Lyngdorf Audio TDAI 2200 User Manual

TDAI-2200

Product Description

Contents Page

General Description 3

In- and outputs 4

Clock 5

DSP 5

RoomPerfect™ 7

Power Supply 12

Output Stage 12

Overload Protection 14

Cabinet 14

Summary 15

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General Description

When we started out designing the Lyngdorf TDAI-2200, our goal was to create a genuine
high-end amplifier, based on the highly acclaimed Millennium, i.e. possessing a combination of
unsurpassed sonical qualities together with a very strong DSP engine that gave the user the
ability to make real improvements in the final sound heard in the living room. At the same
time a parallel goal was to hit a more affordable price point than the Millennium.

Today’s hi-fi industry is very good at building ideal products for ideal rooms. However, real
world rooms are anything but ideal, which is why so much effo rt is expended on ‘tweaking’
sound quality, with special cables, fuses, interconnects etc. However, none of these tweaks can
alter the fact that 70 per cent of the final sound of your system is governed by your room
acoustics!

Since Lyngdorf’s core philosophy is ‘Development based on facts instead of feelings’ we wanted
to develop a product that offered something that nobody else in the industry offered: a
genuine solution to the main problem in hi-fi systems… room acoust ics.

The Lyngdorf Audio TDAI-2200 is a fully-digital amplifier based on the new Millennium
platform. However, the TDAI-2200 is much more than an amplifier: it is a complete digital
signal processing control centre, designed to be the heart of an advanced audio system
that can encompass controlling and powering loudspeakers with or without built- in filters.

The compact design of the TDAI-2200 features a highly efficient fully-digital PWM amplifier
capable of driving extremely difficult loads. Integrated within it is a native DSP section which
can be controlled by Lyngdorf Audio DSP software. Equalization and correction options for
speaker position and delay, combined with extreme versatility when it comes to processing,
make this amplifier completely unique in today ’s audiophile sector.
If you choose the RoomPerfect™ option for TDAI-2200 the ‘manual’ DSP adjustments are
‘replaced’ by state-of-the-art room correction – fully automated and thus granting you the best
possible result – always!

This product replaces – simultaneously - a D/A converter, equalizer, pre-amplifier and a power
amplifier, requiring only a CD transport as a source. This amplifier is also chock-full of
remarkable innovations such as a power supply which can be regulated to attenuate the signal
with the volume control setting. This can be compared to an engine transmission in a car
where the engine operates at its maximum performance at any speed by the expedient of
changing gear.

The TDAI-2200 can even be equipped with a state-of-the-art A/D conversion module allowing
it to interface with analog sources…

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In- and outputs

Traditionally, interconnects are a big discussion point in the hi-fi industry. And they can indeed
make a world of difference on most equipment. Why? Because most equipment is not
engineered correctly in the first instance and is often compromised by varying input and output
impedances. And thanks to different ground potentials/planes between different components,
you also run the risk that current can run from one component to another through the
interconnects. It doesn’t require much imagination to see how that might influence sensitive
low-level audio line signals.

In the Lyngdorf Audio TDAI-2200 we have taken an extra step (at considerable extra cost) of
adding filtering and ensuring the true galvanic separation of each single input. In that way the
ground planes for the digital and analog domains are completely separated and sound­deteriorating ground loops are prevented.

The digital inputs comprise 3 SPDIF (RCA/Phono), 1 AES
(XLR), all gold-plated, and 1 Toslink (optical) connections.

The outputs from the digital section comprise digital
outputs (SPDIF, RCA/phono) plus a set of RCA/phono with
analog output signal of the selected source.

The D/A converter used for the analog output is the high
performance Wolfson 8740 DAC, highly acclaimed for its

pure, rich and natural sound. Just as importantly, the
critical re-construction section after the DAC is based on high-end Texas Instruments OPA 227
op-amps and is designed, as are all other signal paths in TDAI-2200, to be fully balanced for
optimum purity and the best S/N ratio.

The optional analog input module comprises 3 RCA/phono unbalanced and 1 AES (XLR)
balanced inputs.

Input selection is carried out via high-end, double gold-plated relays , normally only
encountered in expensive high-precision measuring equipment.

Since analog signal levels can vary considerably, the input sensitivity of each input can be
attenuated by up to -6dB, granting correct signal level for the A/D converter. The sensitivity is
adjusted in the pre-amp section before it is fed to the converter.

The state-of-the-art A/D converter is built to outperform the noise levels of most analog
sources. Listening to the analog output from, say, a high-end CD player through the A/D
converter versus the direct digital signal leaves you asking the question... which is which? This
gives an idea of the performance potential of the A/D converter in the Lyngdorf Audio TDAI-

2200.
Achieving such a performance needs careful selection of the right components and - just as

importantly – considerable design experience, in order to know how to maintain optimum
sound quality throughout the signal path.

Also worth noting is that the signal paths in the TDAI-2200 are fully balanced and individually
impedance compensated (transmission-line principle). Normally, a standard ‘compensation’
resistor is placed right after the signal transmitter for impedance correction. However, this
increases the output impedance and makes the signal path more susceptible to noise. In this

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amplifier the resistor is placed just before the signal receiver - the value of the resistor
selected takes into account the resistance in the signal path itself, too. Thus the circuits are
kept low impedance, ensuring better noise immunity, while optimum impedance matching is
maintained in order to preserve the original signal shape ( i.e. overshoot is avoided).

Clock

One of the most important factors in digital signal processing is the ‘purity’ of the clock, in
other words, ensuring that the master clock that controls everything is extremely stable and
correctly placed (electrically as close as possible to where the clock frequency is needed).
In every one of our R&D tests we have concluded that keeping phase noise as low as possible
in the clock system is the single most important factor in minimising jitter. Typically jitter is
heard as high frequency distortion. That’s why we have always given the design of the clock a
very high priority – in fact this is one of Lyngdorf Audio core competencies!

Specialised low-noise design techniques have been employed in the TDAI-2200, reducing
digital interference in the product, and giving better working conditions for critical parts such
as the modulator (PCM -> PWM) and converters, which are especially sensitive to noise.

The TDAI-2200 handles all conventional sample rates (192kHz, 176.4kHz, 96kHz, 88.2kHz,
48kHz and 44.1kHz). To minimise jitter further, the sample rate of the input signal is
measured to determine the exact sample rate whereafter it is re-sampled to match the master
clock in the TDAI-2200 (although the input is stated at e.g. 96kHz it can easily ‘float’ slightly
both up and down).

The result of this meticulous design philosophy speaks for itself, as a pure, clean and natural
sound reproduction.

DSP

When we use the term ‘Digital Control Centre’ to describe the Lyngdorf TDAI-2200 we do so
because the TDAI-2200 is much more than ‘just’ a digital amplifier.
In fact the powerful DSP ‘engine’ inside it allows one t o customize a speaker set-up completely
to one’s preferences.

The TDAI-2200’s built-in x-over filter allows you to both
control conventional passive speakers, substitute it the
normal x-over in a 2-way speaker or use it as the x-over
filter between main speakers and woofer(s) – e.g. in a
Lyngdorf Audio 2+2 set-up.
Also, multi-way systems can be controlled by using daisy­chained TDAI-2200s.
For example one can use a single TDAI-2200 as the ‘master’
of the system to handle the high range (treble) and send
the low-pass filtered signal to a ‘slave’ TDAI-2200 which
then powers the midrange but then sends a further low­pass filtered signal to a SDA 2175 that handles the bass
frequencies.
So you see, the TDAI-2200, when combined with other

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