WD Class D Amps?

[mikew27]

Reading Noel's page in this months HFW do I understand correctly that WD might be working on amps using Hypex modules at their heart(s).

I was thinking of NuForce, Lyngdorf, Rotel or Channel Islands Audio power amps to drive my rather current-hungry B&Ws without having to heat the house in the summer & melt the local substation.

If WD are planning energy efficient power amps I'll wait rather than spend my money now.

Anyone else up for these

[alnewall]

I think this is highly unlikely, given some previously expressed opinions of Class d amplification on this forum.
But you never know.

[Tony Moore]

Actually, I'd be quite interested in a lower power, lower heat amp that sounds good. I mean, for general use during the day (background music) my Kit6550 is eating me out of house and home in lecky bills, not to mention the extra heat output that I don't need.

A decent Class D kit from WD might just fit the bill for me. Something that looks and sounds good from a team that I trust to deliver no-nonsense value for money...yes, count me in. I almost posted a similar question a couple of weeks ago.

Tony

[Greg.]

As Mike says, Noel is specifically referring to the modules made by Hypex which he regards as having an attractively unique topology and who, he states, have agreed to supply to WD for UK distribution. He suggests magazine projects might follow. Other than that, he is non-specific so we actually don't know the WD take on this. Elsewhere in the mag a current supplier is revealed which regular component buyers won't have difficulty finding.

[Baggy Trousers]

Originally Posted by Tony Moore

Actually, I'd be quite interested in a lower power, lower heat amp that sounds good. I mean, for general use during the day (background music) my Kit6550 is eating me out of house and home in lecky bills, not to mention the extra heat output that I don't need.

A decent Class D kit from WD might just fit the bill for me. Something that looks and sounds good from a team that I trust to deliver no-nonsense value for money...yes, count me in. I almost posted a similar question a couple of weeks ago.

Tony

It has to be admitted that the 6550 is a bit short on mpg but I am very happy to sacrifice economy for its performance when I am in the mood for some serious listening. However, as a provider of musical wallpaper it is far from ideal and in this context I have an old Sansui which consumes practically nothing. I would have thought any solid state device of sensible output would do this latter job.

So what's with Class D then? I have always understood Classes A, AB, B and C as being respective functions of grid bias voltage to the output valves with Class C being quite useless in audio application but good for high power RF transmission. Is Class D an extension of this efficiency? And is this to be a valve-based kit? Surely not if operating economy is to be a prerequisite.

I have not read the article in HFW so if all this is made clear elsewhere, I apologise for failing to be in the loop. Just trying to keep abreast, you understand.

Richard.

[Richard]

Hi Richard,

Here's the principle,

http://www.hypex.nl/technology.htm

Leo's been running these a while now. I was going to have a go with him but got distracted when an original 300bpp came along . We're hoping to get a listening day together to see how they compare.

I've no doubt they're good. He says so for one, but I've also heard his and Andy's fore-runner gain clone with valve front end which is superb. Apparently the psu is important to the end result as we might expect.

For my own part I'm still interested. Being a confirmed cd user I've no problem with ss done well and having heard the difference changing to later type opamps can make am very hopeful of new technology.

[vitalstates]

Hi guys

I've been toying with the idea of a pair of ucd180 modules for driving my electrostats. The people on pinkfish are saying good things about them but I've yet to find anybody that can let me have a listen.

From what I've read they need a slow start so I was thinking of trying the Nelson Pass thermistor method on the PS.

Regards

Ed

[petercom]

I'm letting Noel loose on this one, so we'll see what the outcome is and, if its good enough, we'll run it as a WD Kit.

The 'comments on class d amps' have applied to the offerings to date, which I don't have much time for. This is usually due to the offensive type of feedback applied to cure their open-loop problems.

The Hypex modules do seem to have overcome a lot of these problems, however, so Noel and I are quite interested in them.

Basically a transistor has characteristics that make it more useful for switching between two states rather than handling an analogue music signal. So, if you must use them, you are more likely to be successful in the digital arena than the analogue.

We'll see what happens!

[leo:)]

How exciting!
Out of all the ClassD amps the Hypex are the way to go IMHO, I've heard Nuforce ,Lyngdorf ,Belcanto , various Icepower and Tripath's.
Nuforce was the worse to my ears.
Thats not to say you guys would like any of them

[leo:)]

One thing I will say is that if WD do offer these as kits with a NICE case/cases for a good price I think they'll sell like hotcakes tbh.
Even though I've had mine for a while, done various tweaking etc they still need a case, because I'm useless at metal work its sort of put getting them finished on hold, I've seen some cases I like but they are not exactly cheap, something else has come up so it'll have to wait for now

BTW Hypex have released newer modules, they basically have most of these mods and tweaks already implemented and also have the option of adding their own discrete low noise regulators for the input section which is certainly worth doing