The XTZ A100-D3

[sparky68]

Well after the demise of my beloved Musical Fidelity's ive taken the plunge with a new integrated
The XTZ A100-D3 wow what a beauty she is a cracking amp big and heavy as a house but very very nice indeed.
I was dreading the replacement of the MF's, i tried out the CA 840A v2 but sadly it just didnt do it for me at all, very dull and un-involving :rolleyes:

But this XTZ is an absolute gem im over the moon with it, they say everything happens for a reason but i wish i hadn't had to go through the heartache at the time :scratch:
I was skeptic if an amp could sound better over another tbh but im blown away with this its so musical it has me stuck in the chair all day and when im at work wanting to get home to put it on again, i know my speakers may be letting it down a tad but new ones are on the cards in the new year 'wifey permitting'

I wont go into specifics because you are all much more educated in this sort of thing than me so i wont embarrass myself trying to tell you about soundstage/imaging ect.. but its brilliant i just cant get enough of it :eek:

Id like to take a little momet to thank you all for your help in my desperation with the MF's, the community spirit shone through for me, the support was outstanding, Richard and Rob have been absolutley brilliant, restored my faith in mankind no end. its so unusual to find people like yourelves these days willing to put themselves out to help someone in need for nothing in return :)

Thanks again guys i owe you one :cool:
happy days ahead with my beasty XTZ

All the best fellas
Mark

[John]

Its great when you just want to listen to more and more music Thanks for sharing

[sparky68]

thanks John,
Yep isnt it great, i have it on all day and night no one can get near the tv :) I hate Tv i admit, music is my passion,
Next is speakers, i aint going to be popular with the wife thats for sure.

[John]

Speakers can make a huge difference

[sparky68]

ive heard that John altho ive never really experienced/demo'd anything other than B&W's ive had 601s3' now 603s3's and although i think they sound fab people assure me im missing out with my current speakers ?

Mark

[John]

If you enjoy the sound do not worry about it, in the end its about the musical enjoyment

[The Grand Wazoo]

Piccies ????

..........pretty please

[sparky68]

Chris ill have to charge me el'cheapo camera first but promise ill get some up,
what you want front, back, inside ?
its not the prettiest of amps ill admit but sound wise its just outstanding to me :)

Mark

[Alex_UK]

Nice one Mark - I've eyed those up, think I started a thread at some point - if they had been around 18 months ago when I replaced my Audiolab I think I would have been very tempted... Still might check out the Power amp at some point... Anyway, glad there's a silver lining to your cloud.

[Reid Malenfant]

what you want front, back, inside ?

All of the above, but plenty of the guts would be very enlightening if you'd be so kind :)

Not sure, but you might have been thinking of this thread Alex? (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=7517) :) It certainly was quite a long one once it got going :eyebrows:

[sparky68]

Thanks Alex, its been a hard learning curve for sure :(
me and Mr soldering iron just dont have a good relationship, still it ended up a good'n im so happy with the XTZ, proper nice guys to deal with too which is a bonus.

With the onboard DAC i might be able to get a few quid back too from the sale of my Caiman, it will be missed but just dont need it now as the amps onboard one to me is as good, not better but as good, not upgradable tho :(

[Techno Commander]

So, which colour amp did you choose?


All of the above, but plenty of the guts would be very enlightening if you'd be so kind :)

I found these elsewhere on the net.

http://xtz.cz/ui/65b65649c238f24_f.jpg

http://xtz.cz/ui/551376c1d7e8274_f.jpg

http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz95/LegisActio/Vahvistinauki.jpg

The main transformer is apparently 550VA.

Capacitance is a total of 57 400μf 63V (22800 uf, this seems a bit "light" for a big class A amp)

The DAC chip is an: AD1955;

[Reid Malenfant]

Cheers Andy :) Somewhat enlightening ;)

[Techno Commander]

Still trying to work out where they hid the resevoir caps. Possibly underneath the middle PCB??

