SONCOZ SGP1 Stereo Amplifier Review

[dfuller]

The SGP1 has a voltage selector switch on the back. Never come across this with an SMPS before.

Mani.

That's very common, really. It means it isn't using active power factor correction. Usually seen on lower end and older designs.

Have a look at your ATX PC power supply. See the voltage switch?

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There's two ways of doing 'world' voltage on SMPSs. Automatic and manual. Manual is safer, more reliable and cheaper, but it requires a modicum of intelligence from the end user. Sadly, that is missing in a significant proportion of adults the world over.

Automatic requires relays/switching and trigger levels/hysteresis along with added complexity.

Basically, all modern SMPSs are designed to run primarily on 220-240V with switchable voltage doublers for 110-120V. That's why, they will offer better performance in a lot of cases on world voltages (220-240V). Losses (I²R) are greater at lower voltages like the US's 120V.

APFC has some advantages, FWIW - the power factor is very near to 1 (a resistive load), and efficiency is better. You generally with ATX supplies will lose 1-3% efficiency on 120V vs 240V, but these are supplies that are already pushing 93-95% efficiency, so dropping to 90% isn't exactly bad.

 

[CleanSound]

Here's another few examples on how to do meters well:

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Hopefully Soncoz will take some of this on board and fix up that front panel. It will help them sell a whole lot more amplifiers. They can send me one as my reward for helping out.

Here is a picture of my beloved Yamaha A-S2200, it probably measures like shit. But there is a brand history that stretches back to over 100 years with a clean, timeless design.

Look at those UV meters, proper and clean. There is no gaudiness and cheapo extras (Although sometimes I keep the UV meters off for no other good reasons)

 

[oldsysop]

Thank you Amir for this analysis.
Long live class A/B !!!

 

[Labjr]

Sorry but this amp isn't worth anything near it's $1,100 price tag. Specs may seem good but the company doesn't have a good track record for customer service. Some of their DACS had a high failure rate and seemed like untested prototypes. Didn't they blame static electricity? I wouldn't want to have to ship this back to China when it suddenly catches fire.

 

[GXAlan]

WTH does that even mean? It's so cheesy, so gaudy, so tacky. As if this brand have some kind of history and that is their motto or something.

+1. Every brand needs to start somewhere but I think this is a case where having an industrial designer is key

Well said. . .but by having a professional industrial designer will increase the cost.

Look at Raphaelite and their use of Boring Design Germany. Even if you don’t like the style, it’s clearly a distinct style that works well for tubes in my opinion. It’s still value priced.

RAPHAELITE X BORINGDESIGN

www.boringdesign.eu

 

[delta76]

Saw this review on Amazon. Only one review, but reliability issues like Topping and SMSL. Not sure if I can jump into the ocean just yet.

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this is also why we buy these things from Amazon or reputable retailers with good customer support. with unproven reliability it's far too risky to save $100 or so to buy from a retailer with almost no after sale service

 

[AaronJ]

How loud would 5mV be into 87db speakers for pop on/off? I don't mind a small pop - just don't want a loud crack.

 

[CleanSound]

Both meters work as expected when listening to audio.
Only when nothing is connected to the Amp's inputs, one meter is pegged at max.
Furthermore, the company has since identified the issue and fixed it.

I believe that is by design. My guess is that, they were going for symmetry, but that is a terrible design decision. . .at least from the eyes of the international market.

Let me give you another example of design decision based on symmetry. SMSL. . .well, it's actually "S.M.S.L" letter abbreviation for "Shuang Mu San Lin" (the companies full name). But WAIT, what the heck happened to the last period?!?!?! Shouldn't it be "S.M.S.L."? Well, I suspect that the last period would have made it not symmetrical (assuming those periods were used to abbreviate words), so they dropped the last period. To my personal taste, that's just dumb, they could of just not use periods at all and made it "SMSL"

How does these "bad" design decisions come into play then? Different culture, different ideas and different perception of "good looking." Hence, I always rant on about these Chinese brands not understanding the taste of international markets, worse, don't have enough desire to try to understand.

EDIT: Before I get called xenophobic, because this is the internet after all, I am Asian-American.

 

[DearSX]

I really like the SMSL and Topping designs for HP amps and DAC. No issues so far but I've only had them a couple months. Hopefully this company fixes its issues, cause its a great product at a good price.

 

[CleanSound]

Please read this article.

I have read that article some time ago, that article is specific to Benchmark's SMPS. It is not encompassing of all SMSP. Hence I said: "recent breakthroughs."

My understanding (and an EE who specializes in power supply design can also chime in on this) linear power supply is still overall more reliable and does better with high current peaks (some power supply expert, please fact check me). The other benefit of linear power supply is that it does not regurgitate noise back into your line. Generally speaking that is not an issue today, but there are some very sensitive electronics that does not do well when there are too much noise in the power.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Not crazy about the looks, but that doesn’t really matter. Great performance, pretty good price. Build quality appears to be very good as well.

 

[mps]

I’m ignorant about the differences between class AB and class D. Is this something I need to learn in order to figure out which amp is for me beyond the individual amp reviews? If so, what is the end user impact?

 

[FTB]

Very good looking amp.

 

[kemmler3D]

Affordable, (depending on who you ask) high-power, well-built class A/B with VU meters/? And it's not a 40-year-old recap job on Craigslist? What a world we're living in!

 

[ta240]

I’m ignorant about the differences between class AB and class D. Is this something I need to learn in order to figure out which amp is for me beyond the individual amp reviews? If so, what is the end user impact?

 

[holbob]

Could I ask please if Topping have to wait 5/6 months for their reviews? It feels as though they are synchronized with the actual release date. Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere.

 

[Whiskey the Cat]

I voted “not terrible” on this one, as the specs and testing results look good, but I would never buy one due to the tacky “boy racer” looks, and the lack of a dealer near me. I much prefer NAD for appearance, even the lower end NAD is much better than this, and if I want to impress, there is the Master series. Also, I only buy electronics if I can drive to a dealer and get it fixed if (or rather when) it fails. If it is well below $1K, I might take a chance (like my Topping A90 Discrete), but not at this higher cost and weight. At the end of the day it is tough to beat the old type A/B driven by a linear PS.

 

[CleanSound]

At the end of the day it is tough to beat the old type A/B driven by a linear PS.

What is your reason for this?

I have nothing against either A/B or LPS. In fact, I own several right now.

 

[Labjr]

What is your reason for this?

I have nothing against either A/B or LPS. In fact, I own several right now.

Long term reliability for one. SMPS are difficult to repair. I'm wondering what quality of capacitors are used in this amp? SMPS are hard on capacitors.

 

[TK750]

I’m ignorant about the differences between class AB and class D. Is this something I need to learn in order to figure out which amp is for me beyond the individual amp reviews? If so, what is the end user impact?

Oh boy haha, people on here will often argue very passionately in favour of one or the other depending upon their preferences, priorities and lived experience/usage. My answer to your two questions would be: Not really and not that much. I'm sure there will be people that strongly disagree. It depends what is important to you as to which you may prefer e.g power consumption, reliability (although this is almost always people's anecdotes, I haven't encountered much empirical evidence for either), heat, size, peak power, high frequency noise etc etc. If you're interested in finding out more have a search in the forum, there are plenty of threads containing spirited debate.