Peak Amplification AM-400C2G GAN amp module

[Audiovibes]

Hey folks, do you think if @John_Siau chimed in on this thread he would be seeking advice from me?

 

[Buckeye Amps]

I'll take that as you are not certain of your answers afterall. Thanks!

 

[wwenze]

Yeah, thermal pads really are a myth..

But luckily, we don’t need those, because the caps are not taller. They are 0603 size, and are 0.8 mm in height, where the transistor is between 0.83 and 1mm in size.

Thermal pads are still needed especially when mounting multiple things to one heatsink

 

[MAB]

@Audiovibes
It's funny you mention John Siau, there's a lesson about manufacturer's marketing material and reality. Bear with me... Benchmark discusses crossover distortion in their marketing materials, presented as an application note. They show that compared to a "typical competing class-AB amplifier", the AHB2 has negligible crossover distortion, and the typical competing class-AB amplifier has massive crossover distortion. I've always wondered about the test since I am somewhat aware that typical class-AB amplifier crossover distortion even in budget amplifiers is quite low, and rarely audible except in the most challenged designs. Siau goes on to say how he passed listening tests, blind and level matched, showing that the AHB2 was not only technically good, but audibly better than the typical competing class-AB amplifier. I'm not the only person who has wondered about this test, and the solid audibility. It took years of teeth-pulling, but Siau finally admitted that the typical competing class-AB amplifier was in fact a super-low-budget Alesis RA-500, and it has large bias problem as had been pointed out early in the forensic investigation of the claim. The icing came, after years of hearing the differences were clearly audible with 100% scores under controlled and blind testing, it was a 1kHz test tone:

"I do recall that the perfect scores on the ABX tests were achieved by listening for harmonics of the 1 kHz tone."

So we can hear a 1 kHz test tone difference between one of the best amps of all time and a very broken one. Very few budget amps, and none I would consider a typical competing class-AB amplifier have crossover distortion like the amp selected for the Benchmark test. This took years to drag out. Benchmark makes outstanding amps and products, but take the marketing materials with a large grain of salt.

By extension, no way to tell how realistic the specs are, which are quite vague and aspirational in many areas, while providing promises that seem to attend all GaN amp releases. Also, no way to derive a SPICE model of the amp from the marketing materials, and even less of a path to port the hypothetical SPICE sim to calculate system thermals. Also, glad to see they have provided adequate room for thermal solutions, since they also claim they want to scale this demonstration to higher voltage and use in commercial and pro-sound applications.

 

[boXem]

 

[shuppatsu]

I’m tempted to dump this thread into ChatGPT and ask it who won the argument.

 

[Audiovibes]

I’m tempted to dump this thread into ChatGPT and ask it who won the argument.

He who has the most likes is always the winner of an objective based debate on an audio forum. As most people reference the existing likes one has to the team they choose. This increases their probability of being accepted by the community as a whole. Basic rules of audio forums 101.

 

[Buckeye Amps]

View attachment 475447

Love this

 

[wwenze]

I’m tempted to dump this thread into ChatGPT and ask it who won the argument.

That's not how to use ChatGPT

You ask ChatGPT why you won the argument