Ampapa D1 or Aiyima a80

[bennjude19]

+1…..like it too. I caught a Ampapa Q1 on Black Friday as well which will arrive next week to sit directly under the D1 in this little stack.
I was going to go with the Sparkos for this one but decided to stick with the opa828 with these speakers, the detail is off the charts!
View attachment 494134

Looking forward in hearing your thoughts on this dual chip dac from Ampapa. Adding a preamp on the D1 will add good results or not necessary? Tia

 

[Schlippwhip68]

Looking forward in hearing your thoughts on this dual chip dac from Ampapa. Adding a preamp on the D1 will add good results or not necessary? Tia

Using the D1 at the moment with my iFi Zen one Signature dac. The detail coming from the D1 using the opa828 in there is vast but also well timed in delivery. What I mean is it is not thrown at you like a flat wall. I’m using a pair of Q Acoustics 5020 speakers which are catching every finer sound easily and transferring all that information effortlessly with precision, good tonality and great clarity.

The D1 with the Muses 02 is more musical. It’s an ever so slightly warmer sound with a little more emphasis on rhythm and textured, lifelike vocal reproduction. Just a more fun sounding chip!

The Q1 arrives in a few days shortly followed by the Douk Audio P7 valve pre amp which will also be fine tuned before installing between the Q1 and D1.

It will be a week or two before any results wether good, bad or ‘meh’ (unlikely) arrive.

Cheers!

 

[Schlippwhip68]

The Q1 arrived today. I haven’t got time to test it as currently moving house. Looks nice though.

 

[Schlippwhip68]

Managed to have a little look today. Good RGB light controls in the settings and on the remote so no need to flick those tiny switches on the inside. The display can be turned off completely, something I would like to to have seen on the D1. There is a difference in screen brightness at 10% between the D1 and Q1 with the Q1 being much dimmer. The screen is nice and clear , very easy to read. IMO some software tweaking would be a good move in unifying the two units in some areas but so far so good.
Won’t be able to hear it for a few days yet but it will be the usual tests with varied op amps.

Power supply is fairly standard for today’s equipment, well made and clean looking brick but I will be using the ifi Power X with this once it’s up and running.

Value for money, I would say yes. There’s quite a bit extra here for the money.

 

[Schlippwhip68]

 

[GGroch]

Stays as ‘No Signal’.

Because of the constant on display it was particularly important to me to find a way to make the 12v trigger work with my source, a Wiim Ultra. A working trigger will shut down the D1 when the Wiim has no signal.

The Wiim does not work with the D1 and other small Class D amps like the A80, because it is set up for a 3.5" Mono TR plug and the little amps require a 3.5" TRS stereo plug. I tested it, and a mono to mono cable does not work, nor does a stereo to stereo cable.

What DOES work is using a stereo to stereo 3.5mm cable (a standard AUX cable) and plugging a stereo to mono adapter into one end. Like this one. Plug the stereo cable into the D1, the adapter to the other end and the mono adapter to the WIIM, it works great.

The D1 comes on as it should, and shuts down when the Wiim is powered down or goes to sleep.

 

[nirurin]

Managed to have a little look today. Good RGB light controls in the settings and on the remote so no need to flick those tiny switches on the inside. The display can be turned off completely, something I would like to to have seen on the D1. There is a difference in screen brightness at 10% between the D1 and Q1 with the Q1 being much dimmer. The screen is nice and clear , very easy to read. IMO some software tweaking would be a good move in unifying the two units in some areas but so far so good.
Won’t be able to hear it for a few days yet but it will be the usual tests with varied op amps.

Power supply is fairly standard for today’s equipment, well made and clean looking brick but I will be using the ifi Power X with this once it’s up and running.

Value for money, I would say yes. There’s quite a bit extra here for the money.

I was just looking at the Aiyima A80 as it seemed to have all the features I needed in a good looking package, and the D1 (while possibly slightly better as a pure amp) didn't include the inputs I needed because it wasn't also a dac. So the choice was easy.

