impressed (sonic impact on rf5)

[nateg20]

I'm very impressed with this little amp. I saw the raves on AA about it and thought what heck its cheap, so i tried it. As it "breaks in", it is starting to sound better and better than my Fisher x-202-c that I usually run them with. This thing sounds very tubish in the mids. It makes the rf5s sound very natural, not harsh at all. It also sets up a better soundstage then the Fisher to boot. This thing is crazy, because it sounds better than all my old tube and SS gear (fisher 800c, fisher x-202-c, marantz 2275). Tomorrow I'm going to put a big old power supply that i have on it instead of batteries. It puts out a very clean 12.35 volts. Anyone else listen to this thing? Anyone tore into it and made it sound even better? My only complaint is the lack of impact on some bass sections. That and the lack of a phono input. Whats a guy to do? Got to love the sensitity of the Klipsch speakers.

[3dzapper]

Veery Interesting!!

Rick

[Deang]

What's "interesting" is that you never once tell us what it is.

Oh, and welcome aboard.

[3dzapper]

Dean, It's a little tripath amp:

For a review go to:

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/sonicimpact/t_3.html

The lowest price I found was $20.96. After reading about it I ordered one. I already have several good power supplies and volume pots. It sounds like a fun project!

Rick

[nateg20]

The sonic impact is a very small amp designed for use with computers and portable cd players. It uses a tripath chip and is considered a digital class t amplifier. I got mine at Target online for 30 dollars:

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=2-1/qid=1103564350/ref=sr_2_1/601-1742435-2686501?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=B00009W44B

I'm running mine on 8 AA batteries right now, but plan to hook it up to a power supply soon. My only complaint is the lack of impact on some bass. I listen to Perfect Circle, and track 2 on the 13 step cd is definately lacking some low end punch. I'm kind of hopefull the power supply will help this out (more current). There is also a review at www.sixmoons.com. I'm telling that you cant go wrong with it for the price. Its definately worth a listen, if you dont like it you can always send it to me.

[Deang]

LOL, I get it now -- it's actually called "Sonic Impact". Hmmm. Kind of cool. Looks like a cheap and effective way to triamp.

[TBrennan]

My pal Kurt uses these to drive JBLs, Fostexes and such. He puts the amps in little carved-out wooden boxes. I heard one of his amps driving some Lowthers in Medallion cabinets and the sound was very good.

What with these chip-amp things, TriPaths, gain-clones and such, it appears that using traditional amps, whether SS or tube, is kinda, well, an affectation? Perhaps that's too strong a term. But if one is interested in pure performence and not style or vintage colorations one must look at these new amps very seriously. Some of the best systems I've heard lately, horn systems, have used such amps.

I'm thinking of buying some old Mac gear but not because I think it sounds better than a gain-clone. It just looks really cool and I'll pay for that eyes open.

[sunnysal]

I know what you mean tom, aesthetics is an important part of this hobby IMHO, we should not be ashamed of it either. So many "audiophiles" look down on any attempt to incorporate industrial design into audio components and end up with Lamm et. al., McIntosh stuff looks great, lasts forever and provides a very high quality of sound for the most part...´nuf said.

[nateg20]

I agree asthetics are important, but the amp is so small i can hide it and look at my marantz and fisher gear instead. If asthetics werent important I dont think I would have gotten cherry rf5's, and would have gone for some rf3's. rf5s sound only slightly better imo, not quite as harsh.