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Impressions: SMSL PA200 GAN FET Class-D Power Amp

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totti1965 said:
Well, I just use 2 meters length for each speaker in the living room so that there is of course no need for any correction circuit. The old NAD 302 just works flawlessly with the cross-connected Computercable on the Ellis Audio 1801.

Don’t waste to much money in Speaker Cables.

But if you want one of these shiny brands: E.g. Kimber Cables have also normally quite low inductance.
Cross connected Computercables do the job just as fine (or even better) as Kimber (Kimber 8tc etc.).
Or just take the Chinese Clone of a Nordost Flatline and do the Cross Connection Soldering by yourself (I don’t think, that it is possible to get them already done cross-connected…):

Click to expand...
I've been pretty happy with all of my Morrow Audio cables (I use their speaker cables as well as their XLR and RCA interconnects).

-Ed
 
This thread has certainly piqued my interest, owning both LS50 Metas (currently driven by Fosi V3 monos) and an SVS SB-3000.

I’m not sure if I missed it, but I’m curious, in what way does the PA200 sound superior to the other amps? “Fuller” perhaps?
 
drmevo said:
This thread has certainly piqued my interest, owning both LS50 Metas (currently driven by Fosi V3 monos) and an SVS SB-3000.

I’m not sure if I missed it, but I’m curious, in what way does the PA200 sound superior to the other amps? “Fuller” perhaps?
Click to expand...
It's an overall level of transparency or realism for me. When I close my eyes, I feel more like I'm in the room with the musicians with the B100 and with the PA200 than I did with the NC252MP or any of the TPA3255 amps. Especially the case with big drums with the pair of PA200s run in bridged mono as the drum hits are absolutely massive and just blow me away.

-Ed
 
EddNog said:
It's an overall level of transparency or realism for me. When I close my eyes, I feel more like I'm in the room with the musicians with the B100 and with the PA200 than I did with the NC252MP or any of the TPA3255 amps. Especially the case with big drums with the pair of PA200s run in bridged mono as the drum hits are absolutely massive and just blow me away.

-Ed
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Cool, thanks. I’m probably not immediately in the market for these, but definitely a technology I’ll be paying closer attention to. I would want something with either trigger or auto-sensing power on and no volume knob, ideally. Pretty happy with the V3M’s for now too, but the grass is always greener. :)
 
drmevo said:
Cool, thanks. I’m probably not immediately in the market for these, but definitely a technology I’ll be paying closer attention to. I would want something with either trigger or auto-sensing power on and no volume knob, ideally. Pretty happy with the V3M’s for now too, but the grass is always greener. :)
Click to expand...
Nothing particularly wrong with the V3 Monos, especially once you take price into consideration--the value proposition is absolutely nuts.

-Ed
 
Anyone know the model of the Infineon chip used in PA200?
 
Guddu said:
Anyone know the model of the Infineon chip used in PA200?
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They don't mention that one specifically, only the volume control (TI PGA2311).

-Ed
 
From the pictures I would say it is IRS20957S. There should be two of them, probably two twin boards.
Regarding the transistor i think it is the IGT60R070D1 or the same IGT40R070D1 E8220 used in the evaluation board.
Interesting choices for a new product. nearly 20 years old driver and discontinued transistor. I hope they have enough stock.
 
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MCH said:
From the pictures I would say it is IRS20957S. There should be two of them, probably two twin boards.
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Seems to state in the papers that it operates up to 800KHz but SMSL claims up to 1MHz for the amp.

-Ed
 
totti1965 said:
These measurements would show, if the amp tends to oscillate
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No, it will not. Class D amps have different carrier frequencies which are absolutely unrelated to their stability.
totti1965 said:
I could solder some Ultra Ultra low inductance Speaker Cables, that not every amplifier would easily appreciate
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Why in the world would you do that? Other than to try to make an amplifier fail?
totti1965 said:
But don't panic - there is an effective solution:
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Yes. Use normal wire for the trivial application of coupling audio band signals to your loudspeakers.
 
