[JLM]

Thanks for the update, have fun, and keep us posted after everything arrives and gets broken in.

Except for the size factor, I was surprised to see TBI offer the SI as:

The cost and quality of the SI is way below that of the TBI stuff (good choice to go with the Super T).

Conventional wisdom would indicate that it's low output is not a good match with the Diamonds that are rated at a very average sensitivity of 87 dB/w/m.  (But in your small room and low volume preference should work OK.  And for $139 plus power supply you can afford to upgrade later if desired.)

But keep in mind that "speaker guys" are notorious for under valuing the importance of the rest of the audio system.

[Don Maico]

Thganks for that
some of the guys in this site are intrigued as to why I bought speakers i had never heard of or listened to

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=421800
good site btw
svs often get mentioned

[Don Maico]

I recently read some rave reviews about class t amps and one in particuar, the Sonic Impact T , a battery operated amp which sells for about £50 . I was also on the lookout for a small pair of mini monitors nad after doing a search came across a pair of TBI Majestic Diamonds which it so happend were being sold as a package with a S.I   T amp. The great thing about this system is their portabilty as the components are all small and light and although one can connect to a mains using a power supply, battery usage is a real plus. Now this system is not like any other portable one as the sound is in just another league altogether. This. I believe, is due to the class t amplification which, incidentally, I think, will revolutionise not only AV and HiFi but all other areas where audio is involved such as telephones. This is because class t amps are very efficient and are both light and small (the T amp is no bigger than the palm of ones hand) are cheaper to make and one ends up getting a lot bang for ones buck as they say. I am not going to claim that they are the equal of high end class A, AB or valve amps but I believe the budget / midfi sector is in for a shakeup as more and more of these type of amps appear on the market.Anyway in the end I didnt buy the T amp prefering instead its slightly bigger brother the Super T .This is the rather more Audiophile version being as its encased in aluminium( instead of plastic) has phono inputs and some improved circuitry( I'm told).At about £120 its well worth the extra.Like the T  its an oddity mind standing 6" high and 2" wide. On the front it has but one volume knob, an on/off button and LED light. On the rear there are two pairs of speaker outputs , one pair of line level phono inputs and the main lead and thats it. Oh there is also an external power supply which complies with our voltage. Anyway this is minimilism taken to its logical conclusion as there is no money wasted on unnecesaries. The amp being so light and small that changing the inputs is a doddle. I have a cd player , iPod and phono stage which I can change over with ease.The only snag is that portability is not the same as the T as one needs a 12 volt battery but ,hey, you cant everything
Now to the speakers. These are single driver devices encased in a box measuring 4"x4"x5" Originally I intended to buy a pair of Nohr 3s but got no respone from my emal so opted for these and I have to say that I am in no way disappointed. I have been listening to them now for several hours and am in no way fatigued - they just sound right. The bass is limited but what there is is accurate with no wooliness and the treble ( an area of concern for I hate bright sounding speakers) is smooth and with little percieved sibilance.
What else can I say? Yeah i know I am crazy going against the advice that I myself would give ie dont buy without listening first especially  ANY foreign made products which are not obtainable here through the regular retail route. But hey I took a punt and it paid off so I am well chuffed
Btw a sub is also obtainable .TBI recommend their own passive version coupled with a sub amp . At a total of about grand they will have to wait some time. The Diamonds cost me £300 approx- money well spent in my view.
I wont provide a link as I believe you should do your own search as I did as its part of the fun
I have cut and pasted this post and send it to two otheri sites I viist
__________________

[JLM]

Glad to read that you're happy with the Super T/Diamonds.

BTW there are multiple retail/internet sources for simple/inexpensive switching boxes so you don't have to plug and unplug each time you change sources, but as you apparently have a turntable you may want to wait until you can find a suitable pre-amp with a built-in phone section to avoid a string of little boxes.

