This is a review and detailed measurements of the JL Electronic's (JLE) Sylph-D200 stereo amplifier module built on top of TI's TPA3255 amplifier IC. Depending on the configuration you pick, the module costs US $130 to $170. You can read more about it here: https://www.jlelectronicsph.com/product/sylph-d200-tpa3255-pffb-stereo-ready-to-run-amplifier-module. Or ask questions from the company representative @jlesterp.
Testing bare modules is difficult for me so I asked for a finished system and that is what I received:
Not much to see here so let's look at the module inside:
I must say that row of inductors looks pretty lined up that way.
I should note that the company is an ODM (white label designer) for other companies and is located in Philippines. They provided their own measurements that correlate well with mine.
There are two power supply configurations. The version I have is the lower voltage one (36 volt?) that produces lower power than than if you choose to power it with 45 volt rails.
JLE Sylph-D200 Measurements
As usual we start with our dashboard:
The gain is rather low compared to 29 dB that I usually see in amplifiers. Then again this allows full power at the levels that our desktop DACs produce so it is fine. I understand the base gain in the TI chip is lower still. A buffer opamp is used to get up to 14 dB. The lower gain gives an advantage to this board when it comes to other amplifiers which have more noise due to higher gain. Still, let's do our usual SINAD comparison:
The board is just 0.1 dB short of falling in our superb category in blue! I am told that there is a bit of SINAD loss at the speaker terminals as opposed to the board itself. If so, this is a remarkable achievement.
Noise performance is excellent but again, keep in mind the lower gain:
At 5 watts, it easily clears my 16-bit/96 dB hurdle. This shows that we can build more optimized systems if we take full advantage of the output of our DACs with amplifiers that have lower gain.
The board can be configured with the feedback including the output filter or not. The configuration I have has it including the filter which reduces load dependency but does not eliminate it:
Multitone test shows the classic rise of distortion with frequency:
Crosstalk performance was very good:
Power sweep into 4 ohm load shows very low and interestingly, constant distortion ratio until hard clipping:
Company thinks the input buffer is overloading. As noted, to get more power you need to step up to higher voltage power supply.
The hard clipping made it hard for AP software to properly determine the 1%THD point but did show the burst power:
Switching to 8 ohm we get:
Testing for frequency sensitivity we see that behavior is decent:
Conclusions
It is amazing to see the progress these "chip amps" are making in the hands of capable designers. They are inching their way to the top of the class in our distortion and noise rankings while keeping costs very low. In the case of JLE, it is nice to see a design from another part of the world making it easier to access DIY oriented hobbyists to access them who are locally situated. Interacting with member @jlesterp has been a delight as well.
I am happy to recommend the JLE Sylph-D200 amplifier module.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Testing bare modules is difficult for me so I asked for a finished system and that is what I received:
Not much to see here so let's look at the module inside:
I must say that row of inductors looks pretty lined up that way.
I should note that the company is an ODM (white label designer) for other companies and is located in Philippines. They provided their own measurements that correlate well with mine.There are two power supply configurations. The version I have is the lower voltage one (36 volt?) that produces lower power than than if you choose to power it with 45 volt rails.
JLE Sylph-D200 Measurements
As usual we start with our dashboard:
The gain is rather low compared to 29 dB that I usually see in amplifiers. Then again this allows full power at the levels that our desktop DACs produce so it is fine. I understand the base gain in the TI chip is lower still. A buffer opamp is used to get up to 14 dB. The lower gain gives an advantage to this board when it comes to other amplifiers which have more noise due to higher gain. Still, let's do our usual SINAD comparison:
The board is just 0.1 dB short of falling in our superb category in blue! I am told that there is a bit of SINAD loss at the speaker terminals as opposed to the board itself. If so, this is a remarkable achievement.
Noise performance is excellent but again, keep in mind the lower gain:
At 5 watts, it easily clears my 16-bit/96 dB hurdle. This shows that we can build more optimized systems if we take full advantage of the output of our DACs with amplifiers that have lower gain.
The board can be configured with the feedback including the output filter or not. The configuration I have has it including the filter which reduces load dependency but does not eliminate it:
Multitone test shows the classic rise of distortion with frequency:
Crosstalk performance was very good:
Power sweep into 4 ohm load shows very low and interestingly, constant distortion ratio until hard clipping:
Company thinks the input buffer is overloading. As noted, to get more power you need to step up to higher voltage power supply.
The hard clipping made it hard for AP software to properly determine the 1%THD point but did show the burst power:
Switching to 8 ohm we get:
Testing for frequency sensitivity we see that behavior is decent:
Conclusions
It is amazing to see the progress these "chip amps" are making in the hands of capable designers. They are inching their way to the top of the class in our distortion and noise rankings while keeping costs very low. In the case of JLE, it is nice to see a design from another part of the world making it easier to access DIY oriented hobbyists to access them who are locally situated. Interacting with member @jlesterp has been a delight as well.
I am happy to recommend the JLE Sylph-D200 amplifier module.
----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
