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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
gryphongryph
378 posts
 

@johnah5 That was not much, my Supratek Cabernet uses 152 watts and my belles SA30 uses 354 watts!!!

Makes me wonder if the S5 has sliding bias into ab early ?

imhififan's avatar
imhififan
2,203 posts
 

@gryphongryph 

It is impossible for a 50Wx2 pure Class A amplifier to only consume 90W at idle! The 90W reading must be in standby mode!

The "BIAS" button should be turned on with no input signal to test idle power consumption.

gryphongryph
378 posts
 

@imhififan - at idle the Belles is pulling close to 400 watts.

Nice in our cold winter months.

minatophase3
33 posts
 

Just curious, has anyone tried using a Swiss Digital Fuse Box with their Coda S5.5?  I am considering trying one as it sounds like it would deliver better/cleaner power to the amp than the traditional fuse. 

Any thoughts?

hickamore
667 posts
 

Two somewhat related points.

One, Terry's now-published review fails to mention that the Coda S5.5 supposedly runs 40W Class A into 4 ohms. As a user of 4 ohm Legacy speakers, which are known to have a couple of  impedance dips, I ordered this amp for its high current, but am eager to learn whether I can hear the bias shifting into AB. The majority of my serious listening is done at average 85dB with peaks at 95. 

Two, as for hearing: I also need hearing aids, and in fact could no longer appreciate hi-fi without them, but consider mine (ReSound) pretty junky despite high price. So, many thanks to @markmuse and ​​​​@vinylvalet for recommending Widex. Ready for a change and hope these are the answer!

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