This review details the Zero Zone TPA5255-based monoblock amplifiers, highlighting their exceptional sound quality, surprising power efficiency, and impressive performance, especially considering their affordable price point.
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hi guys today I wanted to tell you about zeroone
zeroone
monoblock d-class TPA based TPA
5255 uh based uh monoblocks uh with
dedicated power supply uh that I got a
few weeks ago uh before I'll go into the
SPs uh just a short story why these ones
uh well I was exchanging messages with
the guys I got um my dzil clone from uh
and later on I also got by their
recommendation musical Fidelity A1 clone
uh and I was wondering uh if there is uh
any kind of amplifier that would be not
an obvious choice because of the brand
of the Clone uh that they would
recommend something that they know that
just sounds good something that they
would recommend uh to their friends
their family or something like that uh
and uh Kevin from fenya told me about
this small gem uh small because it
weighs only 5 kilos in total uh these
are two monoblocks and dedicated power
supply uh these are produced by Zero
Zone uh sometimes called I don't know
why but uh the name also um happens to
be in the AliExpress uh offers uh gzl
O Zone gzl Zone Zone I don't know but
the pcbs are branded Zero Zone uh this
brand from what I've seen produces
mostly uh do it yourself stuff uh like
uh PCB boards like do to yourself kits for
for
amplifiers uh like uh some pre-made um
power supplies etc etc uh
so uh they weren't exactly cheap but
they weren't also expensive they were
$400 delivered uh here to Europe and uh
they had this very strong recommendation
so I decided to beat the bullet and just
buy them uh okay
so uh let's start with the specs uh
these are as I said Texas Instruments uh TPA
TPA
5255 based monoblocks uh
uh
50255 is working in BTL mode here and
according to the specification they are
able to reach uh 300 watts per channel
into 4 Ohms yes uh or 180 watts into 8
ohms uh what was very interesting for me
because you know I'm still looking for
the amplifiers that uh will be able to
uh drive my Martin Logans best uh these
are also supposed to be able to deliver
600 watts into two ohms uh these two
ohms are interesting for me because
Martin Logan asked and one electrostat
speakers uh in the trouble region are
dropping uh to as low as 1.2 uh oh so
they are quite difficult load uh okay uh
these two have dedicated power supply
and dedicated power supply is said to be
able to deliver a watts of power this is
a switching power supply it's not linear
power supply uh but uh the producer uh
said that this one uh is the best uh
matching uh
monoo um okay I won't uh tell you about
uh I won't tell you and I won't show you
the box it comes in in a usual cardboard
box uh with generous amount of phone
inside uh I've read a story
uh because these are basically offered
by just three shops on AliExpress uh and
in two of them uh there's a story
telling that the designer from zerozone
went to Hong Kong Hong Kong audio for a
couple of years ago and then he heard
the digital amplifier that costed
something like
$111,000 and this digital amplifier uh
didn't sound digital at all uh so he
decided to try to design something
similar uh back home and uh apparently
at least that's what they say they
contacted uh local branch of Texas
Instruments and uh they decided to use
52 uh
5255 uh integrated declass amplifier but
the uh schematics the PCB are not uh
following uh the recommendations these
are not the stock designs from Texas
Instruments that you can find in uh 5255 white
white
papers uh okay uh since left and right
channels are exactly the same I move one
to the
side and uh I'll tell you what's inside
of each of these boxes uh the amplifiers
are coming with set of uh power cables uh
uh
because starting from the
power supply the power supply is using
Automotive 24 volts uh connectors so
you're getting two wires to connect two
channels to your power
source uh on the outside we have a power
socket we have integrated fuse
compartment here and we have two
connectors for left and right channels
as you can see you can get this one into
two flavors for 115 volts uh and
230 volts uh in the front of the power
supply we have only the power on button
the button uh lights up in Blue uh when
the um Power is switched on uh the case
the case is solid
aluminum it's pretty thick as you can
see yeah that was nice uh all three
cases are exactly the same size so they
match properly and you can stack them or
place them side by side and they look
very nice and what do we have uh inside
we have a switching power supply uh we
have capacitors for the power switching
power supply these are nepon chemical uh
capacitors so uh not the best uh not the
worst just fine for the power supply
though there is a room for improvement