I was very high on digital (switching) amps a couple of years back and still believe the technology is in its infancy (still early onto its learning curve).  Most of the naysayers are invested in the old technologies.  The Sonic T was a toy, and still managed to be the biggest stir of the year when introduced.  As with any digital circuit, proper feeding (clean power supply) is critical.

[lonewolfny42]

A review of the TBI Diamonds and sub on 6moons.......

[Don Maico]

Glad to read that you're happy with the Super T/Diamonds.

BTW there are multiple retail/internet sources for simple/inexpensive switching boxes so you don't have to plug and unplug each time you change sources, but as you apparently have a turntable you may want to wait until you can find a suitable pre-amp with a built-in phone section to avoid a string of little boxes.

I was very high on digital (switching) amps a couple of years back and still believe the technology is in its infancy (still early onto its learning curve).  Most of the naysayers are invested in the old technologies.  The Sonic T was a toy, and still managed to be the biggest stir of the year when introduced.  As with any digital circuit, proper feeding (clean power supply) is critical.

It may be a toy but it doesnt half sound good when you say clean power supply , do you mean one free from surges and spikes. I have a socket block with several mains outputs which is protected from such surges and spikes( initially bought for use with my Mac) or are you refering using one of those hugely expensive mains cleaners as made by Rus Andrews for eg. If so what effect would they have ? I tend to be somewhat suspicious of accesories  so would want to be sure they were essential.
As for the switcher I have just emailed Lectropacks to see what they do. BTW would a mini jack to phono adaptor such as this work between iPod and superT or switcher do you think?
http://www.htfr.com/more-info/MR84795

[Jampot]

An alternative to power conditioning would be to use a SLA battery, though some people (DIYParadise who supply the Charlize for example) swear by switch mode supplies. Find plenty about battery power in the Red Wine Audio circle.

I am in the UK and before I bought a Red Wine Clari-T (from JLM of this parish ) I used a Sonic Impact T-amp with a 'leasure' power pack bought at Lidl Supermarket. Its clean and tidy compared with a naked battery and I doubt you could buy a battery and charger for less, never mind power conditioning. Unfortunately it's a seasonal thing and probably won't be back in the shops before spring.

PM me (here or at Zerogain) if you are in the north west - I doubt it's worth the cost of shipping otherwise - it's gathering dust in a cupboard, 'though I do keep it charged occasionaly.

Jim

[Don Maico]

Thanks mate but I live in the S.E Are4 oyu talking about a 12 volt sealed lead acid battery?I'll check out Lidl or buy off the net but I am intrigued as to what JLM is refering to when he mentions clean power supply Seems like something else to worry about
typical RA product:
http://www.russandrews.com/lookup/0/region/UK/currency/GBP/customer_id/PAA1440111406386QJPPXTWQQLLPDDIJ/product-The-PowerBlock-plus-FREE-MegaClamp-1102.htm

Mine came from B&Q and cost me about 20 quid

[JLM]

"Clean power" is power that is free of aberrations (the electrical engineer's terms) to describe anything that causes deviation from a pure, textbook power.  Red Wine Audio products and the BYOB (Bring Your Own Battery) folks advocate batteries (yes Sealed Lead Acid).  Some will spend thousands on conditioners, power cords, rewiring the house, etc.  So with low powered pieces the battery route starts looking very attractive.  But depending on the load and size of battery recharging must occur every 4 hours to 2 weeks and figure on annual battery replacements (more often if you don't always recharge when needed). 

If you're happy with what you've got, don't worry about it.  I've heard "dirty power" but its never been a problem in the various places where I've lived.  (If you don't notice a change in sound quality during different times of the day/week and the electrical power distribution system in your area seems to be relatively new and in good shape, you probably have little to improve.)  Frankly at the price point you're at I wouldn't worry about all this sort of tweaky stuff.  Sorry if I confused you.  Please enjoy the music.

