[gary]

Think he was a shill? Tired of hearing him rave about a component that can't possibly be anywhere near as good as he says it is? Guess what? Not only was he holding back, but he was far understating how good this thing really is. Seriously.

Mine came today, along with the Scott Nixon DacKit that Vinnie put into one of his enclosures for me, and right after hooking everything up I put in an Eels cd and sat down to listen. The only thing I can say is it just made me cry. And I'm not joking. For as long as I've been listening to music I haven't heard anything like this... it's just not fair to compare it to any traditional a/c powered amplifier and source I've heard. Ain't the same league, ain't the same ballpark. This is a whole new level. If I was in the business of making high end amplifiers, or dacs, or power cables, or etc., I'd be scared. Luckily I'm not so I can just sit back in awe of what I'm hearing and smile .

Once these things have had a few weeks to settle down I'll write up a full review, but for now it's back to the rest of my evening of battery-powered bliss.

Gary

[Bemopti123]

I have heard a version of the Sonic amp at a meeting in NYC.  It was led acid battery powered, in a box version.  It was paired up with a 3A Reference DeCapo.  Of course, it is not the exact clone copy of the ClariTAmp that you are refering to.  

When playing a certain type of program, it clipped...but not sonically shockingly as any old type of analogue amp, but I could tell.  Strange enough, the people who were listening to it, did not notice this, even the owner.  I can attest that it sounded decent, but the signature of really outstanding amplification lies in its ability of strip away layers and layers of sound and then, layering them back in a more clean and intelligible way.  The Sonic Impact mod that I heard was in no condition to do this properly, but then you needed to count the place and the conditions in which it was playing.  Really could not concentrate terribly well in the system.  

What I truly am able to remember is that it sounded clear....not tube like, but it has a little glare that I was dissatisfied with.  Maybe, if the set up was better.  Maybe the $20 digital chip amp has the seeds of a leviathon, but then, it needs to be played in context and properly...especially speaker and the like need to be sympathetic to this product.  

What are the speakers that you, Doc Mason and you use?  

One thing I perceived about high efficiency speakers, if they are not the traditional BR with simple crossover or crossoverless type, the low end can sound questionable.  Maybe a decent dynamic match would be speakers like the Living Voice Avatar of MTM designs with hi efficiency.  

Gary, maybe the effect that you have heard or unheard has to do with the incredible good word that Doc Mason put on behalf of the amp and all your expectations with the amp....who knows?  Half of audio is all a question of perception.

Paul from NYC

[MttBsh]

Gary,

Dan has helped me put together a system that sounds better than I could ever have imagined a couple of years ago. His talent for sniffing out audio diamonds in the rough is almost uncanny. No one exploits audio bang-for-the-buck better, and he's always ten steps ahead of the industry
"experts".  I think 6 Moons sends spies out to see what Dan is tinkering with down there in his beach home. On top of all that, he's a heck of a nice guy (unless you're an audiophool)

BTW, if you think the Clari-T sounds good now, wait til you have a couple of hundred hours on it. It evolves to an entirely different breed.

Matt

[GHM]

Bemopti,

Man are you nuts or something ?  Glare? I've heard more glare on a tube amp! Clipping? Again you are off base my friend. You are judging this amplifier by some garbage you heard on a spur of the moment ? Apparently that setup by your description wasn't all that great to begin with. This amplifiers got more layers than Betty Crocker! Always a yuppy audiophool in the mist that hates to have his overpriced gear challenged!

Speakers that are simpathetic? Geeez guy. If it cost  5 grand you would be all over it.

On a good note I'm glad Gary you are in Battery Bliss! Glad to see another happy customer.

[JohnnyLightOn]

Using the Clari-T, is it possible to feel the bass in your body, as opposed to just hearing it?  I listen to a lot of rock and electronic music, and would like to have a very balanced presentation.  Feeling the thump of a kick drum and the buzz of a low-frequency synthesizer are important to it.  Very loud volume is not important to me, however.  

If the answer is "yes," what speakers do you think would be a good match for the Clari-T with rock and electronica?  (If I had to guess, the Decware HDTs would be, but they are pretty big for my current living room.)

[gary]

What are the speakers that you, Doc Mason and you use?

One thing I perceived about high efficiency speakers, if they are not the traditional BR with simple crossover or crossoverless type, the low end can sound questionable. Maybe a decent dynamic match would be speakers like the Living Voice Avatar of MTM designs with hi efficiency.

For now my speakers are Onix Reference 1. They're about 88 dB/W efficient and the Clari-T does alright driving them to my usual listening level (which really isn't all that loud). They have been sold though, and I'm upgrading to Bastanis Prometheus speakers, which are 100dB/W and are augmented below 100Hz by dual powered helper woofers. These should match up extremely well with the Clari-T from what I can tell and after the numbing realism that I've heard tonight I absolutely can't wait for them to get here.

