HifiBerry AMP60 Stereo Amplifier Review

[PeteL]

No heatsinking whatsoever and it could deliver 20wpc without exploding. Amazing for such a tiny PCB.

The power supply was clearly the limiting factor here.

You mean the performance would be better using a different power supply? What's wrong with the Keysight lab PSU?

 

[juliangst]

Great little amp for the price. I might replace my Lepy with it to drive my bed speakers (30€ ‘ChiliTec‘ speakers).
Since I switched to Apple Music I can’t use my Echo to receive Spotify connect anymore so I’d have to use my Pi as an airplay receiver.

 

[restorer-john]

You mean the performance would be better using a different power supply? What's wrong with the Keysight lab PSU?

Amir's PSU at 3A is clearly inadequate to properly determine the power limits of the module.

Tell me, how much current is being pulled in order to develop 2x21W@4R? Hint: way in excess of the rated delivery of the connected PSU.

The issue is current, not voltage and the PSU cannot supply what the module needs, even if the topology is a bridge type application.

 

[PeteL]

Amir's PSU at 3A is clearly inadequate to properly determine the power limits of the module.

Tell me, how much current is being pulled in order to develop 2x21W@4R? Hint: way in excess of the rated delivery of the connected PSU.

The issue is current, not voltage and the PSU cannot supply what the module needs, even if the topology is a bridge type application.

Maybe you can help me, sqrt(21/4)= 2.29 amps?

Edit:
Oh yes, both channels, not sure if Amir test both channel driven. Does he?.

 

[AndreaT]

Great review! I wonder what kind of circuitry shortcuts make this Amp distort more and to show load dependence. Is the original circuit too simplified?

 

[pma]

Horrible amplifier. Tons of high order harmonic distortion + load dependence of frequency response = worst possible amplifier features.

 

[respice finem]

Could be a useful little thing, they maybe just want to reconsider the brand name with something that don't suggest "hifi".

Yes, but, Hi-Fi is AFAIK not a trademark or such, apart from the ancient DIN 45500 (which the HifiBerry probably surpasses).
Similar problem with "high end"...

What's interesting for me, why it is a "distortion factory".
Small amps are also being used in active speakers and seem to be decent, mostly.

 

[doug2761]

Was hoping for a bit more out of this. I played around with the Amp100 for several months and had good results; not sure how it measured though. With the HiFiBerryOS, there's a lot of capabilities for doing room equalization and listening modes (home theatre, low volume, and custom tunings). It really is a pretty neat system but wish their devices were more competitive from a measurement perspective.

 

[DSJR]

Horrible amplifier. Tons of high order harmonic distortion + load dependence of frequency response = worst possible amplifier features.

Sir, you're not living in the past enough

By the standards of 1980's popular priced 'enthusiast' amps which are now classics, this thing performs really well and better than the emerging high end valve 'confections' fetching a small fortune on the used classic market.

You know, there are a few oldies like me who honestly believe we haven't moved forward in amp design since the 70's, but have gone cheap and backwards... I'm frankly stunned how a little board like this can function as an amp at all, let alone with reasonable of low power and feel sad for those audiophiles stuck in the past who don't realise how much more capable solid state devices (output transistors for example) became as the 90's wore on - all these old behemoths with a dozen or more output transistors a channel for example...

This thing is not terrible and it's VERY cheap! Fine for a simple small desktop system, the speakers hopefully not having a difficult loading.

 

[respice finem]

Fine for a simple small desktop system, the speakers hopefully not having a difficult loading.

Was my first thought too.
My second thought, for a small desktop system, a pair of "basic" active monitors is very serious competition, and comes with one matching amp for each driver.

JBL 305P MKII

JBL 305P MKII; Aktiver Nahfeldmonitor; 5" Tieftöner und 1" Hochtöner; 2-Wege Class-D Verstärker 82 Watt (41 Watt Tiefton und 41 Watt Hochton); Frequenzbereich: 49 Hz - 20 kHz (+/- 3dB); max. SPL: 108 dB (Peak); Eingangsempfindlichkeit einstellbar...

www.thomann.de

 

[antcollinet]

Should the part number be TPA, not TPD? (after a longish search for the data)

If so, should be capable of 30W with (about) a 6A supply. If the PCB tracks are up to that.

 

[Kevinfc]

I have a Pi and am always looking for different ways to deploy it. Unfortunately, in the audio realm the performance I’ve seen never measures up against even the cheapest pure audio offerings.

 

[Tks]

Idk, but I have a hard time accepting any device worse than an iPhone dongle's performance anymore. Sure there is specific form factors that this may be conducive to, but after the performance race of the last few years.. Irrespective of context, all devices worse than an iPhone dongle instantly turns me off unequivocally.

 

[Martinvb]

I have a Pi and am always looking for different ways to deploy it. Unfortunately, in the audio realm the performance I’ve seen never measures up against even the cheapest pure audio offerings.

The Pi itself can be used as a basic streaming device. If combined with a proper DAC-hat (e.g. some products from Audiophonics or Allo) it becomes a more than capable DAC/preamp, actually everything you want it to be. Several of such implementations have been positively reviewed here at ASR.

 

[amirm]

Amir- are your Power vs Distortion measurements (4ohm or 8ohm) done at 1Khz ?

The two.main ones are at 1 KHz per industry standard. But I also provide a composite graph of a number of other frequencies.

 

[PeteL]

Idk, but I have a hard time accepting any device worse than an iPhone dongle's performance anymore. Sure there is specific form factors that this may be conducive to, but after the performance race of the last few years.. Irrespective of context, all devices worse than an iPhone dongle instantly turns me off unequivocally.

Worse based on what? One is a DAC/HP amp, the other is an analog speaker amplifier. The Apple dongle is certainly worse at driving speakers.

 

[antcollinet]

I have a Pi and am always looking for different ways to deploy it. Unfortunately, in the audio realm the performance I’ve seen never measures up against even the cheapest pure audio offerings.

The Pi is fine as a streamer as long as you're not expecting decent internal DAC solutions (With the exception of the ALLO BOSS 2 which measured excellently)

Connect it to an external DAC though and it performs as well as any other digital in / digital out streamer - at pretty much any price.

 

[Ron Texas]

Not enough power. Great review and measurements as usual.

 

[Chrispy]

Personally wouldn't have a use for this, but if you had the right situation seems a nice option to have.

 

[CedarX]

Voted “Not terrible” based on the honest data sheet from HifiBerry: THD+N <0.02% (0.1-10W), 2x18W with 18v PSU / 2x20W with 24V @ 4 Ohm.
But $44.90 is a little high, you can get a (finished) MA12070 Infineon-based amp for less than $25 on AliExpress: more power and most likely the same “fair” ranking (no actual data to corroborate).