. BT30D 2.1 AMP have sparated sub control.
@Douglas Blake 1. i need proper reference article. somewhere else said its only for Tube AMP, some say also only for OLD amp.
my amp doesnt connect L and R channell so basicly its not proper connected. thats why im concern. sorry for badnglish.
Very entertaining ;)
A comparison with the L12 would be interesting. Knowing a board that can be trusted whether Class AB or Class D would be useful!
For moderate listening level, the tpa3255 is very competent.
The amp I have reminds me of the audiolab from the 90s...clinical and sterile. Can't really fault it but it can be dry and boring.
the Chinese are now so good at counterfeiting stuff TI probably wouldnt be able to tell !!! :)
The reason you got "Unhelpful" answers was because it was done by a robot, most likely.
lol Think you could be right Max. I sometimes think I'm not real.
When I see Nichicon electrolytics I breathe a sigh of relief.
Sadly Don, not everything you read is true!!
@@MichaelBeeny You are quite right, and I've seen my share of fake chips. I've never seen a fake Nichicon cap though. But there is always a first.
I doubt the TL072 are counterfeits. These are very old... Probably from the 80s and selling fir a few cents each of I'm not wrong.
Absolutely you have right.
5532 replace 072 but not opa2134 because need other resistance value
Обе подделки ,что ты от них хочешь.
Звука вних нет уже проверял...
Фирменную ищи...
Michael these boards have no enough power, it's good only for small speakers.
A full bridged 4 channels TPA 3255 can provide more than 130 watts in one channel with 10A Power supply (per channel)
Size of speaker has nothing to do with it, it's the spl rating that is key, generally bigger speakers drivers are easier to drive. I use the little tpa 3110 chip ( 8 watts) and it drives my 96spl openbaffle speakers to anti social levels
TI does CYA!
No mention about inductor layout.
Take a look at the bigger model.
The 2 channels have 1 negative side inductor very adjacent to the other channels positive side inductor.
So the current phases and therefore magnetic radiation / induction is opposing.
Clearly not an expertly designed pcb layout.
I don't know why you buy these crappy Chinese boards with fake components. At least just buy the PCB and buy the genuine components from an authorised seller like Farnell or Mouser. We know these electronics are crap so I don't understand the purpose of continuous videos of you buying and testing them, otherwise your videos are excellent and well done.
Then just go and buy them and be done with it. For the price of 1 brand component you could buy 5-10 Chinese ones. Some of them might not be good, some will be only slightly worse and in the end it's much cheaper to just buy Chinese ones. Same with all kinds of tools, of course not for professional work, but for home use they are perfectly fine. China has their own brands, so as long as you don't buy complete no names, then you will be fine. I've been doing this for almost 10 years and if I didn't, I would own only a fraction of things I have now and I would be completely dependent on begging others to lend me tools...