Hey, this thread is extremely quiet today! I shall start the ball rolling again by posting my short review (in heeding Jazzy's suggestion that I do so)

I finally assembled my own T-amp today although it is still yet to be fitted into its wooden casing. I made a power wire with some AWG26 multi strands wires (doubled and twisted per side) soldered to a DC male connector for use with my computer-notebook-styled 12VDC 2.5A SMPS. I then proceeded to de-solder out the 3-pins input connector from the T-amp board, thoroughly sucked away all the stale solder and cleaned the 3-holes area with paint thinner before soldering in a pair of Neutrik RCA-plugs plus a 50KΩ (Vishay-Dale resistors) 24-steps attenuator.

I connect the T-amp to a pair of Q-Acoustics 1010 bookshelf loudspeakers (sitting directly on the wood flooring) with some el-cheapo hotwires. Source is a sub RM200 mass-market LG DVD player. After ensuring all connections are proper, I powered up the T-amp, hit the play button on the DVD machine and waited eagerly. No sound, the whole setup is dead quiet, no hum, no buzz – either a very good sign indeed or I may have wired-up the whole thing wrongly somewhere. Momentary suspense. I cranked up the volume and now the sound comes about, softly at first but gradually turns louder as I turn the knob of the attenuator. Great!

What did I hear?
- Initial impression is a well defined and clean sound with highs a little lacking and some boom to the lower mid / upper bass region. Nothing spectacular as yet.
- Midway playing the third CD, I began to notice both macro and micro dynamics have improved significantly with great swing from the quietest passage to loudest passage. The forceful rendition of voice by a female vocalist, her breathing with sound of her lips parting came out so well pronounced.
- Playing the fourth CD (a female vocalist rendering some 90s pop songs in jazz style), timing and rhythmic swings are thought to be great. Sibilance associated with this CD is almost all still there. Hey, wait a minute, bass digs deeper now with boom less than earlier.
- Tonality / tonal balance and timbre of acoustical instruments are thought to be good. Liquidity of vocals, a sign of great midrange, however, could not be attained, probably a limitation of playback through a DVD player rather than the T-amp.
- Scale of image is big, yet to position speakers properly to try out the 3-dimensional sound staging capability of the T-amp.

After listening through the setup described above, I opine that the T-Amp (with TA2024 chip) is a well-designed amplifier and in stocked form, it would easily surpass the sound quality of many entry level integrated amplifiers, my former Sony TA-F5000 (with some very good Japanese internal parts) included. Probably, after some modifications (change of few critical SMDs to decent-grade capacitors, resistors and inductors), its sonic qualities would be raised to greater heights with it sounding more relaxed and without altering its already good attributes.

And here are 2 associated photos:





Stay tuned, more follow-ups in due course!



This post has been edited by Y.C.: Sep 6 2008, 06:53 PM

Jazzy,
I agree with your observation that the 'pop' could be due to the in-rush current /(charge) to the input caps. The caps are also not discharging fast enough during powering down. In most commercial amps, a relay would be employed here to solve the problem. By temporary disconnecting the speakers during powering on and later re-connect them MAY harm the T-amp as there is no load at speaker ends during powering up/down.

Some commercial amps also do have similar 'pop' sound during powering up/down, eg. my Simaudio Moon i-3 and Exposure 2010S. The lack of a relay is to ensure their signal path is cleared of items not benefiting how the amp will eventually sound. And the solution is to keep the amp permanently powered up as the amps will be kept fully warmed-up and ever ready to sound good during play and prolong the lifespan of electronics in caps, resistors and inductors. More wear and tear during powering up/down.


Ongbs,
Thanks.


Gabanyayaya,
Thanks on compliment on wooden casing. I like natural woods but most people will actually look at the issue here as it is people like me who caused more trees to be felled.

continuing with What did I hear? (Post 1011)

- Details through the T-amp playing at moderate level is good; sound of people talking, glasses clicking and sound of cash register at the background of beginning of Limehouse Blues (track 1) of Jazz at the Pawnshop 1 come out crystal clear. (When this track was played through a mid price Marantz integrated amp few years’ back, a friend had sarcastically asked me whether we were actually listening to silent music! ) Listen also to the ending passage of Randy Crawford’s Diamante to a dog barking and sound of waves hitting on shores in the background of Priscilla Chan’s chiqingyiwai.

