This is a review and detailed measurements of a DIY combination of ICEpower 200AC and 200ASC in a Ghent audio case. It was kindly supplied by a local member. Total part cost is US $310.
The case work is fine:
I like the hefty power switch which also acts as protection circuit indicator. Speaking of that, it is of nice variety that self-resets and doesn't require manual power cycling.
The back panel sports far better connectors than you could get in any mass market amplifier:
And of course balanced inputs.
The internal amplification for one channel is provided by the ICEPower 200ASC which has an integrated switchmode power supply. This in turn feeds power to the amplifier-only 200AC module. Nice and clever!
ICEpower 200AC Measurements
Let's run our usual dashboard into 4 ohm:
Having been spoiled by high performance class D amplifiers, this is somewhat of a letdown. Distortion is dominated by third harmonic at around -78 dB which sets SINAD to the same rating. Result is average performance among all amplifiers measured to date:
Signal to noise ratio is good though:
Frequency response is as well:
Power into 4 ohm though show early rise of distortion:
Disappointing to see performance be worse than some of the worst AVRs we have measured at the limit. Same is true at 8 ohm:
Even when we allow distortion to rise to 1%, we still don't get the rated 200 watt power:
The power supply is the limiting factor likely.
Sweeping the power range at different frequencies gives us very complex response:
The lines going backward are caused by the amplifier going into temporary shutdown. This is occurring at just 40 or so watts at 20 kHz! Fortunately there is not much music power there but still, from engineering point of view, I like to see far cleaner and stable response. In some cases SINAD is rising to below 50 dB at just 2 watts!
Conclusions
As usual, we have high efficiency and compact packaging of class D amplification here. What we don't have is performance that matches or beats good class D amplifiers. Of course the cost is much lower as well (compared to higher performance class D amps). So you have a trade off to make. I am too much of a perfectionist to want to recommend this unit but depending on what you are using it for, it may be fine.
------------
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/
The case work is fine:
I like the hefty power switch which also acts as protection circuit indicator. Speaking of that, it is of nice variety that self-resets and doesn't require manual power cycling.
The back panel sports far better connectors than you could get in any mass market amplifier:
And of course balanced inputs.
The internal amplification for one channel is provided by the ICEPower 200ASC which has an integrated switchmode power supply. This in turn feeds power to the amplifier-only 200AC module. Nice and clever!
ICEpower 200AC Measurements
Let's run our usual dashboard into 4 ohm:
Having been spoiled by high performance class D amplifiers, this is somewhat of a letdown. Distortion is dominated by third harmonic at around -78 dB which sets SINAD to the same rating. Result is average performance among all amplifiers measured to date:
Signal to noise ratio is good though:
Frequency response is as well:
Power into 4 ohm though show early rise of distortion:
Disappointing to see performance be worse than some of the worst AVRs we have measured at the limit. Same is true at 8 ohm:
Even when we allow distortion to rise to 1%, we still don't get the rated 200 watt power:
The power supply is the limiting factor likely.
Sweeping the power range at different frequencies gives us very complex response:
The lines going backward are caused by the amplifier going into temporary shutdown. This is occurring at just 40 or so watts at 20 kHz! Fortunately there is not much music power there but still, from engineering point of view, I like to see far cleaner and stable response. In some cases SINAD is rising to below 50 dB at just 2 watts!
Conclusions
As usual, we have high efficiency and compact packaging of class D amplification here. What we don't have is performance that matches or beats good class D amplifiers. Of course the cost is much lower as well (compared to higher performance class D amps). So you have a trade off to make. I am too much of a perfectionist to want to recommend this unit but depending on what you are using it for, it may be fine.
------------
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/
