General Asylum

Posted by C.B. on February 09, 2001 at 10:49:56:

In Reply to: Re: Bel Canto EVo 2002 - Mini-Review posted by Ric Schultz on February 08, 2001 at 00:52:43:

Thanks for your review, Bob, and for your run-down of the technical side of the EVo 2002, Ric. I have not had a chance to examine one myself, and I was grateful for the info. I agree with Ric's assessment of the EVo 2002 circuitry for the most part--a direct input stage would have been preferable, in my opinion. The reason Bel Canto used op-amps on the input was to make balanced connections possible, and to invert one channel so that a smaller power supply could be used (an option sanctioned and suggested by Tripath). But the basic Tripath circuitry is not balanced, so there is no benefit (common-mode rejection) from the balanced inputs!
Last year I built two amps based on the largest Tripath evaluation board, and they turned out quite well. My version uses a 1000VA toroid and high quality parts in critical signal paths. If anyone is interested in obtaining an article I wrote about this project, they can e-mail me at cbrodersen@mediaone.net.