- Bass – a lot of energy in this region but its definition is still vague at this juncture; the T-amp needs more hours to be run-in. However, I must admit with good recordings, the definition of bass is all there and well defined.

- Treble – Extended yet not harsh and ragged sounding.

- Overall, the T-amp is sounding much more musical and relaxed now after 8 hours of playing music non-stop compared to when it was just powered up for the first time. Its well-timed rhythmic swing and slightly forward sounding midrange certainly makes listening to music through it addictive enough to me in not wanting to stop listening to more. Currently, I am listening to Jazz in the Pawnshop - great music sounding even better through the T-amp!




This post has been edited by Y.C.: Sep 7 2008, 12:14 AM

Hehe, on subject of tree-cutting, if everyone of us do not buy wood products, box included (no demand), more trees would not need to be felled (supply to meet demand).

As far as I know on T-amp, there is no need for grounding and Charlize supposedly sounds better when placed in a wooden casing than a metal box.


Wow, at the background, music from Jazz at the Pawnshop is sounding so un-digital-liked, in fact I would say it is almost close to analogue.

Jazzy,
The pleasure is mine. Thanks for your compliment but honestly speaking you actually did it better than me.
This is our passion and fine art of sharing (not being stingy in imparting what we know and how we feel). We also picked up at lot from other forums which we are not contributing members. Ever wonder whether any local audio magazine would be interested in engaging us as their part-time reviewers?

Yes, I fully agree that I need to let the sound of stocked T-amp fully sink into my mind so as to appreciate and able to tell the improvements brought about by each modification later on.

Wow, how much did you pay for the Elnas? Are they Elna Cerafine 2.2uF? Good stuff

This post has been edited by Y.C.: Sep 7 2008, 12:08 AM

My T-amp has till this very moment clocked 11 solid hours of playing music non-stop since 14.25 on Saturday and it's time for me to hit the sack. Goodnight all.

Further update: My T-amp has clocked approximately 20 hours at 22.00 on Sunday, still a long way to go before it is fully run-in though. It now sings much better and sounds more beautiful than yesterday and by right I should let it alone to continue to sing. However, the curiosity to tweak got the better of me and armed with my soldering iron, I removed the 4 capacitors on board. I replaced the input caps with a pair of Vishay 2.2uF 63V polypropylene capacitors and as for PSU caps, with a pair of Panasonic FM series 1000uF 16V electrolytics.

How did the changes in caps affect the sound of my T-amp? I will come back to this shortly after describing the pair of bookshelf speakers I have paired with my T-amp. Q-Acoustics 1010, to me, have almost perfect highs and midrange which are seamlessly integrated and at its selling price, second to none. Their setback though, is they do not have ‘any’ bass to speak of and they do not throw a big soundstage like many other loudspeakers. Being a midrange guy, I could easily accept their shortcomings and live with them.

I had initially placed the pair of loudspeakers sitting directly on the wooden flooring in my bedroom. After a couple of hours of listening to music through them on Saturday afternoon, my ears could no longer tolerate the hardness and ‘overpowering’ bass I was getting from them. I had also mentioned with normal recordings, bass definition of T-amp is a little vague.

After the capacitors change, I only hear subtle differences and not those between day and night. First, the hardness and ‘overpowering’ bass I was hearing through the stocked caps are now gone. Bass is now softer with bass lines more well defined (less of the mini-compo effect in bass I thought I was hearing at times earlier). I thought this is how my Q-Acoustics 1010 should actually sound.

I also thought the highs now sounded more refined and slightly airier and midrange especially in vocals sounded slightly less forceful than before. Is it better? Hmmm, ……


Gabanyayaya, welcome to TAFC

Previously, I had asked whether the midrange and highs of my T-amp are really better after the caps change by me? I have listened to several more CDs since then and my answer now is an undisputed YES. Vocals sound airier, livelier and less forceful (hardness in midrange greatly reduced). I would think a CD player proper would be required in my setup to totally remove any hardness remaining. The overall sound now is a touch lighter compared to before.

