Please tell me about the Coda Technologies 15.0

I'm afraid that I cannot comment on the 15.0, as I have never heard it. I have owned many audio products over the years, I owned CODA Model 10 and Model 20 amps in the 1990's. After climbing up the almighty audio food chain for many years, I have finally gone back downstream due to the economy. I am living very happily these days with a VAC preamp and CODA Model 11 amp.

I won't bother to say that the Model 11 is the best amp I have ever owned, because it isn't. I will say that it is a very musical amp though, especially for a solid state amp. Yes, certainly not the last word in transparency, but never irritating or aggressive, always pleasant to listen to. Just as I recalled the Model 10 and 20 amps from the 90's. It's one of the reasons I went back to CODA when downsizing.

Glad I could help Joe. The only concern you MAY have is if you plan to run balanced interconnects. I don't know why you would, since VAC's are generally single-ended preamps, but some offer a balanced output (not truely balanced). I believe that the input impedence of CODA amps is VERY low through the balanced inputs. I'm running RCA's with no problems at all. I have the VAC Auricle preamp with built in phono stage. It's not quite as nice as the Renaissance MK II preamp that I previously owned, but it comes close for a lot less $$$.

Which VAC preamp are you using?

12-27-12: Joeinid
VAC Sig IIa. I love it.

Woah! I'd love that too Joe!!!
I don't know if you are aware of it or not, but you can try the CODA 15.0 in your own system on their 14 day home trail period. Click on the 'Home Audition' link on the right side of the page.
They are great guys to work with too (former Threshold engineers), especially Doug Dale, he is very knowledgeable, helpful and reasonable too. There's not too many companies out there that have been in business for over 25 years, who still have a founding engineer answer the telephone when you call.

I've owned a lot of CODA pieces over the years, in addition to the Model 10, 20 and 11 amps, I've also owned their Model 01p and 02b preamps as well as a Model 03p phono preamp. My take on them as a company is that they are very good engineers who are very leery of the marketing wizards. They prefer to just design and munuafacture gear, they are not keen on the 'selling the sizzle' schtick. Perhaps that is why they have been in business for so long but are still a relatively unknown company.

A slightly more obscure company that may also intrigue you is Clayton Audio. I owned a pair of their M-100 monoblock amps a few years ago and they were pretty impressive too. Maybe just a tad more bass slam than the CODA amps, but a tad darker too. The M-200 fall in about the same ballpark price wise as the CODA 15.0

Cheers,
John

Joe, a word of warning, the CODA 15.0 has an input impedence of only 1K in balanced mode, which means that it could potentially have an impedence mismatch with a tube preamp. It seems like Ren is not having an issue with this, maybe he is not running balanced, but it would make me wary of this match up.

CODA's 50K unbalanced input makes for a much easier match up with a tube preamp, but I don't think that you are running your Sig IIa single-ended, are you?

Also look for show demos after the show is over. I've picked up a lot of gear and cables over the years picking up show demos. In fact the year I got that CODA Model 03p phono stage it was a CES demo.

A pair of Clayton Audio M-300 monoblocks just went up for sale used on Audiogon. These are even a rarer find than CODA amps. I don't know the seller, and have no affiliation. I just thought that you may be interested. Clayton amps are about as hard to find used as Klyne preamps.

01-16-14: Audiolabyrinth
@ jmcgrogan2, Hi, why did you get rid of the vac preamp for a cary unit?

More tube bloom. I still love Kevin's VAC gear, but I find that they work best with tube amps. When I switched back to a solid state amp, I decided I wanted more traditional tube sound. The Cary has more tube bloom than the VAC preamp.