The new Coda S5.5 amplifier: It's a "Petite Beast"!

@soix thanks as always, but chances of finding a McCormack/SMC Audio in Europe are pretty slim.

@paulietunes You wrote in your post that the Coda S5.5 is "class A first 10 watts"

Coda S5.5 is actually 50 watts class A

8 ohm = 50 watts (50 watts class A).

4 ohm = 100 watts (40 watts class A).

I've got a message from Jeff saying that the power produced by the Coda S5.5 should be sufficient to drive the Pulsars.

 I found the XLR cables to be a poor match to the Coda 

This is such an interesting hobby at times. I found the exact opposite, I recently bought this amp used, and for one day I listened to the S5.5 with XLR from DAC to preamp, and RCA from preamp to Coda. Was okay, but disappointing to be honest, and sounding inferior to my $3000 300B amp- not just the expected midrange but with the bass and high frequency details as well. 

I simply switched the same interconnects around; put the RCA’s between DAC and PRE, and the XLR’s between PRE and S5.5 and this is a completely different amplifier, for the better, and more in line with the glowing accolades described in this thread. Without naming brands the 3 sets of cables going into the amp retail for the same amount as the S5.5. 

With the first setup I wouldn’t buy this amp for $3000, in the second configuration it sounds like a > $10,000 amplifier- and I own the Coda 15.5. 

The EAR 868 pre I am using currently has an output impedance of 600 ohms, so this 10000 XLR/600 = 16 to 1 ratio and for RCA 50000/600 = 83 to 1. The theory states a minimum 10 to 1 ratio for amplifier to preamp impedance, which I have with XLR, but in the case of ARC and others claiming the closer one can get to 20:1 the better, so on paper RCA looks like the way to go, but in my case this is irrelevant. If someone can see some other factor in play, please enlighten me: I was thinking perhaps the RCA’s have never been used on this amp previously so they require a little burning in? Perhaps the EAR is much better with RCA’s? I have no idea. 

I ran this by Doug and he was baffled, the XLR should have a wee-bit better S/N ratio, and be a little (3db) louder, but otherwise he states there should be very little difference. The difference I hear is well beyond this. As I write this it is very early in the morning, so I am currently listening at 49db, and I am getting pristine low level detail and deep rich nuanced bass- this was not the case with RCA’s at 75db.

Just goes to show to get the full picture with a piece of audio equipment you gotta try different permutations, and quick demo’s can be misleading. Yes, this is a wonderful amplifier and I plan to own it for a very long time. 

Thanks for the thread @teajay 

@mclinnguy so true that in this hobby there is no right or wrong. One simply has to try different things and trust his ears!

I had the EAR 868 preamp before but I didn't have the Coda then. Now I'm thinking about how good the EAR and Coda would sound. I miss that preamp!