The new Coda S5.5 amplifier: It's a "Petite Beast"!
I have in-house the New Coda Technologies S5.5 amplifier for review for Stereo Times website. It will be awhile before I write the review. However, I'm so impressed by the performance of this petite amplifier, it only weights 45 pounds, that I wanted to give a heads up to you GON members if you are in the market for a balanced pure class A amplifier, delivers 50 watts @ 8 Ohms, and can drop 100 Amperes of current on a peak!
The world class build quality of Coda amplifiers is on display with the S5.5, along with the most beautiful purity of tonality, precise sound-staging, complete liquidity offered by pure class A design, and what might be the best top end regarding details, decays, and a natural shimmering without brightness or any edge at all.
The S5.5 uses extremely wide bandwidth output transistors instead of the usual TO3 devices used in most transistor designs. I own the Coda #16, which is great, but the midrange/high end is taken to another level of musical enjoyment with the S5.5. The S5.5 has a sense of speed/aliveness that is exciting to listen to that you experience in live music. The amp is dynamic as hell, has driven with ease any speaker I have tried it with, hence my nickname of the "Petite Beast". Remember, 50 watts pure class A, can drop 100 amperes of current and only weights 45 pounds.
Teajay (Terry London)
I know it's an old thread, but I’ve read a ton of glowing reviews about this amp and they’ve definitely got me thinking about buying one for myself. That said, I’m not sure if Coda S5.5 would be able to drive my Joseph Audio Pulsars. The manufacturer recommends at least 60 WPC. Do you think the Coda S5.5, with its 50 WPC and a lot of current, would be enough for them? |
@soix thanks! I've just read a review (https://pt.audio/2020/08/06/joseph-audio-pulsar2-graphene-loudspeakers-review/) with the following information: "The Pulsar2s have a nominal 8-ohm impedance and are easy to drive. While I tried a few different amps on them during the review period, I settled on my Pureaudio Duo2 power amplifier in pure Class A mode (25wpc). This combination was rich and seamless from top to bottom." Anyway, I sent today an e-mail to Jeff, hopefully he will answer anytime soon. Unfortunately there's almost none preowned S5.5 on the market, so I'm thinking of buying a brand new one, so I'd love to be sure before I splurge on it..
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@soix thanks as always, but chances of finding a McCormack/SMC Audio in Europe are pretty slim.
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