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


I have in-house the New Coda Technologies S5.5 amplifier for review for Stereo Times website. It will be awhile before I write the review. However, I'm so impressed by the performance of this petite amplifier, it only weights 45 pounds, that I wanted to give a heads up to you GON members if you are in the market for a balanced pure class A amplifier, delivers 50 watts @ 8 Ohms, and can drop 100 Amperes of current on a peak!

The world class build quality of Coda amplifiers is on display with the S5.5, along with the most beautiful purity of tonality, precise sound-staging, complete liquidity offered by pure class A design, and what might be the best top end regarding details, decays, and a natural shimmering without brightness or any edge at all.

The S5.5 uses extremely wide bandwidth output transistors instead of the usual TO3 devices used in most transistor designs. I own the Coda #16, which is great, but the midrange/high end is taken to another level of musical enjoyment with the S5.5. The S5.5 has a sense of speed/aliveness that is exciting to listen to that you experience in live music. The amp is dynamic as hell, has driven with ease any speaker I have tried it with, hence my nickname of the "Petite Beast". Remember, 50 watts pure class A, can drop 100 amperes of current and only weights 45 pounds.

Teajay (Terry London)

johnah5

@vthokie83 shoot. I thought the Motherlode XL preamp would've been an OK match as is. What is he modifying it to? Currently it's 300ohm balanced right? 

tmac1700,

The inputs to the CODA S5.5 is what we are discussing. The RCA unbalanced 50K ohms are no issue, it is the 10K ohms on the XLR inputs. It was not a big deal really, I believe Aric is adding a couple of 1.0 uf caps.....maybe another change? Cost an extra $200 for the mods, and Aric is perfectly comfortable with the pairing with the mods added.

If you have any questions, reach out to Aric....he's quick to reply by email, and a great guy to talk to on the phone

@olesno I will have to make sure to give serious consideration to Tekton if I decide to upgrade my speakers.  Not sure they would pass the WAF though 😀

@minatophase3 They are big and heavy and visually imposing.  I got used to them and my better half likes to listen to music with me so it wasn't a WAF issue at all.  Mine are piano black so they look cool too.  

@vthokie83 

Yeah. I currently have the No.8 which is also 10k balanced.  I was just using the 20x  for impedance matching and it seemed legit to me. $200 for extra room is a good deal though. I'll reach out to them. Thank you.