I'm glad you like your new amplifier and can enjoy your music.
But let me make a small note, which you might not like.
The continuous change of amplifiers that you described in your first post makes you think of the most classic audiophile search for "improvement" and I fear that your feeling of pleasure and satisfaction for the new product is simply another bias, a trick of your brain. I doubt that by trying this amplifier well in a blind test with the V3 mono you could really hear a difference, this would imply the very wrong design of one of these amplifiers. Obviously everyone with their earned money can do what they want, but I find it harmful to foment the thirst for updating and feed the monkey based on perceptions of improvement made on nothing, it's a bit of the mentality that this site tries to eradicate from the world of hifi.
If you want to buy, buy, but maintain awareness of the objective performance.
 
Talisman said:
I'm glad you like your new amplifier and can enjoy your music.
But let me make a small note, which you might not like.
The continuous change of amplifiers that you described in your first post makes you think of the most classic audiophile search for "improvement" and I fear that your feeling of pleasure and satisfaction for the new product is simply another bias, a trick of your brain. I doubt that by trying this amplifier well in a blind test with the V3 mono you could really hear a difference, this would imply the very wrong design of one of these amplifiers. Obviously everyone with their earned money can do what they want, but I find it harmful to foment the thirst for updating and feed the monkey based on perceptions of improvement made on nothing, it's a bit of the mentality that this site tries to eradicate from the world of hifi.
If you want to buy, buy, but maintain awareness of the objective performance.
Click to expand...
I don’t think you saw this post:
https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...-gan-fet-class-d-power-amp.61171/post-2241483

There’s nothing left to buy.

-Ed
 
Sokel said:
There was a reason I didn't re-reply to this post, and that was time.
My crystal ball tells me to wait couple of months ;)
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Wait for what? If I didn’t have the functional issues I had with the B100s, I’d have kept them. I was already done before they started blowing up on me. They sound amazing (when they make sound)

Now if either you or @Talisman are suggesting these PA200s might also suffer a reliability issue, that’s entirely on SMSL and not on me, isn’t it?

-Ed
 
EddNog said:
Wait for what? If I didn’t have the functional issues I had with the B100s, I’d have kept them. I was already done before they started blowing up on me. They sound amazing (when they make sound)

Now if either you or @Talisman are suggesting these PA200s might also suffer a reliability issue, that’s entirely on SMSL and not on me, isn’t it?

-Ed
Click to expand...
No, I'm not suggesting such.
I'm only saying what the crystal ball shows.

Neither I suggest that its low performance is an indicator for upgrade, the on par Yamaha's (for SINAD) for example are around for half a century with probably hundreds of thousands happy costumers. Is just a hunch, you may very well ignore it.
 
Sokel said:
No, I'm not suggesting such.
I'm only saying what the crystal ball shows.

Neither I suggest that its low performance is an indicator for upgrade, the on par Yamaha's for example are around for half a century with probably hundreds of thousands happy costumers. Is just a hunch, you may very well ignore it.
Click to expand...
See you’re right to assume the numbers have a limited meaning to me.

These sound phenomenal to me, and that’s what really matters. In the same way the B100s do, except, we can only assume, these won’t blow up on me (the only issue I had with the B100s). First thing I did once I got them was crank the hell out of them to give myself confidence in their ability to push. I turned them up so high that I was just extremely uncomfortable with volume level and would absolutely never play them that loud for any sane reason (plus…I’m not looking to become another owner of broken KEFs). These things play massively louder than the B100s will go before safety cutoff. Then changing out the DAC that pushes 6Vrms from XLR to one that pushes less voltage for additional safety margin. I’ve also reduced the max volume on the WiiM Ultra.

-Ed
 
Sokel said:
No, I'm not suggesting such.
I'm only saying what the crystal ball shows.

Neither I suggest that its low performance is an indicator for upgrade, the on par Yamaha's (for SINAD) for example are around for half a century with probably hundreds of thousands happy costumers. Is just a hunch, you may very well ignore it.
Click to expand...
By the way, for full disclosure, the two other amps that I was originally considering before I bought the PA200s were Schiit Vidar 2 (one unit, for now) or pair of Outlaw Model 2220 monoblocs (came EXTREMELY CLOSE to pulling the trigger on a pair of these, open-box/refurb). Both of those amps actually are slightly worse SINAD/THD+N than even the PA200.

-Ed
 
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