I've been planning to add my personal evaluation of the Clari-T amp for several weeks, but it's been difficult to compose -- I feel like I am simply repeating what others have said before, but here goes....
And on that point, just how many ways are there to describe your jaw hitting the floor? I've known Vinnie's work for some time -- originally bought a modded Tosh 3950 from him a couple of years ago. (It still works flawlessly and performs at least as well as units costing hundreds of dollars more.)
But it didn't prepare me for the Clari-T, especially in one respect -- power. I still have trouble believing this is a flea-power unit. I've used it with two different bookshelf speakers (Energy C-3s, and an antique pair of Pyramid (Sequerra) mini-monitors. Neither set of speakers are particularly high-efficiency, but the "T-Bone," as I've nicknamed my unit, drives them easily.
That's not to downplay the quality of sound, either. I spent many years gradually climbing the audio foodchain, from low-fi to mid-fi to high-fi to borderline audio madness. What I finally found that satisfied me was a combination of tube pre-amp (transcendent) /s.s. power amp (belles) that seems to bring out the best of both worlds. So it is with the T. It has the precision of solid state, with a touch of tube nuance, but not overbearing in either respect. Needless to say, I don't know whether to be happy or hacked off that Vinnie has accomplished -- in a fairly low-cost unit I can carry around in one hand -- what took me years of listening and a hunk of change to figure out on my own, plus the need for a couple of hefty shelves in the cabinet.
One more point worth making. I'm running the T in an office system, which I think is the perfect fit for it, seeing as how it's hooked up to a 12-year-old Panasonic walkman-type CD player. Amazing bang for the buck, this rig. But I discovered that economizing can go too far -- as in the original thin zip wire I hooked up to speakers. Subbing some Dayton Speaker wire, pre-finished with banana plugs (from PartsExpress) made a noticeable difference, and Dayton's quality, fit 'n finish was very impressive for the price....
Good listening, all, and thanks to Vinnie for another winner!
