Teac + Isobar = Taste of Battery?

albee · « **Reply #20 on:** 30 Jan 2005, 04:46 am »

Okay, I'm late to the party. I pulled a Schilling this afternoon and picked up a $40 Everstart jump starter at Wally World. Hooked it up to my stock SI and have been blown away. Surpasses my newly "supressed" Teac by a leap and a half. The unit delivers big-time in all areas and especially the topend. Clean, articulate, airy.

The Everstart uses a 7aH battery and has a nifty on/off switch on the front. I guess a few more tweeks would get the SI to near "perfect". I can wait, though, as this is pretty satisfying.

Dmason · « **Reply #21 on:** 31 Jan 2005, 02:32 pm »

To complete the impression, you should hear what it can do to a pair of dynamic horns, like Ed's or Edgar's. This becomes audio that can hurt you; if you duck the first "punch," it'll land one square in the eye of much of the so called, "high end" world of audio.

albee · « **Reply #22 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 02:41 pm »

Dmason: I was using my Everstart with the small adaptor cable I have been using with my dc power supply and it sounded fine. I jumped over to the local ratshack and found a cigarette lighter adapter with a 5 amp capacity. The connecting cable is like a "water pipe" compared to the thin adapter cord I was previously using. The change in the sound was dramatic. The SI became more "fleshed out" and weighty--lots more bass. The image was much larger and the soundstage seemed much deeper. This is where I have trouble discriminating between attenuated/rolled off highs and just being pushed further back into the soundstage. I have noticed that the SI (stock) does lack a good degree of "air" and the larger cord seems to emphasize that.

Have you experienced anything similar? Anybody?

Wayne1 · « **Reply #23 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 03:16 pm »

Both balanced power AND isolation are important. All switching power supplies create quite a bit of noise which is fed back into the AC line for other components to pick up on.

A balanced power transformer will clean up the noise from the wall ac and isolate everthing plugged into it. Most will not stop separate components plugged into it from poluting each other.

You would either need a small balanced power transformer for each component or a larger transformer with isolation filters after the transformer.

Dmason · « **Reply #24 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 03:23 pm »

Albee,

I had a similar experience with the SI when I got it onto an SLA battery. And that was just the beginning.

The quality of sound was jacked up far and away beyond what I expected when I heard the TA2024 chip in a totally optimized situation, with a good aluminum chassis, 10X capacitance, upgraded SM parts, audio grade connectors, and direct coupling of Tripath chip to DC source. The difference is such that it has erased my memory of the actual Sonic Impact sound. I am talking of course about Vinnie's ClariT amp.

It now is easily the fastest, most dynamic amp I have yet heard, but still has abit of the warmth and sparkle I always associate with 300B and PX25 tubes, but different, without the distortion derived 3D-lit from within vibe that I love. After having owned five different Tripath based amps, I believe the TA2024 to be the absolute best of the lot. And by a wide margin.

With my preferences in amp sounds, and my musical values, the Tripath TA2024 based ClariT is about the best compromise I have come across in the last 30 years. In fact, if I were a manufacturer of boat anchor amplifiers, I would be very worried right about now. Not everyone can nor will see it, but home audio has turned a corner. We don't need boat anchors or crossovers anymore. Or $300/pr meshplates. Or balanced power conditioners. Or isolation transformers. Or expensive power cords. Or jitter reduction. Or....

albee · « **Reply #25 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 03:26 pm »

Thanks, Wayne. The Everstart is a 12v/7aH battery powered jump starter. I decided, for convenience, to try using the cigarette adapter. So, I am feeding it battery "juice" with a much larger (5 amp) capacity cable. When switching back to the smaller cable, still using battery power, the sound returns to a flatter soundstage with slightly hotter highs and less bass. (BTW, the larger cable really contributes to the famous PRAT and sets the foot to tapping.

)

Could you possibly mean the larger power cable is more susceptable to RF than a smaller one?

Wayne1 · « **Reply #26 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 03:56 pm »

Albee,

I was replying to a question asked a couple of pages about the Teac amps, before this thread was hijacked to yet another discussion of battery powered amps.

I feel that the larger cable you are using can simply allow more current to flow. It just might be that the SI does like to have more current available to it.

Switching power supplies, such as used in the Teac ,do generate quite a bit of noise and put it back into the AC line. By using a battery, you have eliminated that "problem".

albee · « **Reply #27 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 05:03 pm »

Sorry, Wayne, I hijacked my own thread.

I am interested in both the 2024 and the Teac and will watch for further developments on both fronts.

dwk · « **Reply #28 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 06:33 pm »

Quote from: albee

Sorry, Wayne, I hijacked my own thread.

I am interested in both the 2024 and the Teac and will watch for further developments on both fronts.

FWIW, I should have a Teac on the way, and intend to battery-mod it for 24V operation on the B+ line. I modded a Panny XR25 to use 12V on the bridge power, and it worked really well, and run my SI (unmodded) on a SLA as well. I may blow the Teac up, but from what I've seen in the photos just splicing in 24V to the supply lines and leaving the switching supply powering the low-level signal lines 'should' work OK. I'll probably try 12V as well, which would allow me to do the 'battle of the 6-8W Amps'

albee · « **Reply #29 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 07:05 pm »

dwk: take plenty of pics and keep us posted.

albee · « **Reply #30 on:** 6 Feb 2005, 04:35 pm »

I had noticed how the signature of the SI changed with the type of cable I used with my SLA. It seemed that the larger cable produced a larger sound perhaps at the cost of topend articulation. Well, I changed back to the smaller cable and found it more to my liking. I had been using the smaller cable with banna plugs for convenience and decided to remove them. That made even another significant difference. These little Tripaths love a short, clean, pure connections for sure! Excited about that revelation, I decide to disassemble the 5 amp cigartter plug and bare wire it to my SLA. Having done that, I misread the polarity and sent my SI to audio valhalla.

All it took was two seconds!

Anybody know who's got them in stock? I'm getting two to do a L/R bi-wire this time.

corwin99 · « **Reply #31 on:** 6 Feb 2005, 05:41 pm »

That sucks albee. Last I checked the only person to have them in stock was SI-5 themselves.

I listened to a Sonic Impact for the first time with an SLA on Friday, then on a very nice system yesterday.. wow.. you guy's were not kidding when you said the difference is quite big with SLA. I'm still pretty blown away. I had to leave my SI with a friend who would be showing it to a lot of people to make 'em jump

He'll be using the Wallwart since he's not the type to fiddle with a battery.

albee · « **Reply #32 on:** 8 Feb 2005, 02:17 pm »

Well, I ordered two SI's from Parts Express. They are a month away from receiving them and a rep wrote me of the "unprecedented demand" they have gotten for them. Well, I trust PE . . . so I'll wait.