Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Want to Try Super Tube Sound for $20?

Here are my thoughts after a month with the t-amp:

1. The T-amp sounds more musical than any low-fi receiver. This is very clear. Comparisons were made to my low-fi Technics and Sony receivers pulled from the attic.

2. The T-amp does indeed color the sound unlike what people have heard before in either tube or ss. If you can deal with this and are interested, then get it. But be warned, it does sound different.

3. The T-amp exhibits a quality that is closer to tubes than ss.

4. I thought the M22s were highly sensitive, allowing the t-amp to drive them properly. I really don't see an issue here. Am I wrong?

5. Would I rather have a NAD C370? Yes. But this thing is approximately $30.

Thanks Riff. I'd actually prefer this amp to sound more "tube" than solid-state as I've long wanted to experiment with tube electronics and see if it is to my liking.

Ola Riffman
I don't know if there was a problem with the M22s I had for a very short period of time. Mine just didn't sound right. I've read the reviews and other folks' posts and can only conclude there was a problem with my pair. Axiom handled the matter in grand style, of course, and I ended up with a pair of M50s in their place. The M3Tis I had were super tube friendly speakers. Now, the funny thing is, what I replaced my M3s with are a bunch of Michaura speakers. I use the M55s which have the same driver compliment as the M22s, (exact same drivers), but use the Merak/previous M2, M1, M0, QS4 ... 3/4" titanium tweeter. These things are wonderful with the 5 wpc tubie and wonderful with the T Amp as well.

I modified my M55s with Jensen paper/oil capacitors (really expensive), indulged them with some internal silver speaker wire, and damped them with some acoustic foam from partsexpress. They're good!

Anyway, I can't say that the T Amp colors the sound with these efficient speakers. The M55s are rated at 93db and I relieve the T Amp of low frequency duty by running all the speakers from the line outs of my Velodyne subwoofer.

I agree that the T Amp sounds more tube like than sandy.

I think an A/B comparo between a T Amp driven by external power source and the NAD would be interesting. I wouldn't bet on the NAD.

Anyway, here's an interesting link to a fella who has done some extensive mods to his T Amp, including a nice R2D2 style housing.



site found here:
http://www.michael.mardis.com/sonic/maunakea.htm

a bit more
http://www.michael.mardis.com/sonic/news.htm#sound

In reply to:

---

Anyway, here's an interesting link to a fella who has done some extensive mods to his T Amp, including a nice R2D2 style housing.

---

Metal housing, hot tube inside... hmm... fill that sucker up with water and it'd be like the EZ-Bake Slow Cooker!

Bren R.

Nope, nope, that's a digital amp. Nice 'n' cool.

That's a nicely done mod. This little amp is great because of its modding potential alone.

I agree PMB. I'm collecting parts to modify one of my T Amps. I have a beautiful cigar humidor which I will contribute as a house for the guts, a Panasonic EV-J volume control, some vampire female RCA jacks, input jacks, silver wire, woo hoo, I'll be ready to go!

BTW, I pulled out my M2s and the little T Amp drove them just fine. The M2s don't open up the way the Michaura M55s do, but they sound very similar. (not unexpected because they use the same though only a single 5.25" driver.

I got a gigando humidor filled with dried out cigars. You could probably fit about 300 of those little amps in that monstrosity.

Mark,

You do need to fill it once and a while,70 to 72% humidity seems to work well for me.

Only if you smoke 'em.