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

I don’t post here very often even though I’ve been on Audiogon for well over 20 years. I need to however thank Terry London for pointing me in CODA direction and ultimately making me buy the S5.5. I have a decent system and I use it to almost exclusively to stream music from Qobuz via Roon Nucleus+. I use the Innuos Pulsar streamer, Lampizator Golden Atlantic TRP DAC and Don Sachs tube preamp and amp. My speakers are the big Tekton Ulfberht towers which are 4Ohm and 99dB efficient. I was very happy with the sound and really didn’t need anything else. Well, it doesn’t work that way with me. I started thinking about adding a solid state amp and tweaking the sound a little. I thought about Pass and couple of other options but I remembered talking to Terry in the past about my Ulfberhts and reading his review of another CODA. After another call to Terry I became convinced that the S5.5 might just be the right choice. 100W of pure class A power into 4Ohm speakers seemed plenty enough. My decision was right. The amp is fantastic and I enjoy my setup more now than ever before. The sound is very smooth and extended in highs and lows with tube like midrange. No edginess or brightness. Very dynamic and clean. Wonderful sound staging and depth with very well defined vocals and instruments. I made the right choice and my tube amp will have to wait a while now before I get the itch to listen to it again.

@vthokie83 Very glad to hear you are using with a similar type of speaker and it is a good match! 

@olesno Thank you for sharing your experience as well.  I have hear my speakers with a Don Sachs tube gear and they sound amazing.  If you prefer the sound of the S5.5 over your tube gear that is very high praise for the S5.5!

Going to be a long several weeks waiting!

I need to mention one more thing that recently improved the sound of my system in a big way.  I've been using the Puritan Audio 156 power conditioner for about 4 -years now.  Recently I added the Puritan's own Ground Master City and the Route Master to ground all my equipment.  Last night I even grounded my Ether Regen which I'm using right before the Pulsar.  I had some expectations of improved sound after I read some reviews but I never expected it to be so dramatic.  The sound just became clean and the background completely black.  The separation between the instruments became real.   Highly recommend trying it if you are not using any special grounding setups.  

@vthokie83 what preamp are you using with the S5.5? 

Also, to owners of the S5.5, I have read that to put the amp in stand by you hit the bias button on the front and to take it out of stand by hit it again.  Once you take the amp out of stand by and start using it, does it take a while to warm up and sound good or is it good right away? 

I assume when not using you leave it on and just put it into stand by mode?

minatophase3,

I am currently using a Denafrips Hades preamp, which surprisingly has not been a bad combo with the CODA S5.5. I initially thought it would be totally outclassed, but it's held it's own so far....but yes more performance is there to be had.

I have an Aric Audio Motherlode XL preamp on order right now, should be about 6 weeks out by now (intially 12 weeks)? I spoke with Aric about the 10K ohm XLR issue, which is the very edge of the Motherlode's comfort level....and he is modifying it for me to be good with the CODA's low XLR load.

So far I have not bothered with the stand by as I don't mind burning it in a bit more. I spoke with Doug Dale at CODA, and he said the S5.5s get about a week burning in before they are shipped.