This is a review and detailed measurements of the Douk G7 amplifier. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $299.99.
Ah yes! Finally an affordable amplifier with large VU meters!!! And they are auto-scaling to boot. Direct path to my heart.....
Continuing the theme from their speaker selector/VU meter, the G7 sports dual speaker outputs which you can select independently or together. Bass and treble controls are provided but alas, I could not figure out how to center them. They are rotary controls so keep turning and there is no indication to tell you where you are on the dial. For this reason, I stuck to the "bypass mode" for review that defeats those controls and that of the volume (turning it into a power amplifier).
Architecture is TI TPA3255 with PFFB support. But in a nice departure from many of its competitors, a high power, 10 amp 48 Volt power supply is built in:
This makes the box rather substantial. Combined with very nice and large connectors, you will not face the situation of amp moving around due to weight of cabling. What's more, we also have combo XLR/1/4 inch balanced input and trigger support.
Back to VU meters, I do wish light yellow/paper look of 1980s was available vs that blue.
Douk Audio G7 Amplifier Measurements
Max gain is a bit on the low side using XLR input but it is sufficient to push it to max power with 4 volt input:
This places the G7 above average of every amplifier tested to date if we use RCA input:
RCA unblanced has much higher gain and actually turns in better numbers:
Strangely, noise performance is the same:
With PFFB supported, I expected very little load dependency but that is not what I found:
We have a resonant peak which gets worse as load impedance increases. Mind you, the difference only shows up above 10 kHz but still, would have been nice if the peak was farther to the right.
Multitone performance was rather disappointing:
For this reason, I shortened my testing and focused on power sweeps:
This is something I have not seen before. Channel 2 (right) produces much less power as it clips earlier. With 4 ohm load, this is a difference of 62 watts! Assuming common power supply for both channels, I am at a loss as to why one would run out of breath so much earlier than the other. These are all with "A" speaker by the way.
Amplifier was basically stable on power up:
Conclusions
Other than the color of VU meters and lack of indicator for bass and treble controls, the overall functionality is quite nice especially at this aggressive price point. Alas, performance is somewhat rough around the edges and could use some tuning and optimizations with measurements. Once there, it could be a killer product for people who like me, who like to mix the old (VU meters), with the new (efficient class D amplification).
Douk has come a long way though, from making cheap and non-performant products to what we have here. They have taken their roots, VU meters and speaker/input switching, to new heights with the G7. I hope the continue on this path.
So at this point, I am hesitant to recommend the G7.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Ah yes! Finally an affordable amplifier with large VU meters!!! And they are auto-scaling to boot. Direct path to my heart.....
Continuing the theme from their speaker selector/VU meter, the G7 sports dual speaker outputs which you can select independently or together. Bass and treble controls are provided but alas, I could not figure out how to center them. They are rotary controls so keep turning and there is no indication to tell you where you are on the dial. For this reason, I stuck to the "bypass mode" for review that defeats those controls and that of the volume (turning it into a power amplifier).
Architecture is TI TPA3255 with PFFB support. But in a nice departure from many of its competitors, a high power, 10 amp 48 Volt power supply is built in:
This makes the box rather substantial. Combined with very nice and large connectors, you will not face the situation of amp moving around due to weight of cabling. What's more, we also have combo XLR/1/4 inch balanced input and trigger support.
Back to VU meters, I do wish light yellow/paper look of 1980s was available vs that blue.
Douk Audio G7 Amplifier Measurements
Max gain is a bit on the low side using XLR input but it is sufficient to push it to max power with 4 volt input:
This places the G7 above average of every amplifier tested to date if we use RCA input:
RCA unblanced has much higher gain and actually turns in better numbers:
Strangely, noise performance is the same:
With PFFB supported, I expected very little load dependency but that is not what I found:
We have a resonant peak which gets worse as load impedance increases. Mind you, the difference only shows up above 10 kHz but still, would have been nice if the peak was farther to the right.
Multitone performance was rather disappointing:
For this reason, I shortened my testing and focused on power sweeps:
This is something I have not seen before. Channel 2 (right) produces much less power as it clips earlier. With 4 ohm load, this is a difference of 62 watts! Assuming common power supply for both channels, I am at a loss as to why one would run out of breath so much earlier than the other. These are all with "A" speaker by the way.
Amplifier was basically stable on power up:
Conclusions
Other than the color of VU meters and lack of indicator for bass and treble controls, the overall functionality is quite nice especially at this aggressive price point. Alas, performance is somewhat rough around the edges and could use some tuning and optimizations with measurements. Once there, it could be a killer product for people who like me, who like to mix the old (VU meters), with the new (efficient class D amplification).
Douk has come a long way though, from making cheap and non-performant products to what we have here. They have taken their roots, VU meters and speaker/input switching, to new heights with the G7. I hope the continue on this path.
So at this point, I am hesitant to recommend the G7.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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