Gary

[Bemopti123]

GHMan, BTW, I forgot to mention that I also heard in the same audition a pair of Omega Grandes, set up with the SI amp and also an Almarro SET 6H33C that I believed was pumping out about 18 watts of Class A power and yes, in the context of the audition I did hear more "Glare" of what you might call it...perhaps you need to understand that tubes do sound as should I say, more fat or round in the delivery in great contrast to any other sort of amplification, especially SS or even the digital that you have.  

Honestly, I did not liked the sound of the SI partnered with the Omega Grande....the midrange was rather forward sounding, unbalanced, a little beamy.  Like many fullrange speakers, the Fostex drivers, as they are executed have a degree of midrange shout, as someone else in the same listening well attested.  In contrast to the set up I have at home with much better cabinet execution minimizes the shout considerably.  

I have not found the holy grail in amplification yet...eventhough I have heard a lot of amplifiers, either hybrid, massive tube, massive SS or even punny SS with entirely battery powered supply, as my Final Music 6 is.  

The perception of sound that we hear has a lot to do with the investment that we make and the sonic return we get from it.  Obviously, the ClariTamp is very aggressively prized at $399 or was it $499.  It provides sonics and execution that for the initial outlay would be a veritable Giant Killer.  I do not doubt this, but with its lowish power limitation, you need to pair it with a certain type of speaker, many of them which still suffer this "shout" I am talking about.  And yes, if you want to get away from this, you might wind up underpowering speakers such as the DeCapos, as I heard them.  

There is NOt an absolute master or audio nirvana that can be how we say, "yong yuon" or Forever.  It is not until the next one comes that we put it all in context.  What it matters is simply trying to get our best perceptive experience regardless how much or how little we spend.  

Call me an audio Yuppee, if you wish, maybe my audio gear can qualify me into that category.

[Dmason]

I'm using Ciare PH250cm 99db bicones in an open baffle (Qts .82) , line level XO'd @ 120Hz using dbx DriveRack to twin HiVi M8N 40 inch MLTL bass pipes, using a 250 watt Hafler 9505 on the bottom, and ClariT on top. TL's are sim'd Max Flat to 27Hz, system EQ'd to flat in 28X13 room. (Garage studio) This system is built from the ground up, this past weekend.

For any of you who understand what this means, I find it highly interesting that -it takes  ALL the current the mighty Hafler 9505 250 watt A/AB amp can sink into the HiVi's to keep up with the ClariT/Ciare OB pairing. In fact, with these bass drivers, I would prefer a more powerful amp to keep up with the ClariT, otherwise I would need 2X15 >95db bass speakers, per side which would be more compatible.

 This is not a beginner's "Sonic Impact" based system. This is a fairly serious pro audio implementation with amazing reproduction on the top, and is fully capable of reference-level, full range, high resolution reproduction. Without the bass level implementation, just the big Ciare paper drivers + ClariT it sounds really fascinatingly open and glorious.

The point is, it is ALL about speaker sensitivity.

[GHM]

Paul,

Your arrogance is all you need to qualify as a yuppie. The gear is just secondary.By the way you qualify overwhelmingly. You spend to much time worrying about the enjoyment of others. This man is posting his first impressions. Leave him be and let him do his thing. Not everybody finds it enjoyable to drop 6 grand on a amp and preamp and imagine they have the best setup for everyone.

Peace

[Bemopti123]

Wow, that must be an amazing set up Doc Mason.  The lows are the most troublesome of fullrange reproduction, especially with low power.  The outlay one needs to make to get full frequency sound out of a low powered system is a "hidden" cost that makes even my set up inadequate to regular sonic standards.

I still have much to do to compensate the difficulty in integrating the low end properly of my horn loaded Fostex 208 Sigmas, but with time, I will make some mods lessen the perception of more high frequency or how SETMan from NY called, "Fostex Shout."  

DHM, call me a yuppie, wish my peers from a New England Preppie Liberal Arts school saw me as that.  I am glad that you are enjoying your ClariTamp well enough.  All I have said about the digital module is from my limited experience and nothing more.  

PS:  DHM, wanna join my Frat?  
PS2:  I bloody hated frats when I was in College!, liked the free beer though.

Paul from NYC

[Bwanagreg]

Gary,

Wecome to the club. I'd show you the secret handshake, but this is a public forum.  

I'll put a plug in here for Wayne's (Bolder) version of this concept as well. I suspect the two amps (Bolder vs. Clari-T) have more in common than not, but I'd love to do a shoot out some time.

