Home stereo amp: Tripath?

November 11, 2011 9:27 AM

Looking for a small home-stereo amp. Tripath or something else?

Back in the mid-2000s, Tripath-based (class-T) mini-amplifiers like the Sonic Impact were all the rage. But in 2007 Tripath declared bankruptcy and was bought by Cirrus, who have proceeded to do basically nothing with the audiophile T-amp chip technology.

I want to buy a small (smaller than half-width), cheap (ideally around $50) amp to power a pair of reasonably efficient Paradigm Atoms (~90dB sensitivity) with a single source (Logitech Squeezebox 3).

I know I can still find T-amps on eBay, and Sonic Impact clones from Dayton Audio, now, but I'm wondering if anything came along to usurp the throne from the Tripath chip. Should I keep looking at T-amps, or something else?

posted by mendel to technology (3 answers total)

Class D amps will fit the bill. Not sure what you can get for $50, but Google it.
posted by mikeand1 at 12:45 PM on November 11, 2011

While Tripath is gone, they made a *stupid* amount of silicon, and Tripath amps are still to be had.

A hair above your price range, but 100W of Tripath Sound. Dayton Audio DTA-100a. Keep it under 30Wpc to get the true clean sound. This one has a little less power but better fit and finish.

This one fits almost precisely, but is limited on power, and I don't know about the fit, but at $21 a throw, it's almost worth the gamble.

This one I'm posting mostly as a joke. It would be loud.

I have one of these, a Virtue Audio One.2 which is way above your price spec, but sounds amazing.
posted by eriko at 3:21 PM on November 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I used an original tripath amp for a long time. I replaced it with a Topping TP30 which I like even better. The dedicated headphone amp that is build in is also very good.
posted by Infernarl at 4:19 PM on November 11, 2011