corElement
Well-Known Member
This interesting amplifier apparently won "The absolute sound's amplifier of the year"
NuForce DDA-100
It's a $549 1 kg heavy 75W x 2 (4 Ohm) class D amplifier that seems to have done away with the overly high levels of push pull distortion class D amp's are notoriously criticized for.
Normally the data to a loudspeaker is converted to a small analogue signal by the DAC then being switched, amplified via a preamp and finally stepped up to the voltage necessary to drive loudspeakers by a power amplifier.
The nuforce however throws away all those stages.
It has a front end that will take and switch only between digital inputs then performs the digital to analogue conversion at the final stage by pulse width modulation instead of pulse code modulation.
The entire topology is Direct Digital similar to NAD's Master 51 series DAC but only it's not just a dac, it's a full integrated amp where the signal stays purely in it's original state from input until the final output stage. The two power ICs which enable the direct-digital scheme are from Germany's Infineon in Munich and their SAB2403ENT V2.1 chips. Says the company, "...these are high-performance energy-efficient digital and analog input high dynamic range open-loop class-D speaker amplifiers. Phase-neutral 512TAP FIR digital filter & signal processing features are included for optimizing sound. The digital input interfacing S/PDIF for long wires, optical as well as the IS chip-to-chip interface take the incoming PCM audio data up to 192kHz via a jitter-removing self-adopting variable sample rate converter to the 24-bit digital audio processing chain. After the sound and volume control stage the monolithic integrated output power stages work with supply voltages from 10V to 28V and with dynamic peak currents up to 8A per channel."
The result according to many websites is a very high resolution dark analog sound at a throw away price that challenges many amps upto $2500 if you have a speaker that can take advantage of it as it's only drawback being it's limited power.
I know of a person driving his Kef Ls50 with it and says it's able to drive it but would not suggest pairing it to something beyond the kef ls50's requirements.
If they could find a way to double the limited power of 75watts and research more with it's topology, I think it could pave the way for future.
And all this in just 1kg and an efficiency of 90% for $549...the weight and dimensions itself must dramatically lower the amp to enclosure expense.
NuForce DDA-100
It's a $549 1 kg heavy 75W x 2 (4 Ohm) class D amplifier that seems to have done away with the overly high levels of push pull distortion class D amp's are notoriously criticized for.
Normally the data to a loudspeaker is converted to a small analogue signal by the DAC then being switched, amplified via a preamp and finally stepped up to the voltage necessary to drive loudspeakers by a power amplifier.
The nuforce however throws away all those stages.
It has a front end that will take and switch only between digital inputs then performs the digital to analogue conversion at the final stage by pulse width modulation instead of pulse code modulation.
The entire topology is Direct Digital similar to NAD's Master 51 series DAC but only it's not just a dac, it's a full integrated amp where the signal stays purely in it's original state from input until the final output stage. The two power ICs which enable the direct-digital scheme are from Germany's Infineon in Munich and their SAB2403ENT V2.1 chips. Says the company, "...these are high-performance energy-efficient digital and analog input high dynamic range open-loop class-D speaker amplifiers. Phase-neutral 512TAP FIR digital filter & signal processing features are included for optimizing sound. The digital input interfacing S/PDIF for long wires, optical as well as the IS chip-to-chip interface take the incoming PCM audio data up to 192kHz via a jitter-removing self-adopting variable sample rate converter to the 24-bit digital audio processing chain. After the sound and volume control stage the monolithic integrated output power stages work with supply voltages from 10V to 28V and with dynamic peak currents up to 8A per channel."
The result according to many websites is a very high resolution dark analog sound at a throw away price that challenges many amps upto $2500 if you have a speaker that can take advantage of it as it's only drawback being it's limited power.
I know of a person driving his Kef Ls50 with it and says it's able to drive it but would not suggest pairing it to something beyond the kef ls50's requirements.
If they could find a way to double the limited power of 75watts and research more with it's topology, I think it could pave the way for future.
And all this in just 1kg and an efficiency of 90% for $549...the weight and dimensions itself must dramatically lower the amp to enclosure expense.
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