I AM ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED

I happened to need a new sound-bar / near-field solution for my upstairs PC room. So far I had mainly used headphones for gaming purposes there, but as I grew older I one day realized that gaming CS:GO was no longer my focus, but much rather things like movie streaming & ambitious music listening.

My taste in music is pretty widely spread from chamber music via traditional Jazz through guitar rock ... you name it. So is my taste in movies. From crash-boom-bang action to very quiet subtle titles, everything needed to be covered. So the new off-the-head solution needed to be quite versatile and simply high quality.

From my downstairs living-room audio, I already had rather high expectations. There I am using Hypex nCore amplifiers to drive Fostex broadband drivers combined with a semi-open-baffle Dipol construction comprising eight (8) 20cm low-bass drivers.

I finally went for these fascinating Tang Band sound modules - one T2-2136SA plus one \"down-firing\" T3-2190S per stereo channel, set up in a typical \"sound bar style \" of some 650 mm width * 92 mm height * 140 mm depth. Sure, for most PC users, this will turn out as quite a voluminous device on their desktop, but it fitted right under my monitor.

I combined these drivers with a handful of *ridiculously* cheap TDA2030 amp modules - 2 fucking € per channel, fed by a compact DSP from a well-known chinese brand.

Over all, this combo provides me an *excellent* & *exceptionally price-worthy* solution for my needs. The DSP can be fed optically via TOSLINK (electrically isolated from the PC), via USB or (not needed) analogue. It can compute @ 192 kHz * 24 bit.
I pimped the ridiculously cheap TDA2030 amp boards (same day delivery in a 5-pack) by adding Nichicon \"Gold Muse\" capacitors in the output section and by an additional DC supply capacitor. I guess some 18 Watts per channel should be steadily available in this configuration.

The overall result is very impressive & convincing, to my taste:

First trials with surround-sound trailers brought very convincing results in regards to spatial resolution and dynamics. Then I went over to the opposite of \"surround\" style movie sounds - small orchestrated music like Jazz ensembles, or Max Richter\'s interpretation of Vivaldi\'s 4 Seasons..Again, everything was satisfying & convincing. Sufficient dynamics, good spatial resolution - and most of all, a pretty \"natural tone\" of sound. Then came a test run with old-school synthie sounds, Eberhard Schoener with Sting & such. All good, all convincing to my full expectations. Checks with modern Bossa Nova confirmed my impressions - exceptionally good \"low\" bass, colourful guitar and cozy cymbals.

No matter what contend I feed the system - panpipes / percussion / classic strings / small orchestration or big bands or big bang movies - everything is being reproduced in an absolutely convincing manner.

My biggest concern is to keep the entire table and everything on top of it from vibrating under the influence of those two downfiring T3-2190S. Five mm of cellular rubber seems to be the absolute minimum for a system of roughly 3 kg weight. I needed an extra rumble filter in the DSP (around 10 Hz !!!) to keep what I named the \"Berti-Bar\" stay in place.

I AM ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED

Just a rough price calculation for my \"Berti-Bar\":

270€ for the mentioned TB Sound Modules
3€ for MDF enclosure
3€ for leatherette coating
20€ for acrylic glass stands / side panels
30€ for 4-way Alps poti
8€ for amps
50€ ~ 100€ for parts like cinch sockets or Nichicon capacitros

This project of mine is absolutely worth its money.
The mentioned TB modules exactly so.

No further comment.