Butler TDB 5150 Amp -- Anyone hear this yet?


Trying to do some homework on new amps. This has a couple great reviews, but I haven't seen many posting regarding it on this site. Just wondering what people think who have heard it.
billyb

Showing 4 responses by paltomare

I too love this amp. It really makes my Martin Logan's come alive. Much more so than a Sunfire I had which was rated at twice the power. Detailed and Dynamic is how I would describe it. One side note, I bought a store demo and it has developed a buzzing sound after a short period of playing. Butler is trying to determine the cause as of this writing.
Nothing to report just yet, haven't heard from BK yet, he's had the amp only a week though. He thought it may not have had the upgrade. By the way, been a member for about 9 months, oh and I'm having a Newcastle right now, yummy.
Update on the buzzing Butler. I got it back last week. They replaced the power transformer, installed the rectifier cooling upgrade and re-biased the amp. The amp has been running great ever since. Upon connecting it back into my system I still heard a slight buzz, so over the weekend I disconnected every component and discovered it was coming from my cable signal passing through my processor onto the amp. I now run the cable signal through a filter and all is silent. The oddest thing is that neither the Sunfire or Denon I had hooked up reproduced that buzz. So this story has a happy ending, Butler is a great company and makes a wonderful product. Not sure why it is not more popular.
BK told me my amp, serial #--10, is one of the earlier 5150's produced. I beleive the upgrade is for the earlier models just to allow them to run a bit cooler. I didn't think it ran excessively hot anyway. Replacing the power transformer cured the buzz. Mine was a store demo and even though it looks flawless who knows how it was treated. They are built like a tank though and sound great. Hope to have mine for many years. Nice chatting with you Robin, time for another Newcastle and some tunes....Paul