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The new Coda S5.5 amplifier: It's a "Petite Beast"!

I have in-house the New Coda Technologies S5.5 amplifier for review for Stereo Times website. It will be awhile before I write the review. However, I'm so impressed by the performance of this petite amplifier, it only weights 45 pounds, that I wanted to give a heads up to you GON members if you are in the market for a balanced pure class A amplifier, delivers 50 watts @ 8 Ohms, and can drop 100 Amperes of current on a peak!

The world class build quality of Coda amplifiers is on display with the S5.5, along with the most beautiful purity of tonality, precise sound-staging, complete liquidity offered by pure class A design, and what might be the best top end regarding details, decays, and a natural shimmering without brightness or any edge at all.

The S5.5 uses extremely wide bandwidth output transistors instead of the usual TO3 devices used in most transistor designs. I own the Coda #16, which is great, but the midrange/high end is taken to another level of musical enjoyment with the S5.5. The S5.5 has a sense of speed/aliveness that is exciting to listen to that you experience in live music. The amp is dynamic as hell, has driven with ease any speaker I have tried it with, hence my nickname of the "Petite Beast". Remember, 50 watts pure class A, can drop 100 amperes of current and only weights 45 pounds.

Teajay (Terry London)

johnah5
paulietunes's avatar
paulietunes
72 posts
 

I’ve been very much wanting to try the Coda S5.5 amp in my system so I recently bought a used one.

My current system is:
Turntables to Aesthetix Rhea Signature phono stage
XLR cables from Rhea to ARC Ref 6 preamp
XLR cables to Pass XA30.8
Fyne F1-8 speakers

I have no complaints at all about this system and I really do love the Pass very much but I was still curious to try the Coda.  I found the XLR cables to be a poor match to the Coda and a quick AI search suggested that single ended connections between the ARC and the Coda would be much better.  From Chat GPT:

Pass Labs XA30.8

  • Input impedance: 50k ohms (balanced and SE)

  • Fully Class A

  • Designed to work well with tube preamps

✅ Excellent match with the ARC Ref 6 — well above the recommended minimum

Coda S5.5

  • Input impedance: 10k ohms (balanced), 50k ohms (SE)

  • Also Class A (first ~10W)

  • Coda tends to be more neutral/analytical than Pass, but impedance is key here

⚠️ Balanced input impedance of 10k ohms is below ARC’s recommended 20k ohms

And indeed after a listening session it was a better match even with very inexpensive SE interconnects.  There’s some wonderful low end grunt and detail with the Coda.

My questions:

To get the most out of the Coda, what would be the best matching SE interconnects?

Are there XLR interconnects that will work well between the ARC and Coda or is that just not a possibility?

While I'm not likely to replace the ARC, is there a better matching preamp to use with the Coda either with SE or XLR interconnects?

Thanks for your guidance!

sim_audio_nerd
76 posts
 

@paulietunes I went from Pass Labs XA30.8 to Coda S5.5. I too have a tube preamp and I am running RCA ICs from my pre to Coda. It’s sounds marvelous (pre prefers RCA).

Loved Pass but Coda is slightly more refined at the top end.

You have wonderful gear and I’m sure your Fynes will do great with Coda amp.

I use Synergistic Research RCAs between pre and Coda. I believe they are silver RCAs and not copper based.

paulietunes's avatar
paulietunes
72 posts
 

@sim_audio_nerd thank you for your thoughts on the amps and the SE interconnects.  

prismvineyards
26 posts
 

Does anyone know if the Coda CB or CP use a linear or switching powersupply? I am unable to find information on their website.

vinylvalet
949 posts
 

Linear.

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