Review and Measurements of Klipsch PowerGate DAC & Amp

[audio_tony]

I'm intrigued by the LAN "In" and "Out" ports. Surely it's just a hub / switch so there's no actual in/out?

@amirm, it would be insightful to see some (basic) network tests on devices like this, e.g. check streaming for dropouts and so on?

 

[confucius_zero]

what about poweramp frequency response?

 

[daftcombo]

what about poweramp frequency response?

And IMD and stereo separation? :-D

 

[invaderzim]

.... I hope you will test the similar Paradigm PW-Amp which is discounted to $225 direct (perhaps less if you make an offer to Paradigm on their eBay listing), placing it between the Powergate and the Link Amp in price. It seems to be similar in power, but has only a single analog input and no remote. It does have rather nice Room EQ built in.

The Anthem room correction on the PW-Amp makes it very tempting. Even if I just use the analog input with my current DAC and source. It is nearly enough by itself to get me to break my 'no more buying things' rule.

 

[LTig]

That was an issue and I was uncomfortable with dialing up the input so much to get 1 volt. That said, the SINAD is dominated by distortion there, not noise level.

With 2.5 or 5 mV input the distortion could be smaller than the noise.

With no standardization of gain in these products, coming up with the same set of test parameters is hard.

True, but using 5 mV (which I thought was a standard for MM) or 2.5 mV as suggested makes much more sense. ASR should decide to base measurements of MM phono stages on 2.5 or 5 mV input (@ 1kHz):

• it makes future measurements comparable.
• it tells the reader whether the gain is too high or too low (in my view the gain of the Powergate is too low).

 

[amirm]

OK, I will start to make that measurement for future reviews. If someone complains, I will send them to you two

 

[LTig]

OK, I will start to make that measurement for future reviews. If someone complains, I will send them to you two

2.5 mV or 5mV?

• 5 mV is the more practical value for the user since this is (as far as I know) the level which most MM pickups deliver.
• The suggested 2.5 mV on the other side seems to be mostly specified by the preamp producers which makes it easier to compare ASR results with those specs.

If you decide for 2.5 mV than the required headroom must be 6 dB higher.

 

[estuardo4]

If we just want a speaker amp with RCA input, is it better to get this or a Behringer A500 for instance? (or something else).
Getting the Klipsch Powergate on Amazon to ship to Europe would cost around 200$ with shipping & taxes.

I think that this Powergate or the Paradigm PW-AMP are really good buys because they didn't sell as expected because when they were out for sale last 2016, the software was not ready. But the hardware were (at least the power amp part).

 

[D700]

amirm, if you're taking requests, would love to see measurements of the Yamaha WXA-50 MusicCast amplifier...it fits in this same category, I almost went for it over my Marantz. I kind of like where Yamaha is heading, their app is nice...a next gen all in one with a Hypex NC400 would be an NAD killer.

 

[restorer-john]

2.5 mV or 5mV?

2.5mV was the standard on spec sheets for achieving rated power or rated output of a RIAA preamp stage. It's just been that way forever. I haven't looked at currently available RIAA stages enough to see what they are using now. Proper specifications are rare enough these days, as it is.

That said, 5mV is right in the zone of a typical rated MM cartridge output and with a lot of these modern preamps being lowish gain it may be more representative. I think we are going to see a lot of RIAA stages that don't output enough to drive their power or following stages adequately, with only 2.5mV, unfortunately.

I'd like to see one fixed level and an overload level in either dB or mV.

Maybe @SIY should weigh in. He favored 5mV in his LCR phono stage testing yesterday.

 

[mickeyd123]

This is a review and detailed measurements of Klipsch PowerGate Multifunction streaming power amplifier, DAC, Bluetooth and phono preamplifier. It normally costs USD $499 but for some reason it is on Amazon for USD $150 including Prime shipping! This puts the PowerGate in direct competition to SMSL AD18 and Topping MX3.

The front panel of the PowerGate is plastic and not all that nice looking:

View attachment 25180​

The buttons and rotary control have good feel though. Strangely the LED bar showing the level only goes 2/3 of the way up on the left and not all the way around.

There is a headphone jack which I will be testing in the review.

The back panel shows a very feature rich set of options:
View attachment 25181

For this testing I focused on USB and analog input. I did not test streaming functionality in the interest of time.

