I set up my Super T-Amp this weekend. It was attached to my PowerMac via a really old Onkyo USB DAC. The speakers of choice for this setup were the $40 a pair Polk Audio R15s. I marveled at the sound and my cheapness. By the way, I plugged my Super T-Amp into my Kill-A-Watt. It measured 2 watts while playing music…loud. In off position, it measured 1 watt.
I’ve been wanting a replacement Class-D amp like the Pop-Pulse T40i for a while now. In my research I discovered a company I’ve never heard of, Nuforce. They make high end hi-fi gear. We’re talking about $5,000 for a pair of mono-amps. They also make this $250 desktop amp I now want, the Nuforce Icon, bringing high-end sound to the masses.
It is so great for so many reasons.
- Only $250. Or $200 for the special introductory offer.
- Built-in USB DAC.
- Built-in headphone amp.
- A true integrated amplifier. You can switch between 3 different sources: USB, RCA, and 1/8″ mini.
- Can be used as a preamplifier.
- Can be used to biamp if you have two.
- Looks cool. Reminds me of the Naim NAIT 3 I always wanted.
- Some great reviews already. Check this one out at 6moons in particular.
- It uses Cat-5 cables as speaker cable. Weird.
- SPDIF would have been nice.
A few years ago Sonic Impact came out with a $30 amplifier that shook up the hi-fi market. It was compared favorably against amplifiers that cost thousands of dollars. It became so popular, Sonic Impact came out with another version, the Super T-Amp, using better components which is the one I bought. The heart of these little amps is a Tripath TA 2024 which gives the sound of a Class A-B amp but the efficiency of a Class D. Because the amp is only 5 watts per channel, it requires very efficient speakers. As an aside, highly efficient speakers (aka single driver full-range speakers) is a whole world I’ve just recently explored. To me, they just look like home made looking speaker boxes with one driver. The prices are usually in the thousands. Why is everything in hi-fi so expensive? The Bel Canto eVo 2i amp uses a similar Tripath chipset and costs $3200! This is why I like finding jewels like these T-amps. On another side note, hi-fi companies ripping audiophiles off is not uncommon. Gainclone, monster cable, and Virtual Dynamics Power 3 are other examples.
Anyways, to the point of this post. I was looking for a new DAC to hook up my Mac’s optical out with my Super T-Amp. This is when I found this interesting site that looks like was born from the t-amp craze. On the front page was a new amp called the Pop Pulse T40i that has caught my fancy. It too is based on a Tripath chipset but with a higher 40wpc. It even has a remote and a digital display! The price is only $225 which is a bargain compared to the other Tripath based amplifliers on this site.
