Harman DriveCore

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Manila, Philippines
What's the scoop Amir? :)
 

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
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Seattle, WA
It is part of my belated meeting report of my visit to harman :).

For now, it is the outcome of a joint venture with the major IC company, Texas Instrument. Harman wanted to have a high-power amplifier with very small foot print, high-efficiency and of course, good performance. The main driver and motivator for TI to work with them is their high-volume automotive business.

The part integrates most of the logic for a class D amplifier, including its power output stage into a tiny IC (size of your thumbnail). It is part of a new 8 channel amplifier from Lexicon DD-8 which puts out 125/watts/channel x 8 in 1 rack unit:



The box is only 1.7 inches tall, weighs only 9.5 pounds yet puts out 1000 watts of power!

Now here is the interesting part: originally the positioning was for distribution amplifier and such but the recent testing they have done shows that it has audiophile qualities. I have not heard it yet but are ordering one to evaluate. I love to use it in my own theater in bi-amp 7.1 home theater situations where you need a ton of amplification yet you don't want take up a lot of space and generate a lot of heat. Two of these will give you 16 channels. Add a few subs and you are golden! Our current JBL linear amps at 8 to 10 X bigger, have fans, etc.
 

Phelonious Ponk

New Member
Jun 30, 2010
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It is part of my belated meeting report of my visit to harman :).

For now, it is the outcome of a joint venture with the major IC company, Texas Instrument. Harman wanted to have a high-power amplifier with very small foot print, high-efficiency and of course, good performance. The main driver and motivator for TI to work with them is their high-volume automotive business.

The part integrates most of the logic for a class D amplifier, including its power output stage into a tiny IC (size of your thumbnail). It is part of a new 8 channel amplifier from Lexicon DD-8 which puts out 125/watts/channel x 8 in 1 rack unit:



The box is only 1.7 inches tall, weighs only 9.5 pounds yet puts out 1000 watts of power!

Now here is the interesting part: originally the positioning was for distribution amplifier and such but the recent testing they have done shows that it has audiophile qualities. I have not heard it yet but are ordering one to evaluate. I love to use it in my own theater in bi-amp 7.1 home theater situations where you need a ton of amplification yet you don't want take up a lot of space and generate a lot of heat. Two of these will give you 16 channels. Add a few subs and you are golden! Our current JBL linear amps at 8 to 10 X bigger, have fans, etc.

Amir, do you know if the class D amps are the latest iteration of the Equibit amps TI bought from Tact a few years ago?

Tim
 

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
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0
Seattle, WA
I thought Tact Licensed that technology and the actual company that designed Equibit was Toccata.

My sense is that it is a different design. But to be sure, I have email into Harman people and will report back what I hear.
 

Phelonious Ponk

New Member
Jun 30, 2010
8,677
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0
I thought Tact Licensed that technology and the actual company that designed Equibit was Toccata.

My sense is that it is a different design. But to be sure, I have email into Harman people and will report back what I hear.

The Equibit design was developed by Tocatta, originally implemented by Tact T. But TI purchased Tocatta and the Equibit design. Not many companies are using the technology that I know of. Lyngdorf (formerly Tact T) still does, and I know Panasonic built some AV receivers using the Equibit amps; I own one of those.

Tim
 

Todd_Packer

New Member
Jul 16, 2012
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I thought Tact Licensed that technology and the actual company that designed Equibit was Toccata.

My sense is that it is a different design. But to be sure, I have email into Harman people and will report back what I hear.

The Harman Drive Core amplifier chip is a completely in-house design done through Crown engineering. The only thing we used TI for was their expertise in IC Chip manufacturing. There are several patents on the chip design, although the basic topology is a Class D output stage. The Drive Core technology is used in several places, including the Lexicon DD-8, and several Crown amplifiers. There are 2 chips, one is a complete amp on a chip that includes an output stage that is capable of delivering 75 - 150 watts into 8ohms (depending on power supply and application requirements) and is table to 2 ohms, and the only thing that is really needed is a power supply and an input stage. The first use of the technology was in the Lexus LFA supercar. The requirements were high output, small size, high efficiency (greater then 90%), and great sound. Moving the input and output stages onto a single IC allowed much tiger tolerances of the clock and triangle wave form generator that is the heart of all digital amp designs, and often the cause of the "Class D" sound some people don't like. There is also a version that is everything without the high output stage (the input, waveform generator, feedback circuit, etc...) that can me used to drive higher output stages either Class D or our patented Class I, where more then 150 watts is needed.

thanks for the interest,
Todd Packer
Harman Luxury Audio Group
Field Application Engineer
 

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