Digital Amps

There have been quite a bit of talk lately about digital amps in the various forums, ranging to the cheap Sonic Impact T-Amp, to the AudioTrak Dr Amp, to the high end Flying Mole DAD-M100pro and NuForce Reference. In fact the Sonic Impact got such a good review from audiophile site tnt-audio that it has become sort of an overnight success, sprouting other companies like Red Wine Audio to make heavily modified versions of it and selling it as the US$499 Clari-T amplifier, which also earned raving reviews. Forbes also has an article recently about Sonic Impact's success.

The T-Amp, Dr. Amp and Clari-T all uses various digital amplifier chips from Tripath, and DIY amplifier kits are available from sites like diyparadise.com and 41hz.com. To see (and hear) what all the digital amp craze is about, I've ordered th AMP3 kit from 41hz. Various other kits based on Tripath's chip are also available there, with one having a power output of 300W! From the forum there, it appears that all of these kits have very good audio quality. My kit is on the way to me, and I'll be writing about it again once it comes and I assemble it. Stay tuned.