Class T-amps

[Ali Tait]

I had similar with a tripath amp and cured it by turning down the pot. I was driving it with my Pre 2. Perhaps it's faulty?

[Jonboy]

perhaps it is as i have no reference, the distortion thing is very small to be fair and at its price point not unreasonable, got to go now we got company around for dinner, we shall carry this on later

[John]

Good to hear on the whole the amp is working for you. I thought it was excellent value for its cost but interesting you mention disortation; one of the things I did not like about the amp is that it made some distorted guitars sound a bit nasely, like the guitar player was playing through a cheap solid state amp!

[Folkboy]

Another Mini-T (+ 5A PSU) owner / convert here.

[MartinT]

One thing to note: switched mode PSUs vary enormously. I've tried a 12V 4A spare one for an LCD monitor and it was noisy as hell, creating a constant low-level buzz from the speakers. On the other hand, a 12V 5A laptop PSU is whisper quiet and so is my Maplin linear 12V 1.25A, although it doesn't push enough current and runs into early distortion. The laptop one is still in circuit and doing the job nicely.

[dave2010]

Coming back to this thread after a while - will some of the HLLY amps, e.g the 90, have more "welly" than (say) a Bantam Gold, yet deliver similar audio quality? If not, are we then forced back to more traditional designs from established suppliers/manufacturers?

My regular amp seems to be having problems now which are not getting any better, so I may need to replace it soon.

[wee tee cee]

I took delivery of a temple audio bantum this morning.Have to admit it sounded very respectable out of the box.I have a art audio quintet power amp and naim 5i in the house to compare it with.
It falls somewhere between the two.
It has a lovely soundstage on some recordings its almost three dimentional.In fairness to the wee amp I will burn it in for a couple of days.

I am very impressed with it,really enjoying listening to stuff I havent played for a while.If it Improves further with running in I will be delighted.
Is theyre a big leap in quality between the bantum and the gold or even the mono blocks because this has really got me Interested.

[aquapiranha]

I too am using a Bantam. I got mine from Hamish, and I am very pleased with it but then I have always liked the sound of Tripath since I had my Trends TA10.1 and the Sure 2050.

[dave2010]

I took delivery of a temple audio bantum this morning.Have to admit it sounded very respectable out of the box.I have a art audio quintet power amp and naim 5i in the house to compare it with.
It falls somewhere between the two.
It has a lovely soundstage on some recordings its almost three dimentional.In fairness to the wee amp I will burn it in for a couple of days.

I am very impressed with it,really enjoying listening to stuff I havent played for a while.If it Improves further with running in I will be delighted.
Is theyre a big leap in quality between the bantum and the gold or even the mono blocks because this has really got me Interested.

Maybe Ali has compared the Bantam with the Bantam Gold. I think he has.

The Gold makes some really amazing sounds at times, and has had my foot tapping, but I'm just not sure it goes loud enough some times. There is the extra oomph mode, but it doesn't make a huge difference, and I believe it introduces more distortion. The specs say so anyway, though what it's like to listen to for a long while I don't know.

I had the feeling that the HLLY90 amp has a good sound, but will go louder. I was just too scared to invest directly via eBay in the Chinese economy, but maybe I should reconsider.

[Gazjam]

Jandll (Jerry) has compared both the Mini-T, Muse and Hlly 90.
He says the Hlly has more oomph and bass, but lacks the midrange clarity and insight that the Mini-T has. He much prefers it to all the others.

Myself and Ali have compared the Mini-T with the Bantam (THINK it was the Gold but Ali can confirm).
The Bantam is better, more solid sounding but with the openness of the Mini-T.
The Mini-T is about 80% of what the Bantam does in my opinion.

For myself the Mini-T comfortably beat a Cambridge Audio 640A (£250) in every department except for bass weight.
This wasn't a problem though as I was too busy enjoying the music and not the equipment.
When I fitted the Gator though there was an increase in bass and with the T_Amp Im using just now theres NO shortage of bass - quite the opposite in fact; tight tuneful bass not boomy at all.
Great stuff.

Hope this helps?