Sonic Impact Class T $39 amplifier review at 6moons

Dmason · « **Reply #120 on:** 12 Jan 2005, 03:11 pm »

Hey Dan,

FWIW, I heard Vinnie's outstanding and fully burned in Clari-T with the Edgarhorn Slimlines awhile back, and it gave me a shock to hear such speed, dynamics, transparency, and ....Clari-T. The combination was the best I have heard yet with the amp.

Heads up folks! T amps of this calibre are absolutely on this earth for use with outstanding, high sensitivity speaker systems. I would give my eye teeth to hear it with the mighty Tannoy Westminsters, or corner Yorks, or some of these legendary boxes being slowly lost to the mists of time and trend, (except in Japan where they are alittle ahead of us in this regard.)

This weekend I am auditioning it with a set of 101db Krix 3 way theatre rig of two front horns + sub, where 5 watts will rock a 1000 seat theatre. Clari-T Live at UCSD...It's all relative.

smargo · « **Reply #121 on:** 13 Jan 2005, 03:17 am »

Dmason wrote

Quote

This weekend I am auditioning it with a set of 101db Krix 3 way theatre rig of two front horns + sub, where 5 watts will rock a 1000 seat theatre. Clari-T Live at UCSD...It's all relative.

Please let us know in detail your initial impressions after the weekend if you can - i am very curious and can't wait to hear the clari t with very sensitive and easy load speakers

Thanks,
smargo

gonefishin · « **Reply #122 on:** 13 Jan 2005, 04:54 am »

Quote from: Dmason

Hey Dan,

FWIW, I heard Vinnie's outstanding and fully burned in Clari-T with the Edgarhorn Slimlines awhile back, and it gave me a shock to hear such speed, dynamics, transparency, and ....Clari-T. The combination was the best I have heard yet with the amp.

Heads up folks! T amps of this calibre are absolutely on this earth for use with outstanding, high sensitivity speaker systems. I would give my eye teeth to hear it with the mighty Tannoy Westminsters, or corner Yorks, or some of these legendary ...

Well...now I can't wait to give this thing a try!

although it may be some time before it's shipped, ecost has them on backorder

thanks,
dan

corwin99 · « **Reply #123 on:** 13 Jan 2005, 05:45 am »

Quote from: Dmason

I would give my eye teeth to hear it with the mighty Tannoy Westminsters, or corner Yorks, or some of these legendary ...

I should be testing my lesser incarnation of the Sonic Impact with a pair of Tannoy Churchills in a couple weeks when i visit a buddy of mine... i'm pretty stoked

neL

Dmason · « **Reply #124 on:** 13 Jan 2005, 05:59 am »

The Churchills also are of the grandest class of speakers, the hybridized and fully optimized cabinet, for the biggest and some of the very best transducers ever made, bar none. Even better, some of the 15" were 98db and quite fast even with tube amps, so with the kind of grip digital amps exert, (a Tripath amp "sees" no impedance, and within its limits is almost load invariant,) the Big Tannoys may actually sound far better than their owner has ever heard them.

They are abit more common in Canada, with more Brit transplants, greater trade history with Mother England, and a long association with Tannoy, whose N.A. distributorship is in Kitchener, Ont. PLEASE update us on the T Amp/Tannoys. That is landmark opportunity to hear both at their best. If I ever were prepared to once again blow big for speaks, it would likely be a pair of Prestige, or Dimension. To wit, Dan- I ordered a pair of Radian 12" coaxials last week but with the top of the line 475 C/D and horn. Radian is a direct descendent of the Tannoy wing of Altec Manufacturing, and is for all reasons, modern day "Tannoys"

corwin99 · « **Reply #125 on:** 13 Jan 2005, 06:11 am »

Mr. Dmason, i will definately give you guys all a heads up on what it sounds like with the Tannoy Churchills.. but as you might have guessed, it will be up against some STIFF competition.. A pair of Jadis SE300B Monoblocks. Its kind of funny comparing a $39 (before mods) little amp to some $13,000 monoblocks on a pair of similarly priced loudspeakers (or are they more?).. but im pretty excited to hear how it does. My battery should be here and installed by then... i paid a bit more but sourced it out semi-locally.. they are Portalac batteries.

Agreed... if i had $10,000 to spend on speakers.. i would be looking very closely at the Tannoy line.

Dmason · « **Reply #126 on:** 13 Jan 2005, 03:29 pm »

It might not sound as caloric and seductive as the Jadis amps, but the little T amp can do things with those speaker drivers that tube amps simply cannot no matter how good they sound: speaker control. This is where a good tube pre amp could come in. It is not a contest until you use a GOOD pre with it to heat up the signal.

