Justin & Jerry's Hifi Blog

[The Vinyl Adventure]

hey, we got an agreement on the first dibs if you get one and sell it??

[jandl100]

OK ..... Hamish's HLLY Tamp-90 class D amp (with the TA2022 chip) has arrived chez-Jerry. Many thanks Hamish!!

HLLY T-amp90 (TA2022) vs Mini-T (TA2020) mega-Shootout ..... .....

My two-penneth on the amp comparison ....

HLLY Tamp-90 wins on bass power and energy and whoomph (into my 84dB/W MBL speakers)

Mini-T wins on midrange transparency and transient speed.

I have to say that if I had only heard the HLLY Tamp-90 I would not have got anywhere near as excited.
It's a very fine amp, but for me lacks the genuinely world class hear-thru transparency and speed of the TA2020 Mini-T, which is what makes the Mini-T so special for me.

I went back to the bi-amped Mini-T's with more than a little sense of "YES! - this is clearer, faster and much more interesting".

But for difficult to drive speakers the Mini-T may not have enough power.

IMO, YMMV.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

im back on my little bantam as i said before ...
and, since the hlly has gone, i have been wondering which one i like more again ...
the hlly has the grunt, but in some ways by comparison that might be to its failing ... i miss the feeling of drive, but that drive perhaps blasts over the sort of gentle effortlessness of the bantam ... are we talking about the same thing jerry??

i was concidering trying to get another hlly90, but if you are having success with 2 lesser powered amps, i might just try and get another bantam... or maybe a pair of what you have for my making-dynaudio-a42-active project...
if they are nice and small i could even mount them to the back of the dynaudios?


is this it? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mini-T-T-Amp-A...ht_4903wt_1139

[Ali Tait]

Did you drive the Hlly with a preamp Jerry?

[The Vinyl Adventure]

thats when the hlly was winning in fairness... with my gg pre feeding it... i had forgotten about that...

my above comments are based on the caiman feeding it in my office set up with my usher s520's

[The Vinyl Adventure]

is this it? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mini-T-T-Amp-A...ht_4903wt_1139

ignor that, i found this http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread...593#post842593 in the ebay listing that adequately answers my question

i really need to think before i type, this is why i have such a high post count!

[jandl100]

Did you drive the Hlly with a preamp Jerry?

Yup. With my very fine sounding (imo ) Lexicon MC-1.

[jandl100]

the hlly has the grunt, but in some ways by comparison that might be to its failing ... i miss the feeling of drive, but that drive perhaps blasts over the sort of gentle effortlessness of the bantam ... are we talking about the same thing jerry??

Yup, could be - but to my ears the Mini-T TA2020 amps are simply more transparent, faster and more detailed in the mids.

But then the Mini-T is by far the best amp I have ever heard ... if you value the aforementioned sonic attributes.

i was concidering trying to get another hlly90, but if you are having success with 2 lesser powered amps, i might just try and get another bantam... or maybe a pair of what you have for my making-dynaudio-a42-active project...
if they are nice and small i could even mount them to the back of the dynaudios?

To say that I'd recommend the Mini-T amps would be a gross understatement. They are awesomely startlingly good, as folks on the good ol' Wigwam are beginning to find out on that thread you linked to.

The only reservation I would have is that Dynaudios don't generally have the rep as the easiest speakers in the world to drive, so I'd be unsure as to whether the Mini-T has enough welly. Having said that my speakers are 84dB/W and the bi-amped Mini-T amps do OK.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

i was under the impression class t amps liked 4 ohms?

[electric beach]

Very useful call Jerry. My AOS/Yaqin has just thrown a hissy fit and I need a backup in order to send to Anthony for a check-up, so I ordered a Mini-T TA2020. yesterday, after reading all that you've been saying.

It will have to drive 87db from a Mapletree tube pre for a couple of weeks - then I will have the 96db drivers arriving for a pair of Sachiko horns. Now that will be interesting

I would like to try the Sach's with a low power SET like the Decware 2W SE84 in due course and this should be an informative comparison between highly revealing oldest and newest technologies.