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)
@mclinnguy +1, exactly. Coda doesn't advertise in the mainstream rags, making a review highly unlikely even if they were to send them a unit. It's why folks pick Pass over Coda even though Coda sounds about the same or better at far less cost. |
I’m curious how you all think a 5.5 will mate with an Atma-Sphere MP-1 3.3 preamp, which has an output impedance of 20 ohms using the XLR outputs. I love the pre-amp and it mates beautifully with my MA-60s but I’m interested in finding a nice solid state amp for the summer. The A-S mono blocks sound amazing but throw a lot of heat; also, it's fun to have different amp options. I do tend to collect and trade around my amps. |
preamp bal out 20 ohm ; A-S MP-60 bal input 200K ohm factor. 10,000x impedance bridge- Outstanding. preamp bal out 20 ohm: Coda S5.5 bal input 10K ohm factor. 500X impedance bridge- Excellent. Both are quite good but when you have two systems like this to compare, is it possible that in an A-B comparison you might audibly hear a relative difference with the larger impedance differential (MP-60) revealing better signal, tonality, bass, neutrality, more natural sound??? Again both amps independently may sound great but when you have both to compare, and go from one to the other with the same preamp, is this difference in the impedance bridge going to reveal itself audibly? I have experienced such an occurrence; however, that does not mean it is common or even likely for your system or most. You may not know without actually A-B comparing. Perhaps others with more knowledge and experience can elucidate on this subject. We are all aware that there are many other factors as well that can and will likely contribute to sonic differences between the S5.5 and the MP-60 with speaker matching being a key factor. Even with the different preamp-amp impedance bridges, the numerous other differences between the amps coupled with their synergy with the rest of your gear and especially the speakers, may be far more influential on the audio quality than any impedance bridge difference. You have to expect there will likely be an audible difference and should you try the S5.5, hopefully you will find it as enjoyable as the MP-60. From the great reviews on the S5.5, that's entirely a good possibility!
|
20 ohms is probably as low as it gets for pre amp output, and should match from an impedance perspective with any amplifier, balanced or not.
From what we read 1:10 as far as impedance pre output:impedance power input is minimum, and 1:20 is better, but does it get better and better the greater this ratio is? I would "think" after a certain point, maybe 1:30? it doesn't make a difference, so the difference between 1:500 and 1:10,000 is irrelevant, and if one hears a difference it is due to all the other factors between different amps, but I am just throwing random numbers out there and guessing. I am sure there is some pre/amp combo that synergizes very well at 1:15, and there is a 1:500 pre:amplifier combo that sounds like Kakk. And there probably isn't a number that explains this. Maybe we could get a particular engineer to respond and give his answer considering the preamp in question is of his design? @atmasphere ? |
Thanks, guys, I appreciate the responses. The M-60s are incredible amps, made better with all of the tube rolling I have done, but I am currently searching for different options, different flavors, and as I said above, a solid state amp for the summer, when the M-60s heat my listening room. It's nice to have options!
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas all! |