Having said that, I still love decadent tube machines, they are near magical, but they do not serve the music as well as digital amps do. (IMHO) which is why I use digital amps now, given the choice. The ClariT will be able to make a 12" diaphragm jump, where tube amps' DF is too low. In effect makes larger cones behave abit like smaller ones: faster.

gonefishin · « **Reply #127 on:** 13 Jan 2005, 05:49 pm »

Dmason,

Have you heard any of the Radian co-ax's before? I've heard some vintage Tannoys...but not any of the Radian Coax speakers. Might be interesting.
One of these days I've got to find something to mate with my 20Hz basshorn subwoofer in the basement...but that may be a few projects away.

who knows

Please keep me/us posted on the Radian co-ax project.

thanks,

dan

corwin99 · « **Reply #128 on:** 13 Jan 2005, 06:04 pm »

Dmason, That's interesting.. I'll definately keep that in mind when we are auditioning the combination. I'll see if the load invariance of the little digital amp does give better control of the speaker.. we'll listen to some tekno or something

Preamp is a Sonic Frontiers SFL-2 (i think its an SFL-2)... not sure how good they are, but i've heard they aren't bad.

Dmason · « **Reply #129 on:** 13 Jan 2005, 10:13 pm »

Sonic Frontiers upper end stuff is supposed to be very good. Kal Rubinson of Sterophile has hung onto his a long time, and I heard his set up with Bel Canto mono's and Talon? speakers, sounding might large.

I have experience with the Radian 8" coax, which I built into a custom designed MLTL last year and it sounded fantastic with the ClariT. Because of the limited Xmax, the line didnt do much for bass, the box was big, (48X13X12) but a friend liked it so much he insisted i consider selling them to him. He now has them and they are a better fit in his place. Beautiful sound and I know of a couple people who are using it for center channel with the Tannoy vintage 15" Ardens, who report an almost identical sonic signature....the 12" a couple people have said just gives more Phatness, a bigger wavefront, more dynamics, useable bass to about 40Hz, etc. Likely it would sound comparatively slower, with a tube amp, but T amps will make it jump okay. Same drivers as in the well respected Galante Rhapsody and Symphony. These excel with orchestral music, and I never heard wood portrayed more realistically than with T amp and Radian 8"

RonD2 · « **Reply #130 on:** 14 Jan 2005, 01:10 am »

I need to join the chorus of praises for this amp! I have been using the Clari-T for about three weeks now to drive Lowthers. I normally use a tweaked AudioNote 300B to power them.

When I first made the switch to the "T" I felt it was roughly equivalent to the 300B. I felt the same way for the next couple of weeks. I was pleasantly surprised as I did not expect the amp to be this good!

Well, in the last couple of days, this thing has really blossomed. It just found another gear. Immediacy, soundtage, transparency all significantly improved.

For the past 4 days, I have been coming home in the evenings expecting to turn on the system and be disappointed that it wouldn't sound as good as I thought it did the night before. Instead, every night I am shocked at how good it sounds.

I think anyone who has a reasonably efficient, fullrange driver type of speaker owes it to themselves to try this little amp.

Simply amazing.

grkn · « **Reply #131 on:** 15 Jan 2005, 05:06 am »

Since this is the sonic impact thread I'll ask here,
what interconnect should I get, EMU 0404 > Sonic Impact, maybe one of these?

Monster Cable Interlink 400MKII to Stereo 1/8 Inch to 2x1/4 Inch Y Cable

30usd.

-OR-
Is it a pointless waste of money, and buying these would be more sensible:

6usd.

Regards Johan, http://melonia.net

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #132 on:** 15 Jan 2005, 01:03 pm »

Quote from: grkn

Since this is the sonic impact thread I'll ask here,
what interconnect should I get, EMU 0404 > Sonic Impact, maybe one of these?

Monster Cable Interlink 400MKII to Stereo 1/8 Inch to 2x1/4 Inch Y Cable

30usd.

-OR-
Is it a pointless waste of money, and buying these would be more sensible:

6usd.

Regards Johan, http://melonia.net

Johan,

You said "Monster Cable!!!"

I went to Best Buy and bought that same type of cable make by Acoustic Research. It was half the price as Monster, and appeared to have better build quality. Check it out...

-Vinnie

grkn · « **Reply #133 on:** 15 Jan 2005, 01:35 pm »

Monster for show, acoustic research for the pro?
But I can't find it, I only find the Hosa one..

