TPA3116D2 XH-M543 Power Amplifier

[love_budget_audio]

Who else is using one of these boards? They can be bought for very little money. Some vendors sell ones with authentic TI chips, I have an XH-M543 from Amazon on a blue PCB which doesn't have a real TI and one from Aliexpress on a red PCB which does have a real TI. They are actually quite good.

The input gain trimpots are seriously terrible quality though and must be replaced. I replaced the 22uF bias capacitor on both of my units with nicer 22uF's. (mostly because i have a large number of 22uF which are too large for most applications).

With a transformer based input or linear PSU then the sound quality is quite good. With a SMPS it is just okay. I found that the sound is still detailed but sounds very harsh and lacks depth (especially in bass frequencies) compared to transformer or linear PSU. I have tried a few different power supplies with mine. What I found interesting is if I use a lower power PSU, it doesn't simply clip at lower volumes like the old Tripath TA2020 based amps. The overall output volume seems lower instead. You can still play it at higher volumes without notable clipping.

I haven't tried replacing any of the SMD caps, or the film caps by the audio outputs. Has anyone tried that? Would be interested to know.

Would be willing to make measurements if there is adequate interest.

 

[Vortex]

Hey yo !

Just found mine in my stash from couple of years ago. Local buy here in Europe, blue PCB, no info if it's a fake 3116 or real one.

Specs say 12V-26V, 24V recommended but I had no other PSU than my well-proven Meanwell RSP-200-7.5 which I set with the small adjustment pot to the absolute maximum, which is according my multimeter 9.56V and rock stable of course. And the module starts with it happily. No hiccups, no glitches, no drama or any sign of failure whatsoever.

Regarding sound quality, well, just tried this little board to see if it's good for something meaningful and I'm really surprised already, although it's just a subjective listening and well, the setup definitely leaves something to be desired. See for yourself, the very first run. Now I'm just cutting and soldering the connector's RCA-end to the RCA cable so that I can feed the module with a properly soldered cable... otherwise the rest are a Topping E30 (in DAC mode) and my Android phone with a USB-OTG cable driving the DAC, software volume control, Tidal. I also have my RPi4 (used for a VPN with Raspberry OS) next to them so I'm just going to connect the E30 to the Pi and see what kind of remote-contol-capable player I can throw onto the OS. I might also try some EQ-ing, these old vintage Orion HS280 boxes get about 20-25 years younger after a little EQ treatment

What's very interesting to me right now is that the boxes are absolutely silent. There's no power-on noise at all, just a little power-off noise (absolutely bearable) but apart of this the whole system is dead silent despite being junk right now (let's be honest).

Tuning-soldering-fixing here and there a bit and coming back soon to report what's going on.

With the pots I have no issues however these aren't proper ALPS ones of course
I think first I'll just turn up the volume to full on both sides and use the DAC's built-in volume control (in PRE mode, with the factory remote) to see how the amp module behaves and sounds in a pure amplifier mode. If it manages to do well so, I might skip both pots on the boards with a little bypass soldered onto them carefully so that they won't mean anything anymore in the signal path.

Regarding PSU I'm not that far as you to be able to elaborate by subjective listening which is better but I bet quality SMPS PSU-s are way better in ANY regard than classic linear ones so I'm just going to stick with the Meanwell for now.

Cheers and brb..

Edit: typos..

 

[Vortex]

#vol2
Big system with passive XO (Hypex FA-s being recapped)

PC -> miniDSP -> NAD DAC -> TPA

Sound = absolutely unbelievable !

 

[Vortex]

Oh, a small update: mine have the fake IC-s. XH-M543 like yours, blue PCB. I'll still use it and give it my gf for low-volume listening at her workplace (a beauty salon). Better than throwing out, but I'll definitely need to test a REAL new one.