It appears Terry is no longer monitoring this thread but I wanted to ask two questions of the Coda "crew" that have responded to various posts. I see references that this amp doesn't run very hot. I have a First Watt F8 and was curious as to if the Coda S5.5 would run a bit cooler. Also the reponses indicate that running this amp with a tube preamp would be a great pairing. I have a Modwright LS 99 balanced preamp that may be a nice match. Any thoughts?
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)
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@fthompson251 Thanks for the quick response re the heat generation! I had the impedance question on my list and will ask Dan at Modwright .... it was a good reminder. |
I can also confirm that the S5.5 does not get hot, but simply warm. I had a 4+ hour session yesterday and I actually felt the top of the amp as I was turning it off and yep... just warm. I have mine mated to an Aric Audio Motherload XL tube preamp and I believe it is a very good match. I'm using XLRs for all my connections. A tangential question to all the owners out there... I'm seeing a number of S5.5's on the used market over the last couple of months. What gives? Are folks tiring of this amp, finding something better, or maybe just have new case of upgrage-itus. I know I'm happy with my setup and have no idea what I'd replace it with if I was so inclined. |
@jceahodges I've tracked the model 8 and 5.5 for a while now. There was a point when there were few new 5.5 units, then few used units, people try them for a while as the "new model", and/or decide to try other amps and hoping for better speaker matching. Many different reasons and it can be hard to make sense of it some times. There are people who also rotate amps on this site like crazy, trying everything out that is next, new, whatever. Then in good time, they move on to the other next/new thing and not always for great reasons - sometimes it's just something else to do once a year seems to be the average with gear-rotators. |
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