Sonic T-Amp

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Well, I just got this goliath Nikko amp (225 wpc), thinking how good my 19s will sound, and they do. Then I got one these 'toy' T-amps for kicks. IMHO, it blows away the nikko and all of the other Altec power amps I've got. It's kinda dissapointing if you know what I mean....


http://www.pbase.com/mazda/image/60241871/original

[Old Guy]

No, I really don't know what you mean.

The whole thing about "class T" is pretty jive. It's an advertising ploy. Class T is a trademark not a standard.

Digital amps are getting better and better. Tripath makes some decent toys. There are others just as good.

I am still not happy with ANY (caps for emphasis) of the current crop for supertweeter use. Digital amps on the other hand are the best subwoofer amps out there.

I own a few real amps by Powersoft. They can hurt people. But I wouldn't use them to drive my highs.

As far as something new sounding better, shouldn't it in reality? That reality hasn't fully arrived yet though.

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I guess what I meant by "sounding disappointing" is the money I just spent on the nikko vs. the $26 "Toy". By the way old guy, thought I'd mention that your postings are quite well written and interesting. Keep up the good work...........

[Steve Schell]

I agree that the Sonic Impact T amp is astonishingly good at its $30 selling price. While no competition for a good transformer coupled SE DHT amp, it doesn't embarrass itself either. It is very smooth sounding, solid in the bass, with nary a trace of "solid scrape" sound. Perhaps it is just a bit syrupy sounding; highs lack some of the life and sparkle of the DHTs. But gee whiz, for $30 it's a knockout.

[Old Guy]

Thanks for the kind words, they warm an old Geezers heart.

I tend to be abrupt and straight to the point, don't mean to be rude just direct. If I ever am, call me on it.

I gotta agree for the price that amp is a heckuva toy.

I'm glad to see that some new technologies are showing their promise. New SHOULD be better.

Improved technology is often used to cut corners rather than improve quality. That's not all bad. I guess what I was saying is we should expect technology (and quality) to improve and be indignant when it doesn't. Too many consumers are willing to settle.

Currently I agree about the HF response of the digitals. It just isn't right. But Powersoft can pack 6 kilowatts per channel into something I can pick up with one hand. They thunder when hooked to EAW KF 940's

I've got a project sitting for lack of time, using a 250 watt digital module for lows and and either a class A or AB HF section. I want to put those on my 604 8-g's. It would bolt in the cabinet.
I'd love to finish it hopefully before digital technology catches up and renders the project obsolete.

I only work about 25 hours a week these days but I've got a girlfriend, and a daughter with grand kids who all have ideas how I should spend my time.

If I'm on the Net at least they think I'm busy (grin).

[GM]

Greets!

Ya'll have some interesting subjective impressions considering a stocker's FR : http://www.michael.mardis.com/sonic/...5066-freq.html

FWIW, me and several other folks compared a stocker and a 'full tilt boogie' tweaked one at the 2004 Atlanta DIY Meet using BB's demo pair of these: http://www.geocities.com/rbrines1/Pa...MkII/Main.html which had a fairly natural sounding presentation in a laid back sort of way if sitting <8 ft away.

With the stocker, the younger folks with better HF hearing liked it about as much as the restored Marantz pp tube amp we A-B'd it with and the tweaked one was clearly superior to both, though it didn't really 'gel' for me until I added an 8 ohm damping resistor. Of course the minimal power was cut in half, but everyone agreed it was worth it.

Somewhat later I borrowed a mildly tweaked one to see how they did with the 511s, both with/without an impedance matching R/C network and without I wasn't impressed, though with the network thought it was fine within its power limits. Unfortunately, being rather impromptu, we didn't have any young ears to critique the extreme HF, but I'm going to assume that since the mids/lower HF were quite smooth that the HF was too.

Still, I didn't hear anything that had me rushing to the computer to place an order since it doesn't have enough power once damped to suit me...................

As always though, YMMV.

GM

[Old Guy]

With the stocker, the younger folks with better HF hearing liked it about as much as the restored Marantz pp tube amp we A-B'd it with and the tweaked one was clearly superior to both

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Very interesting. I'll have to try a listen to a modded one.

The problem I've always had with digital amps is, inherent in the design, there's a lot of HF junk. This has to be filtered out. I can hear these filters- and I'm not a youngster.

My comments weren't just about that amp but digitals in general. I still haven't heard one I would buy for HF use. I'd apply the same criticism to many of the tube amps I've heard, and a lot of solids also, however.

The amps I use for a living ( mostly QSC) would never find their way onto my stereo. Pro power amps these days are optimized for full throttle operation. They actually have higher distortion figures at a few watts out- which of course is average listening levels.

[Old Guy]

Found this interesting. I hadn't looked at Tripath spec sheets lately.


They only list one 15 watt/ch module. Take a look at the IM distortion curves at higher freqs.

http://www.tripath.com/downloads/TA2024C.pdf

http://www.tripath.com/pb2024C.htm

There's also a rising THD and noise peaking around 8k. That curve must be taken at pretty low power considering the specs of the chip.

Tripath makes a decent product, I'm not knocking them. Just saying the technology is still not very mature.

[klausesser]

Hi!

Well - i used to feed my 604E ( 612 Cabs) with an AudioResearch D76A Tube and i liked it a lot.
Some time ago i?ve got a "digital"-amp , made by a professional audio-engeneer/developer here.

http://hifiakademie.de/

In fact it?s a switching-amp with a sophisticated background.

I?m VERY suprised - it sounds smooth, silky, fine, very precise with a localization far better than the AR. Without seeing this device, most people think it?a very fine tube working . . . .

The horn of the 604E - sensible to harshness as it is - acts perfectly with this amp (i?m biamping now).
Voices an mids in general are clean and swift and "slim" (as we say here . . ;-) )

"The times they are a-changing . . . " - yes, they are.

[Tom Brennan]

I dunno, in our Chicago horn club we have several guys getting great sound with various horn rigs and chip-amps, among them DIY Tri-Paths, gain-clones and JVC and Panasonic receivers. And in the club we have guys using all kinds of amps, indeed one fella threw over an Audio Note 300B SET to use a DIY Tri-Path with various horns and another fella uses gainclones and a Panasonic receiver as much as he uses his Berning Seigfried with his horn system.

I'm very pleased with a Teac T-amp I'm using on 890C Boleros. I also have Heath AS-21s powered by PP tubes and 605As that were powered by an SET now powered by Denon SS.

Some A7s in the garage will soon come in the house, we'll see how they sound best.