AC power supply is built-in which is very nice.

RCA input is shared between phono and regular input so not controllable with remote. There is however an AUX input with 3.5 mm which can be selected independently (I did not test this input).

Speaker terminals are decidedly nicer than the bargain units in $150 price range. Overall, it is clear that the PowerGate is designed to be a $500 and not the clearance price of $150.

DAC Audio Measurements
I was pleased that I could use the PowerGate as a DAC by leaving the speaker jacks disconnected and the unit operating up to max volume. Others often shut down due to the amplifier going into protection mode. Sadly the performance of the DAC is quite poor:
View attachment 25182

Output level of 1.8 volt is shy of 2 volts we like to see. The much bigger issue is high levels of distortion which cause the SINAD (signal over noise and distortion) to just 77 dB (averaged across both channels). This puts the PowerGate squarely in the fourth quadrant of all DACs tested:
View attachment 25183

That is worse than all of our multifunction devices I have measured.

Frequency response test shows that despite advertising playback of up to 192 kHz, the DAC filters its output to just 38 kHz:
View attachment 25184

Very odd.

For grins, I ran the linearity test:
View attachment 25185

The "good" channel loses accuracy starting at -60 dB (10 bits). Being generous we can allow some error up to -75 dB which translates into just 12 bits of resolution.

The red channel is even worse in the way it reverses direction in its error amount.

Phono Preamplifier Audio Measurements
Testing for proper RIAA equalization shows a very slight error in mid to high frequencies:
View attachment 25186

The dashboard response is good:
View attachment 25187

It puts the PowerGate ahead of a number of dedicates phono stages:
View attachment 25188

Notice how the SINAD is better than the DAC performance!!!

Signal to noise ratio is good too:


View attachment 25189

Headphone Amplifier Audio Measurements
Let's look how power versus distortion at 300 ohm:

View attachment 25190

Not good for a desktop product. Output level is the same as Topping DX3 Pro in low gain. Good news is that it doesn't clip so you can use the full volume out of the unit.

Clipping comes with 33 ohm load which emphasizes current delivery:

View attachment 25191

This is not good with distortion setting in at just 5 milliwatts and getting worse progressively until large clipping.

Output impedance is just "OK" at 12 ohm:

View attachment 25192

This is much worse than Topping MX3 and SMSL AD18 which were around 1 ohm.

As with the DAC, the headphone out seems to be a checklist item than one where attention was put for great performance.

Power Amplifier Audio Measurements
This is the key area for these multifunction devices as our other desktop products usually don't have power amplifiers. So let's see our dashboard at 5 watt:

View attachment 25193

This is middle of the road performance losing to likes of Amazon Link Amp but bettering the Topping MX3 and SMSL AD18 by a good bit.

View attachment 25194

Measuring full performance shows quite a bit of power available:

View attachment 25195

At 112 watts, the PowerGate exceeds its specification by 20% which is nice. Even better, it does so at less distortion than stated. At this level, it matches the Amazon Link Amp with even distortion in each channel (unlike Link Amp which was worse in one channel).

Above was with analog input. Switching to digital input we can compare available power against Topping MX3:
View attachment 25196

On top of having less noise, the PowerGate pulls way ahead of the Topping MX3, delivering nearly four times more power. And this is end-to-end performance including its DAC.

Signal to Noise ratio likewise is decent:
View attachment 25197

Headphone Listening Tests
Sorry, I have a cold so skipped this.

Conclusions
There are two weak subsystems in Klipsch PowerGate: the DAC and headphone amplifiers. The phono preamplifier is very good however as is the power amp. As a $500 device, the PowerGate would have gotten a thumb down from me. But at $150, it is a great value that will far outperform other multifunction devices at this price range when driving speakers. So run, run fast and buy one from Amazon before the supply runs out!

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

They say you should be nice to your neighbors. So I thought I throw a big party with free food and drinks for the entire neighborhood. Problem is, I am short of cash so please donate generously using:

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview), or
upgrading your membership here though Paypal (https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054).

I got one on clearance last year from buydig.com for $100. Works fine for light speaker listening.

 

[SIY]

Maybe @SIY should weigh in. He favored 5mV in his LCR phono stage testing yesterday.