NealH · « **Reply #134 on:** 15 Jan 2005, 02:13 pm »

Yet another review of the Sonic-T. This one by TNT and, I think they liked it.

http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/t-amp_e.html

Dmason · « **Reply #135 on:** 15 Jan 2005, 03:49 pm »

I think they liked it. At least it sounded positive anyway....

There were a few people who suggested early on I was "blowing smoke," about the Clari-T....To those people, and you know who you are,

feel free to PM me for free membership to The Flat Earth Society. For all the people who thought JCC and I were nuts for advocating these weird "digital" amplifiers way back two years ago, "hind" sight is 20/20.

When you optimize this chip, it then jumps into a whole other realm. My ClariT recently has broken into another stratum of performance, just in the last few days, it has gotten even BETTER----->

albee · « **Reply #136 on:** 15 Jan 2005, 06:10 pm »

Dmason: In your opinion, do Vinnie's and Wayne's battery powered Tripaths totally eclipse a modded Teac?

Paul_Bui · « **Reply #137 on:** 15 Jan 2005, 10:45 pm »

I thought I wanted to share this email I sent to JLM when we're in Bob Brines Forum. I've been holding back my impressions on the Clari-T, partly because I didn't hear what people raved about this unit, partly because I felt that several new components (FTA-2000s, F1, Clari-T) take time to sound their best.

"Hi Jeff,

Most recently my satisfaction with both Clari-T and FirstWatt F1 in my unusually large master bedroom has grown, but YMMV. The Clari-T has been playing movies for the last few weeks, and today for kicks I hooked it to the Shanling/FTA2000 system. I think it needed break in and warm up, which it was given today. In short, it sings. For the last two hours I played two CDs, Anna Netrebko's Opera Arias SACD and Oystein Sevag's Bridge. Voice was reproduced as sweet and articulate without irritating sibilance. The same can be said about instruments. The total balance is relaxing, lacking the AC grunge that sometimes I hear with the otherwise impressive F1. I am sitting in this den writing you, while the BRIDGE CD is playing music, loud and clear and convincing, from the bedroom about 20 feet away, across the walk way. Mids and highs are all there, with a lot of air, without the trace of AC grunge that non-battery powered components (even the F1) sometimes suffer. I'd call the mids and highs meaty: rich in texture while not necessarily as fast as the F1. Bass is there too, not as scary as the F1/FTA2000 combo on low bass but still very good and again, rich. In a sense, the FTA-2000s reveal how different these two excellent (best, in my book and my room) amps are.

Oh yes, the speakers must be more broken in by now. The CDP is connected directly to either amp without a preamp. I bet with a tube preamp like Steve Deckert's CSP I won't have a problem cranking up above 100 db loudness. For the time being, my favorite levels are within the 70 db - 85 db range with the Clari-T's volume knob at 11:00 o'clock position, and it's loud enough for my music enjoyment."

Yet, I was still suprised that the Clari-T needs a considerable break in and some warm up to sound its best, but I am a believer now. Thanks RonD2, Dmason and others for sharing your exciting experience. Vinnie offers an excellent alternate amp (in my case) and definitely a low cost, cost-no-object sounding amp for owners of single driver, high efficient speakers who are still looking for a good sounding amp.

Harmon · « **Reply #138 on:** 15 Jan 2005, 11:29 pm »

Is this a good power supply for the T-amp: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=120-532

There is a 13.8v, 5 amp version also.

Dmason · « **Reply #139 on:** 16 Jan 2005, 12:34 am »

Albee,

-Chalk and cheese here. One runs on batteries, the other doesn't. Two different chips, different requirements, one more complex than the other, and the biggest, baddest difference, I can now "hear" alternating current in AC powered amps, I swear. According to what Paul Bui writes, he is hearing the same things.... Battery power and digital amps is too different. The modified Teac is a whole other animal. I have heard three times that Vinnie's mods to the Teac take a good platform and turn it into a VERY nice amp... Uncle Ed Schilling has more experience mangling the 2024 and 2050 boards, and he also prefers the TA2024 in the SI and Vinnie's ClariT. It boils down to what kind of power you may require.

I still maintain that Tripath chips actually take quite a long time to break in, other ZR owners will concur, so it is highly possible that the ClariT will just keep getting better over the next five or six months, because it cannot be left on, in fact I would bet this will be the case; in other words, it's early days here, and we possibly can expect to see the amps get better and better

One thing is becoming clear: people are hearing the amazing synergy with Fostex that I am.