Episode EA-DYN-12D-100 12 Channel Amp Review

[BarryTone]

Performance is poor... Might as well buy 6 of the A7 Amps you just tested... That will give you 12 better channels with way more power.
Or buy 12x Fosi V3 Mono... Or 6 of the dual Mono Amp (with single psu + filter) setups... It would be a bit more expensive but be way cleaner and provide more power.

I'm not sure I'd want 6 or 12 power bricks lying and 6-12 amplifiers tangled in a corner just to drive the 12 channels in my store or bar. That said, I can't think of a 12 channel amp at this price point if I wanted to drive 12 in ceiling speakers for background music. Perhaps Monolith by Monoprice M8125x 8x100 Watts Per Channel Class-D amp?
This Episode probably fits the bill for background music.

 

[sealman]

Voted poor simply because I could buy 4 of the Pyle PT8000CH 8-Channel Amplifiers that Amirm reviewed back in 2023 for similar performance and more power.

 

[BarryTone]

Voted poor simply because I could buy 4 of the Pyle PT8000CH 8-Channel Amplifiers that Amirm reviewed back in 2023 for similar performance and more power.

Excellent point. If I'm gonna get sub-par performance, may as well save some money. Voted poor.

 

[Inertiaman]

I'd bet a Niles SI-1230 (twelve channels @ 30W) would test far better and deliver more power at lower distortion levels despite the lower per-channel rating.
At $750 msrp they are nearly half the price of this Episode, but even better I see them regularly in the used market at ridiculously cheap prices $50-$200.

 

[Inertiaman]

I find it inconceivable why none of these high-channel-density integration amplifiers have utilized TPA3255 chips. The amount of design & implementation reference material from T.I., the power efficiency, the small size and the modest cost all appear to make it an ideal basis for a 12 channel amp.

 

[Jimster480]

I'm not sure I'd want 6 or 12 power bricks lying and 6-12 amplifiers tangled in a corner just to drive the 12 channels in my store or bar. That said, I can't think of a 12 channel amp at this price point if I wanted to drive 12 in ceiling speakers for background music. Perhaps Monolith by Monoprice M8125x 8x100 Watts Per Channel Class-D amp?
This Episode probably fits the bill for background music.

Sure, well I was talking about for Fidelity and power. As someone else mentioned; there are Pyle Amps and those are extremely affordable. There are products from Rockville too; I haven't tested any but they have good ratings on Amazon. We should probably get one to test on the forum here.

I'd bet a Niles SI-1230 (twelve channels @ 30W) would test far better and deliver more power at lower distortion levels despite the lower per-channel rating.
At $750 msrp they are nearly half the price of this Episode, but even better I see them regularly in the used market at ridiculously cheap prices $50-$200.

30W per channel would be fine for many speakers, especially if it isn't going to be loud in your restaurant or store.

I find it inconceivable why none of these high-channel-density integration amplifiers have utilized TPA3055 chips. The amount of design & implementation reference material from T.I., the power efficiency, the small size and the modest cost all appear to make it an ideal basis for a 12 channel amp.

Laziness? Not sure really. There needs to be a market where one of the Amp design companies like 3E or Fosi or Aiyama is going justify doing it.

 

[Cbdb2]

30W per channel would be fine for many speakers, especially if it isn't going to be loud in your restaurant or store.

This amp is only suitable for small commercial spaces. Most of these installs are mono and done by zone, most zones have multiple speakers, 6,8,10, sometimes many more, the reason almost all commercial audio installs use 70volt systems. And If your amp is driving 10 speakers in a 20' ceiling in a restaurant, which can get louder than most people think, 300w per channel is not excessive. This amp is not made for that so it lies in a grey area between home and commercial use. I cant see them selling many.

 

[xanalog]

Yes. People want speakers all around the house so companies who do custom integration work utilize them.

Thank you for the review,@amirm.
I thought the custom market would go for balanced I/Os, especially to richer clientele who like brand-bragging.

Can someone explain to me how you route unbalanced RCAs to multiple zones?
Audio distribution to six different zones smells of lotsa long unbalanced cable runs.
There is a benefit to long unbalanced cable runs, as the THD/IMD fluff will also be reduced.

 

[kyuu]

For commercial use, I don't see why anyone would use this instead of a 70V/100V unit. This only seems suitable for something where you actually need a lot of channels, like surrounds in a good size, dedicated home theater. For anyone doing that, I doubt getting all those channels with mediocre performance for a budget price is terribly appealing.

