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lepai 168ha 2.1 amp

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ostrichmilkman View Drop Down
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    Posted: 30 March 2018 at 6:02am
Just stumbled upon this amp on parts express. looks like it could be a winner, just wandering if anyone has any first hand experience with it. mainly how much power it uses and if the sound is anywhere near half decent ? is the crossover actually functional ?



Edited by ostrichmilkman - 30 March 2018 at 6:34am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hemisphere Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 March 2018 at 8:52am
Standard inflated Watt ratings. 9-14v input range so It'll be more like 18wpc. 

Given the price, features etc it may be suitable for your purposes (whether it's 20w or 40w is only a matter of 3dB), but it's always hit and miss with these cheap amps. I mean for example I bought a batch of 15 2x10w boards with pot and 3.5mm input, very basic, several of them were DOA, a couple more smoked on first use and a couple others broke fairly quickly. If it's ever intended to be in any way 'mission critical', make sure you carry a backup! That's not even getting into sound quality/hiss/crackle issues, I just wrote them off entirely because I only paid about $2.50 per board and expected nothing more than bare functionality for that price. The thing about paying 10x that amount for something a little more 'feature rich' is that the underlying tech, build quality, QA etc is not much better. They get a few more $ to plough into mildly more convincing marketing and distribution channels though!

Bloke on Parts Express reckons it's less loud than his 20w receiver, and that might be true if the receiver is rated before onset of clipping.

Read some of the low rated reviews. I know the overwhelming amount of users are rating it 3 to 5 stars, but most people don't have a clue what they're buying and think $29 for a few watts of DC amp in a neat user friendly package is basically a miracle. Which it is, but relative to other miracles in a similar price range it's not such a good deal.

Quote This amp doesn't come close to the wattage claimed.The distortion level is extremely high at upper volume range.It only delivers 7 or 8 watts before it starts distorting.So if you can live with distortion or low wattage, go for it.Other wise, save up more money, and buy something of better quality.

Even the 3 star reviews tell the same story. Some mention it breaking after less than a month of use but still give it a good rating. People are being very easy on it because it's cheap and does a reasonable job but it's nothing special.

Quote The sub channel is definitely lacking in output. (68w? more like 10ish before clipping sets in...) For my application, it's not a big deal.

Here's what I bought: 1.86 euro amp boards

That's the real 'bang for buck' option imo. Crossover and processing should be taken seriously and maybe a little more spent on getting them right. Options are thin on the ground but they are out there.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Line-level-Active-3-way-Crossover-Filter-NE5532-BUILT-AND-TESTED/122005251630?epid=924842520&hash=item1c6814662e:g:67sAAOxy3zNSllUs
https://www.xkitz.com/collections/active-crossovers-and-bi-amplifiers-1/products/linkwitz-riley-2-way-active-crossover-xover-2
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Can-Adjust-Customized-2-range-2-way-Speaker-Active-Frequency-Divider-Crossover-Linkwitz-Riley-Circuit-DSP/32821914353.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.278.8ddd2eb7Mcn1ef&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_5_10152_10151_10065_10344_10068_10703_10342_10547_10325_10343_10340_10548_10341_10696_10695_10694_10192_10693_10692_10084_10083_10618_10307_10301_10303_5711215_10313_10059_10184_10534_100031_10103_10624_10623_10622_10621_10620-10703,searchweb201603_2,ppcSwitch_5&algo_expid=0bab3cf6-beb3-4c9d-9f93-3a810a2eefb2-42&algo_pvid=0bab3cf6-beb3-4c9d-9f93-3a810a2eefb2&priceBeautifyAB=0

Of these three, only the xkitz crossover runs on standard DC, and if you want it assembled for you that's another $15, but that's a proper crossover solution for a DC system.