you can uh replace them with something
better if you like in a
future uh other than that nothing uh
special to uh mention just a regular
switching power supply although as you
can see uh they've paid attention to
rooting the wires there is no mess
inside it's everything cleanly and
neatly connected and
placed um you can get this uh power
supply board separately in a few of uh
AliExpress shops km p800 version
1.3 okay that's there is a sign I don't
know if that's the brand name it says
calming calming like km probably
probably
um okay that's it about uh the power
supply now let's talk about the
monoblocks in front of each one of them
you have a power Le indicating the
status of the applifier and there's also
a print on the case stating that these
are TPA 5255 mono split class D digital power
power
amplifiers uh on the back on the back
there is a few interesting things
happening uh the first one is exceler
inputs uh these are available in FCA and
XLR input flavors uh when ordering you
have to specify whenever you want
single-ended or balanced uh version uh
the speaker
terminals as you can see these are not
your regular small and cheap uh speaker
terminals that you can find on uh 99% of
TPA based uh
amplifiers uh though again there's still
some room for
improvement for replacing them with uh
pure copper ones or something like that
that
inside what we can see
here uh starting from this way up okay
again we see nepon chemical uh
capacitors as a power reserve for the
power amplifier uh these are uh 300 yes 3,00
3,00
300 uh microfarads each they are rated
for 50 volts uh and uh yes I think I
will be replacing them with something
better though the rest of the capacitors
here are really really nice these are
nichon Muse and nichon gold cious uh
electrolytic capacitors so quite nice um
the stock configuration of this power
amplifiers uh includes Texas
Instruments uh NE
5552 operational amplifiers uh but
that's basically the first thing I
always replace with something better uh
I will tell you uh more about opam
selection for these amplifiers a little
bit later on as you can see the PCB is
marked with Zero Zone Zero Zone and the
note in circle logo and it says 300 wats
power amp
uh another interesting thing here is
that if you take a look if you can see
that uh the balanced connection all
three uh wires from balanced connections
Balan collection are soldier at here
into the input of the amplifier and uh
as you'll follow the tracks and the
elements on the PCB uh you'll see that
this is basically fully balanced
construction the input from XLR uh is
not converted to
single-ended uh which is good and that's
why I would recommend you always to go
with XLR
version uh then we have a very nice blue
heat syn over the amplifier chip uh we
won't be able to see the amplifier chip
underneath this head syn uh when I was
doing my listening sessions the heat
sync was better
warm to the touch so I didn't bother to
measure the temperature with my laser
meter uh because it was barely warm it
was like I don't know 20° centigrate
most uh then we are able to see some
very nice a core inductors and some fite
cord I thinks I think inductors and we
have some
capacitors and uh there also there's
also one thing maybe worth mentioning um
the brand of the XLR connector I don't
know if you can spot that you can see
that this is uh made by Aran Aran is
supposed to be uh doter brand of notri
Cheaper brand than notri but they are
still producing uh quality connectors uh
I know about them because uh I'm usually
using uh
um either n rink or ran or anel
connectors in my do it yourself uh
interconnects uh for my systems or headphone
headphone
cables uh so again internal very neat
and very clean build uh what the
producer is uh mentioning on their page
uh is that uh the speaker cables
inside uh are supposed to be produced by
um UK based company pisan and they are solid
solid
core uh they are very thick and uh very
nice speaker
cables okay anything I forgot to mention
from my notes uh yeah uh one thing to uh
mention here is that as you can see
these do not have any kind of subwoofer
output uh these are full range uh
speaker tabs uh so uh if you're going to
be using uh subwoofer you need to uh use
your Source like digital to analog
converter to provide signal and with
volume regulation uh to your subwoofer
or maybe your preamplifier whatever but
you won't be able to connect subwoofer
these uh okay I've told you about the uh
temperature I've measured uh one thing
uh more that I've measured during my
tests uh I'm not using a very precise
parameter I'm using a smart plug uh
compatible with tuya uh which is
basically good enough for my needs and
uh this stya monitoring smart plug told
me that uh the full setup both
monoblocks and the power amplifier when
I was doing my listening test tests were
using something like uh a little bit
more than 14 watts of power which is
absolutely ridiculous and minuscule