I use 5 mV because IME it's more typical and isn't calculated to give a preamp an extra 6 dB of headroom in the spec that it doesn't deserve. If there's a standard that says I should do something else, I'd like to know about it. Not that I'll necessarily follow it, but I want to understand how they arrived at it.

The important point to me is to refer measurements to input voltage, not output voltage when measuring phono stages. I know that's one of your hobby horses as well.

edit: and of course, I report gain so someone with a different cartridge can scale it to see what they'll get out of the preamp.

 

[restorer-john]

Here's a few current specs I could find:

Project are using 5mV

NAD are using 2.5mV but for only 200mV out

Marantz are using 2.7mV...

 

[restorer-john]

I think there is a convincing argument for a standardized 5mV.

Unless the phono stages have extremely low overload margins (I have tested some recently at <50mV!), it shouldn't disadvantage too many, and may serve to paint the various MM stages in a more typical usage light and allow meaningful side by side comparisons.

 

[amirm]

amirm, if you're taking requests, would love to see measurements of the Yamaha WXA-50 MusicCast amplifier...it fits in this same category, I almost went for it over my Marantz. I kind of like where Yamaha is heading, their app is nice...a next gen all in one with a Hypex NC400 would be an NAD killer.

It is pretty expensive for my budget at $500.....

 

[BillG]

amirm, if you're taking requests, would love to see measurements of the Yamaha WXA-50 MusicCast amplifier...it fits in this same category, I almost went for it over my Marantz. I kind of like where Yamaha is heading, their app is nice...a next gen all in one with a Hypex NC400 would be an NAD killer.

Sound & Vision put it on their testbench a few years ago:


https://www.soundandvision.com/cont...mplifier-and-wx-010-speaker-review-test-bench

 

[restorer-john]

Sound & Vision put it on their testbench a few years ago

Ouch. That performance is truly horrible.

I recommended a Yamaha R-N803 for a good mate and it was a devil to set up (don't try entering 63 character WPA2 keys with a rotary encoder...).

Sounded OK but the Bluetooth failed after a few weeks. Had it replaced and the Bluetooth failed (regular dropouts even with a device right next to it) again. Sent it to a Yamaha service centre I know and the guys managed to get the latest firmware into it and no trouble since. The WiFi has a very poor range. He got a music-cast remote powered speaker thing thrown in, but it's still in its box unused.

He loves the R-N803, although I felt bad about the trouble it gave him.

 

[estuardo4]

I got one on clearance last year from buydig.com for $100. Works fine for light speaker listening.

Sorry for asking you, but Amir's measurements and tests reveals a very potent amp with lots of headroom to hear at loud volume without distortion. It doesn't matter if a good spec'ed amp is $100 or $1,000. Why you refer to it as a light speaker listening?

That reminded me of reviewers from magazines and websites referring to low priced amps as "Mid-Fi" as a pejorative. This amp should serve you as a main amp, unless you need gobs of power.

sorry for the rant.

 

[BillG]

Ouch. That performance is truly horrible.

Yeah, well, most amps tend to behave like shit when driven to near clipping. Also, details of the test parameters are quite inadequate, but they're the only independent ones I've ever encountered for the particular unit. Due to the lack of details, I do have to question the validity of the test as well.

Yamaha doesn't appear to court the audiophile press at all; I can't say that I blame them for not doing that really...

 

[BillG]

I'm intrigued by the LAN "In" and "Out" ports. Surely it's just a hub / switch so there's no actual in/out?

@amirm, it would be insightful to see some (basic) network tests on devices like this, e.g. check streaming for dropouts and so on?

Here's a link to its manual which will explain its network setup and functionality:

https://f072605def1c9a5ef179-a0bc3f...n.com/product-manuals/PowerGate-Manual-v5.pdf


In regards to its streaming service/network connection quality: while mine are just the semi-casual observations of an experienced IT professional over just a few short weeks, with the amp in use 4 - 6 hours per day via Play-Fi over WiFi, I've experienced nary a dropout. Therefore, if one's network is properly configured and maintained, I seriously doubt that they'll encounter problems with the network functionality of the unit.

The amp and Play-Fi Android app initiate network actions quickly, and they remain stable throughout, regardless of whether other media (usually video) is being streamed around the house or not.