ICEpower - a flight of fancy?

Tinkering
1

I’ve been hooked on making an amplifier based on the class D boards of ICEpower. I could use my integrated (Audiolab 7000A) but I’ve come across the Soundcraft Notepad 5 and as Soundcraft is another Harmon company, I am wondering if Roon could be fed it by my Ropieee/Pi4b/Denafripps DAC?\

Everything I’ve read appears to suggest most uses are with a PC or laptop as a mixer but I thought I’d throw out the question in the hope I can either go for it or ditch the idea.

Sorry if I’ve annoyed anyone but I don’t think this has been asked before. Cheers.

2

Can you describe a bit more about what you’re trying to do?

If you’re just looking for 2 channel stereo you should be able to drive the amps directly from your DAC.

You can use roon’s DSP volume control - so you shouldn’t need a pre-amp / DAC with volume control.

I’ve done this with Ropiee into a USB DAC driving a hypex power amp - and it worked very well.

For me the only complication was how to turn the hypex / DAC on and off automatically.

I don’t understand why you’d want a mixer in the setup.

3

At present I’m exploring how I can add some umpf to my speakers by building something. I saw a YouTube that suggested the Notepad 5 could add that functionality and seeing the name “Harmon” made me think about that as a solution as I’d like a knob to twiddle for volume.

I’ve always set the Roon to device volume and used a hand remote for an integrated or pre/power - set in my ways I guess. I think you have answered my question - forget Notepad 5.

Cheers, John

4

The Hypex DIY site is worth investigating.

The power amps are good quality and easy, but fun to put together. And of course very good.

Their pre-amp is expensive, but you can include a Pi for streaming (and I expect this can be Ropieee). I was tempted but put off by the cost.