amount of uh Power so very very
eco-friendly uh construction using uh
very small amounts of energy which was
very surprising to me because uh during
my test I've connected uh and I've
tested these monol blocks uh with my
electrostat speakers
and these are difficult load but still
the power
consumption uh went from 14.0 to 14.7 I
think uh and that was it uh so some some
amazing uh results here uh okay now
about my test setup uh it's the usual
test setup uh for uh all of the
amplifiers and preamplifiers and digital
T converters that I'm using so basically
uh no free tickets uh it has to play by
the same rules as the big boys uh so
htpc uh completely passive htpc running
Fubar uh 2K uh the latest version of
Fubar uh the source wereare files DSD
and lless files on my collection uh the
htpc is feeding uh sinks su6 uh digital
to digital converter and uh outputs from
DDC uh are connected via I SS cables to
my gastard x26 Pro and my Asahi Cas
4499 ex based semi da50 uh digital to
analog converter so two digital to
analog converters were used for the
testing purposes why because Gart is
based on saber and Sami is based on uh
top of the
Sak uh so uh then uh the outputs both
digital toal converters provide uh fully
balanced outputs so I was using my audio
Quest Dragon fake dragon uh XLR
interconnects uh to connect the
amplifiers uh the power supply was
connected with also fake uh audio Quest
Dragon uh Power and the speaker cables
that that I was using during my tests
were again all fakes uh redon uh nust
red D fakes speaker cables and two fake
models of audio quests uh k2s and again
dragons uh funny fact is that though
these cables are
fake almost each one of them is more
expensive than the whole set of uh these uh
uh
monoblocks and they are also very very good
good
uh yeah the speaker cables already had
the review and the power cables will
have review uh sometimes soon um okay so
that's about the test setups the
speakers the speakers themselves uh I've
used my collection of Martin Logan
speakers uh precisely uh my Martin Logan
15s uh Martin sorry Martin Logan motion
15s Martin Logan motion 35 FDI and my
start Martin Lan and one speakers I've
also used my uh di icons mark one and my
D Opticon mark one uh for testing
purposes I was too lazy to bring up here
my worldd uh Diamond uh 12.3 uh Tower
speakers okay so that's about the test
setup I've told you the source were DSD
and lless files uh so let's now move to
the sound qualities of this nice
construction uh by the way I really dig
the look of these These are simple and
they have nice industrial look on them
uh the miniature for this video uh will
present all of them in powered on state
with this nice blue LS uh light up so
okay the sound qualities the base the
base is very accurate it's fast and precise
precise
uh it reminds me very much of the
planner base uh I mean it uh it prefers
the quality over quantity uh so I would
use subwoofer with the this set of uh
Power amplifiers but the bass is very
well controlled it's um it's conveying a
lot of good textures uh and it's very
easy to follow bus lines it's a really
nice thing to be able to precisely
follow bus guitar lines
uh you may miss some rumble though if
you're not using uh subwoofer uh the MS
the MS have very nice Clarity and
transparency they are very engaging and
musical they do not sound th that's the
first thing that I've noticed that uh
you basically every almost everyone
sorry almost every other TPA uh or
basically d-class amplifier that I've
tested so far uh usually had this th
sound quality to it uh they were all
precise they were better or worse but uh
you can almost immediately tell that
this a d class amplifier uh The Only
Exception is IMA a70 that I tested last
time uh which is uh I think three times
more than three times cheaper because
this one you can get for as I said for1
so you could have free IM a70 for that
uh okay but getting back to the
uh they are natural they do not sound th
they are full bodies full bodied uh and
they have very good
detail um some I know you'll be asking
about that you surely be asking about
the comparation to clones yes some
clones had better Meats Class A clones
had better Ms like musical Fidelity A1
clone had better me but these were just
exceptional and the MS here are very
very very good uh okay moving to the
treble a very good extension the treble
is very delicate and very melodic uh it
doesn't sound metallic and it doesn't
has this artificial shine that you can
sometimes hear in other d-class
amplifiers uh so uh all in all I I
wasn't able to tell by the sound of the
Ms and treble that this is actually a
declass amp um okay what else about the
treble uh very nice strings because of
all the detail very nice brass
instruments again because of all of the
detail available here um the treble was
very relaxing very Musical and very
clear for example uh I don't know if