Gary, since you have access to Bybees you might want to try them out in a few places (input, output, power supply) for kicks. On the other hand, I've felt these amps (even my lowly Griffin Powerwave that started me on this path) reduced my perceived need to tinker.  Tripaths are sort of anxiolytics for audio nervosa.

Or are they Viagra for, oh never mind...

[Bemopti123]

BTW, the set up I listen to mostly as of about 2 weeks ago:

Sharp 3 in 1 thingie, digital, 20 watts/ 8 ohms= $75 at Overstock.com
Virtual Dynamics Nite II power cord              = $300 used at Audiogon.
Analysis Plus cables, forgot the model, 6 years old= $180 new.
Zhorn Garuda with Fostex 208 Sigmas           =$800.
Infinity subwoofer, powered                          =1K

and

sparingly,

First Sound Paramount Deluxe II Hot Rod      =$$$$ at Audiogon.
47 Labs Shigaraki CD transport                     =discounted, demo.
Bel Canto DAC 2.0                                       =close to full retail.

It is fun to switch in the later set up with the Sharp thinggie.  I love the convenience of powering one component and getting 100% sound.  

Too much gear in hand to try the ClariTamp.  Maybe soon, very soon.  

Until then, I will just have to wonder what does it sound like.

[Dmason]

Paul,

-with respect, man, you're not having a great night; you have missed it again. My illustration was to show HOW FAR out you can go with the little amp, not about "hidden costs" in doing it "right." The ClariT with the right friends can hang with some serious audio toys. You are a teacher, yet you seem to be advancing an obvious myopic viewpoint and seem to be attempting to advance this viewpoint into over-arching truisms.    I find this almost irresponsible considering there are many in the audience who wish to learn. We have already long since established that "A does not equal B" and that everyone hears every thing, differently. The fact that there is a growing choir of very impressed owners out there who are in no way gullible, or new to valuing their sound time really should tell YOU something.

I am between speakers upstairs right now, but with the heavily modified Axiom M40Ti's I paid $315 for, with the amp + non OS battery DAC, I could easily be happy with until the end of my listening days.

 I am trying to illustrate synergy and potential, that others may learn and benefit from my thirty years of audio-twinkie-dom. Whether someone agrees or not, I could give a rat's ass either way, to be honest. At my place, it sounds great. And you should always use bass speakers with horns. Concerned about Fostex shout? Use a resistor. Use a digital EQ. Tweak the compression chamber, but don't make sweeping generalizations.

[viggen]

Yup, Paul, you've completely missed the point.  If you're not part of the love fest then you best get.

[Bemopti123]

Yup, there is definetly a Luvfest going on here with the ClariT, too bad I did not purchased it before all the gear I have.  Hehehe.  I am staying fixed and put on this one.  There is no ONE box solution that will give me what I am looking for.

Bass or lack of low end is an issue that concerns me and without it, I will not give qualifiers to any system out there.  Live music, for me entails low end.  Obviously, if I will not be able to get the low frequency I feel is necessary for decent reproduction, than what is the point of listening or saying that an amp is the solution to it all?

And

if people who read the thread are unable to make up the minds, even amidst such overwhelmingly positive response and one apprehensive criticism, do not point the finger at my position as responsable for "teaching" them away from sonic nirvana.  People need to make their own minds up.  

I do not teach that ClariT is the worst, or perhaps you can quote me on that one, in the previous replies?  Maybe you can teach me where my point is "arching" or with "truisms."  The only thing I wrote about is what I perceived as "glare" in the set up I heard.  No more and not less.  
If people are happy with the ClariT amp, great for them.  Their happiness does not erase the impressions of what I heard with my own ears, the deficiency of digital amp + battery implementation.  

Now, BR with minimum crossover and digital amplification has impressed me greatly, but once again, it is not the ClariTamp I heard and experimented with.

Paul from NYC

[Dmason]

Perhaps my comments were a bit too strident, I cannot tell at this time, tomorrow when I am in a more sober, less "oenophilic" frame of mind I will reassess; at no point however, did I mean to offend, only to point out that your viewpoint is an almost preclusive one yet you have no direct experience with the subject matter. Otherwise known as a "baseless opinion," and yeah, I find that really interesting particularly coming from a school teacher. Your posts are valuable to me, because I like the input from everyone.

Lovefest? I beg to differ, Mr Ed, and I am disappointed in your sarcasm....astonished (at the sound of the amp, that is) would be a more accurate term. No need for sarcasm here either. Sarcasm is like dynamite in the hands of babies, for the most part. Best not to use it, unless you know how...

