Class T-amps

[goraman]

I never knew! How does it sound?

I really don't know much about class T amps but I have faith in Sword Yang as an engeneer,he gives you the most for your money and has a good ear.

look at the little Dot product line and they only make nice stuff,useing very good componates.There is room to swap there really good capacitors for Elna Silmic or Black Gates (little dot tells me they test menny componates and stop when the upgrade has little to no affect on the sound so they can keep the cost down.)
They stand behind there product 100% and sell direct too.

[squeezethatbuffalo]

I really don't know much about class T amps but I have faith in Sword Yang as an engeneer,he gives you the most for your money and has a good ear.

look at the little Dot product line and they only make nice stuff,useing very good componates.There is room to swap there really good capacitors for Elna Silmic or Black Gates (little dot tells me they test menny componates and stop when the upgrade has little to no affect on the sound so they can keep the cost down.)
They stand behind there product 100% and sell direct too.

Did a bit of googling, and looks like the Little Dot T-Amps have gone out of production. Or at least temporarily available

[Ali Tait]

If you're looking to try another t-amp Alex,have a go with the Hlly 90.

[squeezethatbuffalo]

If you're looking to try another t-amp Alex,have a go with the Hlly 90.

Hi Ali,

Sorry if I misled you, but I'm not in the market for another T-Amp (yet). I have successfully piqued the interest of several friends though, and I'll pass on your advice if they decided to take the plunge.

Cheers,

[squeezethatbuffalo]

Today I paid my audio guru/friend a visit for a reality check.

While I am very happy with my modded TP60, I wanted the opinion from a neutral third party, who is not overly excited about the find like I am. My girlfriend has some renown in the local audiophile community for having "golden ears". Her opinion is highly regarded in "equipment shootouts", partly due to her good hearing, but mostly because she has no preconceptions regarding audio equipment, and is blissfully ignorant of "audiophile jargons".

But can I trust her on this? Hell no, she must be glad that I feel perfectly content with (relatively) inexpensive equipment! Conflict of interest!

Anyways, this friend of mine is a truly talented fellow. He has plenty of experience with "Hi-End" audio, but now he almost exclusively uses self-designed/built equipment. He even designs his own boxes! And boy they sound good! Unfortunately (for less talented DIYers like me), he only makes them in very small quantities for himself and close friends who are interested.

Before I digress any further... I'm happy to report that we TA2022 lovers aren't delusional!

"Hey, this amp isn't bad!" was what he said. Mind you, this came from a tube lover who is accustomed to Hi-End stuff

Okay, so the little amp isn't bad, but not great either. I suddenly recalled the advice from a certain audiophile who lives in Scotland, so I asked him to add his favorite tube preamp between my Buffalo (the old 24... I only had enough time left on Sunday to put together the Volumite) and the TP60.

I felt as if my TP60-2.1x just got upgraded to TP60-4.1x! That's one hell of a preamp! He told me that the preamp is OTL-OCL design, which is the combined effort of him and two other friends. IIRC, one is an EE professor and the other a maths professor. I don't know much about tubes, but he told me it's an uncommon approach, and the development process involved a lot of calculus. To be honest, I was a bit shocked. Did he just put tubes and calculus in the same sentence?

Things got even more interesting (to me anyway) after he opened the box. If the tubes are removed from the PCB, it would look ALOT more like a DAC than a pre I think he said something about ICs controlling voltage so that the DC servo would always prevent DC from going to the output... but I understand or remember little of what he said

No matter, it sounded so good, I must have my precious!

Fortunately, he still has a couple of spare PCBs left, and is willing to build me one. Great! The dumb DIYer approach has paid off yet again, all I need to do is wait and go to the bank He's a busy man though, who has a karaoke and a wedding video/photo studio to run, so I'll have to be very patient.

[Techno Commander]

It might not "sound bad", but it probably sounds a lot better than any other amp for $100. People are comparing these with $1000 amps.

[squeezethatbuffalo]

Hi Andy,

We should take into consideration.

I actually consider "not bad" flattering, since the equipment that were compared to the TP60 to are very nice, I think it's safe to say they're significantly better than an average $1000 amp.

Oh, and the stock TP60 costs a little more than $100, it's about $160 USD without shipping. But I agree with you, the TP60 is definitely comparable to $1000 amps even in stock form. In fact, I like my TP60 so much that I have no plans of upgrading amplification in the near future after getting my new preamp. I might attempt to mod the TP60 a bit more, but that's about it.

Cheers,

[aquapiranha]

When I had the little Trends TA 10.1 (which I very much regret selling now) I loved it. If I ever get the funds I might get another. Oh, it uses the TA2024.

[Ali Tait]

Good stuff Alex,these amps do seem to respond well to a good valve pre,and as you say,used like this they do rival amps costing a lot more.

[Covenant]

Good stuff Alex,these amps do seem to respond well to a good valve pre,and as you say,used like this they do rival amps costing a lot more.

At the risk of repeating myself-a Lightspeed attenuator is well worth trying.