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

I had a S5.5, purchased from Mike at Audio Archon. Great guy to deal with. Had the newest and improved transistors according to Doug Dale.  While their website and documentation leaves much to be desired, Doug answered all of my questions and concerns in a timely and respectful manner. It sounded very articulate, clean and detailed and easily drove my Selah Audio Ceramica speakers (6 nominal 4 minimum, 88 dB), however, musically it just never got my toes tapping. Beautiful amp, great build quality, never got more than a little warm, great confidence in its reliability and potential longevity.

But I believe it would have sounded much better with a solid state preamp instead of my BAT VK-51SE tube preamp. Its XLR input impedance is only 10kOhms, so most likely too low and not a good match for an XLR tube preamp. Just wanted to point this out to anyone potentially considering use of this amp with a tube preamp. It sounded better with my Lyngdorf MP-40 as the preamp, but not even close to the overall fidelity level of the BAT tube preamp with the 2 amps I tried with over 100 kOhm input impedances. So I sold it to TMR and it sold within a couple of weeks. Of course, your results may vary with your tube preamp, but I can say, unfortunately, that I found it to be a mediocre match with the BAT tube preamp.

Doug is a great guy. Really enjoyed all our conversations. 

He made it known to me that he's not to fond of tube gear. I've been having tje same issue looking for a balanced tube preamp..  that 10k impedance is usually low. 

Side note.. every discussion i find on different platforms..where CODA is discussed they are always polite and informative. There are a lot of toxic people I'm this hobby and reading through this discussion is a breath of fresh air. 

iovi66,

Fair point about the input impedance on XLR. I've already had this conversation with Aric Kimball of Aric Audio, who is building a Motherlode XL preamp for me. He is modifying it to work with the low impedance of the CODA S5.5.....I believe he is adding an additional 1.0uf cap to compensate.

iovi66 and tmac1700,

       Your comments are very much appreciated and I second both your comments on Doug Dale and Coda. I had a lengthy phone conversation with Doug Dale a couple of days ago. I cannot praise Doug and Coda enough. Doug is a pleasure to talk with, so knowledgeable , possessing exemplary ethics and integrity! I am so thankful I tuned into this company and certainly Terry London and James of Destination HiFi were very influential in my decision.

       I am now trying to decide on adding a Coda No.8 or S5.5 to my current CSiB and control either with the internal ss preamp (07x topology based) in the CSiB. I was initially leaning to the S5.5 and I believe it should perform very well only in talking with Doug,  the topic of current came up for my maggies and possibly a set of Totem Acoustic speakers I am considering. Doug's views are  steering me more in the direction of the No. 8 and he is right on the advantages of  the CSiB essentially controlling twin No. 8s over an S5.5 and a No.8.  You can't go wrong with either amp though, only I may want to experiment with my ARC SP-8 tube amp and not so sure it's going to have as a good a synergy with the S5.5 as the No.8.

        Final decision on this not made yet and in no hurry.  Any comments on tube preamp synergy with the S5.5 and No.8 are factors in the decision process, along with the need for more current with some of my speakers. I see vthokie83 is proactively having AricAudio modify the Motherlode XL tube preamp, so his feedback on that will be interesting. For every problem there is a solution; it's finding it that's the challenge.  Thanks again all, joe 

Vthokie83,

        I am very interested in your feedback on the S5.5's with the Caladan's. It should be Stellar! What is the preamp section? Thanks, joe