Quiet_Hollow Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 Starting a thread exclusively for those interested in discussing SOC (aka "chip" or digitally driven H bridge) amplifiers. Often the topic of solid state thread wars due to their extraordinarily rich sound when processing native PCM or I2S, when in-fact they bear no resemblance to their analog-driven, yet silicon derived brethren. I'm no expert in the design specifics, but I've got some eye-candy to kick it all off with: Vintage game-changer, turn-of-the-millennium Apogee DDX ...to be continued Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 This is an amp and DAC in one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris A Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 See http://www.vlsi.fi/fileadmin/news/PressReleaseVS1005HiResPlayer.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 That's still an "integrated circuit"... Scalability is cool and all, but its not that interesting to me simply because its smaller and more compact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted November 9, 2016 Author Share Posted November 9, 2016 On 11/7/2016 at 2:54 PM, CECAA850 said: This is an amp and DAC in one? From a hardware POV, not really, because there's no discrete D/A stage, nor is there a discrete amplifier in the classical sense. I've often seen these referred to as a Power DAC, and justifiably so. A typical component DAC's sole purpose is to drive an analog input stage. Where in the case of the type above, the analog input stage is the speaker itself and the resultant audible signal cannot exist independently of the complete output filter network. However....from an end-user POV, arguably yes. Plug it into the wall, digital signal goes in one end, and audio comes out the other.....about enough to fill an entire living room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Cool stuff going on in the digital realm now a days. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
efzauner Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 being an IC or discrete is rather irrelevant from a sound quality POV unless you want to get into isolation/leakage between stages. On the other hand, having all parts on one chip does help in temperature control: all is at pretty much same temp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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