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

tabl10s,

Looks are incredibly subjective of course, but I find the CODA S5.5 to be very appealing. The performance of the S5.5 is stellar, and aolmrd1241 said......you'll be missing out on an amazing sounding (and relatively inexpensive for what you get) amplifier. I'm excited every day to put on a new CD and listen to the CODA/Caladan pairing.....a great match

Hey aolmrd1241 and vthokie83,

You guys are so right on in your remarks regarding the looks and performance of the S5.5. I have been reviewing for close to 15 years and this amplifier charmed this "jaded" reviewer. And to think how many SS amps I have had in for review that cost over 20K that did not even come close to the performance (such as Dagostino - Boulder) of the "Petite Beast" which is such a bargain at its price!

Teajay

Hey Everybody,

Just wanted to share that I have tested the S5.5 with another speaker I have in for review. Two points here:

1) I have now tried the S5.5 with 5 very different types of speakers and it drove all them superlatively/effortlessly with great musicality.

2) The new speaker I have in-house for a StereoTimes review is Aric's (AricAudio) first commercial design called the Spectre 12. He has been working on this speaker for over 8 years to get it where it is now. Where it is now is mind blowing! It is large stand mount which weights around 80 pounds, six drivers, front ported, Baltic birch cabinet, is 8 ohms and rated at 96 dB efficiency, and goes down to 30 Hz and up to around 30 KHz because of its ribbon tweeter. I'll be writing a review on the AricAudio two chassis reference 2A3 SET amplifier in conjunction with his new speaker. The point I'm trying to make here is that Aric's speaker sounds wonderful with his own great SET amplifier. However, the S5.5, on these speakers sounds like a SET on steroids, retaining the beautiful harmonics/tonality of the 2A3 tube and adds on the drive and dynamics of solid state high current delivery. The S5.5 and Aric's new speaker is a killer combo! You GON members who own AricAudio tube based gear owe it to yourself to hear these speakers being driven by Aric's own amplifiers.

Teajay

Today marks 3 weeks since my amp order was received by Coda, the wait is killing me.  Maybe next week. 🙏

Have had my S5.5 for about 10 days now and wanted to post my impressions after letting it break in a bit.  I have the S5.5 plugged into an UberBuss with a Revelation Audio Labs silver power cord.  I am using a Lumin T2 streamer going into a Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE DAC.  My Accuphase E-380 integrated amplifier is acting as the pre-amp.  It only has RCA out so that is how it is connecting to the S5.5

Speakers are Spatial Audio M4 Sapphire open baffle (90db, 4Ohm)

Initial thoughts were that the Accuphase had a better mid-range while the S5.5 had a better lower and upper range.  After listening for several days and a lot of listening to both I have changed my opinion slightly.  I feel that the mid-range on both are roughly the same, meaning they are both Excellent!  I would say the Accuphase has good lower and upper ranges and an Excellent mid-range.  The S5.5 is Excellent across all 3 ranges.  Because of this the mid-range in the Accuphase stands out when you listen to it because it is the star of the show.  Not so with the S5.5, the lower range is keeping pace with the mid-range and I would say the upper-range is the star of the show on the S5.5.

If I were to rate on a scale of 1-10 I would rate them like so:

Accuphase - Lower (7) Mid (9) Highs (7.5)

S5.5 - Lower (9) Mid (9) Highs (9.5)

The S5.5 does everything the Accuphase does and then improves upon it.  The background is blacker, more detail and slightly wider and deeper soundstage.  I am extremely pleased with this purchase and would like to thank Terry and everyone else for this thread!