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Fabulous
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NMPacella
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Anyone know how this compares to a well implemented TPA3116 amp, assuming you've compared the two types of chips?
I don't need a lot of power as I have 97db efficient speakers in a small room.
Overall the TDA7498e has a cleaner Full spectrum THD than the TPA3116 ( tpa3116 is above .1% THD to .3% THD at all levels between 2khz and 10khz) in comparative levels above 200mw.
Here is the problem, Sometimes we find THD to be musical to our ears. Harmonic Even vs Odd Thd is a factor. Delay is reverb and causes sound stage differences. Frequency Phase Linearity is another issue. DACs chips are now addressing this (FPL) with Integrated Output filtering. Class-D designs are getting attention so they may be doing a few things right besides THD distortion and Damping control. With so many variables, so much gear and so few bench testers to isolate all factors we stick to the status quo of engineering specs. We all have personal taste in EQ,reverb, phase linearity,ear geometry, room treatment issues etc. A great article is https://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb10/articles/analoguewarmth.htm
So to say the 7498e will be better than a TPA3116. Given the Frequency THD figures and headroom quite likely unless you listen below 200mw all the time. As long as SMSL did a good job with the SA-160.
Below .1% seems to be the "transparent" trend these days or the SNR of -100db threshold hearing point. See http://www.axiomaudio.com/distortion and http://www.silcom.com/~aludwig/EARS.htm which makes it more confusing but explains it more technically.
We need to look at 3 general types of amps now. Solid state, Tube and Class-D (class-t amp). Apples oranges and plumbs. They all have sonic characteristics which we prefer individually. Tubes tend to have the most musical THD and get away with a lot more "enhancements" aka THD according to a few studies.
I stated the SA-160 vs another Class-D THD% and found by design the TDA7498e to be lower THD across the entire listening spectrum compared to the TPA 3116. Same applies to other 2020 , TA2022 TDA 7492 chip implementations. So the TDA7498e appears to have the potential to be the highest fidelity Class-D above 200mwatts while also having a very usable power output (50w RMS) while retaining Class-D sound signature. Final design implementation being equally important.
All this being said, there isn't really a "True Spec" to quantify what makes an amp best quality. Frequency response and THD , Damping factor is easy to measure and is at least a starting point. IMD is very important(some specs have it) , Linear Phase Frequency response, (LPF chief advantage of bi-amp active designs eliminating crossover phase distortions) and Transient ability are just as important. Almost no one gives these except in a few High end Amp spec sheet.
Shared knowledge is pushing the envelope and maybe sometime soon we will have a new standard for sound quality measurements.
Electrical is measurable. Our Ears are great but what's between them is the problem.