Anyone pick up a DTA3116S amp on sale?

[tomzarbo]

Just curious if any of you guys pulled the trigger on one of the newer tiny Dayton amps since they went on sale for $29.
I wanted one when it first came out, I think just because it looked so tiny, plus I'm a sucker for brushed aluminum.

https://www.parts-express.com/dayton...-15w--300-3815

I hooked it up tonight for the first time and was a bit surprised. I used a set of old Minimus 7W's (all original) to test them with... they are not very efficient to say the least. Using an iTouch as the source they got loud enough for my taste. Then I switched one of the speakers for a 7" subwoofer and was surprised at the nice, clean bass it generated. The sub I used was a one-off test sub that PE must have commissioned for possible production that never made it... purchased it at the tent sale a few years ago. I get the feeling that some of these small Class D chip amps skimp on the bass a bit, but not this amp; all the low stuff was coming through. Anyway the little DTA3116S had that thing pounding pretty good, and it sounded clean as well. I had company downstairs so I didn't go crazy with the volume, but it was playing pretty dang loud and sounded super-clean doing so. It was actually louder than I normally listen to music unless I'm really cranking things up for some reason.

I like it, and it's so tiny, I'd call it cute... way smaller than the power brick that makes it go. They went with a 14.5 VDC, 4.5A power supply so I guess it's got the juice to get it done.

Anyway, I was just wondering if any of you have tried this out yet. I needed to get to $100 on a recent order and this was the item that got me there. It was either this or the new Lepai 2020 amp with the TI chip, but since I have a bunch of the older 2020A+'s I thought I'd try this one out, glad I did.

Although it's tiny, it's pretty classy looking at the same time.

I'd take a picture of it in my hand, but you probably wouldn't be able to see it.

TomZ

[Millstonemike]

I'm not sure why they went with a 14.5 V PS and spec.'d 15 W (4 ohms) or 8 W (8 Ohms). The chip on the board, TPA3116 will do an official do 50 W / channel at 24 V (closer to 70 W rms in real life). I can't see from the PE website pictures, but the only possible limitation is the PS bypass caps being 16 V units. If so, replace those with 35 V caps and you get a mini monster amp using 24 V.

Just about every TPA3116 board I've seen sets the chip at 26 dB gain (~20x gain). A phone can drive the amp near the maximum possible output given a 14.5 V PS. But using a 24 V PS, you'll need a stronger signal such as a PC. A phone's output is pretty low compared to a PC line out.

[tomzarbo]

The chip on the board, TPA3116 will do an official do 50 W / channel at 24 V (closer to 70 W rms in real life). I can't see from the PE website pictures, but the only possible limitation is the PS bypass caps being 16 V units. If so, replace those with 35 V caps and you get a mini monster amp using 24 V.

I'm happy with this as-is, but that would be a fun mod for someone if it worked. Having something that tiny putting out 50-60 watts per channel would be a blast!

TomZ