you're familiar if you're not try to be
familiar uh with great set of recordings
by London fi harmonic Orchestra uh
that's a set of recordings were guys
from philarmonic Ora recorded at the
music teams from uh modern games so uh
try to look and listen for the beginning
of Call of Duty 2 Team uh you can
clearly hear all of the nice details in
the orchestra when they are starting to
play when uh instrument by instrument is
joining the music so that was something
amazing for me uh and forget completely
forget about the ciance no races of
Cilan nether in Ms neither inter here uh
so again no metallic shine no C Lance
very very good uh moving from treble to
detail uh I've already mentioned that
treble meets and base had great detail
but now focusing on the uh detail itself
um very large amount ount of background
Sounds here uh especially in live
recordings uh if you have something that
was uh recorded live some kind of uh
venue some kind of concert you'll be
able to hear all the detail of the
audience clapping uh screaming uh
talking uh which is a very nice thing
because when you're listening to that
kind of live recording it builds this
feeling of being there uh some of the
amplifiers uh also most not all but most
of the Clones that I have reviewed so
far in that kind of situation would be
focusing on the front stage I mean you
would be able to hear the things
happening around the the stage around
the scene uh but they wouldn't uh be
provided with such Clarity like here uh
so in this regard it's actually better
than some of the Clones uh so very good
good and nice feeling with live
recordings uh for example here don't go
uh everyone knows the song everyone
beats this song to death by testing uh
equipment with it but just uh listen to
the beginning listen to the audience
screaming and shouting in the background
you'll be able to clearly hear what they
are saying and what they are shouting so
very nice background detail
and uh this song Keep It on go uh also
uh moves us to the scene Imaging
um Jesus uh part of the uh review uh
because uh in this song you'll be able
to clearly hear not only what they are
shouting but you'll also be able to
pinpoint the location of the people
screaming and shouting uh to the stage
some of them are in the front some of
them are in the back you'll be able to
hear if they are closer to you on or
further away from you and you'll be able
to position them on left uh and right
sides um very good separation from the
speakers I know it's uh very often used
in reg but these amplifiers are able to
move the sound away from the speaker and
create the scene in front of the
speakers and behind the speakers so
you're not able to hear the speakers if
you close your eyes you won't be able
unless you remember where they are
standing you won't be able to point your
fingers to the speakers it's not to
speakers playing it's just a whole
complete scene u in front of you so very
clear planes very clear PLS of Music
layer it from Front to the back uh you
can easily hear the depth
information the height not so
much but uh that's also because I don't
have many uh recordings that uh have uh
very big differences in height however for
for example
example
uh what was this called
uh uh just a
second there's a recording of Pink Floyd
concert I think it was uh taken live in
G City and uh it was uh very well
recorded and mastered and you'll be able
to clearly hear uh that the guars the
leading gar and the second guitar are
not only placed one behind another and
one is to the left the other one's to
the right but also the front one is
higher than the back one you can clearly
hear that and that's also another great
example of uh good life
recording okay
so we've covered almost all uh parts of
the sound description uh Just One Thing
Remains the timber the sound is very
full bodied uh it's striking the right
balance between being th and too fat uh
it doesn't sound th at all it doesn't
sound uh like theclass at all but it's
also not fat uh it doesn't CL sound like
uh some of the
analog amplifiers because theclass are
basically gel amplifiers uh it doesn't
sound uh analog in a bad way when every
instrument is big and fat and when
you're listening to basically anything
you're feeling like like you would be
listening to your music uh in a crowded
elevator uh with that ventilation so
basically all of the parts of your truck
are there but they are crowded no
nothing like that here
very good balance very right balance
between thin and fat just right uh again
doesn't sound uh like d-class at all
all
um okay uh what else about the timber uh
quite natural I love the guitars uh
though uh some of the acoustic guitars
could sound a little bit more organic uh
but that that's just me picking up on on
some things because I've heard um very
good class A clones uh okay now
now
uh some te tech
technical uh okay so these have uh as