 

[Jimster480]

This amp is only suitable for small commercial spaces. Most of these installs are mono and done by zone, most zones have multiple speakers, 6,8,10, sometimes many more, the reason almost all commercial audio installs use 70volt systems. And If your amp is driving 10 speakers in a 20' ceiling in a restaurant, which can get louder than most people think, 300w per channel is not excessive. This amp is not made for that so it lies in a grey area between home and commercial use. I cant see them selling many.

I've seen lots of small stores with just a handful of speakers in the ceiling and the volume not turned up very high. Smaller stores today are using Heos or Sonos or even Bluetooth speakers. It is commonplace in the USA to have some music in stores, even if it is low volume in the background.
So I don't see why 30W per channel would work fine even in a medium sized store at lower volume.

 

[Inertiaman]

I perceive the intended market for this to be multi-room residential installations, not commercial installations.
Signal sources are adjacent to the amp, typically in a closet, so no long runs of RCA and no compelling need for balanced inputs or 70V/100V output.
May have long speaker wire runs to the various destinations: bathroom, den, living room, kitchen, patio, etc.

 

[Inertiaman]

Laziness? Not sure really. There needs to be a market where one of the Amp design companies like 3E or Fosi or Aiyama is going justify doing it.

I wasn't suggesting Fosi or 3e should do a 12 channel amp.
I was suggesting that the companies making 12 channel amps should consider TPA3255.

 

[Jimster480]

I perceive the intended market for this to be multi-room residential installations, not commercial installations.
Signal sources are adjacent to the amp, typically in a closet, so no long runs of RCA and no compelling need for balanced inputs or 70V/100V output.
May have long speaker wire runs to the various destinations: bathroom, den, living room, kitchen, patio, etc.

I suppose, but I wouldn't see much of a market for that with todays wireless speaker setups. Most every house I have seen built new recently here in Tampa Bay doesn't have whole house audio like this.

I wasn't suggesting Fosi or 3e should do a 12 channel amp.
I was suggesting that the companies making 12 channel amps should consider TPA3255.

I understand your viewpoint.

 

[Inertiaman]

I suppose, but I wouldn't see much of a market for that with todays wireless speaker setups. Most every house I have seen built new recently here in Tampa Bay doesn't have whole house audio like this.

Exactly, I'm sure that's why the used market is flooded with Niles 1230's.

 

[MZKM]

Wonder how much wattage when multiple channels are driven.

If this is just for whole home audio though, you probably don’t need a lot.

 

[Sokel]

Apart from the bad performance the ones that are focused on use case are right.
If reliability and set-and-forget is the goal icepower is an obvious choice.

And another, I see no one complaining at comparable SINAD amps used in highly regarded active speakers. we saw the tear-dows and some come from chips designed for the car industry!

Use case is everything I suppose. And if price and room constrains are added products like this probably make sense.

 

[amirm]

Can someone explain to me how you route unbalanced RCAs to multiple zones?

They put all the sources, control and amplification in a single rack. They then manually set the switches on an amp like this for different sources to go to different areas. Let's say you have 6 channels going to one room. They would set those to "global input," feed the source that is providing Apple play, Spotify, etc. to those amps.

There are other amps where this is done through the web UI.

 

[capslock]

Don't think so, the distortion pattern looks very familiar with the old, dead cheap small ones.
Must be the equivalent of 6 100asx (?) if they fit in there.

Really bad stuff.

Thanks Amir!

One has to wonder why they didn't stuff the box with cheap TPA3116D2 boards from China. Same output power, better distortion.

 

[Sokel]

One has to wonder why they didn't stuff the box with cheap TPA3116D2 boards from China. Same output power, better distortion.

Because probably the bottom line old ice costs them less, are rock solid reliable and most importantly pre-certified, etc.
The time to design - test - certify etc would cost them a lot more, let alone maintaining, service, after sales, it's easier to scrap a module for another.

If they wanted performance it would be easy, the big icepower PSU and multiple 300a2 which does 100dB SINAD or other 70V modules and they would be done, but with a cost.

(the poor thing here got out of luck with the 5W test, at 1W does near 80-90dB SINAD, must it been pre-ASR design )

 

[DWPress]

I have an Elan D1240 I traded for a vintage NAD preamp a couple years ago. I've never used it for anything but considered using it for a cheap line array with some of those massive discount speakers PartsExpress sometimes has. I've absolutely no use case for the line arrays though so it still sits in the closet until somebody I know might need it.