very interesting.... $39 amp gets good review

[RGA]

Yeah - I'm not wholly convinced by the review - as I'm unfamiliar with the reviewers - No the reason SET or any low powered amp has trouble with bass is that generally bass and upper treble on an electrostat are very difficult to drive and quite basically need MORE power(as the impedence tends to dip. A 5 watt am - which from the review seems to be what these things really are when driving a meium efficiency speaker 88-90db 8ohm speaker can do the job but if the bass of the speaker dips to 3ohms then the amp needs to provide more power - it can't so instead it flabs or simply ignores it(some tube amps seem to deliberately frequency limit the bottome end so you don't get much bass.

SET amps are generally low powered - The Audio Note OTO for example is rated aat 9 watts so expect 6 watts. I compared it to a high powered Bryston set-up - on a properly designed higher efficiency easy impedence load speaker like mine or the bigger more sensitive E the OTO killed the Bryston. You would not have known it was a tube amp if you judged bass and treble extension.

On less efficient tough impedence(and I don't really get why anyone would want either attribute in a speaker as to me it seems like sloppy design) the OTO would be sucking wind like a 400lb guy running the Boston Marathon. But the SET amps are more linear without notch distortion and without feedback.

here's the problem MOST speakers cannot be properly driven by low powered SET amps properly - if that's the speaker you own then SET is not for you. It's a preference after all and I'm not ttring to convert anyone to it. This is just a reason for why people gfo with SET.

This is from a design team and staunch supporters of SET:

"all transistor amplifiers sound poor for the simple reason that transistors are inferior amplifying devices. The word “semiconductor” really means what it says and it says it all, “half”-conductor, sonically this could be translated to mean half the signal! Which is really what it sounds like. Pure and simple, transistors are highly un-linear and need a lot of correction (feedback of some sort) to have a bandwidth wide enough to be able to reproduce any music signals, they are not natural voltage amplifiers. Likewise both the pentode or tetrode requires corrective feedback to lower the load sensitivity and improve bandwidth, they are less un-linear than transistors being high impedance devices that require matching from an output transformer. Thus they sound better when used well, especially when used single-ended or in pseudo triode mode by connecting the grids together. Pentodes and tetrodes are more efficient (give higher static power) and much cheaper than triodes, this price advantage is paid for in poorer linearity and therefore overall open loop power bandwidth and load stability, nature always gives with one hand and takes with the other!

Directly heated triodes on the other hand are highly linear amplifying devices, the directly heated triode is the original voltage amplifier, the first, only and still the best, it responds well to better circuits, components and materials, but they are less efficient and more expensive than pentodes and tetrodes. Thus they require efficient speakers, with power output being at a premium price."

Having heard it in real life I agree 100% with what they say - HOWEVER and it's a huge however - you NEED the speaker that suits them - otherwise thay can be truly HORRIBLE sounding - and I mean horrible.

I found a few places on the selling em for $29.99US. So if I get em to ship regular mail i might give it a try - but I'm asking around for more opinions first. I'm not sure I like this idea that one is supposed to use a portable cd player - this would imply the reviewers don;t think you can do better than portable cd players - so they are suspect IMO. Still the portability of the thing is kinda of nice in itself and if it's no better than $30.00 well hell - hook some getto speakers to it and take it to the beach.

[corwin99]

I hope you find someone to send you it cheap. Right now i am using it to power a pair of DIY Tang Band full range drivers i slapped together as computer speakers. I tried it with almost all the speakers i have (about 5 pairs) and it seemed to work the best with the Klipsch RB5's, which are 96db sensitive, but can hit 3ohms of impedence. Digital amps handle it well, SETs don't. Maybe we can melt some transformer coils

Its doing okay with the Tang Bands. Does image very well though, and has pretty good detail... something i wish my main amp had more of. Time to change.. but car audio has taken precedence for the moment.

The only SETs i've heard are some really expensive Cary ones in Hong Kong earlier this year. They were hooked up to these MASSIVE horns. I wasn't able to compare the sound to this little sonic impact. I did open the sucker up and its got like nothing in it. Most of the space is Battery compartment. Reminds me of the TEAC Legacy Digital amp. After hearing what the Teac can do i somewhat regret this purchase. I could have gotten the Teac for $100US at jr.com which is really reasonable.

[psonic]

I have one, and its already in Nanaimo

HUH? Not sure what you mean by this, corwin99.


RGA, you can get a 1/8" phono (diskman jack) to L R RCAs adapter at Rat Shack. I have one, so I can use any player. I had it running off my Rotel CD You seem unsure about spending the ~ $40 for the T-AMP plus the adapter needed. Send me a PM and we can discuss shipping it to you for review. It would be cool to spread the word about it...if it's only half as good as the review says it is.

All interested, Rat Shack 1/8" to RCA adapters:
http://www.radioshack.com/search.asp...p=search&SRC=1

[corwin99]

HUH? Not sure what you mean by this, corwin99.

What i meant is, I own a Sonic Impact T-Amp, and i live in Nanaimo, where RGA is, and I could lend it to him if he wanted to try it out, rather than have you ship one out to him.

[psonic]

My bad corwin99, I completely missed your earlier post. Small world out here on the WWW...I am probably 4000 miles away, though! Very generous of you. This seems like the easiest way for him to audition one. Reading his reviews and considering his speaks, he is a perfect candidate. Do you have the RCA adapter?

As for your sound quality, the amp is supposed to have a 1500mah transformer (see http://www.si-5.com/). I have mine hooked to an 800mah (to save batteries) and I notice it clips too, just driving the included little speaks. It may need 1500? It does not clip with batteries.

RGA, you have a friendly neighbor here! Why don't you see if you can arrange pickup so we can get some feedback on it running the AN speaks...

[corwin99]

dang.. 1500! no wonder. I never bothered trying it with batteries... I figured 1000mah would be enough, not to mention it was the largest one i could find on Partsexpress without going to a more expensive actual outboard power supply. Maybe i will re-evaluate it with some Batteries.

I actually have lots of those 1/8" to RCA adapters.. i dunno how i ended up with them, but i have 3. I had a passive Preamp from CIAudio hooked up to it for a while, but i think there was better tonal balance using the internal pot, even tho it was lower quality. I'm in the process of building my own passive preamp with a Noble Pot and Tantalum Resistors at the moment, but i still need to order the case/chasis for it. I'll want to try that with the Sonic Impact.

I'm on the site looking for the specs as to the mA required for the Powersupply and i can't find it.. where did you see it? I do seem to recall Alkalines don't do so well drawing current... but that's compared with NiCD and NiMH rechargables used in RC Cars that can output up to 30Amps! Talk about a hot battery O_O

[psonic]

Yea some NiMH would be nice. They have over 2000mah, thats another good idea. Looking around the web, the 1500mah adapters are almost as much $ as the amp!

T-Amp adapter (actually says 1.5a)
http://mindfireis.com/cgi-bin/PnGC/P...oduct_category