[Don Maico]

"Clean power" is power that is free of aberrations (the electrical engineer's terms) to describe anything that causes deviation from a pure, textbook power.  Red Wine Audio products and the BYOB (Bring Your Own Battery) folks advocate batteries (yes Sealed Lead Acid).  Some will spend thousands on conditioners, power cords, rewiring the house, etc.  So with low powered pieces the battery route starts looking very attractive.  But depending on the load and size of battery recharging must occur every 4 hours to 2 weeks and figure on annual battery replacements (more often if you don't always recharge when needed). 

If you're happy with what you've got, don't worry about it.  I've heard "dirty power" but its never been a problem in the various places where I've lived.  (If you don't notice a change in sound quality during different times of the day/week and the electrical power distribution system in your area seems to be relatively new and in good shape, you probably have little to improve.)  Frankly at the price point you're at I wouldn't worry about all this sort of tweaky stuff.  Sorry if I confused you.  Please enjoy the music.

OK mate. I was worried that something dreadful might happen . I've not noticed any variations in sound quality except that directly wired components ,such as cd player, sound very much better than wireless streamed music from a Mac via an Airport Express.
Thanks all the same anyway

[Don Maico]

Finally, if you go with the Super T (it is better that the original sonic impact sonically and cosmetically), then you will NOT be able to use most subs due to the way the sonic impact amps are wired.  This is a drag, because both speakers mentioned above perform better with subs.

Hi Sonforyou I emailed Jan Plummer and he seemed to think that an active or passive sub would be fine. Maybe I should email the sonic impact people and see what they say. Thing is I already own a sub so unless using it risks damage I could at least try them

[Jampot]

Read here -

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=19141.0

Most (single) sub woofers which use speaker cables from the amp to the sub and then to the mains tie the left and right earth together. That will fry your amp. This is a problem common to all tripath amps I think.

Look for a sub with line level inputs and use a 'y' adapter between the source and Super T to avoid the problem.

Jim

[Don Maico]

Read here -

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=19141.0

Most (single) sub woofers which use speaker cables from the amp to the sub and then to the mains tie the left and right earth together. That will fry your amp. This is a problem common to all tripath amps I think.

Look for a sub with line level inputs and use a 'y' adapter between the source and Super T to avoid the problem.

Jim

Hi Jim
my current sub has a low level and a high level input ,the lowe level input gets connectd to the back of a AV reciever whilst the high level gets connedt to the back of an amp trogether with the  main lft and rt satelites.
I dont know how jan Plummers subs work but he didnt think there should be a problem. In any case I have contacted Sonic Impact to see what they would say.

I asked Jan whether it mattered if a sub awas active or passive, within the contyext of a T amp ,and this was his reply:

It doesn't matter active or passive as the amplifier has the same interface as the active sub. To connect you simply connect the t amp to the speaker in terminals of either our amp or active sub.
 
The Majestics can connected as a bi-wire with both sub and speakers connected to the t-amp spk out terminals or to the high pass filtered speaker out terminals of the amp/active sub. The high pass out will remove low bass from the Majestics and tends to work better since the small amp doesn't work hard at the low bass frequencies.
 
There is also an advantage to relieving the Majestics of lower bass (<70 Hz) as they are clearer even using low power with the sub providing the added bass support and extension. This is my recommended setup for a high end system using the Majestics regardless of amp power.
 
Regards,
 
Jan
 


The likelyhood is I wont take a chance but I had rather set my mind on one of his Magellan VI sometime in the future although I was thinking oof experimenting with this:

http://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/Sub_Woofers/XLS200.htm

The input on the top left hand side is the high level one and uses a special cable provided.

[Jampot]

'monin' Don,

In the user manual bk say they supply a 'sonically transparent isolator' for using high level connections to class D amps.

That should take care of it I think.

Jim

[Don Maico]

'monin' Don,

In the user manual bk say they supply a 'sonically transparent isolator' for using high level connections to class D amps.

That should take care of it I think.

Jim

Hi Jim,
 must be very early for you ( assuming you live on the other side of the pond that is)

Ive sent emails to both Sonic Impoact and BK Electronics and await their advice before moving on

 Dont fancy frying this Super t
Thanks anyway
Mike