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Their biggest selling point, for me, was that they made specs available. I had a Focusrite Saffire 2x4 a number of years back. That was a solid piece of hardware. The sad truth is just that corners will need to be cut when the world expects a piece of electronic hardware to cost less than $100...

Most SMPSes are regulated. The Hypex SMPS1200 is a noteworthy exception to this. A regulated supply will provide the same output voltage (almost) regardless of the load current. So with a regulated SMPS you get more consistent performance. This typically shows as a few extra watt before the amp...

I've been impressed with the Mean Well products so far. They meet their specs and they're certified to a plethora of standards. Tom

I agree that the Connex SMPS300RE used in the Kit shown in Post #1 is the limiting factor. That's also why the Kit amp was able to deliver 125 W into 4 Ω on one channel but only 100 W into 4 Ω with both channels driven. Of course, this is inconsequential for music reproduction as the signal...

Good Lord. People really will comment on everything. Good thing it's a DIY project. You can do with the screws as you please. ;) Tom

Thank you. I can't buy the chassis for the cost of that Rane amp, so I have to charge real money for them. If people pay real money, they expect a real product to be the result of their DIY efforts. So that's what I deliver. A chassis for a DIY build that looks like it belongs in a high-end...

Depends what chassis you put it in. The Modulus-286 is a module for DIY amp builders and OEMs. The module itself weighs about 100 g maybe 125 g. You can build it with a traditional mains transformer-based supply if you wish. I offer an audio grade one on my website. I often build it with an...

If the Solo Gen 4 has a potentiometer for the volume control and uses the same circuitry as Gen 3 then that would be good news for those looking to measure as it would likely have the same preamp as Gen 3 but possibly a better ADC and/or DAC. Anyway. Focusrite posted a comment on my review...

It's a bit complicated with the compressor section in the schematic, but the LM3886 is used without error correction in the MA3. Comparing it to the Modulus-86 is like comparing a Yugo to a Ferrari. They both have a wheel in each corner, but the comparison kinda stops there. :) Tom

Does the Rane MA3 have error correction? That's the central point of the Modulus amps. The error correction drives the distortion into the abyss. That's why the Modulus-86, -286, and -686 sound much better than other LM3886-based amps. Tom

Do you know for a fact that the 2i2 Gen 4 uses the THAT626x? I tried to get some information on the circuitry in the shielded can inside the 2i2, but couldn't tease that out from a quick online search. It's possible that I didn't dig deep enough. Hmmm... I'm not so sure. With a single-ended...

So getting back to the 2i2. I got my paws on a 2i2 Gen 4 and put it through its paces on the APx555B. The sweet spot seems to be with +10 dB input gain and 1.6 V RMS input amplitude on the balanced input. That's similar to what @NTTY found. TLDR; I would not recommend the 2i2 Gen 4 for audio...

Maybe. That's an assumption that you make. I'm not suggesting that you can't do any of the things you say. I'm not here to judge how you spend your time or your money. I just don't see the logic in buying $350 worth of DAC/ADCs, having to find some lab rack to put them in, cobble things...

As @restorer-john points out, you lose the clock sync between ADC and DAC when you put them in separate boxes, unless the boxes are fancy enough to take a 10 MHz house reference or something similar, which they aren't. That can limit your measurement capability. So $350 vs $600. For the...

I think it is possible, but that's two boxes to buy and manage. I haven't checked the prices, but I bet the two combined approach the cost of a QuantAsylum QA403. Tom

Let the amp run at 50 W output power for an hour. I guarantee you that it'll warm up. :) The worst case for power dissipation in a Class-AB amp is when the amp delivers half the rated output power. The 1974 FTC standard required testing at 1/3 the rated output power. The newer standard (2002?)...

I generally don't care as much about dynamic range, which is why I wasn't looking at it that way. I'd rather have low THD and slightly lower dynamic range than high dynamic range and higher THD. Have a look at the Topping E2x2, for example. The output has -100 dBc THD which is mediocre at best...

Hmmm... I measured with 20 kHz measurement bandwidth with the AES17 filter enabled. I just read the RMS noise on the APx dashboard. Are we talking about the same measurement? Noise measured in dB(A) doesn't make much sense. What's the reference? I did not touch the microphone input. I only...

I had the gain knob and the output volume turned to minimum. I just had a 2i2 Gen 4 come in, so I'll measure to my heart's content. Tom

Ah! I see that now. Thanks! Of course, you won't get the best performance if you run the ADC or DAC at 0 dBFS. The sweet spot seems to be around -4 dBFS for the DAC. This was measured with the volume control at maximum. 1 kHz test frequency, 20 kHz measurement bandwidth. Therein lies the crux...