My latest CD used to test vocals and resolving-ability of amplifiers is Il Divo’s first album (Sony BMG 828766765427) where ‘Unbreak My Heart’ is the first track therein. This is a non-audiophile CD and I only owned a local-pressed copy. With most amplifiers, this CD would sound rather noisy as Il Divo is a group comprising of 4 male soprano singers brought together by Simon Cowell (yes, the outspoken judge of American Idol). After the caps change in my T-amp, Il Divo sounded very very close to what I am hearing through my Simaudio Moon i-3 integrated amp and this is really unbelievable as resolving ability of my T-amp now has surpassed that of Exposure 2010S integrated amp, an amplifier being retailed at RM4,300 and a Stereophile Class A component.

In concluding my series of review (read also earlier Posts 1011, 1017 and 1046), I would say even in its stocked form, the T-amp kit at RM55 (throw in another RM100 or so for some decent RCA plugs, speaker binding posts, wires, a volume potentiometer and casing) is a great sounding amp and giant killer. If any of us are on the lookout for an amplifier, it would be almost a sin not to explore and consider picking up the T-amp. Without comparison, many of us would be pleasantly surprised, charmed and could happily live happily with its sonic qualities.

Its performance could be better improved by caps change, especially the input capacitors. There would be no clear answer as to which brand and model of caps is the best as each of us actually listen to and seek different things in audio. No doubt very expensive ‘boutique caps’ would bring about greater improvements to the T-amp's sound, they are beyond my consideration as I myself seek for the greater bang for ‘RM’ spent.


Xtorm,
You had asked about the sound staging capability of the T-amp. Currently, I positioned my loudspeakers 3 feet apart from one another, each sitting on a stack of magazines and books. And within this setup, yes, I hear the T-amp image well, vocals well fleshed out (as opposed to cardboardy sound) with decent sound staging within the setup. I would think it would not be any lesser than most other amplifiers. I will comment again on this area much later after I have fitted my T-amp into its casing proper and after listening to it within the confines of my main listening system.

Jazzy,

It'll be quiet here without having you around, take care and Bon Voyage, bro.

Yes, I've concluded my preliminary review on the T-amp, will add anything I've missed out from time to time.

Xtorm,

Thanks for the compliment. I suppose my review (in 4 parts) is a little too long; it was written for the purpose of sharing with all as many a times, most of us tend to pre-judge a product without really hearing it and in this case the great-sounding T-amp. With it, I hope any misconception of it could be put to rest.

Hey, I thought you need those Vishays fast to tweak your T-amp and post comments on improvements to its sonics so we could follow suit, no?

I also suppose I am the guilty chap who took the T-amp a bit too seriously, ya? Hahaha ……

Well said, Ijan.

Xtorm,

Before Exposure Co Ltd demand for a sound-off between my T-amp against their 2010S integrated amp, I’d better qualify myself properly. What I’ve written in Part 4 of my review was "…this is really unbelievable as the resolving ability of my T-amp has now surpassed that of Exposure 2010S integrated amp, a Stereophile Class A component currently being retailed at RM4,300."

Exposure 2010S integrated amp’s power output is 75W into 8Ω / 150W into 4Ω whereas our T-amps are only capable of outputting 7W into 8Ω / 10W into 4Ω (or at best 15W into 4Ω). Exposure amps are very suited for rock music and will drive many average sensitivity loudspeakers to head-banging levels whereas the same could not be said of our T-amps unless loudspeakers used are high sensitivity ones, say 92dB/1W and above.

I’m not into rock music and rarely played my system loud. I had used an Exposure amp before to play all other genres of music at moderate level and here’s where I opined that the T-amp (at least my very own version with a step attenuator) beats the Exposure amp at the resolving ability department. A lot of other commercial amps tend to sound coarse (or noisy) when complex music like Mahler’s Symphonies or multiple voices are played and that’s reason why certain audiophiles only go for closed-mic single vocalist or simple solo acoustic pieces. Remember some who only listened to CaiQin and other 'slow-slow' type of music? Owners of T-amps need not restrict their music to such unless of course they themselves so choose to.




This post has been edited by Y.C.: Sep 9 2008, 12:00 AM

Oh yes, if you read my 4 parts review, you'll notice that I mentioned in Post 1011, "...timing and rhythmic swings are thought to be great". I have also written "Its well-timed rhythmic swing and slightly forward sounding midrange certainly makes listening to music through it addictive enough for me in not wanting to stop listening to more......." in Post 1017.