you've seen replaceable operational amplifiers
amplifiers
integrated I integrated operational
amplifiers my best recommendation for
this the best paying would be Opa 828 uh
that you can see here or op7
e627 uh that I've also tried Opa 627 uh
will lose some details very small amount
details compared to Opa
828 uh but we'll have a slightly better
B uh but uh as usual the recommendation
uh for opms for operational amplifiers
for d-class amplifiers uh goes to the
discrete Class A operational
amplifiers and what do we have here so
sets these ones are statos statos will
have their own review very soon they are
very great very analog sounding they are
pure Class A and they fit inside like a
glove uh you have pin one marking here
and yeah sorry Jacob I just noticed the
Mark here
so and that's it you said uh how do they
sound very analog uh they even further
move away the sound of this these monol
blocks uh from digital
domain um they give you organic uh
Timber of uh instruments though uh they
will make you lose some of the finest
detail these are not as precise as Opa
CVS integrated operational amplifiers
but that's normal that's Class E Class A
uh so highly recommend that piring
is lc5s or LC 2s uh this basically sound
the same uh however there's one
problem you won't be able to feed them
like that
because they are stopping on the
capacitors but let me share with you the
trick of the Elders of the tribe given
me by the vinor himself
12 deep sockets deep eight sockets you
can use them as extensions like that and
now you'll be able to
place LC tws and LC fivs inside just
fine uh
okay where are these legs are the legs like
like
that okay uh what these bring to the
table uh a little more
airiness uh than statos but uh a little
less organic Timber uh my recommendation
is to try both of them if possible
because they are bringing different
flavors uh I can't say which one is
better and which one is worse this one
is warmer more intimate more analog
sounding this one is also analog
sounding but a bit less form and with a
bit more air so the great thing is to be
able to choose from both of them and
just to compare them in specific
equipment uh
so in this case if you would be choosing
between both of them my personal
recommendation here in this particular
amplifier would go for stakato because
it gives this more uh analog more warm
feeling and it f without additional deep
sockets just like
that yep and it's
done okay
so I've told you that I tested uh these
uh amplifiers these monol blocks uh with
my selection of speakers the last set of
speakers that I was using for my test
are my electrostat speakers because
these are always the hardest to drive uh
and uh I've learned not to expect much
from different types of amplifiers when
connecting them to
electrostats uh but I was very
positively surprised what uh was the
signature sound of the combination of
these uh DPA 52 55 uh mon monoblock uh
set with my electrostat Martin Logan
asent one speakers it was like turbo
transparency boost uh the electrostats
are very precise and they Cal image the
3D imaging is out of this world uh this
combination was like turbo boosting uh
transparency 3D and uh depth
information uh what amazed me uh was
that it was able to achieve that uh
using just uh 0.7 of watts of additional
power I was
expecting that them uh to be uh more
demanding uh but these were able to
drive them properly uh and uh with very
good TR extension and detail basically
the problem with the electr side
speakers is that if the amplifier cannot
provide uh enough current and uh if they
are too difficult load the first symptom
symptom that you'll hear is that these
will like uh not this these speakers
they will lack Trel extension uh they
will be fog the sound will be muddy and
there will be no highest Trel extension
that you can hear this was not the case
with this two they were working properly
actually they were working very very
good and uh what I've noticed uh I
actually wrote that down because I you
know um I'm testing the equipment the
critical listening sessions always take
place uh in the night uh because that's
the time when I have the most clear
background sound background there is no
sound pollution coming from the streets
from from the building itself and uh
this allows me to be able to discern the
fine details of the sound uh so what
I've noted is my wife shouting from
downstairs that maybe I should think
about lowering the volume uh a little
because people are sleeping around here
uh well the idea was that uh the this
combination of this set and Martin Logan
electr set speakers uh wanted make made
me want to go louder and louder so I was
moving the volume up and up and up step
by step uh because uh it sounded better
it seems that these have a very low
total Harmony
Distortion uh when used with Martin
Logans so I've never felt that the sound
is too loud I've never found found and
