Another audio enthusiast stunned by the sonic impact T amp

ohskigod

got this thing in the mail yesterday. Heard too many good things to at least not give this thing a try. I wanted something small for my office anyway, I figured I couldnt lose.

I got it in the mail, found a 12 v adapter to use in lieu of batteries. I hooked it right up to a Toshiba 3960 (unmodded) with a radio shack gold y cable.

At first, I used my dad's old Carol BX1200 speakers, because I knew them to be fairly high in efficiency. I was flat out stunned at the sound this little amp put out. With the carols, good highs, detailed, not fatiguing. Strong mids (a characteristic of this speaker) and bass I did not expect. Not earth shattering bass, but it made it's presence known. The imaging and soundstage werent exactly top notch, but that is also a characteristic of this speaker.

I switched to my B&W DH550. in short wow accurate, sweet mellow highs in a speaker i usually think is too harsh. great overall flat frequency responce. Imaging and soundstage were downright jawdropping, again, for a ridiculously small amp. Am I giving up my carver amp and platinum amazings? hell no, but I'm gonna have fun with this little amp for a little while

W WALDECKER

ohskigod wrote:

got this thing in the mail yesterday. Heard too many good things to at least not give this thing a try. I wanted something small for my office anyway, I figured I couldnt lose.

I got it in the mail, found a 12 v adapter to use in lieu of batteries. I hooked it right up to a Toshiba 3960 (unmodded) with a radio shack gold y cable.

At first, I used my dad's old Carol BX1200 speakers, because I knew them to be fairly high in efficiency. I was flat out stunned at the sound this little amp put out. With the carols, good highs, detailed, not fatiguing. Strong mids (a characteristic of this speaker) and bass I did not expect. Not earth shattering bass, but it made it's presence known. The imaging and soundstage werent exactly top notch, but that is also a characteristic of this speaker.

I switched to my B&W DH550. in short wow accurate, sweet mellow highs in a speaker i usually think is too harsh. great overall flat frequency responce. Imaging and soundstage were downright jawdropping, again, for a ridiculously small amp. Am I giving up my carver amp and platinum amazings? hell no, but I'm gonna have fun with this little amp for a little while

it is always fun to play with new stuff. this hobby should be about having fun and enjoying music and does not always have to be so serious. sounds pretty cool to me! thanks....WCW III

heiney9

W WALDECKER wrote:

it is always fun to play with new stuff. this hobby should be about having fun and enjoying music and does not always have to be so serious. sounds pretty cool to me! thanks....WCW III

Well said....WW. We should all just stand back once in a while and enjoy the music, be in the moment, instead of constantly trying to find something to improve.

Cheers
H9

faster100

I love my SI amp, its cool, small and sounds good. and looks cool in a new case and led light.. great to hear ya like it, most people do.

ND13

Well, I guess I should take mine out of the damn box then :rolleyes: . I've had it since PFest(thanks Maz), and I've been so caught up with the BIG toys I brought home with me that I haven't even thought about it till now. Now, though, I just got the MLP in, so tonight I'll be playing with it. :cool:

I'm taking this Saturday off, so I think I'll get the SI out of the box, find an adapter and hook it up to some JBLs. I don't think the Advents will like it very much and vica versa.

Thanks for bringing this up Lou.

ohskigod

no prob, side by side that thing with the ASL's. I'm curious as to your opinions on it. he B@W's I ran this on arent very efficient, but still sound great. keep in mind it hits a certain points and then clips. Easy to spot that point though and just back off. not terribly loud, but a surprisingly full sound.

ND13

I'll let you know what I think asap.

gidrah

How is the bass? I've had one for quite some time and am thinking about trying it out in a bi-amp setup with this on the bottom and tubes up top.

ohskigod

interesting. The bass is there, but not earthshattering. accurate though, pretty tight. I might pick up a second one and biamp with my RT55's or, dare I say, my Vandersteen 2c's

faster100

you need a bigger power pack if it clips.. I have a transformer from a 1.2 amp wall wart and a nice mallory cap inline and mine never clips.. matter a fact, with the new passive pre i can crank all the way up and still sounds great.. I did get the clipping on a wimpy wall wart and a small stand alone power supply.. power is key

cmy330go

I was searching for one of these the other day and found a number of places that had it listed for $19 however they all seemed to be sold out. Anyone have a recommendation where I could find one at that price? (or cheaper )

michael_w

Glad to hear you like it. It definatly is a nice amp for the price. I have one that I tore apart and jammed into a different box in with my computer setup. For anyone that still has an un-modded one you can do yourself a huge favor and get some decent binding posts for it. The little spring clips it comes with are absolutly terrible.

reeltrouble1

faster100 wrote:

power is key

Clifford you have become very wise!!!!!

