Sunday, May 8, 2011

A gamble that paid off- An old gem found.

I recently acquired my very first 'commercial' power amp. The reason being, first it's being made by 'Technics', it's a 'classic' or may be antique as it was part of a system that was launched with my favaourite singer album way back in 1980 if I am not mistaken! It may also serves as a reference to my DIY power amps.. hehe.

It was sold by a nice chap through mudah .com. I did not even test the unit at his place as he assures that if it is not working I can return the unit. I however insisted that the unit be power up. Once I saw the red power LED lit up followed by a faint click of the speakers protection relays, the deal was sealed.

The unit now sits right at the bottom of my 5-tier audio rack. Signals are controlled by another gem that I got which is a Yamaha AV amp in pre-amp mode. The most neutral and natural preamp I ever heard. More on this later. Sources are my usual DIYed CD Transport mentioned earlier and the superb Behringer Ultramatch PRO SRC 2496 DAC.


Due to this set up, my existing reference and favourite Technics SU-A900 MK2 has been taken out temporarily, giving this new line up to prove it's 'worth'. Honestly I got it cheap... ;)

Findings.

Eventhough the power amp is rated at a 'puny' 40Watts per channel it can really drives my RTL3 floorstander at a very loud levels! The most striking characteristics that I found is that the details of low end bass at lowish volumes are excellent! Full bodied, powerful and fullfilling, the kind of bass that satisfies a 'basshead' like me. Due to this new found characteristics, I have been doing a lot of late night listenings with much enjoyment without the higher volumes of day listenings!

So for those with a small listening room and a 'lil bright sound system, this power amp if you could lay your hands on, might just be the ticket in getting that 'sound' that has been eluding you if you know what I mean!



Close up of the gem - the SE-A808


Sitting 'quietly' and 'unobstructively' at the lower most tier of the audio rack..