I have compared the batTery amp to the SN GC, the GC to theG card, and feel the T amp is of greater service to the music of the two, to these two ears attached to my head. Having said that, I LOVE the sound of the GC, and could easily live with it. Ditto the Music 6.

I spoke to a guy in Germany tonight who has never heard it so good as his hot rod Tripath 2050 chip and Visaton B200 set up. This conclusive opinion after tweaking audio for forty years, he tells me. Another spoke in the kharmic wheel.

[maxwalrath]

Because Paul's signature is so damn cool, I think it's OK to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he didn't hear the ideal set-up. I'm sure he'll get the chance to at the next NY get-together.

Until then, there's probably not much else to say. Did I believe the ClariT could possibly live up to all the hype before I bought it and gave it a long listen with a few different speakers? Not at all, I just hoped it would come close.

Am I disappointed??

I'm probably on hour 250 or so of break in, and to put it mildly, no.

[Bemopti123]

To relax the tone of this posting....

I spoke to Ric Shultz from EVS, the maker of the Ultimate Attenuator.  He is also getting some digital amps online.  In about a 40 minute conversation that branched out from an order I placed for a pair of UAs, he began to speak about the whole line of digital devices that are coming and are being packaged in really affordable components.  He said that in his years of making equipment, there is no greater advance or technological innovation as are the tripath based amps.  He said that even a stock Sony or Panasonic digital receivers could easily compete with tube and SS gear that cost thousands more and not be embarrased.  When they are modded, there is nothing that can beat the accuracy of digital execution.  When I asked him about the honest power ratings of these digital amps, then, he said that that was the catch.  That usually, 500 digital watts would more likely be just 1/2 of that in reality and that power supply design would be key.  So, there is no doubt that Digital is here to stay for good.  

I hope I did not ever state that I have heard the ClariTamp, just something that in its bases is similar conceptually, same chip + battery driven.  Of course it is NOT the ClariTamp.  Call my "idea" of what is sounds like "meta analysis."  

I love my OPchip based amplifier that is 100% battery driven.  The only caveat once again, as it is true with the ClariTamp, carefully speaker matching and decent sensitivity.  

No hard feelings from anyone, except DHM.  I wonder where that Yuppie comment comes from.

Paul from NYC.

[-Richard-]

I feel the need to point out one or two things here.

My involvement with music and audio started as a very young man.
Like many music lovers that stay tuned to these threads I would
like to be able to put together a system that allows the magic and
transcendence of the music to lift me out of the mundane existence
we find ourselves falling into in this complex, demanding and stressful
society that we are plunged into...

Music has the power to transmute us to higher frequencies of
feeling...to an intelligence that is often hidden from us...

I could not find my way through the miasma of the very complex
field of information that is presented to us through audio magazines...
and the amount of products out there is staggering...

When I first met Dan Mason in these august threads I knew I had
met an extraordinarily intelligent, resourceful, imaginative,
and creative music lover that was bent on placing his enormous
aptitude for sustained research and unbending intent to find
the divine among the techno-spheres...musically speaking...

I placed my trust in him and have followed his advice ever since
that fateful meeting and never looked back.

The result...a total shift of paradigms of understanding of what the
technology could do for music...a transformation out of the conditioned
hype that I was unconsciously being hypnotized to respond to and a far
deeper understanding of where the truth really lies...

Dan lifted me out of my dream state and woke me up...and he
continues to keep me awake by his ruthless disregard for the
numbing hype that has most of the audio world immersed in
some form of somnambulistic under sea, pre-conscious state...

Dan is a rather empirical chap...after all...he is a doctor...
life and death and all that...

He tests...he listens...his training as a classical pianist  and
possesing the gift of perfect pitch certainly helps here...
and his ability to dive into and reorder techno-semantics
without drowning makes him a hero in my book...

But most of all...Dan gives his time and energy and
discoveries to us all as a gift...his generosity in my
case is appalling and don't think I don't feel a bit
guilty about it...I do...but then again I am so fascinated
by his fierce unending discoveries that I find myself
ever hungry to learn what he is up to next...for the
sheer exhilaration of it...

So when the good doctor finds something to share with
all of us...and some of the most intelligent and honest
music lovers I have ever met on this august circle are
in accord with his discoveries...well...I say...bravo...
yet again Dan...may the audio gods give you every
help you need to keep up the quest...your integrity
is genuine and for me legendary...and we are oh so
lucky to have you here...

-Richard-

[viggen]

Paul shared his interests and reservations about the ClariT with the only conclusive remark being his wanting to try one out in the near future.   Yet, he's being called a yuppy and a bad educator?  As sarcastic a person as I am, I do not hold a candle to you or HDM GDM or whoever he is.