Thanks for the detail on this board. Can you provide a check list for us who are not techs to build one these IcePower stereo amps. I would really like to try to build one if it takes 10 minutes for you, maybe 10 days for me.
Have you worked with any of the Infineon Merus boards? A lot of very high performing and high value amplifiers from SMSL and Sabaj are using these chips. I'm curious if there's a DIY application for these boards, specifically MA5332M
Gunter, thank you so much for your videos, they are very helpful. Could you please advice a price/performance effective setup for home theater on 1200as2 boards if I want per channel amplification for left, right and center speakers.
There is a huge difference between the music system and home theatre. In practice, you do not need a board like 1200AS2 for home theatre. For movies, the key speaker is the center which is used for 90% of movie sound. The rest of the speakers are for effects. The low frequencies are coming from the subwoofer. The majority of the sound is in the midrange. Therefore good quality integrated receiver is a reasonable investment for home theatre applications. Conclusion- it is better to separate the music system from the home cinema. There are completely different requirements for a cinema amplifier system as well as for speakers. I build a home theatre from 6 pieces of Alesis MKII passive studio monitors (currently obsolete) and a mainstream receiver and it is still unbeatable for cinema. For music, I build Troels Gravesen SBA 941 speaker. If you will build a home cinema system from 3 1200AS2 boards ( 6 ch) it will be overkill, but it will sound great.
@@guntarssmits2104 what in case when you want to use same speakers for stereo (you) and cinema (family) because of space in room? Is this not a good solution to use good quality speakers and amplifier, and just switch inputs between cinema processor and cd reader for music? I'm asking becasue it's hard task when you have limited budged and space in your home 😅. Maybe different modules will works better for fronts 1200as2/700as2 and for surrounds something cheaper?
Hi Yes you can combine your receiver with one 1200AS2 amp and solve this issue. I copied for you one of my email answers to similar question. Simple answer is yes and you will get exceptional gain for music listening experience using existing home cinema setup front and left speakers. I will try simply explain why. Home cinema systems has different amplifier architecture than music audio amplifier. For ideal home cinema system audio signal has been split in a way that low frequencies are handled by active subwoofer and for rest of channels those are filtered out. Of course you have option to set it in a way that there are no subwoofer and you are working with full bandwidth, but in that case amplifier and power supply sill not support it well. This is the main reason why home cinema systems does not perform well for stereo music reproduction. If you drive left and right channels by separate amplifier you will eliminate this shortcoming. Modern home cinema digital processing and preamp circuits are high class and many of them has preamp outputs as well. My TCR1200 kit has wake up from signal function built in and you do not need to switch external amplifier on and off. It will start automatically when detect input signal and will go to sleep after 18 min without signal. Only thing to adjust is front speaker sensitivity. This function is built into home cinema receiver. In case of RCA outputs you need adapter cable RCA-XLR what are broadly available in internet or professional music equipment shops.
@@guntarssmits2104 Thakns for your response! How about those options: 1. Devices like emotiva umc-1 it works with external amplifier module you can make your own based on IcePower, emtoiva has direct option for stereo maybe quality will be on good level, also you will have great cinema quality. Anyway this option is not cheap. 2. Use your old amplifier for cinema, build something like switch which will change connection for your front speakers switching output signal between cinema amplifier and from Icepower connected to cd player. I belive this switch can be done easily with low cost. Question is what you need to connect cd reader with amplifier, I have basic knowledge and probably something is missing (how to control volume?).
As I mentioned the most demanding and difficult to reproduce is a stereo music signal. This is where you need an expensive 1200AS2 set. At the same time most demanding speaker for home cinema is a central channel where you get movie speeches. The rest of the channels are not amplifier quality demanding and you can use some budged boards like 200AS2. For the budget setup, I would make the following configuration 1200AS2 for the front left and right, for the center speaker 200AS2 in single-channel connection (up to 200W capable), and second 200AS2 for the rear in stereo. All those boards are available in retail in the Soundimport webshop. You can make it in a format where 1200AS2 is set in wake-up from signal mode and used also for 200AS2 management. I have a video on how to do it th-cam.com/video/l9kmhx_vbCI/w-d-xo.html. Of course, a lot depends on your electronic knowledge and capabilities. The alternative is using an Integrated home cinema receiver from a good brand with 100W/Ch capability where you use built-in amplifiers for the center and rear, and 1200AS2 for the front. This is how I am using it in my home setup to path wife acceptance test😊. And it is an incredibly well-sounding system. I even do not have a subwoofer; low frequencies are reproduced by front speakers with according settings in the receiver.
