Sophia Electric Baby Integrated Amplifier
Just couldn't get my back-horn loaded full-range single driver speakers sound good with my SS gear and one of these puppies came up for sale at a decent price so I pulled the trigger. Its a special order push//pull version rated @ 10wpc into 8 ohms in Class A, with two line inputs, a headphone input and binding posts for both 4 and 8 ohm speakers. Its also on a larger/wider chassis with the tubes spread out. Four power tubes and a pair of signal tubes. Its a lot more substantial than I expected and weighs a good 20+ lbs. As for the sound, I was really impressed. Nice lush and balanced sound top to bottom with significantly more bass that is tight and tuneful when compared to my previous100wpc SS amplifier. And it runs real hot which I assume is typical of Class A circuit. The previous owner only had it for five months and a real nice gearhead guy but just wanted to go a different route and had a lot of experience with Sophia Electric gear. He convinced me that upgrading the capacitors will take this Baby to another level. Well, I just could not resist the curiosity so only after a week of ownership I bit the bullet and swapped the no name four capacitors. Took about hour and half and I was extra careful. He recommended the Jantzen Z-Superiors and that's what I ordered. Much larger than the stock ones but no issue plenty of room inside. Right out of the box, the sound is a bit more detailed, the soundstage appears more defined, especially the depth. I let them bake with the CDP on repeat for a couple of days off and on and both the bass and midrange have opened up quite a bit already. This is my system upstairs in a smallish room and gets occasional evening/late night use and usually at moderately low volume and mostly vinyl. I'm actually in the process of gradually replacing my old SS gear in this system (except the turntable for now). I have a Modi Multibit and Mani phono preamp (with Swagman LPS) on the way. I think I'll be set for a bit until I get to tend to the turntable/cartridge.
Anyone else out there with a Baby?