I've never um heard the sound to be
fatiguing I just wanted to raise the Vol
to be able to get more of that life
feeling more of that fluid of the
details and the scene around me so
that's something uh very amazing
um spoilers uh I'll do the summary at
the end of the video but the spoilers
this set regardless of the outcome of my
clone race uh this D Set uh these two
mon blocks and this power source will
remain with
me okay some additional random notes
that I took during my tests uh the sound
is very precise it's near warm or cold
it's highly neutral and transparent the
transparency is actually amazing I wrote
that again with underscore makes you
want to go louder and louder uh okay so
that's the I that's something I thought
uh yes it doesn't sound like typical DCL
class at all uh there's one idea that I
have in my mind uh you know my local
friends have no idea that I'm recording
videos on YouTube so uh the idea is to
use these amplifiers to make pranks on
them uh do not show them what's in side
do not show them the boxes connect them
and ask them what's this what do they
think uh what kind of amplifier makes
the sound and make them guess uh make
them guess the price that's that's the
IDE idea for
PL um okay uh another thing uh as for
the sound I have no idea uh what other
amplifier I could
compare to the sound of these these do
not sound like d class at all but they
do not sound like Class A at all they do
not sound like CL class AB at all the
closest thing that comes to my mind is
actually dzil clone because dzil clone
in a way is very brutal it's very raw
and it's very wild and it's also very
precise and this this is something maybe
not close but something that Mak makes
you think about that Zeal the similar in
a way maybe similar sound signature
maybe similar feeling that you're
getting when you're listening to your
music uh I think I could compare this to
a very honest magnifying glass uh if the
recording is uh well made uh you'll be
uh very happy uh you'll be you'll be
blown away by the quality of the sound
if the recording is badly made made
you'll be able to hear all the
deficiency for the deficiencies of the
sound it doesn't color the sound it
doesn't mask anything it doesn't have
any sweet uh coloration it doesn't have
any uh sweet and romantic uh taste to the
the
music uh for example uh another great
recording another great Coral recording
uh dragon born from Skyrim soundtrack uh
the track called burn uh is a piece of
it's a it's a it's a track uh with a
very low and very wild recording of cor
it uh with this with this set when I was
listening to this track it actually made
the hair on my neck race so that was
amazing and that was very very emotional
and the track the track itself made you
want to join them and scream with them
the same text that they are
singing uh so that's very high price uh
so I've never heard uh d-class and I
never heard 50 to 55 sound like that uh
I IMA
a70 may be getting close to that uh
because it also doesn't sound like DCL
class so it doesn't sound like TPA 5255
but it's more warm and it's more relaxed
this is just a low wildness in free black
black
boxes okay the summary absolutely great
and stunning amplifier
$400 and this will be yours uh as I said
regardless of the Clone race these will
stay with me they have some modding
potential uh I want to replace the
capacitors here I will be replacing uh
the operational amplifiers here
uh what
else maybe I'll get the second power
supply because since these are
completely separate you can use two
power supplies you don't have to use one
power supply and if you luse two of them
you'll have completely separated mono
setup uh but uh there's no har with that
because uh the SPs say that this is good
up to 800 watts maybe I don't know but
throughout throughout my testing uh
these were using uh 14 let's say 15
generously say 15 wats of power so
there's very very uh big uh difference
between uh possibilities of this power
source power supply and the power
requirements of these two uh okay again
because I need to tell you this again it
doesn't sound like theclass at all not
at all uh highly
recommended uh I'll post the link uh to
the shop I got this from uh in the video
description uh if I forgot anything just
ask me in the comments and as usually if
you found that video helpful uh
interesting if it helped you uh to make
a decision or buying or not buying the
equipment you're more than welcome to
buy me a beer I a beer fan uh I love
selection of local beers and I love
different viewers from all over the
world maybe I'll do a video on that
someday ah we see about that anyway
thanks for watching again that was a
very long video 43 minutes and running
thank you if you have any questions if I
forgot about anything please do not
hesitate ask me in the comments see you
next time guys with the review of
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