Thanks for the detail on this board. Can you provide a check list for us who are not techs to build one these IcePower stereo amps. I would really like to try to build one if it takes 10 minutes for you, maybe 10 days for me.
Have you worked with any of the Infineon Merus boards? A lot of very high performing and high value amplifiers from SMSL and Sabaj are using these chips. I'm curious if there's a DIY application for these boards, specifically MA5332M
Where can I by your preamp board.
Gunter, thank you so much for your videos, they are very helpful. Could you please advice a price/performance effective setup for home theater on 1200as2 boards if I want per channel amplification for left, right and center speakers.
There is a huge difference between the music system and home theatre. In practice, you do not need a board like 1200AS2 for home theatre. For movies, the key speaker is the center which is used for 90% of movie sound. The rest of the speakers are for effects. The low frequencies are coming from the subwoofer. The majority of the sound is in the midrange. Therefore good quality integrated receiver is a reasonable investment for home theatre applications. Conclusion- it is better to separate the music system from the home cinema. There are completely different requirements for a cinema amplifier system as well as for speakers. I build a home theatre from 6 pieces of Alesis MKII passive studio monitors (currently obsolete) and a mainstream receiver and it is still unbeatable for cinema. For music, I build Troels Gravesen SBA 941 speaker. If you will build a home cinema system from 3 1200AS2 boards ( 6 ch) it will be overkill, but it will sound great.
@@guntarssmits2104 what in case when you want to use same speakers for stereo (you) and cinema (family) because of space in room? Is this not a good solution to use good quality speakers and amplifier, and just switch inputs between cinema processor and cd reader for music? I'm asking becasue it's hard task when you have limited budged and space in your home 😅. Maybe different modules will works better for fronts 1200as2/700as2 and for surrounds something cheaper?
Hi Yes you can combine your receiver with one 1200AS2 amp and solve this issue. I copied for you one of my email answers to similar question. Simple answer is yes and you will get exceptional gain for music listening experience using existing home cinema setup front and left speakers.
I will try simply explain why.
Home cinema systems has different amplifier architecture than music audio amplifier.
For ideal home cinema system audio signal has been split in a way that low frequencies are handled by active subwoofer and for rest of channels those are filtered out. Of course you have option to set it in a way that there are no subwoofer and you are working with full bandwidth, but in that case amplifier and power supply sill not support it well. This is the main reason why home cinema systems does not perform well for stereo music reproduction.
If you drive left and right channels by separate amplifier you will eliminate this shortcoming. Modern home cinema digital processing and preamp circuits are high class and many of them has preamp outputs as well. My TCR1200 kit has wake up from signal function built in and you do not need to switch external amplifier on and off. It will start automatically when detect input signal and will go to sleep after 18 min without signal. Only thing to adjust is front speaker sensitivity. This function is built into home cinema receiver. In case of RCA outputs you need adapter cable RCA-XLR what are broadly available in internet or professional music equipment shops.
@@guntarssmits2104 Thakns for your response! How about those options: 1. Devices like emotiva umc-1 it works with external amplifier module you can make your own based on IcePower, emtoiva has direct option for stereo maybe quality will be on good level, also you will have great cinema quality. Anyway this option is not cheap. 2. Use your old amplifier for cinema, build something like switch which will change connection for your front speakers switching output signal between cinema amplifier and from Icepower connected to cd player. I belive this switch can be done easily with low cost. Question is what you need to connect cd reader with amplifier, I have basic knowledge and probably something is missing (how to control volume?).
As I mentioned the most demanding and difficult to reproduce is a stereo music signal. This is where you need an expensive 1200AS2 set. At the same time most demanding speaker for home cinema is a central channel where you get movie speeches. The rest of the channels are not amplifier quality demanding and you can use some budged boards like 200AS2. For the budget setup, I would make the following configuration 1200AS2 for the front left and right, for the center speaker 200AS2 in single-channel connection (up to 200W capable), and second 200AS2 for the rear in stereo. All those boards are available in retail in the Soundimport webshop. You can make it in a format where 1200AS2 is set in wake-up from signal mode and used also for 200AS2 management. I have a video on how to do it th-cam.com/video/l9kmhx_vbCI/w-d-xo.html. Of course, a lot depends on your electronic knowledge and capabilities. The alternative is using an Integrated home cinema receiver from a good brand with 100W/Ch capability where you use built-in amplifiers for the center and rear, and 1200AS2 for the front. This is how I am using it in my home setup to path wife acceptance test😊. And it is an incredibly well-sounding system. I even do not have a subwoofer; low frequencies are reproduced by front speakers with according settings in the receiver.
Ina 1650 sorry for the 2 messages should be one