![]() ![]() This was great! This was exactly what we needed! I mean, hey, we were done! I mean, from the way it sounded, it had to be putting out 30W or so!Īnd then I measured it. And, despite knowing this, I was super-surprised when it just fired up and ran.Īnd boy did it run! Hell, the thing went super loud! I knew this when I did our first Class G prototype. Managing power dissipation in all devices at all rails.Managing recovery from switching rails at audio frequencies in real time.Noise from switching rails at audio frequencies.If you’re not talking well-refined algorithms implemented via microprocessor, things can get very scary, very fast. However, Class G is not trivial, and has lots of engineering gotchas, both big and small. Modern Emotiva amps using much more developed Class G schema can do much better in terms of performance…but that’s what many years of refinement and microprocessor control can get you. Carver amps from the 1980s could do 350W into 4 ohms from a 7” cube using a linear power transformer and no heat sink except the chassis. When done well, Class G amps can be spectacular. At lower power output, they stay at a lower rail voltage, making them more efficient. ![]() As in, they switch to a higher rail voltage (allowing more power output) only when needed. There are plenty of Class D amps to choose from if you want one.Ĭlass G, for those who are confused by all of this engineering jargon, are amplifiers that increase efficiency by switching the rails of the output stage in response to the amplifier output level. Gjallarhorn and Rekkr aren’t Class D amps. How much? Well, I figured we might be able to get 20-30W of Class AB power into our standard 6”x9”x2” chassis-that is, if we played a bunch of tricks like super-low bias, stacked rails for higher efficiency, and maybe a panic fan for the end game.Īside: please let’s not get into another Class D discussion here. 8 ohm headphones with 10-100x the efficiency are fine.īut, in the end, the thing was: I went into this thinking we needed a ton of power. Magni ain’t designed to drive 8 ohms at several watts forever. Here’s the thing: when I started thinking about “that desktop amp again,” I’d been brainwashed by the prevailing “wisdom,” which went something like this: a desktop amp is still gonna need a ton of power because small speakers are inefficient and hey there are desktop amps making a ton of power with Class D and desktop amps making good power with Class G and fans and stuff and so power is important and we need to make a bunch of power.Īnd, here’s the even crazier thing: I did this despite already having done an experiment with a Magni as a speaker amp, where it got stupidly loud and would have been just fine if it could have survived thermally. How long? Until after the launch of Ragnarok 2, when I thought, “How about that desktop amp again?” So it went on the back shelf for a good, long time. Hell, I even did an early prototype around 2013 or so.īut that prototype didn’t deliver the power I thought we needed, and it would end up being more expensive than I expected anyone would want to pay for it. It made me wonder if we could do a desktop-sized amp at Schiit. Either way, they weren’t for me.Īnd that dissatisfaction, plus the dim memory of that old Realistic receiver, stayed with me. Either that, or I’m extraordinarily sensitive to hiss. Yeah, maybe there are some relatively quiet desktop monitors, but I haven’t found them. It should be paradise.Įxcept…hisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss… Hell, they’re even biamped and DSPed and crap. They get powered desktop monitors and call it a day. So why didn’t I stick with the various Class AB and Class D powered monitors? I mean, after all, this is what people do these days. The Modulus speakers were huge, and the Sumo Ulysses 2 was almost the size of a Ragnarok 2. So why didn’t I stick with the Modulus and Sumo gear? Whether it was Infinity Modulus speakers with Sumo gear, stuffed next to a desk in my first townhouse, or later iterations with powered monitors (of both Class AB and Class D variety), to my later Schiit-era experiments with small amps and small speakers, I’ve wanted something like that back. And I tried to replicate the experience over and over again. Because I always enjoyed the way it sounded. Somehow this antique receiver and speakers burrowed its way into the back of my mind and sat there for, like, 40 years. Bass cranked almost all the way up…loud enough to piss off your shared-wall neighbors…that 10 watts did fine. Think about that a bit: 10 watts into 4” 2-way speakers that were probably, what, 85dB efficient at best (in other words, they don’t make much sound for the watts you put in). And it got fairly stupidly loud, enough that my parents really regretted me getting into music. Together with some tiny Minimus-7 speakers, it sounded pretty darn good. I had a compact Realistic receiver that did 10 watts per channel into 8 ohms.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |