[mcgsxr]

I have broken in my Bolder Mensa (see thread on that in the Critics Section), and now must have somewhere around 200+ hours on my Teac amp.  The combination continues to make me happy, with good sound, and involving music - last night I was listening to compilation cd's created from MP3's at varying levels of resolution, turned back into WAV files for my cd player/transport.

The resolution of the resulting cd's leaves much to be desired, in the 'phile sense, but I was up until 12:30am (hey, with an 8 month old daughter, that feels like 6:00am!) listening to music.  By music, I mean ignoring the inner detail (for once for me...) and just letting it all flow out.  It was fun, and that is what this is supposed to be, at least part of the time.

The addition of the Mensa, versus just using my Nakamichi cd player, has returned the 'phile sound, but without robbing any of the musical enjoyment.  I am very pleased with the combination, and await Wayne's suggestions for modding my other amp (see thread about Teac Mods, in this Circle).  I know that several people have modded these amps in one way or another, and mention better sound etc.

One thing I am considering, is a different set of speakers - I have had the Totem Rokk for 10 years now, and like them, but they are somewhat inefficient (around 85 or 86db) so I wonder what more efficient speakers would be like... while we are at it, how about a full range, single speaker with no Xover?  Dmason reports good things about this combo with the Teac, and Wayne presently has a set of the Horn Shoppe Horns at his place - he promises to spin the Teac through those for me, and give me some idea of what he thinks the combo can do.

Now, I have to find the dough for the next round of upgrades... Do I have the disease?  I don't think so (denial being the 1st sign...) but I am interested in trying new speakers...

More to come, as it develops, thanks for the others who have added their experiences and thoughts around this amp - I am unsure how it sounds, compared to other Tripath implementations, but some have told me it sounds similar - perhaps GBB's finding of the 2x coupling caps, and subsequent improvements in rectifying that, will drive really nice increases in fidelity.

Have a good one,

Mark in Canada

[geofstro]

I bought my Teac in the UK at £144.00, which is considerably more than the $99.00 you can get it for in the US; but still a bargain considering its sound.

I hooked it up last night to my 'conventional audiophile system' and had time to listen to just a couple of disks, so this is very much an initial, unburned in impression.
I refer to my system as conventional because so far this system doesn't contain any of the, what I call, 'revolutionary' components. In the 'revolutionary' category I include these low cost digital amps, of course, and Horn speakers. Because, for me, these components are a revolution, or perhaps I should say a revelation.

The speaker binding posts on these made me really angry. They're the stupidest most impractical designs I've ever come across. In the pictures they look like conventional binding posts, which I was hoping to shove my Nordost Blue Heaven Bananas into; but in fact the ends are just caps which unscrew to reveal a very small hole where you can insert thin bare wire from the side. I couldn't even use my Monster flex pins which work fine in spring clips, so these binding posts are even worse than spring clips in my opinion. Fortunately I had some Cat 6 cable to hand that Ed Schilling kindly sent me for nothing, when I bought the Horn Shoppe horns, which I use in another system. I had to strip this to 10mm or less to fit into the binding posts; but of course it was certainly thin enough to fit.

The speakers are ProAc Super Towers, which consist of metal dome tweeters flanked by two mid-bass drivers in the D'apollito configuration. All four mid-bass drivers are new, since I replaced them last year and I removed the protective covers from the metal dome tweeters many years ago, for better dispersion.

I set the volume pots to max for the left and right channels on the Teac, set the System/Single switch to 'Single' hooked up the IC's from my preamp. Then I turned on the preamp first and let it warm up, followed by the Teac.

The pre-amp is a Jadis JPL which is a tube preamp without, I think a typical tube sound. It actually sounds grainless to me and quite neutral with extended highs and excellent microdynamics. The Teac is substituting for my regular Plinius SA50 solid state class A amp, which can be operated in either class A or AB. Harry Pearson described this as "a honey of an amp" and I think that's a good description. It actually sounds more like a tube amp particularly in its class A mode than the Jadis does.

I've been very pleased with this system for many years. The limiting factor is the speakers, which I plan to replace with Horns. The ProAcs are quite transparent, dynamic and musical within their limitations; but the presentation is, of course, scaled down compared to larger speakers or the real thing. Their main problem, I feel, is when they try to do bass which they can't quite manage; but attempt to do anyway. This can lead to a sluggish sound which can spoil or smear the timing.

Frankly I wasn't expecting much out of the Teac, using this ultra thin give away speaker cable, and knowing it's susceptible to RFI/EMI as all these digital amps apparently are. I expected noise or interference of some sort. I have had some low hum and occasional light buzzing noise through the speakers with nothing playng and the volume on the pre-amp minimized. Although I double checked I also wasn't too confident in the speaker connections to those lousy binding posts. Maybe I'd only managed to connect the insulation and not the bare copper.

After turning on the Teac I put my ear to one of the speakers and, just as I thought, completely dead. Not a sound. Not even the very low fffffffff I'm used to hearing when I turn on the Plinius. I'll have to go back and re-check those connections, I thought.
Then I remembered a post here which mentioned just how silent these digital amps can be, so I though, to hell with it, I may as well put on a disk just in case something comes out and lo and behold! music!!!

The disk was 'Touchwood' by Antonio Forcione. This guy has been called the Hendrix of acoustic guitar. That's probably because he literally plays just about every part of the instrument in every imaginable way. Not at all gimmicky, though. A really great musician. I managed to see him last week at the Edinburgh festival where I had a chat with him and got a signed copy of this disk. The disk is on Naim audio, so as you can imagine it's very well recorded.

The live sound of his quartet in the wonderful acoustic of St Georges in Edinburgh is still very fresh in my mind.
I had already listened to this disk quite a few times through the Plinius, so I was reasonably familiar with it.

My first impressions were that the highs sounded a little too etched and perhaps strident; but perhaps that was due to me projecting my expectations onto the soud. The overall sound was much cooler than the Plinius which in comparison seems to bathe everything in a rich ambience. Not overly warm, more like the clear blonde variety of honey. In other words there is a texture to the Plinius which permeates the entire soundstage. It is delicious and makes for a very enjoyable listening experience. I am obviously describing a coloration; but it is more subtle than I'm probably making it sound here. It only becomes obvious in comparison to something else, which either lacks this coloration or is colored in the opposite direction.

I suspect that by itself or in combination with a pre-amp that had similar characteristics I might judge the Teac to be colored in the opposite direction and deem it cold.
In combination with the Jadis though, listening carefully and making adjustments after being so used to the Plinius sound, I'm inclined to describe the sound of this combination as being as neutral as I've ever heard. As I already mentioned the Jadis is atypical of tube pre-amps and in fact can sound a little too cool and a bit processed until it has warmed up.

By the time I'd got towards the end of the Forcione disk it had warmed up and so had my impression of the sound of the Teac. I think one of the best mods you can do to this amp is to use it in combination with a tube pre-amp.
The Forcione disk is a studio album, nevertheless, through the Teac it reminded me very much of the live sound of these instruments I'd heard a week earlier under close to ideal conditions. It really seemed to get the timbre of most of these instruments right with the possible exception of the cello.

One of the best features of this amp is, I believe, related to that silence I heard, or rather didn't hear, on turn on. When music is playing is allows the notes to start and stop with great precesion and allows me to make much more sense of the music. More about that later.

I was reminded of two demos I attended at High-End dealers in Hong Kong when I lived there during the 80's. The first was in my classic 'audiophile' period having been very much influenced by the Absolute sound. I owned a pair of Quicksilver Monoblocks and a CJ PV5. The sound was always lovely, never fatiguing or irritating on almost any recording. Mind you I only listened to vinyl at the time.

Still I had a nagging doubt that it wasn't really accurate. Perhaps this approach was the best path to take with recorded music; but live music didn't really sound like that. Real instruments were always more exciting to listen to; but can you reproduce that excitement in an audio system without introducing distortions which make the overall experience  unlistenable I wondered?

I can't even remember what it was I was listening too, except that it was a CD front end with some solid state amps all highly regarded at the time and highly priced. I do remember though, when we were listening to Miles Davis and I objected that the trumpet sounded cold. The dealer said, "what do you expect" a trumpet is cold. It's supposed to send shivers up your spine".

I had to admit he had a point. He'd obviously become exasperated with audiophiles who expected everything to sound so sweet.

I've always suspected that among all those Japanese electronics there must be some real gems lurking which could provide true high end sound at a reasonable price. I went back to visit Hong Kong in 1999 and having read recently in TAS, HP's enthusiasm for some Denon monoblocks, when I spotted a pair in the window of a dealer I had brought stuff from, I thought, I must give them a listen. Of course, HP had the top of the line huge expensive model, POA 20 I think; but these were a mini version, POA 10 or something, so I figured they might share similar sonics with their big brothers. They also had the Bryston ST3B amp which Robert Greene was raving about at the time. I hope the reason I mention all this will soon become clear.

As I remember those Denon amps they sounded very much like the Plinius I have today. The Bryston on the other hand, I just had to admit sounded more real; but there was some other texture there that I couldn't quite pin down. HP described this as a kind of grain. I think he said a sooty or charcoal grain. The dealer actually became angry with me this time when I said I preferred the Denon. He didn't have anything to gain, since they were both about the same price, I believe; but he insisted that the Bryston was far more accurate and couldn't understand why I couldn't hear that.

There was a minor controversy over the sound of the Bryston between HP and Greene as I recall. Greene insisting that what HP called grain was actually the texture present in some of the instruments themselves when they're played.

If these experienced audiophile writers can't agree on these issues what chance have we mere mortals got? Actually I think quite a lot, if we listen carefully and use our experience of how instruments sound to us live.

Having now heard the Teac in combination with the Jadis JPL I feel that the Bryston amp did have a certain texture. The Teac is like the Bryston with that texture removed.

I don't claim the Teac is perfect, especially straight out of the box. I do think that its problems have less to do with the highs, which I think are just more accurate than I'm used to, and more to do with dynamic compression. I'm talking about the wide dynamic swings here. I just kept finding myself wanting to turn up the volume and never quite being satisfied. The music didn't bloom in that sense. It's as if when I cranked the volume everything got louder by the same degree rather than the louder sounds getting much louder in comparison to the softer sounds It's the same phenomenon that occurs with MP3.

I'm really hoping this aspect goes away with warm up or otherwise can be cured with better speaker cable and/or mods. The Teac may also be slightly underpowered for the ProAcs; but they are fairly efficient, so I doubt if it's that.

Continuing on the positive side, I just feel the Teac truly allows me to appreciate the music making and the choices the musicians/recording engineer made. This manifests itself in the interplay between the musicians, when certain instruments are played louder in relation to other instruments and so on.
 
It is as if you've been struggling to learn a language, and before the language often sounded very interesting and sometimes pretty; but didn't always make sense, then suddenly it all does make sense, and you realize how much you've been missing. Music is a kind of language after all.

I've gone to some length to describe all this, because I know that I'm having to  get over some of my audiophile prejudices in order to learn to appreciate this amp. I believe I was already on this path as I've learned to embrace Horn speakers for the same reasons that I like what the Teac does so well.

In fact I'd go as far as to say the Teac made my ProAcs sound far more like horn speakers. It's as if there were less driver excursion but what there was, was much faster as though I had a Lowther or Fostex driver in there. Yes, you could say the bass was lighter; but it was also cleaner, not sluggish; but tuneful. I could also feel the bass as much as hear it, even with the limitations of the ProAcs which, I believe, start to roll of just below 40hz.

I haven't mentioned the source. It's the Sony SCD-777ES using its built in DAC. This DAC provides several filters for standard CD's with various degrees of roll-off so that regular CD's aren't too embarrassed after listening to SACD's. I had settled on filter 2 which is for small scale Jazz and vocals and I switch between this and the standard (non-filtered) settings.

I realized on my first session I may have been taming the Teacs' sound by using this filter. When I tried an SACD (which is unfiltered) of Cecilia Bartolli performing the work of Salieri it was obvious the Teac couldn't handle the wide dynamic orchesteral swings; but when I just concentrated on her voice, I could really appreciate the music making in her singing for the first time.

The Teac also doesn't do any favors for average recordings, you really need a good to great recording to appreciate it. I tried the latest Madredeus and although it was enjoyable enough, I think the Plinius would have smoothed it out, enriched it, and made it more enjoyable. I played it unfiltered so maybe one of the filters would improve average or below average disks. I suspect that poor recordings will really sound poor through this amp.

Although my description may give the impression that the Teac sounds thin, I don't think that is the case, since the body of instruments such as the acoustic guitar was certainly present; just not exaggerated. I tend to suspect thin wire of robbing instruments of body; but this would be a simplistic argument and I believe the Teac has proven me wrong on this.

I think some people might tend to put this amp towards the analytical category. I haven't heard the Panasonic XR45; but I wouldn't be surprised from what I've read that it goes in a similar direction.

Having said that, I don't believe an amp can actually be analytical only we can be analytical. Just as I don't think of  an amp as playing music, it can only let the music played by the musicians through, if it's doing its job properly.

On a good to outstanding recording the Teac does this. For Bill Frisells' Brilliant 'Intercontinentals' disk all the same comments apply as for the Antonio Forcione disk and I played the Bill Frisell unfiltered.

What we've come to know as true high end gear is usually produced with the designer listening very carefully at each stage of the design. I can't imagine anyone was listening very closely as part of the design of these low cost digital amps; but who knows, perhaps some of the audiophile influence has got through to these companies over the years? Or perhaps someone at Tripath has been listening very carefully. Either way it looks like we're onto a real bunch of winners here and at very reasonable prices. It seems that the quality of the components, other than the chips may be less critical than with conventional amps; but obviously there is still room for improvement with sensible mods.

I will continue to report on the sound of this amp as it warms up. I should be able to give it a thorough work out over the weekend and maybe I'll get to use some different speaker cable and/or get it modded. From what I've heard so far it definitely sounds like it'll be worth pursuing further.

geoff

[mcgsxr]

Geoff, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this amp, and for being explicit about the equipment that you have, and have had, to compare this to.

I think that your points are all valid, and in some ways line up with what I am hearing, when I listen to this amp, as compared to my Sugden A28B integrated (strong class A bias, reputed to be the first 12 of its' 45 watts).

I can say, that in my system, around the 120 hour mark, there was a sense of increased smoothness - not sure how that will translate into what you hear, but I look forward to reading about it!

I am interested to hear your thoughts about the Teac, when combined with the Horns, should you have the time to try that combination - I am thinking about a set of those, to replace my inefficient Totem Rokk (the Rokk are also a 4ohm load, which according to the Tripath website, will drive the 2050 chipset into clipping relatively quickly...).  I have pestered Ed about the Horns, and have found someone local to me, who is willing to let me have a listen, but I would be pleased to read about what you think of the combo also.

Interesting point about the tube preamp - I think I can quote Dmason as having said that this combo (tube pre and Teac Tripath) is a wonderful combination - I cannot claim that, as I presently use either a passive, or analog pre/pro as my "middle end".

Now, I am not sure what you mean about the Teac binding posts - I AM using banana plugs right now, not double plugs, but single plugs and they fit right into the end of the posts - perhaps the Brit version is different for some reason?

As you may be reading, in my other post, Wayne from Bolder presently has my 2nd Teac, and is running his fingers through it, determining what mods he recommends I explore with him.  I will certainly be pleased to share those results, once they are completed, and the amp travels back to me in Canada.

I will also be interested to read your thoughts on the JVC versus the Teac, it seems that many prefer the JVC, but not all have both...

In any case, thanks for your lengthy, well constructed, and honest review of the Teac - I think that I have been reserved in my judgements about this piece, as it breaks in, and it is interesting to hear from others, as they experiment.

Have a fantastic day,

Mark in Canada

[kbuzz3]

For what its worth, Im currently running the flying mole digital amps with a restored fisher 400c pre amp and the sound in non audiophile terms is quite organic.

Of course YMMV but i dont see why there is any reasons not use a tube pre...unless there is some kind of wierd impedence issue with the teac

[mcgsxr]

As far as I know, there is no problem using the Teac with a tube pre, I just don't have one!

I would like the Audcom 120, with remote, and 2 sets of pre outs, and it can be modded by Bolder with positive results....

Down the road, baby steps!

Mark

[geofstro]

Mark,

I will certainly try the Teac with Eds horns and post my impressions here. Before I do that though I'll make sure it's fully burned in using the system I described.

I've just PM'd you regarding the binding posts. To make it clearer still, my posts are exactly as shown in this picture:

http://www.ixbt.com/dvd/teac-l-700.shtml

If you look carefully you will see they are caps, so bananas can't be inserted. This is also a 230 volt model like mine.

Those sold in the US/Canada must be different. I wonder if they differ in any other ways.

cheers

geoff

[mcgsxr]

Looks like there must be some difference between the versions, as mine are single banana capable - their spacing is off for dual banana, but that does not affect me.

See pics.  Sorry that they are fuzzy, I was contorting just to get the camera anywhere near the amp, during this...





I believe that Wayne will be replacing the connectors (both RCA and speaker) as part of his series of mods.  I will comment more on those, when they are finalized.

[geofstro]

Thanks for the pics and your very helpful message. I suspect they might have had complaints about the crappy binding posts and changed them to 'real' posts as shown on your picture; but didn't update the manual.

All the more reason for me to get mine modded by Wayne; but I'll let it burn in first and compare it to the JVC.

geoff

[Wayne1]

The caps on the binding posts MAY be able to be removed.

This is fairly common on products designed to be sold in the EU.

In the glorious tradition of government meddling with the "common" man, the EU decided that banana connectors could cause death by electrocution.

Many of the countries in the EU have AC wall outlets that would accept a 4mm male banana connector. So to prevent you from plugging your speakers into the wall, they decided to do away with a banana input on consumer electronics.

There are exceptions. The "safety banana" by WBT is okay to use. It does tend to cost more than most are willing to spend on inexpensive electronics.

I have taken a quick look at Mark's Teac. The binding posts are similar in size, spacing and diameter to those used by Panasonic in the SA series. In order to use aftermarket binding posts a plate must be used to reduce the size of the openings. The RCA inputs are fairly close together to use insulated aftermarket devices. Using the L and Center channel input holes with a plug in the R input would work.

The input board with the level controls can be bypassed and the RCAs wired directly to the input terminals on the amp board. The same thing can be done for the output side. This way you can have point to point wiring for both ins and outs.

I will be spending a bit more time with the Teac today and should be able to come up with a better idea of parts costs for mods.

[geofstro]

Mark sent me a pm with the same suggestion. The caps can indeed be easily extracted using fingers, then bananas can be securely inserted. As a European I should have realized this, I guess; but this is actually the first time I've come across these caps, which together with the instructions in the manual really threw me.

I'll probably be interested in your mods Wayne, once I've had a chance to burn it in fully in stock form and have a better idea of its potential. At the moment I still have to crank the volume higher than I normally do to feel satisfied and I'm not happy with how the amp sounds on less than the best recordings. Now that I've got Nordost Blue Heaven in there that may change.

One thing that concerns me about your proposal for replacing the binding posts is the idea of using the L + Center since the L + R are too close together.

One poster mentioned that he connected his spkrs to the L + Center and the Center channel sounded louder than the left, so this could result in an imbalance. I believe the L + R are on one board and the C on another, which probably accounts for it.

geoff

[mcgsxr]

I don't mean to put words in Wayne's mouth, and I am sure he will correct me if I am wrong, but in this case, he might be speaking specifically about my amp.

I will use this amp strictly for 2 channel, so the 3 channel capabilities of the Teac are not relevant for me (well, with this amp, the other one I have I do use for 3 channel, but we will see) so he asked me if I would mind if he converted this to strictly 2 channel.

For my application, I asked him to wire 1 channel from each board  - ie, for this modded amp of mine, the L&R amp will become just L, and the C will become my R.

I am certain he can customize configurations for people, should they require it, but his answer might have led some to believe things that might not necessarily be the case.

He did mention that since the Teac does have 2 full amps in it, he could wire it for biamping for me, where the L amp would have 2 sets of binding posts, and the C(which becomes R) amp would also have 2 sets of binding posts, but each channel would have 1 input.

Confused yet?

I guess, to sum up my meandering blathering, Wayne seems to be able to custom configure the Teac in any number of ways, which for me will be 1 board per channel, as per my request.

The issue that someone else mentioned with C being louder than L or R, in the stock form, might have something to do with the "quality" of the gain pots and associated board, that lives in the stock one.  Wayne will, as his post points out, remove that whole board, and pots, for me, and wire directly to the amp boards, so I expect that will alleviate any issues with gain differences between channels.

Incidentally, when playing around with my stock amps, when they both were with me, I had no such issues with gain difference between the channels, on either amp.  It could just be a QC issue with the amps in question.... or my hearing is trash!

Geoff, glad that you sorted that binding post thing out...

Mark in Canada

[Wayne1]

The problem with the spacing is with the inputs. The RCA jacks are too close together to use something like the WBT NextGen or Cardas RCA jack with their insulators. The holes that are drilled in the case already for L and C could be used. From that point, they could be wired to the same board (L & R) or different boards (L & C). I have not hooked up the Teac yet to listen to it. I will look into the gain issue, but I do not think there will be a problem.

Both amp boards have two channels on them.  It would be fairly easy to run the same inputs to the boards. That way you can have passive bi-amping with 2 channels in and four out.

[geofstro]

Thanks for the Clarifications Mark and Wayne. In my case I wouldn't need bi-amping; but 1 board per channel would be great.

And (this time) I'm not confused at all  

I'll try hooking my right IO's to the center channel to see how it sounds on my stock amp. As long as I don't have a gain issue, I guess it might give me better channel separation, etc.

Geoff

[mcgsxr]

A quick review of the stock Teac versus my old amp, a Sugden A28B integrated.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=12735

Mark

[geofstro]

Mark,

Thanks for the review and the pics. My set up is similar to your friends, since I also have my speakers either side of windows looking out on my garden. I like something to look at when I listen to music.

Those diy speakers have a very nice finish and overall they look very professionally made.

Your findings on the Teac correspond to my own. I find it to be more accurate, revealing and transparent than just about any amp I've owned. The only problem is that does make it difficult to listen to on some recordings. My main concern is with large scale orchestral recordings where I find myself wanting for some of that sweetness that you find in the Sugden.

At the beginning of this week I received the famous JVC RX ES1L and I've had it running in my other system with the Horn Shoppe horns.

I'm going to wait a bit longer this time before commenting on the JVC. All I can say at the moment is that it certainly is a pleasure to listen to. Always smooth so that you never find yourself aurally wincing. At the same time, though, I don't think it quite has the timbral accuracy of the Teac.

I'm finding it very difficult to judge the JVC at the moment though because although it's very easy to listen to, it doesn't seem to commit the obvious errors that amps which are sweet sounding like your Sugden and my Plinius do.

As dmason put it, "this amp is very different".

It keeps surprising me in how much detail it can reveal whilst remaining so listenable. I'll reserve further judgment for the moment.

Later I'll swap the Teac and the JVC so the Teac has a chance with Eds Horns.

I'll be very interested to read how your Wayne modified Teac works out.

Cheers

Geoff

[mcgsxr]

Thanks for the kind words about the DIY speakers, they were fun to construct, and certainly great to listen to, in his room, in my opinion.  The cosmetics were his choice, I would have preferred all oak, but to each his own.

His room does have that nice view, and I notice that you also share that.  I get to stare at a throw that I put over my 32' Vega... leads to mostly low light, and eyes closed listening.

I look forward to hearing about your Horns and the Teac, and also the Horns and the JVC.  Should be interesting.

I also am getting very excited about the eventual arrival of the Bolder modded Teac, I hope that works out well!  I will share for sure, how that goes.

I watched a couple of movies yesterday, the first since replacing the Sugden, and was amazed at the clarity and detail that resulted.  As much as I like this tripath for music, it really threw me how good it was for movies.  This was just 2.1, as my other amp is with Wayne at the moment, but there was evidence of sound from far outside the stereo soundstage, during The Bourne Identity, and Kill Bill V2.  Impressive, and fun.

As for music, the sound continues to please me, but I cannot help but wonder what changes the Bolder unit will bring...

Enjoy,

Mark

[geofstro]

Haven't tried it for HT yet, I'm hoping to do that tonight, if we get a cool enough evening here. I imagine dialogue comes out crystal clear, because I hear words in songs more clearly with this amp.

By the way, I forgot to mentiion, I found a big improvement with the Nordost Blue Heaven cable. If anything the amp became even more transparent while at the same time instruments seem to gain more body.

I also found a significant improvement using the Center Channel as the left channel and connecting the Right channel to the L/R board. My speakers are quite widely spaced, which was not a problem with the Plinius; but with the Teac the sound had been a bit Left - Right (if you understand what I mean).

I expected that substituting the Center for Left channel might exagerate this even more; but actually the opposite ocurred and the sound between the two channels became better integrated. I imagine using two amps as mono-blocks would yield even more improvement in this direction.

Looking forward very much to your assessment of the modded unit.

geoff

[mcgsxr]

Interesting that you mention the difference between using the L and R versus the L and C channels of this amp.  I started out with L and C, but was swayed by the opinion of a friend, that might damage the amp - something about a load only on 1/2 what it is designed to do etc.

In any case, I chatted with Wayne about that, asking him to use 1 channel per board in my amp, that he is modding.  So, when it comes back to me, I will have a 2 channel, 2 mono amp, amp.  He suggests that it will not be long now, and then I will be in the hands of the Postal Gods...

I sold my Sugden today, an amp that I had owned for 10 years.  Glad to have the $$, somewhat sad to see the amp go, but the new owner was a long time Sugden nut too, so at least it has gone to a good home.

Sat down and cheered myself up with 1 hour of Sarah Harmer on the Teac/Totem setup, that cured me!

Mark in Canada

[geofstro]

Thanks for the tip Mark. As a precaution I've swapped back to L + R.

No damage so far, thankfully, and it still sounds glorious. A fitting word, since I'm currently listening to gospel. You could say the sound is spriritually uplifting  

I'm looking forward even more to your review of the modded unit. God speed to the postal service!

g

[mcgsxr]

Yeah, I don't KNOW that one can damage a 2 channel amp by playing only 1 channel (there seem to be conflicting opinions on that one) but as a precaution, I decided to go with the L&R on my stock amp, while I await the other.

That one will simply be 2xmono in 1 chassis, sharing a power supply, so it should be fine run that way.

I too, hope that the postal service, once my amp hits their hands, acts well.  I would think that I am still around 10-12 days from listening to the amp, but I can wait - the stock one works well with what I own, for the listening levels that I desire, with the room I have.

That said, I will do my best to convey the impact of the mods, and intend to have a few others get their ears on both A/B so that there can be agreement, or dissent!

Looking forward to what you think of the Horns - I will have a chance to bend an ear locally to the Horns, with the modded amp, and will report on that too.

Mark in Canada