Review on 🔊 SMAKN HiFi D Class Digital Amplifier Board LM1036N + TDA7492 250W - Assembled for Outstanding Performance by Jathan Louis

Great sounding amplifier. I feed it from two 12V SLAB batteries in series. It has a built-in soft power-on to keep the speakers from failing. Lots of detail and a great holographic soundstage and presence. But I have to deduct a star even though it sounds like it deserves 5+ stars. Reason: They define a certain output power level it can achieve when driven from 24 volts into an 8 ohm load. . . BUT then if you read the fine print they say don't run it above 21 volts because you will burn out the capacitors! HM? So it's an unsuccessful technical solution by someone. . . They use 25 volt capacitors, so yes, you better not exceed 21 volts. It is standard good engineering practice to voltage your capacitors 15-25% ABOVE what you think the amp can be used for. So they had to use 35V capacitors. I looked at the datasheet for the chipset and it CAN work at 28 volts, but only if the capacitors on the board are rated for 35V DC. And so I had to build a voltage regulator out of a LM338T (5 amp adjustable regulator); A 220 ohm resistor between the output and control terminals and a 3.6 kΩ resistor between the control terminal and the negative power supply (ground) is what was required to get a fixed voltage of 21 VDC connecting the capacitors would not explode on the circuit board. And according to the chipset data sheet, the output power of the amplifier is derated to around 40W RMS and NOT the 50W RMS specified by the manufacturer for this board. Still,