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

@yyzsantabarbara 

        On your last point on the #16 and this is from the manual as well as Teajays past review on the 16 powerhouse amplifier.

  No.16 is 150wpc/8 AB, 300wpc/4  AB with the first 100watts being pure Class A into 8 ohms or 4 ohms. When CODA states the No. 16 is "100 Watts of Pure Class A Precision Bias Operation" , with no impedance qualifiers, it translates to the amp being  a 100 Watt Pure Class A amp for 8 ohm or 4 ohm loads. Above 100 watts at either impedances, transitioning enters into Class AB as per above spec maxima. 

Added HP in the #16,  so the amp does not stress at lower impedance is; 3Kv power supply, 280,000 uf capacitance and of course the Coda magic; >100amps current.

Hi guys.  Sorry for the long silence on my part. Quick explanation is that we had a heavy snow storm here on Saturday and we lost power which caused a big power surge that took our both of my components on one circuit. Unfortunately one of them was my 3 DAY OLD Coda amp!  Not to worry but, it took a few days to figure it out and it only blew out an internal fuse in the right  channel. I didn’t realize at first that there are two fuses per channel inside. The only fuse I knew of is the one you can see on the back which is the only fuse mentioned in the owner’s manual. 
 

Moving the good fuses from one side to the other indicated that all is good. The problem is that I’ve can’t find the correct fuses locally so, I had to order them online and won’t receive them until Friday. 
 

yyzsantabarbara: before the incident I did play the amp continuously at about 84db and the amp didn’t seem any warmer to the touch. I was going to try it at 90db when my wife wasn’t home. It will obviously have to wait a few days. 
 

irave: surprisingly with its published power numbers I don’t feel that it is lacking in power at all driving my somewhat inefficient speakers. It plays way louder than I need with no strain or excess heat. The bass is just as deep as my Luxman m900u but different. The bass is tighter and more tuneful. I was thinking when I first ordered the amp that it might be a bit under powered but I was completely wrong. It has plenty of power for me and my speakers. 
 

I hope this helps. 
 

Jeff

My S5.5 arrived today!  Plugged it in and waited about 2 hours before listening.  I know it will take some time to break in but I couldn't wait 😀.  Initial impressions compared to my Accuphase E-380 integrated (still using the Accuphase as preamp):  Bass is much tighter, cleaner and there is more of it!  Top end is much more detailed and clear, my Accuphase tends to roll off the highs a bit.  I find the S5.5 to be just slightly to the warm side of neutral, the Accuphase is slightly warmer.  Both sound really good.  Overall detail and clarity easily go to the S5.5 as well as a blacker background.

I will let this break in for a while and report back, but so far it is looking very positive!

Hey minatophase3,

Thanks for sharing your cursory listening experiences with us. So far, what you are hearing makes total sense to me. Both your amps are great, it now will be your personal taste and synergy with your speakers to decide on your "reference".

Have fun and let us know what going on as the S5.5 burns in.

Teajay

Just wanted to share: 

I'm packing up a pair of Analysis Audio Epsilon planar speakers that I reviewed months ago and are going to be packed up to be sent back to the importer. These large planar speakers are only 86dB and a nominal 4 ohms. 

So what the hack, I decided to see what the S5.5 would do at driving them. Well, the speakers were driven effortlessly, and all the virtues of the S5.5 - beautiful high end frequencies, midrange details, total transparency, tight extended bass, and finally an "aliveness" were present and made the panels sing with great musicality.

Teajay