Friday, March 23, 2007

Coldamp Plans to Offer 750W Class-D Amp Module

I also came across an announcement from another potential supplier of amplifier modules.

Coldamp, another Class-D amplifier module manufacturer, recently announced they are developing a bigger amp module. Here's what owner Sergio posted in the diyAudio forums:

Now that you ask... the module you are referring to is to be launched at the end of March, we are making the production boards after having tested the prototypes throughly.

We are really very proud of it: it can produce >750W at 4ohm with no problem (more with lower loads) and it does it happily, with more than 30A peak current capability (electronically limited). Some features...
  • Needs only a symmetrical supply. No need for input voltages, driver voltages, etc. It has a small switching DC/DC converter inside so power dissipation is extremely low (around 8W at +/-85V rails with no signal). So it is even more efficient than BP4078 but with more power.
  • It has a header for what we call "input plug-in boards": small PCBs (10x20mm) that implement high pass filter, low pass filters, etc. and that very very cheap and easy to install. Making a triamp application is extremely simple by simply installing the suitable plug-in board in each amplifier.
  • Small sized (80x95mm) rugged flat-base chassis, allowing top mounting on heatsinks (similar to VICOR half-brick dc/dc converters) and also the usual inserts for bottom mounting on a chassis, like in the BP4078.
...All this with the extremely good sound and abundant features of the successful BP4078: clipping indicator, on/off control, sync capability, lossless overcurrent, undervoltage and overvoltage protections, etc.

We have also designed a special version of our most powerful switching power supply, SPS80HV, to feed one of this modules at full power, with +/-85V rails.

Best regards,
Sergio

It would really be great if there were standard physical sizes for these amp modules. Similar to what we have for hard drives, like half-height, full-height, etc. There would be a standard size for 100W modules, 200W, 400W, up to 800W. Then they could fit into a standardized cartridge or some kind of enclosure. So if someone were to buy one of our systems, the chassis could work with several configurations. If a newer, better amp module is developed (like the ones from Coldamp or Hypex) the customer can upgrade their system by swapping out the older amp modules. So far, none of these manufacturers have shown any interest in this sort of thing, but we'll keep pursuing this.

Hypex has a 700W module as well, but I doubt we will ever use these in our multichannel products unless there is a lot of demand.

1 comment:

  1. Hello, this is Sergio, from Coldamp.
    As you have noticed, there has been some delay in the launch of this amplifier, due to a big order that we had to prepare and has overloaded us a bit.
    Well, we have re-taken the development and we are now performing the latest prototype tests, so we hope to release it very soon.
    The tests are showing some impressive results: for example, we have used one of these modules to drive 2 Yamaha 2x15" enclosures in parallel (obtaining >1300W peaks) using our SPS80HV SMPS, with very good sound.
    BTW, we are also about to launch a DC/DC converter that will power our amplifiers from a 12V battery for portable or car-audio use.

    Will keep you updated! Thanks for your patience.

    ReplyDelete

Powered By Blogger