[sparky68]

Thanks for the pics Andy saves me voiding my warranty, its good to see what its like inside.
The capacitance is beyond my knowledge but to me she sounds mighty fine :)

I got the silver one, i wanted black but they have to come direct from sveeeden and my impatience couldn't cope with the wait :eyebrows:

why'd that guy pull his apart any idea? i saw the dreaded soldering iron close by and shuddered at just the sight of it :lol:

[Techno Commander]

why'd that guy pull his apart any idea? i saw the dreaded soldering iron close by and shuddered at just the sight of it :lol:

No idea. Guess he was being nosey.:)

There does seem to be an awful lot of good reviews for these amps out there.
Which is annoying, as I thought I had managed to decide where my amplification direction was heading next.:doh:

[sparky68]

if you wanted i listen Andy i could bring it over, your not far from me i think?
im in hythe

[Reid Malenfant]

Still trying to work out where they hid the resevoir caps. Possibly underneath the middle PCB??
:lolsign: They aren't very large are they :scratch: Just two of the caps i'll be fitting into a load of home designed & built amps are a little bigger, each is the size of a pint beer glass :eyebrows: Then there will be 16 more & each will be bigger than what i see there :eek:

In all honesty though considering the price & the fact that it's a sliding bias class A scheme it's still great value for money ;)

[Techno Commander]

In all honesty though considering the price & the fact that it's a sliding bias class A scheme it's still great value for money ;)

Indeed. It is somewhat tempting.

[sparky68]

only issue i have and its not really an issue as such is it needs about 30mins to warm up i find ? maybe its just me :)
And it needs loads of room otherwise it quickly switches to A/B from heat i assume

[Techno Commander]

Guess its best not to put it in the middle of a rack then.

My Audio Note needs about 15 minutes before the magic appears. Half an hour isnt excessive.

[Reid Malenfant]

If i hadn't already had about 80% of all the stuff i needed to build a load of quality power amplifiers i'd have seriously considered getting a listen to the stereo power amp version of this integrated (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=7517)

If it had been decent i'd have bought 3 of them seing as i need 6 channels to go active :eyebrows:

[Effem]

I have just bought one of these beasties and more than glad that I have - it is a SERIOUSLY fine amplifier :)

I wasn't unhappy with my pre/power combo, but I needed to raise some cash so they went to their new homes and I have been toying with the idea of buying an integrated amp for quite some time anyway. I was thinking along the lines of an ATC or AVI Lab amps I have heard before and really liked. This though sees both of those marques off with ease (I kid you not) and as a bonus there is a very good quality DAC and plenty of inputs too. Remote control as well - bliss :eyebrows:

It is a BIG amp (none of the photos I have seen gives an indicator of it's size) and although I do have room to house it on a lower shelf of my rack if I wanted to, it generates a lot of heat so it lives on the top layer to aid cooling.

I thought I would deeply mourn losing my pre/power amps and to be honest there was a twinge of remorse at losing the flexibility that a pre/power combo provides, but I fear not because this baby has splittable pre and power sections too :eyebrows:

[sparky68]

:) isn't she a beaut Frank i still have mine on everyday and im as happy now as the first day i got it, it never fails me i just love it to bits.
Ive since changed speakers to the B&W 683's and they are far better than the old 603's,
im still using my playonhd! to stream music which is great and convenient but might get myself a new cd player poss the xtz one ?
hope i never have to move the damn thing tho it nearly put my back out unpacking it :D
be nice to hear your review after using it for a bit

BR
Mark

[Effem]

:) isn't she a beaut Frank i still have mine on everyday and im as happy now as the first day i got it, it never fails me i just love it to bits.
Ive since changed speakers to the B&W 683's and they are far better than the old 603's,
im still using my playonhd! to stream music which is great and convenient but might get myself a new cd player poss the xtz one ?
hope i never have to move the damn thing tho it nearly put my back out unpacking it :D
be nice to hear your review after using it for a bit

BR
Mark

It is a joy to use and listen to Mark :) This one is finished in black and normally I am not keen on black at all, but I simply don't care what colour it is :lol:

I'll do a write up at the weekend when I have some spare time.