Ice Amp 125ASX2

guidocorona,

     Hello, my friend.  I'm glad you found this thread and decided to contribute your thoughts.

     I know you're very knowledgeable about class D amplification and I'm grateful for all the assistance you gave me when I was just beginning my discovery of, and journey into,  the very promising iworld of this constantly evolving technology.   You were instrumental in my decision to continue exploring the numerous class D offerings and increase my own knowledge and experience by trying more of the various class D implementations in my own system.  Reading descriptions of how they perform and sound  has been helpful, however, I think there's no better method than actually auditioning them in your own system.

     I agree completely with your recent post stating that there's more than just the specific class D power module utilized that determines how well the amp performs.  Individual implementations vary on the quality and compatibility of complementay components, the type of power supply, the use of custom input stages among other design factors.  I agree these are important and would suggest that seanheis 1 may want to do some more research before designing and building his DIY amp.  I know www.audiocircle.com   may be a better site to learn from other DIY amp builders than Audiogon.  

     I originally was planning to build a DIY class D amp and I learned a lot of good onfo on this site that mainly consists of DIY amp builders.

Thanks Guido,
     Tim

Hi guys, just an update that the ICE Amp didn't work out. You guys were right, they don't add anything to the sound and they are very clean and IMO sterile and flat sounding, especially with vocals. I'm sure that they would be great with movies and I can confirm that they sounded very nice with Katy Perry's ice cold voice.

I always thought that my Emotiva mini X amp was neutral, but now I know that it's a bit warm. I listened to Chris Cornell and Diana Krall on the Ice Amp and their voices both sounded dry and soulless. My computer speakers are Silverline Minuet Supreme, which are on the warm side with paper woofers and silk tweeters. Anyways, thanks for all of the feedback. I guess I learned that hifi to me is a warm & detailed sound. 

That amp needs a few hundred hours burn in

I bought it used so it should have been burned in. IMO it needed a valve pre-amp to warm up the vocals. But of course that is my personal preference.  

@seanheis1

Sorry they didn't work out for you.  I'm on the other side, they work great for my needs, but then I'm not taking a PC audio output. :)

You asked about inputs. Among some of the things I've read is the use of input coupling transformers. Either 1:1 or 1.4 or 2:1 to increase the apparent input impedance were some of the stories I've read.  I"m actually dying to try some from Jensen, but that's another project that will have to wait.  Not too terribly expensive, about $70 each

There's a lot of claims of vendors doing this or that to the amps to differentiate themselves.  some are true, some are completely bogus but in almost all cases are almost costless. The biggest change which is true is from Theta who started shipping nCore modules with linear power supplies. It's easier to do with nCore since they don't have an integrated power supply like many of the ICEPower modules do. Of course, Hypex sells power supplies, but with the ICEPower 250ASP for instance, the power supply is on board and impossible to remove.

Just to be sure, leave them on 24/7 for a week or so, let us know if the amp warms up at all.

Best,


Erik