Dayton DTA-1 Class T Digital Amplifier 15 WPC

Let me preface my review by warning you that this isn't my first Tripath based amp and I own several amps (tube, solid state and digital) to which I can compare so I'm hard to impress.

My first thought of this amp was that it is tiny. Parts-Express could have fit four of them in the shipping box with room to spare (super fast shipping by the way). My second thought was the same I had with my other Tripath amp (Audiosource amp 7t)... a slight hummmmm. Seems that all tripath amps have a hum problem. Not impossible to fix but annoying nonetheless.

This IS NOT an audiophile quality amp and it gets nowhere close to a Dynaco Stereo 70 but it WILL give you a hint as to how good audio can be. It will do justice to solo vocals (Rickie Lee Jones sounded great) but background instruments tend to end up down the hall and around the corner. Strings aren't overly bright or brittle but the overtones just aren't there. It's a very fast amp but in this case, speed kills.

Yes, this review sounds very negative but there is light at the end of the tunnel. You see, I don't fault the amp, I fault the power supply. The one thing all top quality amps have in common is the power supply and for the cost of a good dinner, you can't expect this amp to have one because a good toroidal transformer is half the cost of this thing and you'd still need a rectifier, filter caps... you get the picture.

So what does this all mean? It means that you should buy this thing (buy the soldering station too) and if you're so inclined (as am I), go into your parts bin, grab that transformer, a power supply, your electronic surgical kit and have at it. Audio is a hobby (maybe that's why you're on the 'Parts' express website) and this amp is a good starting point for a fun winter project.

I have begun to do head to head testing with this little amp and my Jolida SJ302 upgraded, push-pull tube amp. It is that good.

I hooked this up to two bookshelf speakers (paradigm titans) in a lab at a university....everybody commented on how good it sounded. Granted it is not the most powerful thing out there, but for the $ you cant beat it. As far as iPod solutions go, this is the best & cheapest way to get good sound.