RT1

ohskigod

the adapter I'm using is a 12V 300 Ma, I;m assuming its not ehough, what to I get to give it more juice. I know its gotta be 12 V, what do I need, more Milliamps?

madmax

Best thing to use is one of those small lead acid batteries then just recharge it now and then. I've had a few evenings of astonishment while listening to mine on the SDA-SRS. It has all the sound quality (maybe more) than some high quality amps, just at a much lower power.
madmax

ND13

I bet that litle sob would really sound good with something along the lines of the Klipsch Heritage series speakers, ala KHorns, La Scalas, Cornwalls, and Heresy.

6 wpc into a 104db speaker should be quite loud.

madmax

Yea, actually on other forums that is what people are using them on. With a few mods they claim being right up there with some of the really expensive flea power tube amps.
madmax

faster100

reeltrouble1 wrote:

Clifford you have become very wise!!!!!

RT1

Thanks

madmax

One of my Teac t-amps is for sale on the flea market if anyone is interested. Still new in box. 3 channels at 30wpc.
madmax

ohskigod

I picked up a radio shack 12V 1500ma wall wart (love that term by the way)

what a difference!, not the sound quality, but how much sound it will throw out without clipping at higher volumes as changed dramatically. They now driv my SDA 1b's pretty well, after a couple hours though, it gets a little hot and you can hear some mild high end distortion. this is probably because they are 4 ohm. But the sound quality and sound level from the 1B's amazed me, they must be more efficient then I thought. My dad's Carol's are in the low 90's, I know that, but the volume level on the 1B's was the same, or more, was the SDA 1B's efficiency rating in the low 90's?!?

anyway, still having fun with this thing, just a little bit louder fun with no clipping

faster100

YUP, i ran mine on my 1B's also with the same outcome.. see my thread on my recent project of the passive pre/SI amp it works fantastic and can still be used as a passive pre without the amp section.. Have fun with it

ND13

Aren't the 1Bs rated at 92db?

ohskigod

wouldnt surprise me with the results I got over here

madmax

ohskigod wrote:

They now driv my SDA 1b's pretty well, after a couple hours though, it gets a little hot and you can hear some mild high end distortion. this is probably because they are 4 ohm.

No, it is because the SI is not a common ground amp. Luckily it is not powerful enough to hurt itself. The key would be to use two of them and bi-amp.
madmax

hotwheelman

My son saved his pennys and picked one of these, the only adaptor that we had was about a 300ma and it clips very early so I suspected this was the case that he needs a better adaptor for it, with more guts. Who has the best price and adaptor for the money?

michael_w

I found a 1500 mA adapter at a garage sale for two bucks. If there is ever a flea market or anything check those places. They usually have tons of random wall warts.

ohskigod

madmax wrote:

No, it is because the SI is not a common ground amp. Luckily it is not powerful enough to hurt itself. The key would be to use two of them and bi-amp.
madmax

oooooops!!!!! I should have asked, but if I fried a 30 dollar amp, it wouldnt break my heart

sda 1b's only have one binding post, cant be biamped, unless you have something else in mind I'm just not picking up on. which is probably the case, beacuse you seem to be a friggin genius when it comes to doing stuff to electronics

ohskigod

regarding the 2.00 wall wart
thats alot less than the 20.00 I spent. nice snag!

faster100

either way, 1.5 amp will work wonders....

madmax

ohskigod wrote:

sda 1b's only have one binding post, cant be biamped, unless you have something else in mind I'm just not picking up on. which is probably the case, beacuse you seem to be a friggin genius when it comes to doing stuff to electronics

No, my ignorance on the 1b's. I've never actually used the 1b. I don't think you will fry the SI only because I used mine that way on the SDA-SRS for about 5 hours straight at it's highest output. I knew it was wrong but like you said, who cares.
madmax

ohskigod

well, the biamp is still a cool idea, I cant do it with the SDA 1b, but I can do it with my Vandersteen 2C's.....Hmmmmmmm. wonder what that'll do. they're definitly not as efficient as the 1b's though.