But then I found this thread and learned there's some new thing called the Q1 that noone seems to have reviewed or looked at on the internet, and is a lot more expensive, but seems to be a full DAC and a nicer screen.

Though looking more closelier, I notice that the Q1 doesn't have any analogue inputs at all? So I guess it's only for people who won't need to input anything via RCA or aux from a tv or anything like that. Which I guess these days is meant to be less common. It's a shame though that they went from 100% analogue on the D1 to 100% digital on the Q1 haha. I guess the extra 50% in price tag is due to it being able to power 4 speakers at a time instead of just 2, or at least according to the description it seems to say each output group can power their RCA and TRS outputs simultaneously, so two output banks of 4 speakers...

Though I'm not quite sure who that's for. I mean yeh, having 4 outputs is great, people will have 4 speakers, that part no problem. I'm just not sure who has two sets of 4 speakers, and wants to quickly switch between them. In the same room. I think I'd have preferred they just had one output set of 4, and then used that space to have analogue inputs.

The A80 being £100 cheaper, is probably already far more than I would ever make use of, and I'm extremely tempted. I'm just one of those people who sees the newer shinier thing and gets fomo making the 'sensible choice' haha. At least the A80 seems to have gotten ok reviews so far, I still am curious how the Q1 turns out.

 

[PoorAudioGuy]

I was just looking at the Aiyima A80 as it seemed to have all the features I needed in a good looking package, and the D1 (while possibly slightly better as a pure amp) didn't include the inputs I needed because it wasn't also a dac. So the choice was easy.

But then I found this thread and learned there's some new thing called the Q1 that noone seems to have reviewed or looked at on the internet, and is a lot more expensive, but seems to be a full DAC and a nicer screen.

Though looking more closelier, I notice that the Q1 doesn't have any analogue inputs at all? So I guess it's only for people who won't need to input anything via RCA or aux from a tv or anything like that. Which I guess these days is meant to be less common. It's a shame though that they went from 100% analogue on the D1 to 100% digital on the Q1 haha. I guess the extra 50% in price tag is due to it being able to power 4 speakers at a time instead of just 2, or at least according to the description it seems to say each output group can power their RCA and TRS outputs simultaneously, so two output banks of 4 speakers...

Though I'm not quite sure who that's for. I mean yeh, having 4 outputs is great, people will have 4 speakers, that part no problem. I'm just not sure who has two sets of 4 speakers, and wants to quickly switch between them. In the same room. I think I'd have preferred they just had one output set of 4, and then used that space to have analogue inputs.

The A80 being £100 cheaper, is probably already far more than I would ever make use of, and I'm extremely tempted. I'm just one of those people who sees the newer shinier thing and gets fomo making the 'sensible choice' haha. At least the A80 seems to have gotten ok reviews so far, I still am curious how the Q1 turns out.

Douk Audio Q1 is a DAC not an amp

 

[nirurin]

Douk Audio Q1 is a DAC not an amp

Ahh thats what happens when I don't read thoroughly enough.

 

[Schlippwhip68]

So tonight a new XLR cable arrived for the Douk Audio P7 to feed the Amapapa D1. I have to say the result is impressive. There is a distinctive jump in punch over the RCA. Dynamite dynamics! It’s quite an interesting one the P7, it’s fed via RCA then converts the signal to fully balanced which then goes onto feed the amp. Just works very well.

 

[john61ct]

Does anyone know a reasonably priced power amp with HPF that goes any higher than Ampapa D1 at 200Hz?

Must be DC-powered, any voltage is OK

@amirm I may be able to swing getting a D1 drop-shipped to you for testing - interested?

 

[Dilis]

Ampapa is now 100€ over the A80 , around 80%

 

[Schlippwhip68]

Ampapa is now 100€ over the A80 , around 80%

Sold my D1/Q1 rig on. Bought an Audiolab M-PWR and salvaged the Douk Audio P7 from the D1/Q1 set up.

Way more power @ 40wpc continuous. (Class A/B wallop!) Much cleaner more resolute overall sound too using my iFi Zen one Signature dac feeding the upgraded P7.

The D1/Q1 is a nice little stack but just a little short on power for my needs.