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basis211Back in 2005, I wrote about the Sonic Impact T-Amp, a $30 toy amp that stereophiles had figured out how to mod into a brilliant, high-quality amplifier. It was one of my most popular posts, ever, and many of you have written in over the years to tell me about your own T-Amps and the remarkable sound you were getting out of it.
I asked the stereophile friend who recommended the T-Amp in the first place what had become of it, and he told me that there was a new version, called the DTA-1 Class T, that is better built and sells for a still-very-reasonable $45. Judging from the glowing customer reviews, Sonic Impact has continued to produce astounding sound-quality for the cost of a pair of cheap laptop speakers.
But my friend had another suggestion: for a mere $20.67, you can get a LP-2020A+ Lepai Tripath Class-T Hi-Fi Audio Mini Amplifier with Power Supply and a pair of $51.99 Dayton Audio B652 bookshelf speakers, and get some truly high-fidelity sound reproduction from your phone or computer for a price that nearly beggars belief.
Considering the minuscule 1.5-by-5.5-by-4.5-inch amp's rock-bottom price, the Lepai is surprisingly well made, has adequate features, and sounds very decent. And for an inexpensive speaker pair, the Dayton B652 has an unusually large woofer -- it's a 6.5-inch polypropylene cone -- and the speaker also has a ferrofluid-cooled 5/8-inch polycarbonate dome tweeter.
If you think the $199 Jawbone Jambox Bluetooth speaker sounds good, you'll flip over the Dayton/Lepai sound. True, it's very much a wired home- or office-bound system, but it plays louder, sounds dramatically clearer, and actually creates a true stereo image (you can place the two speakers as far apart as you like), something no single-box speaker at any price can ever hope to achieve. Hook up your computer, phone, or portable music player to the Lepai/Dayton combo, and enjoy the music.
Не то чтобы он прямо был очень нужен, но 45 или 20 (!!!) долларов! Да, мир изменился.
I asked the stereophile friend who recommended the T-Amp in the first place what had become of it, and he told me that there was a new version, called the DTA-1 Class T, that is better built and sells for a still-very-reasonable $45. Judging from the glowing customer reviews, Sonic Impact has continued to produce astounding sound-quality for the cost of a pair of cheap laptop speakers.
But my friend had another suggestion: for a mere $20.67, you can get a LP-2020A+ Lepai Tripath Class-T Hi-Fi Audio Mini Amplifier with Power Supply and a pair of $51.99 Dayton Audio B652 bookshelf speakers, and get some truly high-fidelity sound reproduction from your phone or computer for a price that nearly beggars belief.
Considering the minuscule 1.5-by-5.5-by-4.5-inch amp's rock-bottom price, the Lepai is surprisingly well made, has adequate features, and sounds very decent. And for an inexpensive speaker pair, the Dayton B652 has an unusually large woofer -- it's a 6.5-inch polypropylene cone -- and the speaker also has a ferrofluid-cooled 5/8-inch polycarbonate dome tweeter.
If you think the $199 Jawbone Jambox Bluetooth speaker sounds good, you'll flip over the Dayton/Lepai sound. True, it's very much a wired home- or office-bound system, but it plays louder, sounds dramatically clearer, and actually creates a true stereo image (you can place the two speakers as far apart as you like), something no single-box speaker at any price can ever hope to achieve. Hook up your computer, phone, or portable music player to the Lepai/Dayton combo, and enjoy the music.
Не то чтобы он прямо был очень нужен, но 45 или 20 (!!!) долларов! Да, мир изменился.