Amp watts are much of a muchness unless you're seriously concerned about fidelity (in which case look for a respectable build quality T amp variant, 2024, 2020, or one of the Texas Instruments amps (TPA3116 etc). Diyaudio forums is a good place to research this sort of thing, you can find long discussion threads dedicated to a single board variant, although clones are rampant so there's no guarantee that what you buy will be of the same quality as the board under discussion. 

There are higher quality, reliable DC amp boards available but they cost more, features are limitied and they don't come in user-friendly cases. It depends how seriously you want to take this. Doing it right costs money and takes effort and a little creativity, but when you can get a basic 2x10w board for less than 2 euros and at least some of them do what they're meant to, that can be a solid route towards lots of DC amp watts for your system. 

Generally I would say you should use more boards/amp channels and more speakers if you need more volume. More speakers gives +3dB for each doubling of quantity and you get to pump more amp channels into them without increasing your voltage rail, so it's win win. Don't expect a miracle amount of watts out of a single amp channel on a budget or without serious complications in the design stage - DC/DC converters, 24v/36v batteries, etc.

If you really want to get your processing right, MiniDSP is the thing. $80 which at the current rate of exchange is only 56 quid, maybe 65 after postage to the UK. If you look at it as an investment that you can use on all sorts of projects maybe the cost can justify itself.
https://www.minidsp.com/products/minidspkits/2-x-in-4-x-out


Edited by Hemisphere - 30 March 2018 at 9:45am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote concept-10 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 March 2018 at 9:26am
Had two, total garbage.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote slaz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 March 2018 at 10:52am
Originally posted by ostrichmilkman ostrichmilkman wrote:

Just stumbled upon this amp on parts express. looks like it could be a winner, just wandering if anyone has any first hand experience with it. mainly how much power it uses and if the sound is anywhere near half decent ? is the crossover actually functional ?



I've used the Lepai 2020A+ amplifiers for years - and they work really very well - in the context of being very cheap and lending themselves very well to battery operation.

But those things .... hmmmm ..... very suspicious.

a) 40W + 40W + 60W - can't happen without DC-DC up-conversion of some kind.... and that thing seems just too cheap for that..... and 5A supply ? .... naah.
b) I'd be willing to bet there's no proper Xover. Probably full range goes to the L and R main outputs, and the "sub" output is likely to have a RC (6dB/oct) filter at some unknown, unspecified frequency .... maybe.

I would be curious to see inside one actually ... but I'd say - if you buy one, have one finger on the "return this item" button.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote studio45 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 March 2018 at 2:53pm
If it is anything like the "2x50w +100w" bare board I bought last year for £9, the sound quality is nice - but it certainly does not do anything like 50w a side off a 14.8v lithium supply, there is no boost converter on the board.
The sub filter is indeed 6dB/oct and doesn't start rolling off till about 200Hz, as measured by ARTA, so quite a lot of midrange comes out of the sub channel - and there is no highpass at all on the main LR channels. 

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ostrichmilkman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 March 2018 at 10:47pm
think ill probably steer well clear then. did seem a little to good to be true and have seen way more ba reviews than good.  just thought that with the ta2020 amp being so suprisingly good that there other products might also be worth looking  into. already running one of those but wanted to get the sub i have running to. probably best to just by a little monoblock to run alongside the ta2020

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hemisphere Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 March 2018 at 11:00pm
What are you running for sub, and what are the aims for the system? 

If you've got one big single driver sub then you probably want a car amp for that. Easiest option and many will have a crossover built in, but then you're still stuck on how to high pass your TA2020. Downside is it comes at a significant expense for battery life as they usually have fairly high idle current draw and they're inverting or boosting the voltage with associated losses.

If you assume that you would spend about 60 quid on a half decent car amp with crossover, and factor in the extra costs of batteries etc, you might do better to revise your bass section altogether, spend a similar amount of funds on a small array of small format bass drivers (4 to 6" or so) and make an array of 4 with ~15w going into each and an active crossover board. Could get it all running on a single 12v rail and it'd last for ages. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mini-mad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 March 2018 at 11:03pm
^^^^ this!
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