2017 amps - $10K to $15K who is on your short list?

Jim, one of the most interesting and highest performing products you mentioned but nobody replied until now.

We are the East Coast representatives of T+A and in their case you can look at two options the first being their PA 3000 HV integrated which is $18k or one of the their PA 3000 power amplifiers which is $19k so  a bit more but still within the ball park.

The integrated amplifier from the HV series is a remarkable performer, that was recentely compared to $120k, yes that is not a misprint CH Precision's seperate components, in the Absolute Sound, Allan Taffel found that when we switched systems he was having a difficulty telling which one is which.

So if you can't really tell or are having difficulties determining which is better between a $120k worth of fine Swiss gear vs a $18k integrated amplifier I would if I was shopping for electronics want to hear that piece.

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/ta-pdp-3000-hv-cdsacd-player-and-dac/

To give you a few more bits about T+A they are the largest high end company in Germany with 110 full time employees with 10 of those people being full time engineers, MBL, Burmester are 10 person companies.

Why does this matter? The company's name sums it up, Theory plus Application. T+A.

This brand is the number one brand in Germany and because of their size and engineering talent can come up with novel and unique designs that can compare with radically much more expensive gear!

The HV series, stands for High Voltage, and in these designs transistors are run at comparable line voltages to tube designs, T+A  engineers theorized that the reason tubes sound so good and musical was not due to even order harmonic distortion/coloration but due to the increased linearity of a device which occurs at higher  voltages! This is novel and unique thinking.

The result T+A gear has athe smoothness and naturalness of tubes with the speed, clairty, and dynamic punch of solid state as well as their practicallity no noise, and no tube replacements would ever be required.

Their $4,200 dac the Dac 8 DSD has been compared to dacs that cost $10k and more, the dac features novel and unique filtering, and conversion techniques as well.

So if you were to trade in or sell a preamp that you wouldn't need the HV 3000 intergrated might be the perfect solution for you and if you look at the features;

300 watts into 8 ohms, 500 watts into 4 so you will have the power to drive any loudspeaker for now and forever
a phono card option that brings you close to a $6-10k phono preamp for $1800.00
built in room correction and eq options
a completely silient design
a huge three dimensional sound stage
incredible build quality and styling
dynamic transparency with a liquid midrange
fantastic dynamics and a tight punchy bass.
practical size and weight
no noise 
no tube replacement
in the case of the PA 3100 an upgrade path to improved sound by adding an outboard power supply
legendary German build quality and design

and lastely incredible sound quality for a reasonable price point, the HV series integrated has been compared to $120 worth of CH Precison seperates and the upgrade PA 3100 which offers front meters and the option to add an outboard power supply for even greater performance at $21,000 was compared to a $45k Dagastino integrated

http://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/ta-elektroakustik-3100-hv-pdp-3000-hv-sacdcd-p...

So when you add it all up, T+A should be on your short list if you look at what T+A offers for the price, I think you will come to our conclusion that their products represent both a unqiue level of performance and are a remarkable deal for products which can compete with Solution, Dagastino, CH Precision and the very top echelon of audio gear yet is way more affordable at 1/2 to 1/5 the price of the gear they can easily compete with.

Lastly the marriage of T+A with Paradigm is incredible we should know we were demonstrating this system at the New York audio

https://www.facebook.com/rutherfordaudio/photos/pcb.612221115616753/612220672283464/?type=3&thea...

and after the show
showhttps://www.facebook.com/122499304489958/photos/a.122500301156525.22643.122499304489958/138072913200...


Dave and Troy 
Audio Doctor NJ

Jim.

An observation is based on experience, and in this case we have tested many different brands of electronics before we selected the T+A gear. 

We were first criticized for not telling people  in our posts that we are dealers, we initially didn't list any affiliation, now we list our affiliation in every post, the same way that  others dealers also do, and other people also commented that it is only appropriate and now that is also an issue.

Most dealers don't buy products that they don't believe in, and we looked at most of the top tier electronics lines,  if you want to see all of our reasons why we passed on D'agastino, Pass Labs, Vitus, Ayre, Sim, Krell and Levinson, please PM us and we can go over it.

The reason we went with T+A in the first place was Allan Taffel's review in the Absolute Sound, where he compared the T+A integrated amplifier an $18k product, to $120k worth of Swiss gear, and Mr. Taffel was having difficulty determining which he was listening to.  In our mind, wow when did you ever see that?

After reading this review we contacted the importer and got to test this gear for ourselves, believe it or not the T+A was even better than the Thrax gear which is unbelievable gear we were also testing on both our Polymer and Paradigm Personas, we tested the top of the line CJ gear and the T+A was better, we compared the T+A to $120k Krell amps and MBL amplifiers and the T+A was better.

The Positive Feedback reviewer compared the T+A integrated PA 3100HV  $21k vs the $45k Dagastino integrated amplifier and the D'ag unit was't better, different but not better.

When you add it all up, for all the reasons we have mentioned the T+A gear is something really, really special.

Sorry if we come across strongly with our love for this gear I would also say there are other posters on these forums with thousands of posts on a certain brand of speakers that post over and over again about how remarkable this product is and nobody makes a peep.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Jim I can assure you there was no secret agenda in regards to the review and Mr. Taffel keeping the equipment for a year. 

Many reviewers take 2-3 months to write a review and in this case he treated each of the two products as separate reviews so taking six months to a year is a bit long but not insane. 

The how and why Mr. Taffel wrote what he wrote is up to Mr. Tafflel. 

The facts with this line are the facts everyone who reviews the gear goes bonkers over it, so either there is a massive conspiracy with T+A buying reviewers or the stuff is really that good.

Robert Harley stated that the PA 3000 CD is the "best SACD source he has heard."

Mike Lavorgnia in Audio Stream compared the DAC 8 DSD to the DCS Rossini, and the Total Dac which are extremely expensive digital front ends which he did prefer but it was how close the little Dac 8 sounded compared to the big reference digital front ends was interesting. 

Allan Taffel similar $120k worth of CH vs $18k T+A and not hearing much qualitative improvement.

Positive Feedback comparing a $45k Dagastino vs $21k T+A again same thing, double the money not any real improvement 

Musifx a Audigon member bought a T+A 2500r integrated not from us by the way, and was thrilled with the sound and he preferred the T+A over a $12k Pass Labs integrated. 

We never did product reviews on the review side if you think that we should we will be more than happy to write a review, l believe that all these professional reviews are stating the facts about this line.

As per reimbursing someone for visiting our shop from another state if they were to make a purchase we would be more than willing to do so.

As per being on the threshold of ultra high end T+A is not on the threshold it is ultra high end gear, but priced at much more moderate levels, every reviewer seems to say the same thing, that if you compare T+A to the most expensive stuff out there ie the Solutions, Dagastinos, CH Precision, you are going to have a hard time justifying spending double or triple the money so you could kind of say that T+A is a value oriented product. 

If you look at the size of the company they have the advantage of buying in bulk as well as producing all the components including the cases in their own factory, this brings down costs, T+A is a huge company in Germany compared to the rest of the high end audio industry. 

We do recommend that people purchase from their local dealer whenever possible. T+A is just getting reestablished in the US, after a few missteps with distribution, T+A is now going direct to the dealers without a distributor via T+A USA and a new marketing plan.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor nj