I'd say the T-amp does PRaT extremely well and music will make more sense to us.

PRaT is short for Pace, Rhythm and Timing.

No doubt Naim gears are always associated with PRaT, some people actually shun them as they also tend to sound harsh too, myself included.

Even for slow songs, when PRaT is done right, we'll be able to follow the piece of music better than with those equipment which fail terribly in this area. Here you are, an article by Martin Colloms on Pace, Rhythm and Dynamics: PRaD which will explain PRaT a little clearer.



This post has been edited by Y.C.: Sep 9 2008, 11:01 AM

Wow, Jazzy, although you're away, you're actually more alert and posted more comments than anyone of us. I was in my office the whole of yesterday and now feeling the effect of being fully drained, still staying awake to do some catching up with my T-amp. The sound is unbelievably good; my 86dB/1W/1m tiny Q Acoustics 1010 doesn't sound like small loudspeakers at all! How so arh?

And now you're contemplating making one GC amp? What if it turns out marginally better than T-amps? Ditch them all? It'll be a shame!

---

Added on September 10, 2008, 12:26 amXtorm, would you believe me if I were to tell you my T-amp sounded better than my Simaudio Moon amp in certain areas? Can't really pinpoint but I think it is the directness of T-amp's sound.

This post has been edited by Y.C.: Sep 10 2008, 12:26 AM

No further development at my end here after changing the input and PSU caps. I only managed to listen to it for 3 hours after finishing the job at approx 11.00PM Sunday night; no listening on Monday until 2 hours ago. In the meanwhile, I kept the T-amp fully powered on. I think I'm really badly poisoned by it now.

And I think it's a good thing (in keeping our earth green) as the T-amps consumes so little energy, emits minimal heat, is so small and hence requires little resources in metals to make them.

On proposal to do away with input caps for T-amps, I notice the current version of Charlize (TA2020) are without any input caps and diyparadise claimed as a result of this, Charlize is even more transparent sounding and they managed to eradicate the slight pop sound during switching on. Perhaps we should explore how they actually did it and apply it onto our T-amps.

I'd suspect GC could be slightly better based on overall comments by majority.

I'm dealing with deadlines in my work so can't avoid working longer hours than usual during certain time.

Ya, in a short while, I just looked at myself in the bathroom mirror and I certainly don't look good.

Agreed with you there is no end in chase to perfection in sound, however out of curiosity, diyparadise states the following on Charlize in their website:

No input coupling capacitor
Save your precious moolah! Some time after we sent Charlize to TNT Audio, we then upgraded the input capacitor from Elna Cerafines to Non-Polarized Black Gates. But now, eliminating this cap improves the sound even further! Less component in your signal path leaves you closer to your music.
[*sob*sob* yeo is going to lose out on mundorf cap sales. but hey, see what lengths we go for your sonics?]
No turn-on 'pop' noise
Yup, without the input cap, there's no charging of cap during power up. Thus, no more "power up pop". Just a soft 'tick' sound. Yeah, our girl purrrrrrsssss...
Various tweaks
Added some nice tweaks here and there to the new design that reduces electrical switching noise. Definitely not obvious to you but if we say there is so, then there is!

So why go through all the hoolah? The fuss? The work? The whole rigmarole?
For a more beautiful Charlize, you dummy!
How about better highs? More details? Hey, who wouldn't welcome a more revealing Charlize into their homes?





This post has been edited by Y.C.: Sep 10 2008, 01:27 AM

Hi, ongbs, you sleep late too. Jazzy is good with words and I laughed when I read " ...otherwise we'll go from obsession to insanity! "

Hahaha, burning the T-amp actually no need to blast it kaw kaw one, normal volume will suffice, unless you youself like to listen to music real loud. I think it's pretty normal for our wives to prefer more peaceful and quieter environment.

Good morning, all.

Xtorm, have all of your batch 3 stocks been snapped up, could spare me just one pc?

Yup, this ekool chap didnot even comment anything; wonder why he quoted me?

If all fully booked, it's okay-lah, batch 4 may be a bit long to wait, let's see how it goes, will let know in due course.

Yet to check, merely concuring with fact that he didn't comment on anything nor expresses any thoughts.

Jazzy, you in S'pore or any neighbouring countries? Do pick up more softwares as they're cheaper there.