I Revisit the High End Audio Fringe (Plus ça change…)

It's been a while since I explored the High End Audio Fringe, so I thought I’d do a little surfing to catch up on the latest equipment and best sounding new amplifier topologies.

So what’s new? Very large single ended tube amps are still popular with the dedicated audiophiles. These beasts (the amps) generally weigh hundreds of pounds and produce 100s of Watts of heat for every 10 Watts of audio power produced. Of course, since these amps provide so little usable audio power, they need to be hooked up to very efficient (and very large) horn loaded speakers. Plan to have a dedicated room full of very hot electronics and strange looking speakers if you decide to go this route.

Nelson Pass, amplifier designer extraordinaire, is still working with great sounding single ended MOSFET audio amplifiers that eliminate the need for the huge output transformers required by the tube amps to drive normal speakers. Unfortunately, the heat sinks that keep the MOSFETs from burning up are often larger than the output transformers of the tube designs…so no savings there…still big and heavy, iron and steel.

I listened to a chip amp, the LM3875 and was amazed by the sound of this cheap, tiny, part. Integrated circuit audio amplifiers have arrived that sound as good as anything I have ever heard. With a very small Switch Mode Power Supply, I can design a 50 Watt amplifier to take on the beasts! And this amp will run cool and can power any high quality, medium efficiency speaker.

Now I can finally design a very small, very high quality sound system that will play your music like you’ve never heard it before, all controlled from your own laptop or iPad. Stay tuned for further updates!